u/PirateDaveZOMG

Ah, an hour long video of me waving old comic strips in front of a camera, truly what YouTube was made for.

February 4, 1942 begins "The Inexorables" or "The Phantom Goes To War", though more appropriately the war comes to Bangalla. When I first read this story years ago, I have to admit I didn't think much of it and largely wrote it off as war propaganda. Reading it now though, it's interesting that Falk is relatively reserved about an American-centric tilt to the developments here, and in fact he doesn't place the Ghost Who Walks on the frontlines of any signicant real-world battefield, but rather keeps the story in his fictional country. This was probably a welcome departure from perhaps many other stories out there placed in more recognizable locales, while at the same time communicating that the Axis was everywhere, affecting everyone. It's worth mentioning that there are just tons and tons of insensitive racial depictions and pejoratives throughout this story however, so tread cautiously!

July 14, 1941 sees the Phantom's treasure stolen! Who dunnit? Well, we don't wait for long as Guran reveals that his son, Timo, is a bit of a bad egg and the most likely culprit. The thing I love the most about this story is how it bucks the obvious developments as a 'who dunnit' tale and instead presents the treasure and the Phantom himself as a catalyst to tell three really interesting character stories in Bandar tribesman Timo, Beachcomber Duke, and the Barmaid Rita, and how their strongest desires come at odds with their own moral and ethical limits in a few different ways, a real nature of "what treasure really means" sort of tale, if that isn't too sappy.

March 2, 1940 sees the Return of the Sky Band, the all-female air pirate crew teased in the very first Phantom story, and prominently featured in the second. This is the longest Sunday story so far and by far, running for a year straight in the papers at 52 weeks; For good reason too as, between the action and the glamoursly illustrated members of the titular gang, this is perhaps the best Phantom story to this point and possibly for a long while after.

January 5, 1941 brings us what is, to my recollection, the worst Phantom story perhaps of all time, at least in terms of substance and presentation. The Ghost Who Walks boards a train where he happens to overhear two passengers loudly talking about some shady plans involved the tracks, which leads him to uncover a plot of sabotage. This story only runs 8 weeks and the delivery really shows it: A lot of transitionary panels omitted, dialogue seemingly cut, and developments rushed to resolve an already foregone conclusion in a rather uneventful, inexplicable way. I'm not sure if Lee Falk was dealing with anything personally during this time, perhaps he was busy formulating the details for the Sunday story which would follow this one, The Return of the Sky Band, as exciting a prospect as it sounds that would run an entire year.

I do make a mistake in the review in mentioning I will be reviewing a Daily Story next week, chronologically Sunday Story #6 was released next and so I will be tackling the Return of the Sky Band next.

December 16, 1940 begins Daily Story #14: Diana Aviatrix Lost where Diana's plane is lost over the jungles of Panama while on her way back home. After the Phantom rushes to track down Diana, it turns out Diana and the Phantom have stumbled on a larger plot the introduces some of the first rumblings reflecting the worldwide conflict that was continue to build during this era. Surprisingly, given the title, we get relatively sparse Diana scenes at least until near the end of this one, but the moments we do get are good, and I personally really liked the antagonist of this one as well, really all of the side characters I thought were presented very well, though we could have gotten Pete the pilot's name on the page much earlier I think.

July 29, 1940 begins the Game of Alvar as what was intended to be a pleasure cruise for the Phantom and the Palmers turns into something far more dangerous. A misunderstanding leads to the Phantom decking the dangerous Mr. Alvar, but the misfortune goes both ways as Alvar's attempt at payback for this embarrassment exposes his criminal schemes! I did not appreciate the excellent moments this story gives us for both Diana and Devil when I first read it years ago, but now with the context of the hundreds of stories to follow, those moments are pretty few and far between - understandably as the strip is about the Phantom, after all.

This is another review that maybe got out of control at 40 minutes, but there was a lot of action and developments throughout and I digressed at times to give my thoughts on how it might have developed under different circumstances.

July 28, 1940 continued the story of Manna Day in Bangalla as she meets Whitey, a beach bum who has fled America due to being framed for a murder; Fresh off the heels of her own rescue, Manna brings Whitey to the Phantom to see what the Ghost Who Walks can do for the poor man. This is another story that is much more your typical 'pulp hero' action where the Phantom may be interchangeable with a number of personalities, and by the end of it the setting does drift into the more slap-sticky, but perhaps audiences at the time appreciated enviroments that they could better relate to than the jungles of Bangalla, and overall Lee Falk and Ray Moore made very fun use of the characters and gags bringing the Phantom back to America afforded them.

