In this instalment of ‘The Phantom – The Lee Falk Version’ we look at the period 1970 -1996, drawing on first-hand commentaries from the strip’s creators wherever possible. Artists working on the strip during this period included Sy Barry, George Olesen, Keith Williams, Fred Fredericks, Joe Giella, Andre LeBlanc, Don Heck, Jose Delbo and Rich Buckler.

A list of Lee Falk’s ‘Top Ten’ Phantom stories (as selected by Falk himself) is also presented at the conclusion of this article.

Regards
Rosco M

16 September 2024

Part Five: The 1970s

5.1. The Gladiator

‘The Phantom’ entered the new decade in the midst of the’ daily storyline ‘The Gladiator’ (October 6, 1969 – January 17, 1970). Here, the Phantom confronts a stone-like gladiator who has wandered the Earth since ancient times after being cursed with immortality. Although the conclusion makes it unclear whether the encounter was real or a hallucination, this tale marked a slight departure from the usual formula as Falk traditionally reserved his “more imaginative” elements for the colour Sunday instalments (see Part One’s 3.3. ‘Format and colour influence the story’).

Appearing soon afterward was ‘Lost City of Pheenix’ (November 8, 1971), another ‘was it a dream?’ story in which the Phantom seemingly revisits the glory days of a cursed city that has long since fallen into ruin.

While both tales were structured in a way that left the Phantom (and readers) unsure of the veracity of the events, they signalled a more flexible approach to the daily format that would continue through subsequent years. In accordance with this trend the ‘Island of Eden’, which had generally been reserved for the lighter Sunday storylines, would now appear fairly regularly in the daily continuities.

5.2. The Vultures

Another daily story from the early 1970s introduced the latest in a in a line of criminal gangs to be featured in ‘The Phantom’ (‘The Vultures’, July 26, 1971):

“The Phantom has always been a crimefighter, whereas other crimefighters are city-bred fellows who are fighting gangs. The Phantom is different. He occasionally comes to town and will fight a real, Mafia-type of gang, but for the most part his gangs are sort of worldwide organisations. In fact, the recent gangs I’ve had the Phantom involved with were more gangs that go back 400 years. They’re ancient gangs that the Phantom has been fighting for years. There’s one called the Vultures, whose specialty is to loot areas after national disasters – earthquakes, fires, floods. During wartime, they’d go onto the battlefield and rob the bodies and terrorise the refugees. This goes back 300 years. And the Phantom has always been on the edge of this gang, getting them hung, caught. He’s an ancient enemy you see.

I had another gang like that called the Hydra, where the Phantom would knock off one of their heads – their headquarters in other words – but another one would spring up. Again through the ages. I like that kind of story. Again, the myth quality of historical continuity, because the Phantom has this kind of continuity.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Father of Superheroes’ by Will Murray (incorporating material from an unpublished 1972 interview by Robert Porfirio), originally published in ‘Comic Book Marketplace #121 (2005).

5.3. ‘He ends up in the opening night of Romeo and Juliet’

Meanwhile, the Sunday continuity showed the Phantom consulting his chronicles to discover the origins of a theatrical wig stored within the Skull Cave. This allowed Falk to present a backstory in which two of the Phantom’s predecessors interacted with William Shakespeare: (‘The Wig’, August 8, 1971):

“Another thing that kept him fresh was the idea of the generations of The Phantom…I could always go back and tell stories of the first Phantom, or the tenth, and so forth. This gives me a lot of range. In fact, The Phantom almost stopped after the second Phantom. This was when the first son was sent out of the jungle, and back to the country of his mother, in this case, England. There, he was to be educated by monks. But the young man ran away and joined the Globe Theatre in England to become an actor! So he ends up in the opening night of Romeo and Juliet, where he played Juliet! You see, they didn’t allow women on stage in Shakespeare’s time, and young men played women’s parts.

His father, meanwhile, was a macho, big, powerful guy, comes roaring over there for the opening night, with Shakespeare shivering in the wings on opening night. The Phantom has the courtesy not to break up the show, but after the performance he goes backstage, pulls the wig off his son, and says: “You’re coming back to the jungle with me!”

“The son refuses, and the father goes back without him. He stays for a while and becomes an actor, and then the father is fatally wounded, and the boy is sent for. He returns to the jungle, and goes through the ceremony and becomes the second Phantom. Blood is thicker than water.”

‘Master Magicians and Phantoms, an Interview with Lee Falk’, interviewed by Bob Madison, June 1996. Scarlet Street #22, 1996. Reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

‘The Wig’ also revealed the means by which the early Phantoms were educated:

“All of the masked men were aristocratic by birth and education. The tradition begins with the grandson of the first Phantom, who was sent to England to become educated. All Phantoms are sent to Europe for their education: one to France, another to England.”

— Lee Falk, Master of Comics interview by Guido Gerosa. Translation by Ulf Bennetter and Paul Andreas Jonassen. Originally published in L’Europeo #1362 (Italy, 1972). Represented in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

‘The Wig’ reflected Lee Falk’s passion for the theatre – in real life he managed a number of theatres and produced/directed hundreds of plays. Falk also authored a dozen such plays himself, applying a similar approach to his comic strip work:

“Writing plays is a very definite craft – it’s like building a cabinet – you just don’t write it, you’ve got to know how to build it. You have to know about entrances and exits, how a scene works, how lines sound, etc. And I think the art of writing a comic strip is closer to the theatre and to film technique than any other kind of writing I know.”

When I do my stories…I write a complete scenario for the artist, in which I detail the description of the scene, the action and the costumes. If new characters are being introduced, I write their descriptions and dialogue for each panel.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Conversation with Lee Falk’, Friend of the Phantom Vol. 1, #2, Spring 1993

5.4. The Avon Novels

In 1972 Avon books began publishing a line of Phantom novels, each adapting stories that had appeared in the newspaper strips. Falk was initially asked if he could write them all:

“They wanted a book every two months. I said I can’t…I’ll write some of them. You get other writers and I’ll give them stuff. So I wrote the first one and I wrote about five out of fifteen.”

“I must say the five I did were good. The ten I didn’t do I was disappointed in. They got some pretty good writers, but they just knocked these things out.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk: Interview’ by Spike Barlin, conducted May 23 1983. ‘The Phantom: The Complete Sundays Vol 2, Hermes Press, 2014

“…I gave them proofs of my original stories and outlines, and they wrote some of them up.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Master Magicians and Phantoms, an Interview with Lee Falk’, interviewed by Bob Madison, June 1996. Scarlet Street #22, 1996. Reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

Falk’s personal contributions were ‘The Story of the Phantom’, ‘The Mysterious Ambassador’, ‘Killer’s Town’, Curse of the Two-Headed Bull’, and ‘The Vampires and the Witch’:

“I was very pleased with all of them. I did a good job and I think they are worth reading. One or two of the others weren’t bad.”

“If they had just put them out every six months I would have done them all…Avon said that’s they way they wanted them, one after another.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk: Interview’ by Spike Barlin, conducted May 23 1983. ‘The Phantom: The Complete Sundays Vol 2, Hermes Press, 2014

Rather than receive a credit for ghost-written novels, Falk insisted that the names of other authors appear:

“I said the ones I’m not doing myself, they are all my stories from the comics strips, but I want the adapter’s name put there. Because if it’s good he should get the credit, if it’s lousy I don’t want the credit.”

However, an error was made in the production of ‘The Curse of the Two-Headed Bull’, prompting an angry Falk to contact his lawyer and demand a recall:

“I was horrified, they put on the cover ‘by Lee Falk, adapted by someone else’. The guy who had done the previous book. Which I thought was terrible.”

“I said tell them to bring them all back, 200,000 out. Bring them back. It’s too late. They sell them in drug stores. I was furious. Print a new edition. So they printed 5 or 10 thousand with the right title page on it.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk: Interview’ by Spike Barlin, conducted May 23,1983. ‘The Phantom: The Complete Sundays Vol 2, Hermes Press, 2014

5.5. ‘I’m not all that nostalgic’

The stories selected by Falk for the Avon novelisations included some of his earliest, though the majority were sourced from the 1960s onwards. In a 1972 interview Falk noted that the psychology of his heroes had “changed a lot through the years”, while also expressing his belief that he’d hit his stride as a writer on both ‘The Phantom’ and ‘Mandrake the Magician’:

“I’m not all that nostalgic. I like the old stories, they’re pretty good, but in my opinion the best ones are the ones I’ve written during the last decade.”

5.6. Bangalla

Bengali, the name of the Phantom’s homeland since 1940, abruptly changed to ‘Bangalla’ during the course of the 1972 daily story ‘The Witchman’ (10 Jan 1972). While there was no ‘in-story’ explication, this was a reaction to the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 – a conflict that primarily took place in what was then East Pakistan (where the majority of the population identified as ‘Bengali’):

“…most people assume that it is Africa. I felt the Phantom isn’t actually in Africa. He is, yet he isn’t. It’s his own continent, really. It’s Afrasian where he is. There have been stories in India, and I didn’t want to place him too close to anywhere. So we have this place called Bengali. Then I changed it after all the trouble last year to Bangalla, and I never identified it because this is a jungle that looks very much like Africa, but then a thousand miles inland there of the mountain princes and they looked very Asian, Indian or Arab. The are 15th century type lords who still live like the 15th century in their castles.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Father of Superheroes’ by Will Murray (incorporating material from an unpublished 1972 interview by Robert Porfirio), originally published in ‘Comic Book Marketplace #121 (2005).

That same year, Falk was asked whether earlier depictions of the Phantom had presented the hero as a kind of ‘colonial power’ in the jungle:

“Maybe. Officially he was the keeper of the peace in the jungle. I acknowledge his methods and way of thinking may have been a bit paternalistic, but that’s just the way things were in those days. Now he has for a long time worked for the UN, and has taken on missions first and foremost in the Third World.”

— Lee Falk, Master of Comics interview by Guido Gerosa. Translation by Ulf Bennetter and Paul Andreas Jonassen. Originally published in L’Europeo #1362 (Italy, 1972). Reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

Falk also provided the following perspective on the Phantom in 1972, three decades into his creation:

“Today, after four centuries, the Phantom is extremely wealthy, has his own island where he keeps his animals, owns an enormous amount of land, and travels the world in private airplanes. He could have been Onassis. With long intervals he returns to the jungle. But the real jungle to him is the world of humans, which he sometimes needs to enter. Big cities, skyscrapers reminiscent of massive mythological monsters; there is nothing as tragic as life among the people classified as being civilised. The only peace he finds is in the heart of the jungle, among his faithful pygmies.”

The Phantom’s great wealth included many chests of gold/jewels (first seen in ‘The Beachcomber’, July 28, 1940) as well as priceless historical artifacts accumulated by different Phantoms throughout the ages:

“The Phantom goes there now and then, and enters the Minor Treasure Room, where he keeps jewels, gold, gems, which were given to him by kings and emperors. He doesn’t care about money, since he doesn’t know what he needs them for. He gives a lot to charity.

Then there’s the Major Treasure Room, which is something of a museum. And there, among all imaginable beautiful things, there is a wig: the wig used by the Phantom’s forefather when he played Juliet. I’ve been given permission to tell the story. The Phantom picks up the more than 400 years old wig, and is reminded of his predecessor’s love of the theatre. Here, in the Treasure Room, you’ll find the sword of Roland, the helmet of Alexander the Great, Caesar’s toga, and even the snake that bit Cleopatra. The Phantom preserves all these things for mankind, so they won’t be destroyed in wars.”

