Behind The Mask: Secret Identities

By Ed Rhoades

Secret identities! Most of the costumed superheroes have them.
It’s a tried and tested tradition for fictional heroes pre-dating even the Phantom. The Scarlet Pimpernel was Sir Percy Blakeney and Zorro was Don Diego.

Superman is really mild mannered Clark Kent. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne (except for that time he was Jean-Paul Valley…or Azrael). The Flash (who at least owes the idea for his skin tight suit and cowl to The Phantom) sped through a bunch of secret identities…Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West and Bart Allen. Secret identities make sense. The famed crime fighter would need a place where he could kick back without the threat of people stalking him or fans making demands. Plus it gave more problems for the hero having to deal with keeping his secret from those around him and finding excuses to escape. It was another ongoing plot device.

“Clark Kent was sort his vacation from being Superman. ..But the Phantom sacrifices his identity to be the Phantom,” explained former syndicated Phantom artist Keith Williams.

Lee even considered it for The Phantom. In the pilot story, playboy Jimmy Wells was created as The Phantom’s secret identity. But as the story progressed, Lee’s vision became more unique and he developed the mystique of the skull cave in deepest darkest Africa. The Phantom is known my by many names…The Ghost Who Walks, Guardian of the Easter Dark, The Man Who Cannot Die…but none of them could be considered a secret identity. There has been a little suspense in keeping the secret of The Unknown Commander of the Jungle Patrol, but they weren’t problems that impacted The Phantom’s daily routine.

The Phantom only disguises himself as Mr. Walker when he travels incognito. He lives his life in costume at both of his jungle homes, but neither place is accessible by the public so a secret identity is unnecessary. The secret problem that causes the most difficulty for The Phantom is not who he is… but the legend of his immortality. To keep that idea going, he has to be fearless and literally death defying...leaping from cliffs, fighting sharks with a knife, wrestling tigers barehanded…a superhero without superpowers. He doesn’t wear the mask to hide another identity. He wears the mask because that’s who he is.

Meet Up 2009 – Event Wrap Up

By Joe Douglas

Thus the weekend has passed. I felt more tired than I remember feeling in recent times, but it was all worth it. The Meet Up was quite a success, as I’m sure everyone who attended will agree. It was wonderful to finally be able to put faces to forum names and, due to our pre-existing relationship via the forums, it wasn’t long before we where all talking, chatting and having a very merry time.

The Meet Up

I must admit that I was a little worried that come 1pm on the Saturday that I’d be standing alone in the meeting place. But no, there where nine of us all up (eight including myself), some of whom where regular CC form-ers, some how had only posted a little and some who just checked out the site.

We all met outside the con doors as pre-arranged. We stood and chatted for a little while before heading off for lunch. Once all the consumables where purchased we sneakily stole a table and chairs that some silly person had left unguarded and set up camp. We ate, talked and generally made merry. Conversation of course revolved around the Phantom, from collecting to selling; little gems we’ve found throughout the years, funny stories, weird stories and even tales of antics that happened on the forums. Everyone was relaxed and chatting like old friends.

After we’d eaten we returned to the con. We had planned to all go our separate ways and check out that which we wanted to, but somehow we all managed to migrate to Nigel Johnson’s Collectormania stall and pour through the many boxes of Phantom back issues and collectibles. We also tried to convince each other into buying a high-grade copy of Frew Phantom #1 that was going for a measly $70,000.

Eventually we pulled away from the comics for long enough to say our goodbyes, however we where to meet up later that night at the Lee Falk Bengalla Explorer’s Club’s 21st dinner.

I think it’s pretty safe to declare our first ChronicleChamber.com Meet-Up a success. Everyone had a great time, contacts and friendships where forged and everyone said that they are looking forward to the next one. I want to thank everyone who came. It was brilliant to meet fellow Phans face-to-face finally. A big “thank you” also has to be given to Geaghs for initially suggesting the idea of a Meet Up. Plans are already being made for next year’s Meet Up, so I hope that everyone who came this year can return, and those of you who didn’t make it this year will be able to join up in 2010!

If you’d like to see photos from the Meet Up you can do so on the forums HERE, or in our Facebook and MySpace galleries. If anyone has any photos they’d like to submit for inclusion please e-mail them to me.

The Dinner.

The 21st dinner of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengalla Explorers Club was the first for a number of us at the Meet-Up. To say it was an amazing night is to fall far short of the mark. Although it was my first dinner everyone there was very friendly and introduced themselves. Richard, the man behind the dinners, was extremely accommodating to this newbie at times probably looked a little lost.

Many more friend where made, and everyone from the Meet Up who was there had a brilliant time, as I’m did everyone else. More friends where made, and the chance to meet a personal hero in the form of Glen Ford was amazing. (Actually, I’ve met him previously at a few cons and he remembered me, which I was quite chuffed about!)

It did my little geek heart no end of good to be sitting in the same room as Dave Gibbons, the artist behind the Watchmen comics. Dave speech, although short, was very interesting. He talked about his relationship with the Phantom, however small, and his experience of working on the Watchmen books. Meeting him at the end of the night was a personal highlight for me.

The auctions where absolutely crazy. I’ve never seen people throw that kind of money around. The three original pieces Dave did of the Phantom with a character from Watchmen (Rorschach, Comedian and the original Night Own) went for an absolute mint, as they should. Much money was raised for the Children’s Hospital. Forum member Geaghs even managed to snare a few things, the lucky sod.