From March 17, 1940, The Fire Goddess brings the Phantom first encounter with a mysticism and mythology similar to his own as the prophecized goddess of the Mesabi tribe rises to lead them to conquest once again. It's interesting since this is such a consistent facet of the character of the rest of his existence, how he thinks through the way that others are scamming people into belieiving they had powers, yet I completely forgot there was a whole 4 years of rather typical, crime-fighting pulp adventures before we get that first taste. Regarding the story itself, I thought the mystique of the Fire Goddess was done very well, and I always prefer the Jungle/Bangalla-focused stories myself because, unlike the previous story with the Phantom tearing off on a spy adventure essentially, they really showcase what sets the character apart from every single other superhero out there, especially as they were emerging at the time.

January 22, 1940 brings us Daily Story #12: The Sea Horse, a kind of unassuming title for a story that ends up to be much more complex and dramatic than it seems at first glance. In a lot of ways, this story seems like a riff on The Shark's Nest, with the martime setting, the yacht captain villain, the climactic battle on an island - I actually consider that this could have been one of the first interesting "recurring villains" in comics had Falk brought back Baron Grover for that story instead of basically duplicating him in Baron Danton, as this would still be some time before Hugo Strange and the Joker would debut later in 1940 for Batman.

While it's a longer story, the video unexpectedly ballooned to 42 minutes; I really just make these for sort of archival purposes and to scratch that own itch I have about railing on about the Phantom, so if anyone actually watches the whole thing I'll be amazed. Perhaps I had too many digressions, covered too many details, or are just too enamored with the relationship between Diana and the Phantom, but I had fun with this one either way.

From October 22, 1939, "The Precious Cargo of Col. Winn" gives us an intriguing mystery right in its title that, admittedly, I don't think pays off satisfyingly; The story does however pivot to a much more thrilling action piece and, for a fast-paced story with some fantastic illustration presented to readers in the late 30s, actually does a pretty good job staying exciting by the end of it.

September 25, 1939 brings the beginning of The Golden Circle. Hate to preface this with bad news, but the PCC & JAL reprinting I had of this story did not have the panels that open The Golden Circle showing Diana Palmer recovering from her injuries and reuniting with the Phantom - I do give a brief synopsis of those events, but nevertheless they cannot be seen in the video.

As for the story itself, this is probably the first official stinker story for me, as much of it felt like re-treading a story we had seen before, and while the initial intrigue built certainly compels uncovering the plot, what is uncovered is hardly compelling itself. Oddly, I rated this rather highly when I first read it according to my rating on League of Comic Geeks, but I don't know why, perhaps I was just entertained my the lead-in thread with the Phantom and Diana reuniting.

May 28, 1939 introduced a new, separate (but connective) series for the Ghost Who Walks, now in a full color! This may have been the first time a character had some sort of concurrent stories in a similar format, certainly something very common today, but if not the first, certainly marks the popularity of the character and the creative juices of Lee Falk to write two seperate stories at once. As for the story itself, League of Lost Men is certainly an evocative title, but the plot itself is rather tame, especially next to the weight of debuting this new line of strips for the character. However, I think it was a solid choice by Falk to introduce the character in the relatively fewer panel count available to him each week, as Lost Men really is a story that could only be told with the Phantom in the hero's role.

From May 8, 1939 is Daily Story #10: The Mysterious Girl; Like Little Toma before it, Mysterious Girl is very much a Phantom "one-shot", it's not exactly tied to the continuous story of the Phantom and Diana Palmer, and further I have my own cricitisms on how convenient a lot of the developments in it occur; It really has nothing to do with the Phantom or his mythos in particular and is interchangeable for many other globe-trotting heroes of the era. That said, the mystery itself is interesting enough to not be an offensive experience, and perhaps not every Phantom adventure has to be dripping in Phantom relevancy.

Daily Story #9: The Slave Trader from January 30, 1939 continues the Diana-heavy focus from Fisher of Pearls as she is captured by the slavers of Manwar! I love the continued misunderstandings that keep this one a roller coaster, and there's a bunch of touching, sad moments throughout this that really cemented my adoration for the relationship of the Phantom and Diana. This story also had a lot of black, starry backgrounds in it, giving it a darker feel than previous ones, fitting for Diana's dire circumstances.

Also, good boy Devil licking some Phantom face!

Daily Story #8 brings a cavalcade of missed connections, misconceptions, and just outright misunderstanding as Diana, looking to get her minds off things, lands in Swari (or Swali) Basin not so far from the Phantom's very own home. He reunion however will not be simple as local magnate Roark has butted heads with the Phantom over his pearl diving scheme, which risks the lives the local tribespeople in the effort to harvest the precious objects.

I really liked this one a lot, Roark is the kind of two-faced scum that really makes his being brought to justice a pleasure, and yet there are so many twists and turns that the readers emotions are toyed with over and over again.