5.7. ‘Diana, the perpetual fiancée’

By 1972 a subtle, but significant, evolution had taken place with respect to the strip’s central relationship between the Phantom and Diana Palmer. Falk had now officially ceased introducing other suitors that had any prospect of winning over Diana’s affections – a trope he had used in numerous stories over the years. Diana’s mother would continue to hope her daughter would consider other choices, and villains would continue to eye her romantically, but there was no longer any pretence of viable competition:

“Poor Diana, the perpetual fiancée, she never gets tired of waiting for the Phantom, but her mother urges her on. I used to use that now and then, but now I feel after all these years, Diana is no longer vulnerable to outside romances. She is now faithful to the Phantom, as she has always been.”

Falk even moved the prospect of marriage slightly closer in the daily story ‘Yes’ (December 7, 1970) by having Rex (together with his friend, Tom-Tom) conspire to initiate a wedding through the forging of a letter in which the Phantom purportedly proposed. The story concluded with Diana telling the Phantom that the answer was “yes” as she boarded a plane back to the United States, though the Phantom subsequently explained to Rex that “nothing was set”.

— Lee Falk, ‘Father of Superheroes’ by Will Murray (incorporating material from an unpublished 1972 interview by Robert Porfirio), originally published in ‘Comic Book Marketplace #121 (2005).

A few years after ‘Yes’ Falk wrote ‘The Normal Life’ (August 26, 1974) in which the Phantom explored the possibility of relinquishing his role to marry Diana, an idea he had originally voiced back in 1938. Donning civilian garb, the Phantom enters the city and attempts a number of normal vacations, but with little success. His encounters with dishonesty, bureaucracy and danger make him realise that it is no life for him.

“The Phantom can’t handle a civilised life. Once he tried to move to America and got a job digging ditches. But the Phantom was fired everywhere, for being too strong, hard-working and honest.”

— Lee Falk, ‘The Phantom’s Father Celebrate in Oslo’ by Svein Johs Ottesen, translation by Paul Andreas Jonassen. Aftenposten (Norway) August 24, 1984. Reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

5.8. Don Heck

On the artistic front, a number of assistants were working with Sy Barry on ‘The Phantom’ during the 1970s. Amongst them was Don Heck (1929 – 1995), whose contributions are clearly visible in stories such as ‘The Pampered Princess’ (November 26th, 1973). Heck had many years of prior experience in comic books and is possibly best remembered as the original artist on Marvel’s ‘Iron Man’. He later expressed surprise that readers had identified his involvement:

“I did some of the pencil work on… [‘The Phantom’]…and I was just doing breakdowns at one point. Funny part is, you feel like you don’t have that much of a special style, especially in those jobs where two or three people are going to be going over it, but for some reason or other, your style comes through.”

Heck’s art was indeed recognised, as he found out when he received a letter from ‘The Menomonee Falls Gazette’, a US publication consisting of an assortment of newspaper strips:

“…(A)ll of a sudden they sent me a letter and asked me some questions. They wanted to know how much I was doing on the Phantom, because they could tell I was doing some of it. I was amazed. Because you figure nobody could ever tell.”

— Don Heck, interviewed by Richard Howell for Comics Feature #21,1982, reprinted in ‘Don Heck – A Work of Art’, TwoMorrows 2014

5.9. Andre LeBlanc – ‘Comics is reducing everything to its elemental’

Another notable contributor was Andre LeBlanc (1921 – 1998), an experienced Haitian artist with a strong background in illustration (including books, comic books and comic strips). LeBlanc brought with him a classic approach to comic strip art that was well-suited to ‘The Phantom’:

“Comics is reducing everything to its elemental…a bunch of archetypes. The woman is represented as beauty and the man as strength and grace and justice.”

Describing himself as friend of Sy Barry and a “sort of dependable backup”, LeBlanc’s precise contributions would vary depending on the circumstances:

“I would help him [Barry} with the inking, and I pencilled it for about seven years, but the strip is actually Sy Barry’s. He is the real artist.”

— Andre LeBlanc, ‘Andre…Like No One Else’, Interview by Ed Rhoades, Friends of the Phantom #18, Fall 1998

LeBlanc’s depiction of the Phantom was characterised by a distinctive, narrow mask. He also strove for an authentic rendering of (African) fauna, in order to “…satisfy the purists who were reading the strip so they couldn’t find fault with it.” At times he also had the opportunity to work from George Olesen’s pencils:

“The Olesen stuff had the right layouts, the right characterisations, but you couldn’t just ink it. There would be things like perspective…minor things that would loom big if they were inked in, but they didn’t look too bad while they were in that rough stage.”

“Sy got to be so meticulous and such a perfectionist that he would tighten up everything.”

— Andre LeBlanc, ‘Andre…Like No One Else’, Interview by Ed Rhoades, Friends of the Phantom #18, Fall 1998

One of the earliest daily storylines LeBlanc recalled working on was ‘Mystery of Kula Ku’ (March 8, 1976):

“I think the first job had to do with a princess…who had certain people made into statues…I did a pretty good job of that even though I never know what the story was all about.”

— Andre LeBlanc, ‘Andre…Like No One Else’, Interview by Ed Rhoades, Friends of the Phantom #18, Fall 1998

Andre LeBlanc was also responsible for the full art chores on some memorable Sunday stories in the mid-seventies, when he temporarily replaced George Olesen:

“I don’t know what point George Olesen came back. I know there was a point where I did the entire thing, layouts, breakdowns, everything.”

— Andre LeBlanc, ‘Andre…Like No One Else’, Interview by Ed Rhoades, Friends of the Phantom #18, Fall 1998

One of these was ‘The First Phantom’ (18 May 1975), which explored the backstory of the original Phantom. By this point, Kit Walker was said to have arrived on Bangallan shores in February 1536, i.e.: 400 years after the debut of ‘The Phantom’ strip:

“Kit was washed ashore on the beach, was found by Bandar pygmies who lived as slaves of a tribe of two-metre giants. The tribe had a stone god with black eyes and a mask that partially hid the face.

The Bandars successfully saved Kit from the mean giants and together they made an outfit that made Kit look exactly like the god. He would then lead the pygmies in an uprising and their freedom was secured. The giants were defeated. Who would dare to oppose their own god?”

Another example of Blanc’s work was ‘The Blue Giant’ (December 28th, 1975) – a Sunday storyline in which the Phantom encounters a gigantic blue humanoid robot sent to Earth by aliens. Atypical even for the Sunday format, it marked a rare, unambiguous excursion into high concept science fiction…something Falk normally reserved for ‘Mandrake’:

“It demands much more to create Mandrake than the Phantom. The Phantom is easier since the environment in which he operates; the jungle, the cave, the throne, the pygmies, the wolf…is a fantastic world in itself. Mandrake operates in a modern world, western, absolutely in the present. For Mandrake I need to invent new environments every episode. At least one, the pivotal one.

The Phantom is a direct hero, Mandrake is an indirect one. The Phantom is simpler and, after all, the least unrealistic.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Do Comics Disturb You’, interviewed by Alain Resnais. Translation by Ulf Bennetter and Paul Andreas Jonassen. Originally published in ‘Griff-Riff’ (France #12/1964 (excerpt) and ‘L’Europeo’ (Italy) August 25, 1966.

5.10 Real World Influences

The high-fantasy of ‘Blue Giant’ contrasted sharply with ‘T’ (April 21, 1975), a daily story which dealt with a terrorist cell’s attempted assassination of President Goranda (the elected leader of one of Bangalla’s neighbouring countries, Ivory-Lana). While an unusual topic for the strip, terrorism was very much on the public radar in the United States during the mid-1970s. One group receiving particular attention was the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) – which gained notoriety following the 1974 abduction of Patricia Hearst (the granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, whose papers carried ‘The Phantom’).

Another growing real-world concern was referenced a couple of years later in the daily story ‘The Guardian of the Eastern Dark’ (April 4, 1977), wherein the Phantom discovered and destroyed an illicit drug operation responsible for peddling heroin to natives. The story included scenes of addicts suffering from withdrawal after being forced to go ‘cold turkey’.

Meanwhile, in another nod to the times, Diana Palmer was shown to be working for a United Nations Director named Dr Henry – whose appearance was evidently modelled on that of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (and former advisor to President Nixon) Henry Kissinger.

Diana Palmer herself was now modelled on American actress Jaclyn Smith (as confirmed by Sy Barry years later – see Endnotes). Smith had risen to prominence in the television series ‘Charlie’s Angels’, which became a phenomenon at a time when there was ongoing public discussion around ‘female empowerment’. It was within this context that Diana’s personal skill set was expanded, and in the ‘Tyrant of Tarakimo’ (a daily story commencing August 15, 1977) she was seen demonstrating her capabilities with respect to judo (later karate/judo), shooting and archery. Diana had, of course, always been portrayed by Lee Falk as a high achiever with a background that included exploring, hunting, Olympic swimming/diving and nursing (the latter having initiated her UN career).

Over the years Diana occasionally surprised an aggressor with a martial art move, but Falk kept such sequences grounded in plausible reality rather than portray her as an action heroine. The Phantom’s longstanding role as Diana’s protector also continued during the 1970s, as demonstrated when he extricated her from the clutches of an evil Dictator in both ‘The Tyrant of Tarakimo’ and its sequel, ‘Return to Tarakimo’ (April 17, 1978).

5.11. ‘Ready for a Change’ – The Wedding

The saga of the Phantom and Diana took a pivotal turn in 1977, when Lee Falk decided to make a critical change to the storytelling formula he had been employing for four decades. In the daily storyline ‘The Proposal’ (February 21, 1977) the Phantom directly asked Diana Palmer for her hand in marriage, initiating a series of events that would culminate in the couple’s long-anticipated wedding.

The decision was possibly influenced by Lee Falk’s real-life marriage to his third wife, Elizabeth Moxley (on December 31, 1977), something that Falk seemed to confirm on at least one occasion:

“Well, since I recently got married myself, I can’t deny the Phantom the same pleasure!”

— Lee Falk, ‘The Phantom’s Father in Norway’ by Ann-Louis Nerem, Serieleseren (Norway) #7, 1978. translation by Paul Andreas Jonassen, republished in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

Artist Sy Barry would also recall this as a likely motivation:

“I think when he married Elizabeth, it brought on his thoughts of marriage for the Phantom.”

— Sy Barry ‘Remembering Lee – Friends of the Phantom tell their Lee Falk stories’ Friends of the Phantom vol 1 #21, Fall 2000

Elsewhere, however, Lee Falk would simply assert that the time had finally come, e.g.:

“I just thought it looked a little foolish for the Phantom to walk around being engaged for 40 years”

— Lee Falk, ‘At Home with the Phantom’s Father’ by Peter Grell, translation by Paul Andreas Jonassen, Republished in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

“I guess I was ready for a change and I finally decided and just did it.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Visit with Lee Falk’ by Anthony Tollin, Comic Buyer’s Guide February 1986 and Comics Revue #27 (1988).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, both Lee Falk and Sy Barry recalled a negative reaction from some readers:

“A lot of people around the world got very annoyed and said we were going to ruin the strip.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Visit with Lee Falk’ by Anthony Tollin, Comic Buyer’s Guide February 1986 and Comics Revue #27 (1988).