A wonderful night was had by all at the dinner, and much respect has to be given to Richard for organizing the night. I’ve wanted to go to one of the LFMBEC dinners for a long time and I’m very glad I did so Saturday night. It was brilliant and I can not wait for the next dinner. Maybe this time I’ll actually win an auction.

Cheers.

The Ghost Who Walks to the Screen

By Paul Jonassen

The Phantom has a rich history when it comes to being adapted into other forms of media, though sadly not as diverse and consistent as one might wish. The character has never had the constant popularity of many of the figures he inspired outside of comics, and his appearances on film and TV have been sporadical. With the upcoming movie The Phantom: Legacy (which looks like it could be the best non-comics presentation of the Man Who Cannot Die this far) and the SyFy television series The Phantom (which looks, to be honest, appalingly bad) the time is right to look back at what we have seen of the Phantom’s adventures on the screen so far.

The Phantom’s first appearance on the silver screen was the 1943 movie serial from Columbia, simply called The Phantom. Directed by B. Reeves Eason, it starred Tom Tyler (who was born with the less catchy name of Vincent Markowski) as the Phantom and Jeanne Bates as Diana. Sadly, any romance between the two characters is pretty much non-existent in this version, as the serial’s target audience, kids, normally have little time for such trivialities as kissing and stuff. The film also features the brilliantly named Ace the Wonder Dog as Devil (a German Shepherd was likely less expensive and easier to use than a wolf).

Obviously made on the cheap and probably shot in a hurry, The Phantom is a wonderful film, possibly the most fun version of the character on a screen so far. It plays loose with a lot of aspects from the comic: there is no mention of the origin of the 1st Phantom, the real name of the 21st Phantom is Geoffrey Prescott (Falk was yet to reveal his hero’s true identity), and the story does not take place in Bengalla, but the equally fictional place of Sai Pana. While this might irk some fans watching the film on DVD today, they should keep in mind that at the time the serial was made, the Phantom was far from being as ”established” as he is today: he still had something of an ”on-and-off” relationship with Diana, Kit and Heloise were obviously not a part of the series, Guran still believed "jungle magic" was quite nifty, and Hero would not appear until later (it’s charming that the Phantom both in the comic and the serial travels incredibly long distances in the jungle on foot).

The story is just an excuse for the Phantom to roam around the jungle fighting lots of villains: the MacGuffin is a bunch of ”keys” that when put together will show the road to the lost city of Zoloz, where the evil Dr. Bremmer (Kenneth MacDonald plans to build a hidden airbase (this intriguing part of the plot is sadly mostly forgotten about by the filmmakers, who are way too busy thinking of new places to stage a fight scene to fully use the best idea they came up with).

Western star Tom Tyler makes an excellent Phantom in almost every way. His cheap, but extremely faithfully rendered costume would have looked ridicilous if it had not been worn with such a quiet dignity (as evidenced by seeing the old, chubby actor who plays the 20th Phantom wear the same kind of costume, looking painfully silly in it). Tyler looks a little like a Ray Moore drawing (he shares the tall, lanky look Moore gave the character in his early years on the strip), and is very believeable as a man of action. You really feel this is a man of incredible physical skill and determination. His voice, however, is less impressive, and is strictly speaking too light for somebody who, according to the old jungle saying, makes blood freeze, but hey, you can’t get everything in life.

Eason’s directing is fine, and the neverending action-scenes are energetic and exciting, even in today's world with all your Bonds, Bournes and Batmans. One, set on a bridge high above a river (or rather, a painting supposed to look like a river; a special effect Ed Wood would have looked down on), is genuinely exciting, and you often find yourself wondering how on earth the Phantom is going to get out of the numerous bizarre situations he finds himself in (the loveably silly fight against a dangerous gorilla is another favourite).

This film is also notable for being the only time we've seen the handling of the Phantom-mantle from father to son on screen, and the moments with the dying 20th Phantom and his son are well done and actually quite touching. I do get why Lee Falk claimed to hate what he had seen of the film, though, as it plays rather loose with a lot of the things he wrote due to the limited budget. Nevertheless, in my eyes, it still manages to capture a lot of the spirit of some of his early stories, though it lacks the edgy, mysterious tone and cracking dialogue of those tales.

The serial did well at the box office, and Columbia finally got off their butts and decided to make a sequel in 1955, with Lone Ranger-actor John Hart replacing Tyler, who sadly died the year before. As dedicated fans will know, the rights to the character lapsed after the sequel had been filmed, and producers had the bright idea that it would be cheaper to re-shoot all of the scenes involving the Phantom instead of renewing their rights to the licence. And so they did, and the serial morphed into The Adventures of Captain Africa. Watching it is, to say it the least, a puzzling experience. The reliance on stock footage is obvious, and Captain Africa is unsurprisingly a modified Phantom: similiar costume (it is essentially the Phantom’s costume with regular pants and an aviator cap thrown on), similiar demeanor, near-similiar throne and so on.

To be fair, yours truly never made it through any longer than the first few chapters, as the film is pretty awful in most ways, and I was not surprised to learn it was one of the last serials produced by Columbia.
Unforgiveably, it also re-uses a fair amount of footage from the 1943 version, which makes it all the more pointless to watch today.

The next time the Phantom would be seen on a screen, or rather, NOT be seen on any screen, was in the unaired TV-pilot from 1961, starring Roger Creed as the Phantom, and featuring actors such as Paulette Godard, Lon Chaney Jr., and Richard "Jaws" Kiel as villains. The fact that the thing was never picked up by any network and has to the best of my knowledge never been shown on television anywhere in the world, is probably enough for most people to have low expectations when watching it. And sure, it IS not exactly a great way to introduce a potential Phantom series. However, the pilot is better than its reputation among the hardcore fans who have gotten their hands at bootleg copies, and there are some fine moments in it, like the Phantom's fight with assassin "Big Mike" (played by Kiel) and the Phantom hunting down bad guys in the jungle by playing "hide and seek" with them, like he is frequently seen doing in the comic. None of these moments can be said to be brilliantly executed, but at least they're there, and it's fun to see the Phantom outwitting his enemies. Another favourite is the part where he kicks the crap out of an incredibly menacing rubber-alligator.

Creed does a decent job playing the Phantom, but it's obvious from his rather wooden acting that he was primarily a stuntman. Born in 1915, he was also a bit long in the tooth for the part, but is nevertheless excellent physically. The costume is rendered down to the smallest detail, and Creed looks pretty good in it, despite his age and the outfit's low budget look.

Hero and Devil also appears. The part of Diana had, according to an interview with writer John Carr published in Friends of the Phantom, been given to actress Marilyn Manning, but sadly, she is nowhere to be seen in this episode. Carr also wrote three other scripts for proposed episodes, but none were filmed (shame, since I've been told they were all vastly superior to the one that was filmed).

Overally, I rather like the pilot, despite its cheap feel and pretty weak plot, which sees the Phantom, who mostly appears out of costume due to being "undercover", trying to break up a slave camp (he disguises himself by wearing an eye-patch, but one can only wonder why. Nobody knows his face anyway). We also get a wonderfully cheesy theme song, with whoever-is-singing shouting "The Phaaaantoooooom! THEEEE PHAAAAAANTOOOOOMMMM!" being the most memorable part.

The pilot is today easy to get on bootleg DVDs, and can also be seen on Internet sites such as Google Video (I hope anybody who checks it out survives the piss poor sound and picture quality).

From one obscurity to another, in 1968, the world's first Phantom movie made in Turkey (but sadly not the last) was released, likely without anybody involved actually bothering to ask King Features or Lee Falk for the rights to use the character. Called Kizil Maske (the Phantom's name in the country, oddly enough translating into "Red Mask") and starring international megastar Ismet Erten, it is an understatement to call it a loose adaptation of the comic. To be fair, I don't understand a word of the Turkish language, and my copy of this film has no subtitles, making watching it (or rather, fast-forwarding through the dialogue scenes and watching most of the action scenes) a rather strange experience.

First, there's a lot of fist fighting in this film. A lot. Everbody seems to hit each other at least once during the running time, and the Phantom in particular seems happy to kick any poor sod's butt at whatever given moment.

The plot? No idea. The bad guy has a huge moustache that would make a walrus envious, that's about all I can get from it.

The Phantom uniform used in the film stays fairly close to the original design, the only real addition I can recall is a giant, pirate-like skull head placed all over the Phantom's chest and stummick, making him look like a sissy Punisher (Erten's appearance suggests he didn't bother to check out weightlifting before taking on the role) with a cheap mask. Devil makes an appearance too, with Mr. Walker having very obvious problems of controlling him in one scene that the director really should have bothered to film a second time.

I have no idea how much this film cost to make, but it sure doesn't look like a great deal of money was spent on this unforgettable epic. The soundtrack is goofy, yet strangely creepy in a way (maybe it's the walrus-guy subconsciously giving me the chills). The natives of what is either intended to be Turkey or Bengalla (again, no idea) looks only a little less fake than the ones used in the Tom Tyler serial, and they also use "talking drums" as a way of reaching the Ghost Who Speaks Turkish.

Believe it or not, a second movie called Kizil Maske was released in Turkey in 1968, beating out The Phantom: Legacy and the SyFy series the honour of being the first competing Phantom film projects. This one stars Irfan Atasoy (what do you mean you never heard of him?), in a landmark performance that would make Sean Penn wet himself. Sadly, the costume he wears is not even remotely like the one used in the comic. He looks more like Zorro's even more flamboyant little brother, with a hood that covers most of his face and tights that would make Adam West point and laugh. The scary part is, the uniform used here still doesn't look anywhere near as awful as the costume they're intending to use in the SyFy Phantom series (yes, I do need to bash this show at every possible opportunity).

With a hero who doesn't look like the Phantom (and certainly doesn't behave much like him), most of the weird entertainment value given by the other film dissappears. It's as cheesy as film can possibly become (and I've seen Plan 9 From Outer Space twice, so I know what I'm talking about), and has an even more relaxed view at licencing rights than its namesake (the James Bond Theme is even played during one scene, to expected hilarious effect). The climax seems to be onboard, or possibly on top of a moving train, but sadly, my copy of the film ends before the film is over. I can't say I've lost any sleep of wondering how it will all turn out, though.
If Lee Falk had seen this film, I suspect he would have died much earlier than 1999.

A third Phantom movie was made in Turkey in 1971, called Kýzýl Maske'nin Intikamý, which translates into The Phantom's Revenge (thanks, Wikipedia). I don't own this, so I'm afraid sarcastic comments and pointless trivia will have to be saved for a later occasion.

While other unauthorized Phantom projects seems to have popped up here and there throughout the years, the next time the Man Who Cannot Die was widely seen on a screen was in the 1986 cartoon Defenders of the Earth, where he teams up with fellow Falk-creations Mandrake the Magician and Lothar, plus Flash Gordon. This mismatched quartet would primarily fight Gordon's nemesis, Ming the Merciless (couldn't he have thought out something less pretentious to call himself?), but viewers could also witness the 1st Phantom's meeting with an alien, the Phantom's evil older brother Kurt (why the hell the parents named the older son Kurt is anybody's guess, but you'll quickly notice this series has its own "logic") and the Phantom fighting an updated version of the Sky Band. In space.