A wedding had previously appeared imminent on numerous occasions. The Phantom had suggested marriage as early as 5 September 1937 – but was stymied when Diana said she couldn’t live her life in the jungle. In 1943 the Phantom and Diana were briefly engaged, only to be thwarted by a series of misunderstandings. This time it would proceed, even though some initial friction was introduced when Diana declared her intent to continue working for the United Nations:

“After the Phantom proposed there was some controversy over whether Diana should move into the Skull Cave or stay at her job. They even had a mock debate on that question in the New Zealand Parliament. They send the minutes of that meeting to me and one side, I suppose the Conservative party, got up and said like all Phantom wives she should live in the cave with her husband while the other side insisted she was a modern woman and should keep the job.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Visit with Lee Falk’ by Anthony Tollin, Comic Buyer’s Guide February 1986 and Comics Revue #27 (1988).

The nuptials were presented to readers in both a daily version (‘The Wedding’, October 31st, 1977) and a Sunday version (‘The Wedding of the Phantom, October 30th, 1977). The event attracted news coverage in various countries:

“When the Phantom finally got married it was a great big story around the world. They held a bachelor party in a big garden in Stockholm the night before the Phantom got married. There were big parties in New Zealand and Australia. Later, they had contests in Mexico and other countries on whether the baby should be a boy or a girl and what the date of birth would be.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Visit with Lee Falk’ by Anthony Tollin, Comic Buyer’s Guide February 1986 and Comics Revue #27 (1988).

Lee Falk was very satisfied with ‘The Wedding’, eventually naming it as one of his top ten Phantom stories. It would also prove to be one of Sy Barry’s personal favourites:

“Certain plot lines have really caught my fancy and have kept me really excited with the story. In fact, not even wanting the story to end. Particularly, the wedding sequence was a very exciting thing to do. It had none of the violence and the horror, the awful, bloody situations that we’ll see today in other medias.

It had a beautiful story, it was developed very well, well-timed, well-paced. It built up to a crescendo so that when the wedding finally took place, everyone was just waiting for the preacher to say ‘I pronounce you man and wife.’ Every moment on that was such a joy.

We were also introducing all of the characters that we were using throughout my lifetime on the Phantom.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Me and My Phantom’, by Jeff Strell, Comics Scene #1, January 1981

Included amongst the wedding guests were Falk’s original creations, Mandrake and Lothar, crossing over into the Phantom’s strip for the first time:

“At the Phantom’s wedding. He sent him an invitation on bark, and Mandrake got it. He told Lothar, “You know, I never thought he’d really do it,” and Lothar said, “Don’t tell Narda.” So when they go to the jungle they’re introduced as Prince Lothar and friend. Mandrake and the Phantom shake hands on that Sunday page and the Phantom says “I’m very surprised to see you here,” and Mandrake says, “I’m surprised to be here.“

That was the whole thing. I didn’t want to get into it too much. I didn’t refer to him as Mandrake in that strip just because I was doing this to amuse myself.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Interview with Falk’ by Hal Schuster, originally published in ‘King Comic Heroes’ (1988) and ‘The Official Mandrake Sundays (1989).

The layouts for the wedding storyline were by Andre LeBlanc, who also worked on a promotional poster showing all of the wedding participants. He pencilled both the daily and Sunday versions:

“…that thing where they to spend their honeymoon at the little jade hut…riding on the dolphins. You know just before that, the series really started when the hunters came to hunt animals there and it was against the Phantom’s law. That whole series was tied in as a preamble to the wedding.”

“Everybody said it was one of the nicest sequences – the entire thing from when he proposes and they go through that period when he’s not sure and she’s not sure…should they or shouldn’t they? I had fun doing that.”

LeBlanc also recalled being complimented by Sy Barry, who finished/inked the artwork:

“…when we were doing the Phantom Wedding (Sy Barry) said ‘Andre, I can sit down and ink right on this without touching it.’”

— Andre LeBlanc, ‘Andre…Like No One Else’, Interview by Ed Rhoades, Friends of the Phantom #18, Fall 1998

Despite the trepidation that he and Lee Falk had experienced prior to the event, Sy Barry recalled the wedding as resonating positively with readers of the time:

“Lee and I were really worried about what impact that would have but people not only accepted it, they really loved it.”

— Sy Barry, ‘The Phantom illustrator Sy Barry on the spirit of an artist…and why you just can’t beat a comic strip. The Weekend Australian, by Troy Bramston, June 4 2021

5.12. Rich Buckler: ‘The Phantom character was always special to me’

Shortly after the wedding storyline, Sy Barry briefly engaged the services of layout artist Rich Buckler (1949 – 2017), whose work appeared in adventures such as ‘Return to Tarakimo’ (April 17, 1978) and ‘Jungle City’ (September 18, 1978). Buckler possessed significant experience in drawing comic book superheroes, and had assisted Sy’s brother on the newspaper strip ‘Flash Gordon’:

“When I got hired to “ghost” for “The Ghost Who Walks,” Dan’s brother Seymour Barry didn’t need to audition me. Dan’s recommendation was enough.”

“My job…was to “ghost pencil” – this time for both dailies and an occasional Sunday page. Seymour worked often with Joe Giella, who assisted on the inking chores now and then–and style-wise, there were times when you could hardly tell where Sy would leave off and Joe would begin.”

— Rich Buckler, Rich Buckler’s Secrets Behind the Comics Part Two: “The Ghost Who Draws” (My Adventures Drawing Newspaper Strips), July 31, 2012. Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Rich Buckler’s Secrets Behind the Comics Part Two: “The Ghost Who Draws” (My Adventures Drawing Newspaper Strips)

Buckler was already a fan of the character:

“The Phantom character was always special to me. He looked like a super-hero, he had a touch of the supernatural to him, and I always thought he looked striking and a bit sinister (the skull imagery and mask with opaque eyeholes did a lot to augment that).

However, he needed to make some adjustments in order to fit in with the strip’s established visuals:

“…Sy did not welcome my comic book style of action at first. So I toned things down for him while still exercising my storytelling strengths and doing everything I could to at least make the Phantom look heroic in every shot.”

Buckler made frequent visits to the library for reference material, noting that “Sy was always very exacting when it came to this. The Phantom lived in what was supposed to be a real jungle, not a comic book version of it.”

“I don’t remember ever getting a compliment from Sy about my figure work (or any of my drawing, for that matter–he was always a bit on the stingy side when it came to that). He did however remark one time that he was impressed with my handling of horses and all of the creatures of the jungle.“

5.13. The Heirs

Having made the momentous decision to marry off the Phantom and Diana, Lee Falk quickly proceeded to another milestone event. In the daily storyline ‘The Heirs’ (December 18, 1978) Diana (now Diana Palmer-Walker) announced that she was pregnant. By the tale’s conclusion she had given birth to twins Kit and Heloise. A short while later, Diana, the Phantom and their children were living in a new, custom-built treetop home in the Deep Woods (‘The Treehouse’, 18 Feb 1980).

As per the earlier wedding sequence, reader response to the Phantom and Diana’s new roles as parents was positive:

“We also got a good reaction on the twins, Kit and Heloise, and it opened up new stories for the Phantom.”

— Sy Barry, ‘The Phantom illustrator Sy Barry on the spirit of an artist…and why you just can’t beat a comic strip. The Weekend Australian, by Troy Bramston, June 4 2021

Reflecting on the impact of these events on ‘The Phantom’, Sy Barry later noted that the strip “…did become a little more family oriented…”, while emphasising that the Phantom “…never lost sight of the villains. Socially, his life took on a new dimension with his marriage and children, but he never lost sight of his calling to fight evil and injustice.”

— Sy Barry ‘Remembering Lee – Friends of the Phantom tell their Lee Falk stories’ , Friends of the Phantom #21, Fall 2000

5.14. ‘I was hitting my stride’

Artistically, Sy Barry would also recall the “mid-1970s to the mid-1980s” as being the most satisfying for him:

“I was hitting my stride then. I felt I’d hit my own personal level of maturity and development, and was reaching a stage where I was very happy with my work, within the limits of the time I had to do the work.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Sy Barry: His Life and Times’ interview by Jim Amash, Alter Ego Vol. 3, # 37, June 2004

One of Sy Barry’s favourite Phantom stories began just as the decade was coming to a close. ‘The Vault of Missing Men’, a Sunday continuity that ran from December 16th, 1979, to June 1st, 1980, introduced a locked chamber in the Skull Cave utilised as a crypt for various historical figures. It also detailed the 13th Phantom’s encounters with the famous French pirate/privateer Jean Laffite:

“But of course Lee made the Phantom’s role much more important than LaFitte’s. Jean LaFitte took a different, secondary position in this story.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Sy Barry: The Phantom Years – Afterimages ep 12’, posted May 29, 2021 on Youtube

Part Six: The 1980s

6.1. The Poachers

As the 1980s began Lee Falk, provided an in-canon explanation for the existence of tigers in the Phantom’s jungle. In the opening sequence of the daily storyline ‘The Poachers’ (August 27, 1980) Falk revealed that “many years ago” a ship laden with many exotic animals had been wrecked on the Bangalla coastline. While most of the animals had perished, “some survived in Phantom country” – including tigers. Falk was presumably prompted to do this following years of reader feedback/confusion (see ‘Part One’).

“Every time I feature a tiger or a lion I run the risk of getting letters telling me there are no lions in Asia or tigers in Africa. I answer that the Phantom does not live either in Asia or Africa, just in the jungle. My own jungle. “

— Lee Falk, ‘Do Comics Disturb You’, interviewed by Alain Resnais. Translation by Ulf Bennetter and Paul Andreas Jonassen. Originally published in ‘Griff-Riff’ (France #12/1964 (excerpt) and ‘L’Europeo’ (Italy) August 25, 1966.

6.2. ‘In most cases he has broken away from the old ideas’

The world was, by this time, a markedly different place to what it had been when ‘The Phantom’ debuted in 1936. It was within this context that a 1981 ‘Comics Interview’ article, featuring commentary from Sy Barry, looked at how the long-running strip had managed to remain relevant.

Barry was asked about the ongoing viability of a scenario in which the Phantom’s jungle was inhabited by natives who continued to live traditional lifestyles:

“I think because of its geographical location it has been able to remain remote from the rest of the growing progress that’s going on in Africa. Because of its inability to be reached very easily, it’s been able to maintain its own quiet and undisturbed way of life.”

“Civilisation is brought to the Phantom domain only by way of the Phantom going to the outside, or by short wave communication into his cave. He’s also linked up to the Jungle Patrol and that’s another means of his getting information on what’s going on in the outside. So he isn’t closed off. The tribes are kept away from civilisation, but he’s kept pretty well abreast of it.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Comics Interview’ #1, ‘Me and My Phantom’ by Jeff Strell, January 1981

He was also asked about whether he thought the ‘Phantom legend’ could be construed as a deceptive means of ruling the jungle folk:

“He [The Phantom] had to establish some kind of irrevocable symbol that (natives) could not question. They seem him as a ghost who walks, a man who’s lived for hundreds of years. They see him as someone who is not just far above them, but far above any human being.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Comics Interview’ #1, ‘Me and My Phantom’ by Jeff Strell, January 1981

When the article’s author suggested that the “notion of a single white man ruling thousands of black tribesmen” was “fast becoming an archaic one”, Barry highlighted relevant developments from recent decades:

“The Phantom has, or I should say, the creator of the Phantom has turned over a great deal of the authority to black leadership. In fact, the new colonel of the Jungle Patrol, Colonel Worubu, is black. The only one who commands over him is the Phantom, the commander in chief. Maybe someday there will be a black commander, we don’t know yet.

Of course, the 60s brought about questioning – do we blindly follow our leaders? Because of that, I think Lee has wisely broken away from the blind acceptance the natives used to show. Lee is now beginning to put blacks into very important authoritative positions. In fact, several black presidents presided at the wedding, and performed the ceremonies. So I think in most cases he has broken away from the old ideas. He has kept some of the old fear that has kept the natives in close check. But very little.”

“The Phantom has been around for many years, and the natives know not to mess with him.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Comics Interview’ #1, ‘Me and My Phantom’ by Jeff Strell, January 1981

The United States in the early 1980s was seeing renewed public discussion concerning the importance of the family unit in the broader culture. Barry took the opportunity to note how the strip reflected this, with the Phantom now having “not only the responsibility of his domain” but also “a responsibility as a father and a husband.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Comics Interview’ #1, ‘Me and My Phantom’ by Jeff Strell, January 1981

6.3. ‘They Want Me to Write the Screenplay’

‘The Phantom’ remained relevant/successful enough in the early 1980s to warrant consideration of a movie adaptation of the character, something Lee Falk himself was working on:

“As of right now King Features is interested in producing ‘The Phantom’. They want me to write the screenplay. I’m talking to them this week about it. It’s a question of which one of the Avon books I do.”

“…I’m considering whether to do ‘The Curse of the Two-Headed Bull’ or the first story of the Phantom, which is the young boy growing up in the jungle.”

Lee’s first Avon novelisation, ‘The Story of the Phantom’ had been based on ‘The Childhood of the Phantom’ storyline. It had also incorporated tales of prior Phantoms sourced from other stories:

“In that book there are a lot of flashbacks to stories of his ancestors. Stories about the Phantom. His father tells him one or two stories about his father in the course of the book. I’ve always loved that story. It’s a question of whether that would make a good Phantom film, rather than a straight Phantom adventure.”

“There are other types. Where they are just about the Phantom, where he goes from the jungle to Paris to London, climbing over rooftops, fighting various evil people. I don’t know which would be the best. I have to think about that. The producers liked the first one. I’m not sure that would work right.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk: Interview’ by Spike Barlin, conducted May 23 1983. ‘The Phantom: The Complete Sundays Vol 2, Hermes Press, 2014

Falk would again mention the movie project in a 1985 interview, stating “By the way, I’m busy myself with a movie script for a feature movie with the Phantom and as soon as we are back home I will finish it. Then I hope the shooting of the movie will start already next year.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Talk with the Creator of Legends’ by Ulf Granberg. Fantomen (Sweden) #24-25, 1985

(Earlier plans for a comedic Phantom movie starring British actor Peter Sellers, had been briefly formulated during the 1970s. The 1980s version was unrelated and apparently would have been a more sincere venture involving famed Italian director Sergio Leone, but it too failed to eventuate. See ‘Endnotes’).

6.4. ‘The fact that this world evolves, and the characters with it, has obviously contributed to their survival.’

As the decade progressed, Falk had the opportunity to discuss the state of both the Phantom and Mandrake during various interviews:

“Although they are the good old characters, they have changed. The Phantom finally married…they have children, and [Diana] has her own career. I have created a unique world for both Mandrake and the Phantom. There are times when these worlds seem as real to me as reality.

The fact that this world evolves, and the characters with it, has obviously contributed to their survival. The evil of the world gets new faces, the roles of the sexes change, and so on.”

— Lee Falk, ‘The Phantom’s Father Celebrate in Oslo’ by Svein Johs Ottesen, translation by Paul Andreas Jonassen. Aftenposten (Norway) August 24, 1984. Reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

One aspect of the real world that would have been difficult to ignore in the United States during the 1980s was the intense public debate about gun violence/control, which had been fuelled by various high-profile shootings (including the murder of John Lennon and the attempted assassination of President Reagan). Whether coincidentally or not, it was within this context that Falk began to refer to the pistol-carrying Phantom as a character who had “never killed anyone”:

“During 48 years the Phantom has never killed anyone and probably not seriously wounded anybody, although many crooks have gotten their forearms shot out of their hand or gotten a memory for life on their chin.”

(While Falk’s assertion was revisionist, it is fair to say that depictions of the Phantom using lethal force were rare. Prior to Falk’s statement, the most recent incident had appeared in the 1972 daily story ‘The Keeper of the Peace’, when the Phantom shot/killed a Witch Doctor who was about to stab young Rex.)

Lee Falk also continued to emphasise that the Phantom was no longer the authority figure of old:

“Today the Phantom is no longer the absolute ruler of the jungle but is instead a friend of the jungle folk. He’s no longer feared except by bad guys. He’s more of a peacemaker.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Visit with Lee Falk’ by Anthony Tollin, Comic Buyer’s Guide February 1986 and Comics Revue #27 (1988).

6.5. ‘I pick up ideas from everywhere’

Regardless of what may have changed, Lee Falk continued to craft a diverse range of adventures for the Phantom:

“When the Kimberly Diamonds story is finished, the Phantom will take on a gang of terrorists holding both presidents Luaga and Goranda for ransom. In return the terrorists want their comrades released. This is the next daily strip story, and I’m still writing it.”

“In the Sunday strip there will be a long adventure with the third Phantom and the tale about the diamond cup of Alexander the Great and how the cup ended up in the Skull Cave. Where the Sunday strip will go after that I haven’t decided yet.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Talk with the Creator of Legends’ by Ulf Granberg. Fantomen (Sweden) #24-25, 1985

And Diana Palmer-Walker continued to find herself in situations that required the Phantom’s intervention – as evidenced by the daily story ‘Ughland’ (February 14th, 1983):

“In Argentina a couple of stories of ‘The Phantom’ were thrown out because it was about dictators and generals. I have a story now. I’ll probably lose all those countries. I got a real mean one. In a land called Ughland. He’s a real nasty one. Diana is director of this division of human rights of Asian-Africa. She’s about to expose this dictator for human rights violations and she is kidnapped and the Phantom has to go get her. I’ll probably lose about 20 papers because of that.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk: Interview’ by Spike Barlin, conducted May 23, 1983. ‘The Phantom – The Complete Sundays Vol 2, Hermes Press, 2014

In devising the storylines of this era, Falk continued to draw on a range of literary interests:

“…I use myths, fairy tales and legends of the Old World when I write. The Phantom is, as you know, a mix of the Jungle Book, Tarzan, Robin Hood, El Cid and Nordic mythology – and Mandrake has streaks of the great Houdini. Nothing obtrusively American…and besides, none of my characters live in the US.”

“I pick up ideas from everywhere, the papers, books, fairy tales – and a picture of a young woman inspired the story of ‘Lady of the Lake’ “.

— Lee Falk, ‘Team Fantomen presents Lee Falk’, by Ulf Granberg, Fantomen (Sweden) #2 / 1986, reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

6.6. ‘The twins…are aging at a realistic rate’

By the mid -1980s young Heloise and Kit were beginning to receive dialogue, though their age restricted their level of participation in most storylines. The new dynamic that they brought to ‘The Phantom’, was not appreciated by all readers – at least in Sweden. While visiting that country in 1984 Lee Falk was asked whether there would be an adventure involving the twins:

“Ha-ha-ha! Well, I know what you Swedes think about Kit and Heloise. They should be left alone in the jungle, am I right?”

He also revealed his longer-term plans for the pair:

“When they have grown a bit I’ll send them off to the States and a boarding school…– they will be out of the way for a while and you people in Sweden will be happy.”

— Lee Falk, ‘The Phantom’s Father Celebrate in Oslo’ by Svein Johs Ottesen, translation by Paul Andreas Jonassen. Aftenposten (Norway) August 24, 1984. ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

Falk’s plans were facilitated by his decision have the pair age, at least for a while, in real time:

“The twins, Kit and Heloise, are aging at a realistic rate; they’re about eight or more years old right now.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Visit with Lee Falk’ by Anthony Tollin, Comic Buyer’s Guide February 1986 and Comics Revue #27 (1988).

The twins’ advancing maturity meant that Rex King’s role in the strip was now at risk of becoming redundant. In the daily storyline ‘Tale of Rex’ (January 18th, 1982) Falk opted to finally resolve the mystery of his origins, revealing Rex to be the Prince of Baronkhan, a kingdom located in the Misty Mountains of Bangalla. Later in the decade Rex would leave the Deep Woods to take his place as Baronkhan’s ruler, after which he would make only occasional reappearances.

6.7. ‘The two of them do a fine job’

January 1984 saw the passing of original Phantom artist Ray Moore, just two years short of the Phantom’s fiftieth anniversary.

According to layout artist George Olesen, it was during the leadup to the fiftieth anniversary celebrations that Lee Falk first became aware of his role as assistant to Sy Barry:

“It was shortly before that that Lee found out about me, heard about me or whatever, but anyway I received an invitation and that’s why I came.”

— George Olesen ‘George Wilson Interview’, by Ed Rhoades, FOTP #11 Fall 1995

From that point forward, Falk would often acknowledge Olesen when discussing the strip’s artwork, e.g.:

“Sy Barry is a superb artist. Actually, a commercial artist named George Olesen does all the pencilling for Sy these days. He does a marvellous job on the layouts and Sy fills in all the details. Sy’s quite capable of doing it all himself but it saves him a lot of time. The two of them do a fine job and I really like their style on ‘The Phantom’.”

— Lee Falk, ‘A Visit with Lee Falk’ by Anthony Tollin, Comic Buyer’s Guide February 1986 and Comics Revue #27 (1988).

On some occasions Falk would even send his scripts directly to Olesen, rather than Barry:

“…Sy is not doing the layouts. George Olesen, a Dane, does these and it happens I send the script directly to George, when deadline is uncomfortably close, George then pencils the layouts and sends them to Sy Barry. But this is particular with me, I never write a complete script! The artists have to wait for the ending. Of course I know how it all ends, but I like to keep people at suspense.”

6.8. Defenders of the Earth

On September 28, 1986 the Sunday strip depicted the Phantom having the ‘strangest dream’ in which the cast of the new ‘Defenders of the Earth’ animated series (including a future Phantom and his daughter) were shown. This coincided with similar promotional references in that week’s ‘Flash Gordon’ and ‘Mandrake the Magician’ instalments.

“They figured the kids would like something in a future time, with interesting technology and what not. So they grouped them with Flash in the future. I rather reluctantly agreed, thinking that maybe that was the way of the future, so let’s do it. We made The Phantom the 25th generation of the character, and the great-grandson of Mandrake.

But when the animators depicted them, they just used the three, Mandrake, The Phantom, and Flash Gordon. I asked why they had excluded Lothar from it all. Here’s a hero who happens to be black, and millions of black and brown fans think of him as a role model. I argued that he had to be in the posters as well.

The show came out fairly well, in the end, I guess.”

— Lee Falk, ‘King Comics Heroes Interview’ Inside Jeff Overturf’s Head: Lee Falk Interview – King Comic Heroes part 7

A 1986 newspaper article promoting ‘Defenders of the Earth’ noted that “‘The Phantom’ comic strip still appears in 600 newspapers and is published in 15 languages in 40 countries.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Old Caped Crusaders Reappear – Mandrake, Phantom, Gordon in new series’, United Press International, 1986. Reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

6.9. ‘Save that for me’ – Devil’s Story

The Sunday storyline ‘Queen Amaza’s Mate’ (December 28, 1986) began with a single panel showing readers the Phantom’s first encounter with Devil (as a young wolf pup).