Surprisingly, the most annoying element of this show is not the Phantom travelling around the galaxy with Flash Gordon, but the fact that the creators gave him the "powers of ten tigers", which he calls upon to receive awesome strength and agility.

The Phantom, said to be the 27th in the line (does that mean Flash and Mandrake are really the descendants of their comic strip counterparts too?), is here voiced by actor Peter Mark Richman, who does a very good job with it, making even the silliest line seem thoughtful and believeable. The costume is faithfully rendered, but the animators decided to ditch the striped pants (though earlier Phantoms wear this strange part of the uniform in flashbacks) and the gun belt (in fact, I don't think the Phantom uses guns at all in this series, perhaps due to the fact it is primarily aimed at children). As a result, the costume looks very bland and uninteresting.
Despite such silly additions as superpowers, the character is portrayed pretty much as we know him from the comic page: kind-hearted, honourable, but menacing if you cross him. Sure miss some good one-liners, though.

I really don't like most of what I've seen of this show (admittedly not a whole lot), but then again , this is a series aimed at very young kids, and I therefore feel I have no real right to comment on its quality: I'm not the target audience. Some of it is admittedly cheesy fun even for die-hard adult fans, such as the aforementioned episode with the return of the Sky Band called, well, Return of the Sky Band, which includes a lengthy flashback to the time of the 21st Phantom and Diana.

The animation is mixed at best, with some loveable/lamentable guffaws, such as Kurt Walker's beard dissapearing when he puts on his mask/helmet, only for it to mysteriously reappear when he takes it off.

In short, if you're seven, you'll likely enjoy this series, if you're older, it might help you cure that insomnia you've been struggling with. I know a lot of people got into the Phantom because of this show and have fond memories of watching it as kids, but since I first saw it as a cynical teen, I feel free to trash it.

The Phantom would return in animated form again in 1994, in another futuristic series, Phantom 2040. While a definitive improvement over DOTE, it's still far removed from the comic, and features yet again the adventures of one of the 21st Phantom's descendant, this time the 24th Phantom. While it's wrong to call the series a smashing success, it did well enough to last until 1996, and spawned quite a bit of merchandise, among other things a video game that is still interesting to play today.

I've not seen that many episodes of this series, only the few available on DVD plus some from YouTube, and though it is no doubt a very intelligent show with some good writing, I find it to be a bit dull in places. There are some neat references to the original comic, but this is generally nothing like the Phantom we're used to reading about, often coming across as a Blade Runner-wannabe that just happens to feature a guy in a purple suit. The creators also gave the Phantom gadgets that would make Roger Moore's James Bond envious. In one episode found on the DVD "Phantom 2040: The Ghost Who Walks", he has a mini chainsaw in his costume that comes very much in handy when he is tied up (one could say this is an extension of the ever handy "knife-in-boot" trick that Falk was fond of using to get the Phantom out of this kind of situation, though).

Then, in 1996, the Phantom finally made his return to the big screen in a movie simply called The Phantom, starring Billy Zane as the Man Who Cannot Die, Kristy Swanson as Diana and Treat Williams as bad guy Xander Drax. The "plot" consists of the Phantom and Drax separately chasing three magical skulls. And, uh, that's about it. This is by no means a deep film.

Despite an ineffective MacGuffin in the supernatural skulls (with 60 years of excellent comic book stories to borrow from, and this was the best they could think of?!) and an even less effective villain (the scariest thing Drax does is spelling his name), the film manages to mostly be good, clean fun, that captures some of the tone of Falk-written Phantom stories (note "some of").

For new fans who have never seen this film before, it might look awfully dumb. This is not as serious an adaptation as most of the comic book movies we see today, and is more in line with the likes of The Shadow and Batman Forever, in that it seems unable to decide on a consistent tone and doesn't take itself very seriously for the most part. Watchmen this ain't.

The one element that keeps it all together is Billy Zane. Despite the plot being Indiana Jones-lite, action scenes of varying quality, and very little to actually work with in terms of character development, Zane IS the Phantom through and through. If you think of it, the character must have seemed incredibly dull as written on the script page, but like Michael Keaton as Batman, Zane does very much with very little. The body language (which he carefully copied directly from panels of the strip), the deep, determined voice, the warm smile, the way he "hits" bad guys, the way he commands his animal companions, the way he shoots... Nobody could have played the role better, and it is very well possible that nobody ever will (it's not like Ryan Carnes looks like a serious contender).

The rest of the cast are a mixed bunch. Most of them are well cast but struggle with the lacking screenplay. Swanson is OK as Diana, James Remar is very cool as Quill, the murderer of the Phantom's father (played by Patrick McGoohan, who despite his undeniable talent was roughly 150 years too old for the part), and Catherine Zeta Jones does a pretty good job with the part of Sala, despite being saddled with some horrendous dialogue.

The late Jeffrey Boam's script might as hinted by previous sentences be the movie's greatest weakness. A fine writer responsible for the likes of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and Lethal Weapon 3, you would expect something better than what he delivered. It's not that bad, but it's frustrating that we got the aforementioned weak plot, and almost no character development to speak of. I am convinced one of many reasons why the film failed at the box office is that there is almost no backstory given to the characters, including the Phantom. All we get is a very brief (and rather poorly realized) version of the 1536 pirate attack that "created" the Ghost Who Walks, plus a few lines of dialogue here and there that refers to Kit and Diana's history together. We don't get to see any Skull Oath, no passing over from father to son (which might in retrospect be a good thing, given that we were thankfully spared the sight of Patrick McGoohan in purple tights). The audience are given little reason to care for the lead character other than him being the hero of the picture, and without Zane's sympathetic and compelling performance, I suspect few people would have.