This marked the only time Falk wrote any scenes delving into Devil’s origins. It was possibly influenced by a Swedish-produced Phantom comic-book story that had been published in ‘Fantomen’ 23, November 1979, which gave its own account of how the Phantom had met/adopted his pet wolf. It’s author, Ulf Grandberg, had mentioned his desire to write such a tale when meeting Falk during the 1970s:

“I told him I would very much like to do a story about how the Phantom got Devil and he said “Save that for me. I would like to write that one.” Then we waited and waited and waited—nothing happened. Finally I said, “I won’t wait anymore. I’m going to write that Devil story.”

Ulf Grandberg, ‘Remembering Lee – Friends of the Phantom tell their Lee Falk stories’ Friends of the Phantom, Vol. 1 #21, Fall 2000

The panel in ‘Queen Amaza’s Mate’ shared similarities with scenes appearing in the Grandberg’s 1979 ‘Fantomen’ story, so there was no contradiction. However, since Falk never confirmed a connection, any resemblance may well be coincidental.

6.10. ‘Mad people do nasty things’

As the decade neared its end, an unusually gruesome daily storyline entitled ‘Massacre at Walker’s Table’ (7 Aug 1989) opened with the discovery of six mutilated corpses in the American mid-west. The event led to the Phantom encountering a cult of Devil-worshippers, presumably inspired by the ‘Satanic Panic’ that was taking place in the US during the late 1980s and 1990s. Falk had modified his general approach to portraying villains over the years, but there was still scope for a scenario of this nature:

“Originally I had bad guys be really bad guys. All bad. Black and white. As the years went on it would be a little more realistic. Not too much. It was still a comic strip. You don’t have time to get into character analysis. What you see is right there. In their speech and their actions. I just don’t try to have people do things that are too horrible, ever. Unless they are crazy. Mad people do nasty things.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk: Interview’ by Spike Barlin, conducted May 23,1983. ‘The Phantom – The Complete Sundays Vol 2, Hermes Press, 2014

Part Seven: The 1990s

7.1. ‘I have to follow my own taste’

By the early 1990s Lee Falk entered his eighties, but remained in full control of ‘The Phantom’ narrative:

“…(T)he only way you know whether you have a good story is if you like it yourself. Strips like these are read by all kinds of people all over the world and you couldn’t possibly know what would please or displease all of them. I have to follow my own taste because there’s no one else around, and I don’t go to a lot of people for opinions because I’d get too confused. I’ve found that if I’m getting bored with a story, it’s time to cut it off pretty fast.

Of course, that’s not always true – sometimes the stories I like the best are not favorites with readers – but generally I try to please myself. I’ve raised three children and I used to try out stories on them – I could tell when their interest flagged that the story was getting boring.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Conversation with Lee Falk’, Friends of the Phantom Vol 1 #2, Spring 1993

In the daily story, ‘The Moxley Awards’ (8 February 1993) Falk named the titular awards after the maiden name of his wife, Elizabeth. Also present was a character (Dawson) that penciller George Olesen had clearly modelled on himself:

“I was running out of time and I needed a character and I had a bunch of shots of myself and so forth so I figured why not. So I threw myself in. I threw Falk in once, but I don’t know whether Sy changed it.”

— George Olesen, ‘George Wilson Interview’ by Ed Rhoades, Friends of the Phantom’ Vol 1 #11 Fall 1995

The Phantom stories were, by this stage, notable for their clipped, brief dialogue/narrative. While it had been many years since Lee Falk had employed the lengthy sentences found in the early years, the minimalism was now particularly evident. He explained the reasons in a 1994 interview:

“…a strip used to have six (newspaper) columns. Then gradually through the years, they were cut to four, which makes it smaller. So I tried to cut the amount of words to make more room for art. I’ve tried to make it flow to tell a story. The reason is mechanical…to make more room for drawing.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Interview with Falk’, by Ed Rhoades, conducted May 7 1994. Friends of the Phantom Newsletter. Vol 2 Issue 3 (1994) and #21 (2000)

The reduction in newspaper space allocated to ‘The Phantom’ coincided with a reduction in the size of the art boards used by the Phantom artists. For example, when Sy Barry had commenced in 1961, the image size available to him was 20.5″ x 6″ (52.07 cm x 15.24 cm). This was later reduced to 18.25″ x 5.25″ (46.35 cm x 13.33 cm). In the 1980s this shrunk yet again to a mere 13″ x 4″ (33.02 cm by 10.16 cm).

Each of the changes to the art boards was accompanied by a noticeable change in both the artistic composition and the scripting, with the final change posing a particular challenge to Barry:

“…my eyes were under stress and strain because the page was so small to work with. The daily pages. And it was ridiculous! Why in heavens name they had to change the size…I mean, to satisfy the printers? It didn’t make sense. All they had to do was work on a diagonal and break down the size…why couldn’t they just work with the size? Why did they have to have us working smaller and smaller? You know, we changed it three times (the size).”

— Sy Barry, Sy Barry Complete Interview, Interview by Dan Herman, APRIL 27, 2021 Sy Barry Complete Interview – Hermes Press (hermes-press.myshopify.com)

7.2. ‘I felt I’d done everything I could do on the Phantom’ – Sy Barry Departs

The diminished art boards were not the only source of frustration for Sy Barry in the early 1990s. He was continuing to experience difficulty with the timeliness of Lee’ Falk’s scripts:

“I was going through some stuff with Lee, trying to get scripts and to try to get ahead, and I was having a very tough time. It was a weekly battle…he just kept doing things that made it very difficult to keep working with him for any great length of time. By the late 80s/early 90s I was getting very frustrated.”

— Sy Barry, Sy Barry Complete Interview, Interview by Dan Herman, APRIL 27, 2021

Sy Barry Complete Interview – Hermes Press (hermes-press.myshopify.com)

“Every time I tried to take a vacation and I’d ask [Falk] to write several weeks ahead, he never did it for me. He only did it when he wanted to go away somewhere. So when he got an extra script going, I would have to try to work doubly hard to get the extra script finished so that I could take a vacation at that time.

“So my life was tied to his, not just by way of the scripts, but also vacations.”

— Sy Barry, ‘An Interview with Sy Barry – Longtime Illustrator of the Phantom!’ Interview by Bryan Stroud, April 03, 2019, Nerd Team 30 Online Article, An Interview With Sy Barry – Longtime Illustrator of The Phantom! — Nerd Team 30

Barry believed that this reflected an imbalance of power in their relationship:

” It went beyond the work itself…he had his way of trying to put me down and he found little things to do to try to minimize my significance on the strip. He was the power on the strip.”

“Our relationship was not evenly divided and I was always fighting for positioning and for the kind of credit that I deserved while he was always trying to minimize and withdraw the credit from me. It was so ridiculous and unnecessary. He had his position. He already had all the honors and accolades that he needed.”

— Sy Barry, ‘An Interview with Sy Barry – Longtime Illustrator of the Phantom!’ Interview by Bryan Stroud, April 03, 2019, Nerd Team 30 Online Article, An Interview With Sy Barry – Longtime Illustrator of The Phantom! — Nerd Team 30

And that it stemmed from a mix of ego/insecurity:

“Not only was he [Lee] egotistic, but it’s obvious that he was also insecure. He felt that I was taking a certain amount of prominence away from him.” I mean he’d secured his position so solidly.”

At the same time, Barry felt Falk’s writing on the strip had peaked:

“I loved the stories he wrote. He was a very good writer…he really was. He was starting to lose a little bit in the later years…the early 90s, late 80s. He would start a story where somebody was abandoned somewhere by the Phantom, he was left there temporarily, and the Phantom would forget to go back and pick him up”. And suddenly the story was ending because he was tired of the story running too long, so he decided to cut it short. “Wait, wait just a minute” don’t cut it short you left a guy abandoned in a cave somewhere.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Sy Barry: From New York to Bangalla – Afterimages ep 11’, posted May 13, 2021 on Youtube

“The stories got distracted. The Phantom ended up someplace else and sometimes I’d call him and say, “Hey, what happened to Bababu?” This is one of the villains. “You left him on an island and he’s lost or stranded somewhere. Don’t we need to get back to him?” He’d say, “Don’t worry about it, Sy, I’m working on it.” He wasn’t. He’d forgotten him! He was totally into another story. He was working his way into another story without ending the previous story.”

“He’d show an army and then the leader of this army has a certain name and then in the middle of everything he changes his name. He’s got a different name altogether and a different leader. These were the things that were beginning to happen and I was getting very worried. (Chuckle.)”

At some point Sy Barry had also assumed responsibility for colouring the Phantom Sundays, a task that had previously been completed by colourists at King Features Syndicate. Barry would make a smaller stat of the original art and apply the colours along with the colour codes for the engravers to follow:

“They cut the staff down, and the artist that (like they didn’t have enough work) they had to do the colouring as well now. Not only the colouring but putting the letters in…the numbers in…for the formula of that colour.”

“It was a real drag because it was like half a day of getting the right colours.”

— Sy Barry, Podcast #57 – Indian Comics Fans Meeting with Sy Barry, NRI Studios Podcast, posted on Youtube 14 September 2024

“By 1992…I was getting to feel like I wasn’t having the fun or enjoyment that I was getting out of it before. And it was beginning to become…I was fighting the deadlines, I was fighting the script, and being late now and then because I wasn’t getting the scripts from Lee. It just began to become an ordeal rather than a fun job that I always loved. It was just foremost in my mind all the time, that it was something I had enjoyed all this time, but that I just couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to keep my sanity.

And a lot of my friends were starting to retire, and things were kind of pushing me to try and have a life where I could have complete control over myself and what I was doing. And not be functioning under a strain week after week.”

— Sy Barry, Sy Barry Complete Interview, Interview by Dan Herman, APRIL 27, 2021 Sy Barry Complete Interview – Hermes Press (hermes-press.myshopify.com)

After three decades of working on ‘The Phantom’ Sy Barry made the decision to retire in 1994. His last daily strip appeared on September 3, 1994, while his final Sunday was published on September 18, 1994.

A year later, in 1995, Barry reflected on why the Phantom was one of the few remaining adventure strips in American newspapers:

“Probably because it’s lighter than a heavy adventure story. It does introduce other areas of the kinds of story that deals with fantasy…there are family sequences in it. I think it’s a lot closer to the home, to everyday way of life even though it is a costumed character. The story quality itself deals more familiarly with everyday characters and everyday way of life. I think that’s what kept it more popular…”

— Sy Barry, ‘A Visit with Sy Barry’, Friends of the Phantom Vol 1 # 10 Summer 1995

In subsequent interviews Sy Barry would always look back on his experience on the Phantom as an overwhelmingly positive one:

“I loved drawing the Phantom and never regretted it for one moment.”

— Sy Barry, ‘The Phantom illustrator Sy Barry on the spirit of an artist…and why you just can’t beat a comic strip. The Weekend Australian, by Troy Bramston, June 4 2021

Although Lee Falk and Sy Barry would no longer work together, this did not mark the end of their contact with each other. The two would subsequently clash in relation to the ownership of original artwork produced for the strip. (See ‘Endnotes’ for further information on this, as well as Barry’s account of another conflict involving royalties on potential film properties that apparently took place toward the end of his tenure on ‘The Phantom’).

7.3. Phantom 2040

In the same month that Sy Barry’s final contributions appeared, a new animated Phantom series began to air in syndication. Premiering on September 18, 1994, ‘Phantom 2040’ told the story of the 24th Phantom, who discovers his legacy and assumes the Phantom mantle in a dystopian future. The series had been developed with some input from Lee Falk:

“Now with Phantom 2040, they again wanted something that has futuristic technology. So I told them to set it ahead, with the 23rd Phantom. We had to set it in the future, because if there was any change in the current character, the Swedish and Scandinavian fans would be furious! They want the “classic Phantom.” So we worked around that by making this his grandson. We put some armour on his arms, and gave him futuristic weapons, but at least they didn’t change him too much. At first, they wanted to put wings on him! But it’s pretty well done”

— Lee Falk, ‘King Comics Heroes Interview’ Inside Jeff Overturf’s Head: Lee Falk Interview – King Comic Heroes part 7

Falk described ‘Phantom 2040’ as being “much better in concept” than ‘Defenders of the Earth’, though he initially had some problems with the grimmer material:

“I couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad. Others felt the same, so they fixed that. I never got too involved in the animation.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk’ interview by Will Murray, ‘The Phantom- Official Movie Magazine’, 1996, Starlog

7.4. ‘I haven’t given much thought to the casting’

Coinciding with the Phantom’s greater public exposure in the animated medium were new plans for a motion picture based on ‘The Phantom’. This was a separate project to the one that had been considered in the 1980s, though Falk still had had some involvement. During a 1994 interview he spoke about what type of actor might best embody his character:

“I haven’t given much thought to the casting, but I think it should be a national football player type of guy who looks like he could take on three men at once, but he has to be charismatic. He doesn’t have to be a star. For example, Sean Connery, when he began as James Bond, was not a star; he was an established stage actor. I think an actor like that should be the Phantom, because the picture depends upon him to make the movie successful.”

Falk didn’t consider that ‘existing musclemen’ such as Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone would be suitable, however when Dolph Lundgren’s name was mentioned he reacted with some approval, stating: “…he sounds good. It would be good for him.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Interview with Falk’, by Ed Rhoades, conducted May 7 1994. Friends of the Phantom Newsletter. Vol 2 Issue 3 (1994) and #21 (2000)

7.5. Fred Fredericks – ‘There was an opening’

Following the departure of Sy Barry, artist Eric Doescher briefly stepped in to provide inks over George Olesen’s pencils on the Sunday continuities. He was soon replaced by long-time Mandrake illustrator Fred Fredericks (1929 – 2015) during ‘Battle of the Jungle Boys’ (December 11, 1994). Fredericks later recalled how he obtained the role:

“There was an opening. [laughter] After somebody else had taken it over and wasn’t apparently working out, it came my way again. Things had fallen apart in comic books big time, so I figured this is meant to be. So I said “Sure.””

Fredericks found it was “…a pleasure to ink…” George Olesen’s pencils, as he could simply “…choose the right line and it practically inks itself.” At the same time, Frederics continued to pencil/ink/letter ‘Mandrake’ (lettering on the ‘The Phantom’ at this point was provided by Milt Snappin).

— Fred Fredericks, ‘Meet Fred Fredericks, Phantom Sunday Artist’ article by Ed Rhoades FOTP Newsletter Number 12 Winter 1996

7.6. ‘You wind up drawing almost a postage stamp’

George Olesen now received all the scripts directly from Lee Falk. He opted to create rough ‘thumbnail sketches’ as a first step, after which he used a lightbox to put the final images down on the board.:

“I do the lettering first which is a limiting factor, because quite often you get so many words, you wind up drawing almost a postage stamp. And other times you have a lot of space, so you try to accommodate, you try to balance it out so you wind up with an even flow of words, an interesting picture and continuous storyline and movement.”

— George Olesen, ‘George Olesen Interview’, by Ed Rhoades, Friends of the Phantom Vol. 1 #11, Fall 1995

7.8. Keith Williams

Comic book artist Keith Willams (b. 1957) was approached as Sy Barry’s replacement with respect to inking Olsen’s Phantom dailies. At the time he was employed by Marvel Comics:

“Danny Fingeroth [writer/editor at Marvel Comics] came to me one day and asked me if I was interested in possibly doing a comic strip…he told me that it was for the Phantom and if I’d like I could go and meet Jay Kennedy who was at King Features at the time in the editorial part…”

Kennedy liked the samples that Williams showed him, and sent Williams to meet directly with Lee Falk:

“We talked for a while… (Falk) asked what I did in the past I said I did Spider-Man…he said ‘oh – I don’t like spiders – I have a phobia.’ I said “oh, I’ve lost the job!” (laughing).”

“Fortunately, he did like what I was doing, and he thought he’d try me out…the rest was history. I worked on the Phantom from 1995 to 2005 with George Olesen was the penciller of the strip…”.

Williams was impressed by the artwork of his predecessor and strove to maintain continuity:

“I saw Sy Barry’s artwork which was absolutely amazing and I tried to get as close to him as possible…that was my mandate.”

— Keith Williams, X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #141 – 2019 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention (youtube.com)

Williams also enjoyed regular contact with Lee Falk:

“Every month he would actually give me a call and ask me how I’m doing, if I got enough pages…if there was anything I needed… things like that. We talked for a little while. We’d talk about things like Star Trek. He was a Star Trek fan. He liked Deep Space Nine and he liked Star Trek: Next Generation…”

— Keith Williams, ‘Remembering Lee – Friends of the Phantom tell their Lee Falk stories’ Friends of the Phantom Vol. 1, #21, Fall 2000

Keith Williams, an artist of African-American descent, viewed the Phantom as “…someone who wants to save jungle folks and people who lives where he lives”, adding that “…he will do anything to save them. He sacrifices his identity to be the Phantom, this person who is supposed to be immortal.” He further observed that “Mr. Walker is a disguise. He is not Kit Walker, he is the Phantom.”

And the scenario of a powerful ‘white’ figure in the jungle was not seen as being necessarily ‘problematic’:

“I feel as long as they have other characters that are in the story that are black, that are part of that area of the jungle that are business people, police, also heads of state – which they do have – I think you’re seeing different areas of society and hopefully, when Mr. Falk writes it, he has in mind that the Phantom is there as the person to protect them, but they can also take care of themselves.”

— Keith Williams, ‘Keith Williams enjoys role as newest Phantom artist’ Interview by Ed Rhoades Friend of the Phantom, Vol. 1, #15, Winter 1997

Olesen and Williams shared credit on the strip, and both were acknowledged by Lee Falk during interviews, e.g.:

“A team…consisting of veteran artist George Olesen who makes the layouts and the tight sketches on the daily strip when then are inked over by Keith Williams, a talented young artist. George Olesen worked together with Sy Barry for many years.”

— Lee Falk, ‘About the Phantom – A talk with Lee Falk’ by Ulf Granberg, Fantomen En Odödlig Legend (Sweden, 1996). Reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

‘

7.9. ‘This is the classic Phantom’ – the 1996 Motion Picture

Keith Williams had the opportunity to join Lee Falk at the long-awaited premiere of the long-awaited 1996 motion picture adaptation of ‘The Phantom’ on June 4, 1996. The movie starred Billy Zane as the Phantom with Kirsty Swanson as ‘Diana Palmer’ and was directed by Simon Wincer from a script by Jeffrey Boam.

Falk discussed his involvement in the project during numerous interviews leading up to the film’s release, e.g.:

“I worked with Jeffrey Boam, doing the script. They wanted my input right from the beginning, which was unusual. In the past, they never did. On this one, they really did – casting, everything.”

“[Billy Zane] was charming and handsome, but he wasn’t like the Phantom. He was a little, slim good-looking guy. I was impressed by his acting. I’m a stage director. I know about that.”

“Billy went after that job, got it, and he worked for two years with a trainer – four hours a day – on muscle building. Now he looks marvellous…I think he’s a classic Phantom.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk’ interview by Will Murray, ‘The Phantom- Official Movie Magazine’, 1996, Starlog

Set in 1938, the film was partly adapted from two of Lee’s earliest stories, ‘The Singh Brotherhood’ and ‘The Sky Pirates’:

“My first big story in the Phantom was about the Singh Pirates. Jeffrey Boam went to those old stories to get characters – the Singh Pirates, the bad girl with the heart of gold, Sala, the whole ending and so forth – from my scripts. He brought in a new story, which was very good, based on these things.”

New elements included the creation of the central villain, Xander Drax, played by Treat Williams. There were also some supernatural aspects, such as the ghost of the 20th Phantom (played by Patrick McGoohan):

“It’s a nice touch, which I’ve never done before. He didn’t come in a costume, mainly to avoid confusion. He wears an old coat and he’s sort of a mystical figure. He appears now and again in some amusing ways. I thought it was handled very well.”

“This is the classic Phantom. The director, Simon Wincer, is very devoted to the Phantom. Billy loves the Phantom.”

“Everybody involved wanted to keep the real Phantom, and so they have. I think they’ve done a beautiful job.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Lee Falk’ interview by Will Murray, ‘The Phantom- Official Movie Magazine’, 1996, Starlog

Despite his advancing years, Lee Falk visited Australia where some of the production took place, stating “I saw the dailies everyday while I was on the set for two weeks”. He publicly expressed satisfaction with the final product, including the portrayal of the Phantom by Billy Zane:

“It’s the 1930s, and the cities have a 30s feel. But the jungle scenes seem as if they could be any time, so it feels contemporary, too. But it is the “classic” Phantom, just as his fans like him best.”

“The movie is to me, and I’m a bit prejudiced, just great. Billy Zane is the perfect Phantom, he looks wonderful”

Falk also revealed why a previous attempt at bringing his character to the big screen had failed:

“You know, Sergio Leone wanted to do a Phantom picture. I had met him in Mexico, and he was an enormous man. He just loved The Phantom, and he wanted to do a jungle picture with pygmies, all of that.

We met again at his house in Rome, but he died [in 1989] and nothing came of it.”

During the film’s opening night festivities Lee Falk’s lifetime achievements were formally recognised when he received a personal telegram of congratulations from the President of the United States.

The 1996 Phantom movie not only revisited Falk’s earliest storylines, it also brought back several characters who had been absent from the comic strip for many decades. These included ‘Sala’ (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) and ‘Captain Philip Horton’ (Robert Coleby). Most remarkable of all was the on-screen appearance of ‘Jimmy Wells’ (Jon Tenney) – the character Falk had originally intended to reveal as the Phantom’s alter ego sixty years earlier.

In finally making the transition to the world of motion pictures, the Phantom had also come full circle.

7.10. ‘After more than 60 years, I’m still writing Mandrake and The Phantom’

‘The Phantom’ movie earned only half of its $45 million dollar budget at the box office, though it reportedly found some success in subsequent VHS and DVD releases. With the live-action and animation projects now behind it, the Phantom comic strip continued under the guidance of its originator. The popularity of the adventure strip genre had diminished significantly the since the golden era of the 1930s/1940s, and the newspaper medium itself was beginning to confront the growing threat of digital media. The Phantom’s readership had declined from its heyday, but the character (along with Falk’s original creation, ‘Mandrake’) retained a strong following in numerous countries.

Lee Falk was now the last of the great comic strip authors from the 1930s still active in the industry. As he entered his final years, he had the opportunity to reflect on the state of his life and that of his two most famous creations:

“I continue to enjoy life, and I hope that the Phantom and Mandrake do also. I have been writing about them for so long, I feel that I am a chronicler of what they do: they are very strong characters with lives of their own.

I am happily married with wonderful grown children and grandchildren. There is not a lot more one could ask for.”

— Lee Falk, ‘Father of the Phantom’, by Joseph Szadkowski, originally published in ‘The World and I’, November, 1995. Reprinted in ‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, GML, Stockholm, 2011

When asked what the future held for him, he showed no signs of slowing down:

“Well, after more than 60 years, I’m still writing Mandrake and The Phantom. When I write a script, it’s like film script, broken into panels. I include descriptions of characters, place, and detail, as well as dialogue and narration.