The film looks great. Despite having some sets that looks like, well, sets, I can very well understand Roger Ebert's claim that it was one of the best looking movies he had ever seen. The locations are all stunning, and though I am unsure of where Bengalla is supposed to be located in this version, the scenes from the country are beautiful.

The Phantom costume is faithfully rendered, though the filmmakers ditched the "underpants" and added subtle tribal designs. It would look downright absurd on most actors, but Zane manages to look great in it, due to having worked out like crazy for close to two years because he felt "the Phantom should be natural". That's dedication. The man looks like a Sy Barry drawing magically come to life.

Despite its many shortcomings, I very much like the film. I loved it as a kid, grew weary of it in my early teens when I wanted all action movies to be "dark and moody", and have grown to immensely enjoy it again as I've gotten older. It's obviously nowhere near as accomplished as the comic book movies like Superman The Movie or Batman Begins, but I find it more entertaining than many other more praised films about guys in bizarre costumes. A sunny, light hearted romp, and a true feel-good movie in every sense of the word. It won't change your life, but it doesn't need to, it just wants you to have a good time. (If you enjoy the film, you need to check out two other comic book/pulp movies from the early 1990s, The Rocketeer and The Shadow. These three films almost form a loose trilogy, as they are incredibly similiar both in terms of tone and look. The Shadow sucks, The Rocketeer is great)

In the future, we can look forward to the excellent-sounding big budget Australian movie The Phantom: Legacy (or The Phantom Legacy, sources contradict each other on the film's actual title) and the somewhat less excellent-sounding modest budget SyFy TV-series The Phantom. We'll see.

Behind The Mask: The Phantom's Other Family

By Ed Rhoades

The Phantom’s responsibility to fight evil and injustice requires a well- rounded education and life experience. Although learning about fighting and jungle survival from his father is a valuable training for the mantle he must someday wear, it is not enough, so as a young man, the Phantom attends school while living with his mother’s family. With this in mind, the choice of the Phantom’s wife is important not just for her bloodline, but for her family as well.

The 1st Phantom’s wife was a Spanish princess; the 4th Phantom’s wife was the niece of William Shakespeare. Other mates of Phantoms have included a daughter of a maharajah, an Indian princess, a pirate queen, an Italian opera singer, and a sharpshooter Annie Morgan (inspired by famed Phoebe Ann Oakley Mozee).

Lady Maude, the mother of the current Phantom died when he was living with her sister, Sophie and her husband. Adjustment to small town life was not an easy one. He was out of place. Jungle bred, his frame of reference made him appear like a savage to his extended family in their civilized setting. His Aunt Sophie and her husband Ephraim had boasted that he was the son of a rich plantation owner and arranged an elaborate reception to welcome their nephew; however, upon his arrival his appearance and demeanor embarrassed them in the presence of their friends. Young Kit’s uncle decided to spank him in retaliation for the incident not knowing the danger he faced with such an act. Guran, an adult pygmy warrior, who was sworn to protect Kit, was prepared to kill Ephraim, and Kit at the age of 12 was already more than the equal of a full-grown man and capable of protecting himself. After running away from his new surroundings, he learned that his Aunt Sophie was concerned about him and he returned.

As their familial bond grew, Kit’s aunt and uncle played an important part in the Phantom’s development from a headstrong youngster to a mature, thoughtful man. It is reasonable to assume that the formative years he spent in their care were instrumental in transforming youthful stubbornness to mature resolve. As those years passed, his aunt and uncle came to love Kit. During his stay with them, his heroic act of protecting students from a panther and his incredible athletic prowess put their small town on the map and endeared Kit to everyone in the kindly community.

His uncle, who at first viewed Kit with misgivings, later became proud of the fine young man he grew into and carried sincere affection for his nephew.

There are different official accounts of Kit’s childhood. The earliest being a Sunday strip beginning in July 1944. It’s likely Alfred Bester ghosted this version, while Lee served in the armed forces. In this early plot, young Kit stays with his Aunt Lucy and Uncle Jasper Walker in the town of Centerville. Lee retold the same story with a few changes in another Sunday strip beginning in June 1959. The basic elements are the same, but the setting is the small town of Watertown where he stays with his Aunt Sophie and her husband. Lee’s final version appeared in The Story Of The Phantom, a 1972 Avon paperback, in which young Kit resides with his Aunt Bessie and Uncle Ephraim in Clarksville. Yet another very well written account was The Son Of The Phantom by Dale Robertson, which was based on the first Sunday story and featured art by Wilson McCoy from the original Sunday story Childhood of the Phantom. When I asked Lee about this, he replied, "I had nothing to do with it. I was in the army."

All are similar in details and characteristics and present Kit’s extended family in the same way.

Behind The Mask : The Phantom’s Costume

By Ed Rhoades

The Phantom is credited by most as the first costumed hero in comics. He predates Superman and Batman and the plethora of others to wear a skintight outfit in following years. In a business where everyone is inspired or influenced by someone, how did The Phantom begin the whole thing?

Having already created the successful comic strip Mandrake the Magician in June of 1934, Lee Falk turned his attention to a new kind of hero. Since his original plan was to name his protagonist ‘The Gray Ghost’, it’s possible that John Singleton Mosby was the kind of hero Lee had in mind. Mosby was a real-life daring figure whose exploits during the Civil War were similar to those of Lee’s new character. Both Mosby and The Phantom single handedly captured an important general, freed imprisoned men and captured the attention of the public.

Mosby was gray because of his Civil War uniform, and it’s possible that was the way Lee envisioned The Gray Ghost.

However, when Mandrake assistant artist, Ray Moore, began to translate Lee’s ideas to comic panels, he and a group of fellow artists who shared a studio had meetings and discussions during which Ray and the guys planned how The Phantom would appear. Ray’s widow, Claire Moore, told me that Lee only came to one or two of the meetings, and all of the Phantom art that was printed was Ray’s work.

The hood or cowl was reminiscent of an old time executioner with a form suggesting a skull. The skintight shirt and tights were the sort of thing an old time circus performer would wear. The shorts were drawn with a hatching that gradually evolved into stripes that might be inspired by a costume from a Shakespearean play. It was no accident that the visual to the Oath sworn on the skull bears a resemblance to Hamlet’s ‘Alas Poor Yorick’ scene.

The Phantom’s eyes were shown early on in Ray Moore’s drawings. Later, the convention of leaving white spaces instead had two advantages. It was easier to draw, and it looked a little spooky. Lee said the white eyes on ancient Greek and Roman statues inspired it, but in their day, those statues had eyes painted over them. The white eyes were a convention maintained by Wilson McCoy and Sy Barry. There were two rare occasions where Sunday strip artist, Bill Lignante, showed the Phantom’s eyes. Once was when Queen Samaris asked the Phantom to marry her. Bill thought showing him wide-eyed made sense for the situation. Fans still haven’t quit talking about it.

For the movies, discussions showed an expectation of not showing the Phantom’s eyes or his face. However, I’m sure Billy Zane’s agent had other ideas. When wearing the hard plastic molded mask, the area around his eyes was blackened so nothing showed but the whites of his eyes, however, his scenes as Mr. Walker made no attempt to hide his face. Billy and Phantom serial actor Tom Tyler wore a thick black mask when in costume. In the comics, the mask has varied somewhat being a bit thinner in the early 70’s and thicker in the following decades.

The costume’s color has been the subject of much discussion amongst Phantom fans. In the newspapers, The Phantom was referred to as a gray figure. The first color version of the character adorned the cover of the Big Little Book in 1936. For that issue, the Phantom’s costume was an orange color. In the following Better Little Books, he was again orange for The Sign of the Skull, green for Desert Justice, purple for The Return of The Phantom blue for The Sky Pirates and back to purple for The Phantom and the Girl of Mystery.

In the first US Phantom comic to feature color, the character was given a brown costume.

When King Features Syndicate finally produced a Sunday version of the strip, they had to decide upon an official color. There is much speculation about this including a rumor that it was a printer’s error making The Phantom purple. When considering possibilities, gray was just too drab to take advantage of color printing. Perhaps they tried using red and blue to get a neutral color…a substitute for an ‘off gray.’ The new Phantom purple was seen in all the US papers, but in other countries, they decided for themselves. In Scandinavia, his outfit is blue; in South America, Turkey, France, and Italy, it is red.

The Tom Tyler Columbia serial from 1943 was in black and white and Lee expressed a disappointment saying, "It’s too bad they didn’t have stretch material back then."

For the Paramount big budget film, there were about a dozen designs created, with the final one being two thin layers with a fabric showing lines that reacted as a moray pattern. The man responsible for the costume, Matt Britton says they were inspired by tribal tattoos from real pygmies to make an intricate design echoing the skull motif in the belt and ring.

In the animated cartoon series and the unused pilot for a newer Phantom film, the costume had chameleon like qualities.

I suspect that when a new film actually begins development, they will try to distance themselves from the Billy Zane film, which could disappoint fans, since that movie played pretty close to traditional Phantom lore. More thought is going into movie costumes for comic characters these days. Batman’s armored suit was result of a research and development for the military, Daredevil’s leather costume is practical for gymnastic stunts over cement. In Superman Returns, the costume has a beveled ‘S’ with a leather like cape. A major concern in such designs is licensing. Making sure that kids are sold on buying action figures is almost as important as promoting the movie itself.

Moonstone’s Phantom has a traditional purple costume with white spaces in the mask. The painted pulp-like covers of Joel Naprstek and the tight painted Doug Klauba covers provided an especially chilling effect. Moonstone’s Legacy presented a realistic depiction of how the first Phantom might have looked with a makeshift costume inspired by the Wasaka idol.

Both recent covers and interiors present a vintage look with the exception of metallic skull belt buckles that add another additional touch of realism.

While other comic heroes’ costumes have changed through the years, the first costumed hero of comics continues with a mysterious look that holds up and still looks great after 70 years.

44 Important Things for Phantom Filmmakers to Keep in Mind

By Paul Jonassen

UPDATE: Not one to shy away from some friendly discussion Phantom: Legacy writer/director Tim Boyle has replied to Paul's article. You can find his replies at the bottom of the article, under Paul's points.

It is now well known among Phans that Tim Boyle has been commissioned to write and direct a new movie with the man with the mask, with the film seemingly being scheduled for a 2011 release (I've waited ten years for this, so three more should not be a huge problem).

However, we all know there are certain rules filmmakers must follow, and here is a not very thoughtful, VERY subjective look at it, along with some off-the-record suggestions for how I, in my endless wisdom, would do things:

1. The Phantom doesn’t kill. Period (however, using one's guns to shoot armoury out of people's hands can come surprisingly in handy when the situation demands it).