So, my plans are just to go on living and working.”

Lee Falk (1911 – 1999)

Lee Falk passed away from heart failure on the morning of 13 March 1999, six weeks before his 88th birthday. He was survived by his third wife, Elizabeth (nee Moxley), his children, Valerie, Diane and Conley, as well as several grandchildren.

Falk’s final completed daily story was ‘The Albee’ (January 11, 1999), and his last Sunday story was ‘The Floradon Mystery’ (October 4, 1998). As his health faded, Falk reportedly provided plots for the daily adventure ‘Terror at the Opera’ (March 15, 1999) and the Sunday tale ‘The Kidnappers’ (February 21, 1999) from his hospital bed, with the scripts being completed by his wife, Elizabeth Falk.

Lee Falk achieved a great deal during his long life, including many accomplishments outside of the comic strip field. His most prominent creations, ‘The Phantom’ and ‘Mandrake the Magician’ remain widely recognised across the world. The Phantom continues to appear in newspapers to this day.

Lee Falk’s Ten Favourite Phantom Stories

In 1995 Lee Falk provided a list of his favourite Phantom stories (in no particular order) for the 1996 Phantom Diary from Mallon Publishers.

“The task of nominating my all-time favourite Phantom stories has not been an easy one, given the sheer volume of stories – over 1000 – that have appeared over more than half a century of Phantom history. My final selection endeavours to capture some of the more memorable moments in the life of the Phantom.

These stories range from the humorous and quirky to the more serious, from the heroic to the romantic.”

— Lee Falk, ‘The Phantom Diary 1996’, Mallon Publishers, 1996

The Childhood of the Phantom (1944/1945 and 1959/1960)

The early years of the Phantom are revealed, from his birth in the Skull Cave, through his education in the United States (where he first meets a young Diana Palmer) to his eventual assumption of the Phantom mantle following his father’s death.

Princess Valerie (1946)

The Phantom encounters young Princess Valerie (“almost six years old”) who is the victim of a kidnapping and left to fend for herself in the jungle.

The Masked Marvel (1948/1949)

After temporarily incapacitating the ‘Masked Marvel’ (a professional boxer) in self-defence, the Phantom takes his place in a boxing match. He then continues to compete in a series of bouts in order to raise the funds necessary to rebuild a children’s hospital, eventually facing the world champion.

The Chain (1953)

When his attempts at maintaining peace in the Jungle are continually thwarted, the Phantom grows jaded and withdraws from his leadership role. He regains his sense of responsibility after learning of an ordeal faced by his father and the origins of a mysterious chain attached to the Skull Throne.

The Horned Star Demons (1955)

Children around a jungle campfire hear the tale of how ‘horned star demons’ – seemingly a native interpretation of alien beings – once visited the Earth with the intent of testing the strength of its inhabitants prior to a possible invasion. The demons/aliens choose the Phantom as their test subject, only to discover he is far more capable than anticipated.

Queen Samaris XII (1961/1962)

A jungle storyteller tells the story of Queen Samaris, a vain and evil ruler who has acquired eternal youth as the result of black magic. When the 300-year-old Samaris learns of the 400-year-old Phantom, she believes she has finally found a worthy husband. However, the spell that keeps Samaris young is contingent on her never falling in love…

The Drummer of Timpenni (1963/1964)

The last living member of a massacred tribe seeks revenge on the jungle folk, utilising a hypnotic drum that forces others do his bidding.

Wedding of the Phantom (1977/1978)

After finally deciding to wed, the Phantom and Diana obtain reluctant approval from Diana’s mother. They subsequently marry in a civil ceremony conducted in the Deep Woods, presided over by President Lamanda Luaga (of Bangalla) and President Goranda (of Ivory-Lana).

Blackie (1992)

The Phantom attempts to settle an orphaned Black Panther on his Isle of Eden, where he has raised other carnivores and herbivores to live together peacefully. However, he comes to recognise that the natural instincts of the panther cannot be changed.

Endnotes

Part Five: The 1970s

“Meanwhile, the Sunday continuity ‘The Wig’ (commencing August 8, 1971) presented a tale from the Phantom chronicles, and included a scene in which an early Phantom interacted with William Shakespeare during the 16th Century”

Over the years Lee Falk managed a number of theatres and produced/directed hundreds of plays.

“Lee once told me that he only intended to do the strips for a year or two until he became established in theatre. Well, he did produce over 600 plays, manage three theatres, and write numerous productions. Among those experiences he directed Paul Robeson in “Othello.” His published works include novels and short stories featured in Playboy. Still, the enduring popularity of his work on comics kept him working for King Features and readers everywhere are grateful.”

— Ed Rhoades, ‘Celebrating the anniversary of the greatest comics hero’. Friends of the Phantom, Vol. 1, #12 Winter 1996

Various theatrical elements appear in ‘The Phantom’, notably the scenes in which the first Phantom makes his oath using the skull of his father’s murderer.

In accordance with this trend the ‘Island of Eden’, which had generally been reserved for the lighter Sunday storylines, would now appear fairly regularly in the daily continuities.”

The island of Eden would also make many appearances, having largely been restricted to the Sundays in previous years. New additions to the island’s menagerie during the 1970s were ‘Hzz’ (‘The Cavelands’, December 30, 1974) and ‘Stegy’ the stegosaurus (‘The Swamp Dragon’ December 26th, 1976). The existence of both remained a mystery to the Phantom.

“Amongst examples of the latter was the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) – a group which gained particular notoriety following the 1974 abduction of Patricia Hearst, the granddaughter of magnate William Randolph Hearst.”

Lee Falk recalled Hearst (a major client of King Features Syndicate) playing a significant role in the Phantom’s success:

“It turns out that in those days William Randolph Hearst picked all the comic strips himself. Comic strips were his special baby. He really created the field of comic strip in this country back at the tum-of-the-century. In the first years that I was with King Features, I would get little notes from Hearst in San Simeon, telling me what he liked and didn’t like. Here he had this huge empire, but he was sending me notes about comic strips.”

— Lee Falk ‘Conversation with Lee Falk’ , interviewed by Raymond Elman, Province Town Arts, 1989

“Diana Palmer herself was now modelled on American actress Jaclyn Smith (as confirmed by Sy Barry years later – see Endnotes).”

Sy Barry can be seen discussing this connection in various YouTube interviews, e.g.:

— Sy Barry, Podcast #57 – Indian Comics Fans Meeting with Sy Barry, NRI Studios Podcast, posted on Youtube 14 September 2024

“Over the years Diana occasionally surprised an aggressor with a martial art move, but Falk kept such sequences grounded in plausible reality rather than portray her as an action heroine.”

One example of Diana’s prowess can be seen in this panel from the daily storyline ‘Ragon’s Game’ (February 1, 1954):

“A lot of people around the world got very annoyed and said we were going to ruin the strip.”

In at least one account, Barry identified this period (the 1970s/1980s) as the one where Falk’s writing passed its peak:

“Lee, in the early years, he was writing very well. He was writing some wonderful stories, and especially more fantasy stories, and historic stories. I loved doing them, I loved doing the research on them. I always enjoyed that. But later on, during the late 70s, early 80s let’s say, he sort of began to fade off a little bit. He began to leave characters that were in trouble, or victims that needed saving…he would leave them and begin to go off and fight with the villain, and forget to pick them up again.”

— Sy Barry, Sy Barry Complete Interview – Hermes Press (hermes-press.myshopify.com)

However, this is contradicted by other commentary where Barry mentions the decline as occurring during the late 1980s/90s (see main document). His comments about Falk seemingly forgetting about the fate of General Bababu presumably relate to the storyline ‘The Tarashima Terrorists’ (July 7, 1986)

Part Six: The 1980s

“When the article’s author suggested that the “notion of a single white man ruling thousands of black tribesmen” was “fast becoming an archaic one”, Barry highlighted relevant developments from recent decades”

In later years Sy Barry again gave his views on this aspect of Lee Falk’s Phantom:

“It never did quite break away from the fact that I think he [Lee Falk] was kind of condescending in the way he treated the natives and the local government in his stories.”

— Sy Barry, ‘Sy Barry: From New York to Bangalla – Afterimages ep 11’, posted May 13, 2021 on Youtube

(Earlier plans for a comedic Phantom movie starring British actor Peter Sellers, had been briefly formulated during the 1970s. The 1980s version was unrelated and apparently would have been a more serious venture involving famed Italian director Sergio Leone, but it too failed to eventuate. See ‘Endnotes’).

King Features had been involved in efforts to produce a Phantom movie during the 1970s, as screenwriter Phillipe Mora recalled:

“I wrote a screenplay named ‘The Phantom Versus the Fourth Reich’, which was a black comedy about the Phantom, the comic strip character, tracking down Hitler in South America. Hitler was 80-years old and he had a 21-year-old son called Heinrich Hitler, who wore shorts and long white socks. Peter Sellers was going to play Hitler at 80. And Heinrich. And the Phantom.

So I gave [Sandy Lieberson, Peter Sellers’ agent] the Phantom script since he thought Peter would be very interested. I then met with Sellers, and this went on for about a year. Ted Kotcheff was going to direct it and Leslie Lindner produce it. It was going to be financed by King Features Syndicate, of New York, who own the Phantom, but the whole thing fell through – and that was my first hard lesson in show-business.”

— Philippe Mora, Cinema Papers, September-October 1976 peter sellers phantom hitler – Google Search

Sergio Leone’s passing in 1989 ended plans being made in the 1980s (see main essay).

The original pilot for the series showed the Phantom with a son, and Flash Gordon with a daughter – though the sexes were swapped for the series. In an interview available on the ‘Chronicle Chamber’, Rick Hoberg explained that this change was instigated by representatives of King Features Syndicate to make things more ‘interesting’. (X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #154 – Rick Hoberg, DotE Art Director | Chronicle Chamber Home of all the Latest Phantom News)

The original pilot presentation remains available on Youtube as of July 2024: (The Phantom in Defenders of the Earth – Unaired Pilot (youtube.com))

An image of the Phantom had briefly appeared in the 1968 animated movie ‘The Yellow Submarine’.

The Phantom and Devil (together with other King Features characters) appeared in the 1972 animated television movie ‘Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter’ (a copy of which remains available on youtube as of July 2024: (The Phantom in Popeye Meets The Man Who Hated Laughter – 1972 (youtube.com))

“A 1986 newspaper article promoting ‘Defenders of the Earth’ noted that “‘The Phantom’ comic strip still appears in 600 newspapers and is published in 15 languages in 40 countries.””

In various later interviews Sy Barry recalled the Phantom appearing in up to 900 papers during his tenure as artist (e.g. in interview referenced below). However, no official reference could be found to substantiate this figure.

— Sy Barry, Podcast #57 – Indian Comics Fans Meeting with Sy Barry, NRI Studios Podcast, posted on Youtube 14 September 2024

Part Seven: The 1990s

“Although Lee Falk and Sy Barry would no longer work together, this did not mark the end of their contact with each other. The two would subsequently clash in relation to the ownership of original artwork produced for the strip”.

The dispute between Sy Barry and Lee Falk was ongoing at the time of Falk’s passing:

“After I retired, I had some difficulties communicating with him [Falk], because I was trying to get my dailies and Sundays he stole from me, and I tried to get them back, and I was about to get a lawyer to get them from him. And then when I heard he’d passed on I just felt…I just kind of neglected trying to get those originals back. And by the time I did try, Elizabeth [Falk] was in the middle of selling them, and then their lawyer said I had to provide evidence that I didn’t give it to him. I had to prove that my work was stolen.”