2. The Phantom’s father should not be played by somebody who looks like his great-grandfather (sorry, Patrick McGoohan).

3. Find an actor to play the Phantom that is as dedicated and passionate as Billy Zane when it comes to transforming themselves into the character (no rubber-muscle costume, thank you very much).

4. Be clear that the Phantom is the friend and helper of the inhabitants of Bengalla’s jungles, not their ruler (but that doesn’t mean you have to shy away from showing him in his iconic pose sitting on the Skull Throne. A little political incorrectness is just refreshing).

5. Create a villain that can actually menace somebody.

6. Or, don’t even bother creating one; just take a baddie from the comics and customize him for the screen. Here are hopes for the Marshall sisters, the only people the Phantom’s afraid of (except Lily Palmer) to make their long overdue screen appearance.

7. Do not ever tinker with the idea of giving the Phantom supernatural powers of any imaginable kind. Powers are for pussies.

8. The Phantom is not Batman. This might sound bleeding obvious, but it would be too easy turn the Phantom into an African Bruce Wayne.

9. "What do you want to drink?" "Milk." This moment would bring the house down, and needs to be seen on the big screen as soon as possible.

10. No matter how scary bad guys are, it’s important the Phantom is capable of giving all of them bad dreams about skull marks and a muscular dude in a weird bodysuit riding a horse.

11. It’s about time the ”He’s not a dog, he’s a wolf” line makes it entrance in a movie. Just so you know it.

12. Don’t fall for the temptation to give the Phantom any fancy ”gadgets”. Even James Bond is tired of those things these days.

13. Guran is fat, short and wears a strange hat. He is not thin, normal-sized, nor does he wear a turban. And he’s not played by Danny DeVito, no matter how tempting that might be.

14. Blue is a better costume-colour than purple (I’m Scandinavian, so don’t shoot me for saying it).

15. Sy Barry needs to do a quick cameo, Stan Lee-style.

16. The Walker family’s fearless driver, one Paul Jonassen, which readers had the pleasure of meeting in Moonstone’s The Phantom issues 21 and 24, would also be available to delight moviegoers worldwide with a guest appearance. Believe me, he’s cheap.

17. Striped underpants should perhaps in a movie be worn, um, under the pants.

18. The Phantom’s pupils should not show underneath the mask. I can’t think of any jokes here, but that’s the way it is, baby.

19. Mr. Walker should get his own ”sunglasses that mysteriously secures that nobody can see your eyes, ever” line to promote the movie.

20. Mr. Walker should not get his own "old, worn out trench coat" line to promote the movie.

21. Neither should Mr. Walker dress in a style that will look hip to "kids" today but make the movie look dated in five years.

22. The only candidate to play Hero, the Phantom's faithful stallion, is Sylvester Stallone, Italian Stallion.

23. Bengalla is placed in Africa, though it has mysteriously relocated from India, and from wherever-it-was-placed-in-the-Zane-movie.

24. It's called the SINGH brotherhood, not SENGH.

25. Kabai Singh is one evil mother******.

26. That doesn't mean he is played by Samuel L. Jackson.

27. Or should even be in the movie.

28. No smoking in the Skull Cave.

29. It's time the Phantom actually put his money where his mouth is and proved that the "strenght of ten tigers" saying is not just something he made up to sound cool.

30. Three skulls and a laser does not a Weapon of Doom make.

31. When time comes to promote the movie, please don't go the Punisher: War Zone and The Incredible Hulk route of telling every journalist how much better your movie is going to be than the last try. Because, you know, then it will be slightly embarrassing for everybody if it actually isn't.

32. The Phantom is and has always been a clearly defined hero. That doesn't mean his personality can't be interesting or that he can have doubts about his slightly bizarre purpose in life, but don't turn him into an "angry young man with issues", please.

33. Sam Worthington IS a great choice for the Phantom. Let's hope he's not too busy blowing up Terminators to prove it.

34. Ray "Punisher" Stevenson would be a great choice for his father.

35. Remember, the father needs to die for the son to take over. The skull-oath loses its power if the old Phantom somehow retires, and doesn't get killed fighting evil (I'm mentioning this because I remember Steven De Souza hinting that old daddy would not necessarily bite the dust in his draft of the unmade Hyde Park Entertainment Phantom movie, and because it could give me a heart attack).

36. Stunts should be performed by stuntmen, not CGI-doubles. The Phantom is, to quote Live Free or Die Hard, an analogue hero in a digital time, and CGI simply can't capture the thrill of good old fashioned stunt work.

37. The Chronicle Chamber "Phan Works" section provides many good ideas on how to update the costume for film while still staying faithful to the comic. Check it out (none of them are drawn by yours truly, so this is not a plug).

38. Diana Palmer is tough as nails, and is preferably played by Michelle Monaghan. Let's hope the casting director miraculously agrees with me.

39. If it ever gets to the air, just pretend the Sci-Fi Channel Phantom TV-show doesn't exist.

40. You don't need supernatural elements of any kind to make a comic book movie interesting (see Batman Begins and The Dark Knight). When that is said, just the fact that somebody can wear that costume in what must be one of the hottest places on earth, might be supernatural enough.

41. At one point in the film should the Phantom be playing games with scared-to-death villains, taking them out one by one from the shadows.

42. Even though the underrated Zane film already did it (quite well), it’s perfectly okay to include the ”you killed my father, you heartless evil bastard, and now I want his gun belt back” element of Falk's story The Belt.