— Sy Barry, Interview with Sy Barry, X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #113 – Sy Barry | Chronicle Chamber Home of all the Latest Phantom News

The fate of Sy Barry’s original artwork would prove a point of contention with Lee Falk:

“…(T)here were a couple of years when Lee took my work. He didn’t have my permission. We had a violent argument over the phone. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Oh boy, did I let him have it!”

— Sy Barry, ‘Sy Barry: His Life and Times’ interview by Jim Amash, Alter Ego Vol. 3, # 37, June 2004

Barry did receive at least some portion of his artwork (including pages from his first Sunday Phantom story). Over the years he has sold many pieces to fans and some of his work continues to be available via his website (Sy Barry – Life of SY).

Lee Falk retained some original Phantom artwork from his run as author – including some work from Ray Moore, Wilson McCoy, Sy Barry and the Olesen/Williams team. Phantom enthusiast Ed Rhoades, who produced the ‘Friends of the Phantom’ newsletter, recalled:

“Lee told me the original art to the earliest Phantom strips was lost or destroyed, because no one thought it would ever have any value.”

Ed Rhoades – ‘Souvenirs of a legend – Collecting memories from the life and works of Lee Falk’, Friends of the Phantom’ #21, Fall 2000

Overall, a significant amount of original Phantom artwork has evidently survived, though the majority that is publicly available appears to be from the mid-1950s onward. Relatively little has surfaced from the early Ray Moore era, with some notable exceptions (such as a daily from May 15, 1936, that sold on the Heritage Auctions site on March 10,1936 for $37,500.00.

“(See ‘Endnotes’ for further information on this, as well as Barry’s account of another conflict involving royalties on film properties that apparently took place toward the end of his tenure on ‘The Phantom’).”

In a 2024 interview Sy Barry asserted that Falk had attempted a “filthy trick” in the leadup to the 1996 Phantom movie, just as Barry was considering retirement. Barry stated that he had received a document to sign, seeking his agreement to forfeit any future claims to income generated from the Phantom movie.

According to Barry, the letter was printed on King Features stationery and written in such a way that it came from the syndicate’s managing editor – though it came from Lee Falk and his lawyer. Barry recalled phoning Falk and being told it had been “a misunderstanding”. Falk allegedly told Barry that he had heard Barry was intending to resign and that he wasn’t interested in such royalties. Sy Barry’s full account can be found in the link below.

— Sy Barry, Podcast #57 – Indian Comics Fans Meeting with Sy Barry, NRI Studios Podcast, posted on Youtube 14 September 2024

“Keith Williams would have the opportunity to join Lee Falk at the long-awaited premiere of the long-awaited 1996 motion picture adaptation of ‘The Phantom’ on June 4, 1996.”

Sy Barry retired two years prior to the premiere of the Phantom movie and did not receive an invite, however he later recalled hearing that Joe Giella did (presumably from Lee Falk):

“(W)hen the movie came out I had already retired two years before and, believe it or not, he [Falk} invited Joe Giella. And Joe couldn’t understand why I wasn’t there at the premiere. And I said “He invited you and he didn’t invite me? What are you talking about?”

“That was another thing that really burned me.”

— Sy Barry, Interview with Sy Barry, X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #113 – Sy Barry | Chronicle Chamber Home of all the Latest Phantom News, March 12, 2019

“Despite his advancing years, Lee Falk visited the set of ‘The Phantom’, visiting Australia sets during production, stating “I saw the dailies everyday while I was on the set for two weeks”. He publicly expressed great satisfaction with the final product, including the portrayal of the Phantom by Billy Zane”

Another fan of the Phantom movie was former Phantom artist Bill Lignante, who had briefly worked as the Sunday artist after the passing of Wilson McCoy:

“I thought that Billy Zane was very good. The movie was excellent for the kind of thing it was.”

— Bill Lignante, ‘Catching Up with Bill Lignante’ by Ed Rhoades, Friends of the Phantom# 17, Winter 1998

Sy Barry recalled it was “nice” seeing the Phantom movie, and that it had a couple of good sequences, but he was not as enthusiastic as Lignante. He thought Billy Zane did “…a very good job…”, while also feeling he was “…a little bit stiff in his acting…” in the role. He also found Kristy Swanson “pretty” but a bit “stilted” as Diana Palmer.

Barry’s real criticisms, however, were reserved for the movie’s plot (involving the ‘Skull of Touganda’) as well as the role of Xander Drax (played by Treat Williams):

“The story was silly. The villain…he was childish in his performance. He was so out of control in his performance…to me, he wasn’t threatening. He was like a kid with a tantrum.”

“It was too light a story. It really didn’t have a real threat to it.”

“Because I had so much association with it, it meant a good deal to me. And maybe I expected more out of it because of what…the way I tried to interpret it…it wasn’t there.”

“I thought Lee’s stories were more mature than the movie story.”

— Sy Barry, X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #113 – Sy Barry | Chronicle Chamber Home of all the Latest Phantom News March 12, 2019

Joe Dante, who co-wrote an early screenplay for the Phantom, recalled that the movie was originally intended to have a very different tone:

“I developed the script with the late Jeff Boam, who wrote InnerSpace, as a kind of a spoof. We were a few weeks away from shooting in Australia when the plug was pulled over the budget and the presence of a winged demon at the climax.

A year or so later it was put back into production – sans demon – only nobody seemed to notice it was written to be funny, so it was – disastrously – played straight. Many unintentionally funny moments were cut after a raucous test screening and I foolishly refused money to take my name off the picture, so I’m credited as one of a zillion producers.”

— Joe Dante, ‘The Den of Geek interview: Joe Dante’ interview by Simon Brew, February 21, 2008 The Den of Geek interview: Joe Dante | Den of Geek

Lee Falk (1911 – 1999)

“Lee Falk passed away from heart failure on the morning of 13 March 1999, six weeks before his 88th birthday.”

Sy Barry, who was considering legal action in relation to original artwork held by Lee Falk at the time, heard of his collaborator’s passing a couple of weeks after the event:

“Hearing about his death, it was sad. But, I mean, he was almost 90. The last couple of years were not easy for him. He started to diminish a little, his memory…he was still writing, but things were not written as well as he had been writing. The quality was diminishing. But…I was not terribly saddened, I must say. It wasn’t like I was missing him, you know, he would no longer be in my life, because he never really was. If you want the honest truth, I was not terribly affected by it.”

“It was not a really friendly relationship.”

— Sy Barry, X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #113 – Sy Barry | Chronicle Chamber Home of all the Latest Phantom News March 12, 2019

In Australia, where ‘The Phantom’ comic book has been published since 1948, publisher Jim Shepherd provided one of the many tributes to Falk that appeared around the world:

“Lee Falk, the master creator of ‘The Phantom’ and ‘Mandrake the Magician’, is no longer with us. He passed away on Saturday 13 March 1999 in New York, USA, aged 87 years.

Lee was active to almost the end, which came peacefully in hospital. He had battled ill-health for the past two years, but never once missed a deadline with his scripts for both of his comics creations. Until his death, Lee remained the ultimate professional.

His passing removes the last link to the golden age of comics. His career, spanning 1934 – 1999, was the longest of any comics writer in the modern era and it is impossible to believe anybody will ever achieve a similar record of almost 65 years creating two of the most widely syndicated strips in the world.”

— Jim Shepherd, ‘Lee Falk 1911 – 1999’, The Phantom # 1226, 1999 Frew Publications

New instalments of ‘Mandrake the Magician’ (written by artist Fred Fredericks after Falk’s passing) continued to appear until its eventual cancellation on July 6, 2013.

‘The Phantom’ newspaper strip is still being produced as of August 2024, by the creative team of Tony DePaul (artist) and Jeff Weigel (artist).

Recommendations and Acknowledgements

Afterimages offers two excellent YouTube interviews with Sy Barry. The videos include many graphics sourced from the Phantom comic strip.

Art of Wilson McCoy is an invaluable source of information/images relating to the great Wilson McCoy, including rare newspaper articles.

Chronicle Chamber is an Australian website offering a variety of videos, podcasts and articles on the Phantom. The Chronicle Chamber team has conducted interviews with many Phantom creators that are available as podcasts and YouTube videos.

The Deep Woods is one of the oldest surviving sites dedicated to the Phantom. While it is no longer being updated, it remains one of the more informative sources of information on the character.

The Frew Phantom Comics site offers Frew (and other) publications for sale. Frew have been publishing the Australian comic book ‘The Phantom’ since 1948.

‘Friends of the Phantom’ was a newsletter published by an American Phantom fan club of the same name, which ran from 1993 to 2002. A total of 23 issues were produced, many of which include interviews with Phantom creators. Scans of the newsletter are available to read for those who become paid patreon members with Chronicle Chamber.

Hermes Press has produced a quality, hard-bound set of Phantom volumes (‘The Complete Dailies’ and ‘The Complete Sundays’). Many of these contain informative articles, and some include comprehensive interviews with Lee Falk and Sy Barry.

‘Lee Falk Storyteller’, (book, published by GML, Stockholm, 2011) currently remains the ultimate collection of Lee Falk interviews. It was produced by The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club, which has a website here .

NRI Studios Podcast #57 – Indian Comics Fans Meeting with Sy Barry, NRI Studios Podcast, posted on Youtube 14 September 2024. This video records a meeting between Sy Barry (with son David Barry) and several Indian fans. In addition to an informative discussion, various pieces of original Phantom art by Sy Barry are shown.

Phantom Art by Ray Moore contains many rare images of original Ray Moore artwork. There is also a wealth of other information on the original Phantom artist. Highly recommended.

The Phantom Bible describes itself as ‘A clearly set out reference guide to accepted Phantom Lore and The Phantom Universe. Includes titles, pictures and explanations. Information is garnered from KFS licensed stories, primarily Daily/Sunday Newspaper stories and Team Fantomen stories.’

The Phantom – The Ghost Who Walks is one of the best sources of information regarding the Phantom on the internet. It includes current news and numerous rare articles reproduced from old magazines/newspapers.

Phantom News is a public facebook page created by Ivan Pederson, an enthusiast who has done significant work in restoring/colouring Phantom newspaper strips. Many of the images appearing on the internet that relate to the ‘full-frame’ Phantom daily strips from 1943 – 1957 were restored by Ivan.

The PhantomWiki describes itself as ‘, the online encyclopedia dedicated to the Phantom, one of the world’s most popular comic strips. The articles are created by Phantom enthusiasts from all over the world.’

Sy Barry – Life of Sy is an official website offering information and merchandise (including original comic art) from Sy Barry, whose rendition of ‘The Phantom’ became the standard for decades.

The MandrakeWiki describes itself as ‘the online encyclopedia dedicated to Mandrake the Magician, one of the world’s most popular comic strips of the 20th century.’

Join us for more discussion at our Facebook group

Check out our CBH documentary videos on our CBH Youtube Channel

Get some historic comic book shirts, pillows, etc at CBH Merchandise

Check out our CBH Podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google PlayerFM and Stitcher.

Use of images are not intended to infringe on copyright, but merely used for academic purpose.

Tag Archives: Fred Fredericks

‘The Phantom – The Lee Falk Version’ Part Two (1970 – 1999) —- by Rosco M

Part Five: The 1970s

Part Six: The 1980s

Part Seven: The 1990s

Lee Falk’s Ten Favourite Phantom Stories

Endnotes

Recommendations and Acknowledgements