43. The origin of the 1st Phantom is important in every way. The very foundation of the character(s) is laid there, and it is important audiences will understand why 20 generations would care to live after an oath that is, frankly, a bit insane (at least actually showing the oath being sworn would be nice, which the last movie didn’t).

44. Make something Lee Falk would have been proud of.

Tim's Replies:

1. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing.

2. Agreed

3. Agreed

4. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

5. Agreed

6. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

7. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

8. Agreed

9. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

10. Agreed

11. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

12. Agreed

13. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

14. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

15. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

16. Agreed

17. Agreed

18. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

19. Agreed – that would be cool

20. Don't really agree with this one

21. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

22. Oh... very much Agreed

23. Africa baby

24. Agreed

25. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

26. Disagree. Sam Jackson plays 'All bad mother *****' and swings a purple light saber.

27. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

28. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

29. Agreed

30. Yeah.... Agreed.

31. But it is... oh... ok – whatever... Agreed.

32. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

33. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

34. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

35. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

36. Agreed.

37. Agreed.

38. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

39. Haven't seen anything on it yet – so no comment

40. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

41. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

42. point taken – but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing

43. AGREED.

44. AGREED.

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PREVIEWS: Ordering Moonstone From Your LCS

Going by several comments posted on our forums as well as a number of e-mails I’ve received it seems a number of phans are still unsure as to how to ensure they don’t miss an issue of Moonstone’s Phantom series, particularly if they are buying them from their local comic store (LCS). The easiest and best way to make sure your LCS has a copy of the new Moonstone Phantom put aside for you each month is to order it through Previews.

So what is Previews? Previews is a huge catalog that comes out each month listing what is available to comic stores in coming months. Every issue from every publisher as well as books, magazines, toys, apparel, games, DVDs and heaps of other stuff are listed in the catalog. Retailers look through the Previews catalog, discern what they want to order (and in what quantities), fill out an order form that comes with the catalog and send it to Diamond Distributors, the company who produces the Previews catalog and distributes merchandise to comic stores most of the world over. 95% of merchandise in the average comic store will have been ordered via the Previews catalog including Moonstone’s products. It should be noted that items appearing in Previews are slated for release three months after they appear in the catalog. For example, items listed in this months’ Previews (November, 2008 edition) are slated for release sometime in January, 2009. Moonstone’s Phantom: Ghost Who Walks #0 being among those items.

What does this mean for you, the reader? Well, seeing as a comic stores order all their stock via Previews it’s a very good idea for readers to take a look at Previews themselves to see if there is anything they want. If there is, let your comic store know and they will order a copy especially for you along with their regular order of that product ensuring you don’t miss out.

Of course with Previews being so huge (it’s often around 300-350 pages) its nigh impossible to know about all of the items listed in there without looking through the catalog yourself. But fear not, most stores will have a store copy of Previews for customers to look through and see if there is anything they wish to order. Depending on your LCS’s system you may be able to write your name next to any item of interest and the kind folks at the store will take care of the rest. It’s important to note that each store has their own system for dealing with customers’ Previews orders so it’s always a good idea to ask first as to what you need to do.

Alternatively, on the Previews web site you can download a PDF version of the catalog to look through. While the PDF does not contain descriptions of products and other information the printed catalog does it still contains the titles and price info of every product listed (prices being in US dollars of course,) so it’s a very handy thing to have. The Previews site also features small promos for various items appearing in that month’s catalog that may be of interest to readers. If you’d still rather have a copy of the printed catalog to look through yourself most stores sell copies of Previews for around $10-12AU.

So you have your copy of the Previews catalog/PDF, you’ve found the Moonstone section and you’ve figured out what you want. What now? Well, as I said it depends on your stores’ system but here are the basics of what info you should have to give your LCS so they can order you the correct item;

• The title and issue number, obviously. No good saying you want “that Phantom book.” Be specific.

• The catalog page number the item appears on. If you have the printed copy of Previews that’s pretty easy to figure out. If you have the PDF look above the entry for the item you wish to order and you’ll see “PAGE XX” in big bold letters (XX obviously being whatever page number you’re on). Be sure to use this number and NOT the page number your PDF reader indicates!

• The item code. Each item in the catalog has a series of numbers and letters that represent it. For example, the item code for Phantom: Ghost Who Walks #0 is NOV08 4208. It is very important to know this number if you’re doing your order via e-mail or are looking at the PDF but it also helps with the printed catalog.

While those are the most important things you’ll need to know it’s also a good idea to consider the following;

• Do you want a single or standing order for the series? If you are ordering an issue of an on-going series do you want to order just one issue to give it a try (single) or do you want to order this issue AND every subsequent one (standing)? This is important to point out so your LCS knows if they need to order you the next issue the following month

• Variant covers. If an issue comes with variant covers (as Phantom: Ghost Who Walks #0 does) do you want all the covers, one particular cover or you don’t have a preference? If you’ve no preference don’t worry about indicating this, your LCS will most likely just give you the standard cover. If you want all the covers or a specific one you have to let your LCS know in your order of you may miss out!

That covers the basics of ordering from Previews. Of course you can also simply ask your LCS to order you a copy of every Phantom issue Moonstone puts out, but then you may end up with things you may not want, such as variant covers or trades. Previews really is the best way to order the comics you want from not only Moonstone but any other publisher. I hope this article has been of interest and helps anyone who may have been a little confused about what Previews is. If you’ve any questions please feel free to ask them on the forums or e-mail us.

But now you’ve no excuse! Go order those comics, young man!

By Joe Douglas

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