IpComics' Phantom reflections!
On these pages I will post some of my reflections regarding the Phantom strips. I have been writing these as I have edited the stories to be as close to the originals as possible. I will try to post several texts on one page, and will need feedback on how this works out.
Thanks.
The never ending story!
To read a random Phantom story (Falk) is always fun. Good art and stories from all of the “big four” (Falk - Moore, McCoy and Barry).
Reading the stories from US-papers as they were, is even funnier. We see elements that may have been edited away when published. Sometimes there are strips (a week or two) used to keep the stories together. These have been skipped when the stories have been published in comic books. Also panels from Monday morning (often used as a synopsis for readers who did not read last Saturday) are often skipped. Of course in complete reprinting collections we expect to see every strip and panel, and often do.
When we read the “stories” in chronological order we also find things we did not think about if we just pick up a story. In the (D041 - Whirlpool Channel) story, the Phantom stays at the Walkers. Why and how? To know why, we have to read the two previous stories. There we saw how the Phantom, after finding himself in USA at the end of the “White Monkey” story, pops up on the doorstep at Diana’s home in the beginning of the next story.
What we soon find is that the Phantom stories in the papers did follow a strict rule. When a new story started you always would find the Phantom in a place or situation that was natural according to the story before. This was true in the years of McCoy, but I am not very sure about the years following Barry’s start as an artist. Now we never see this in the Phantom strip.
Have a look at the examples, and you see what I have in mind.
As we can see, the hunt for the “Gray gang” went well. The two lovers kisses a bit, and the Phantom is still at the Walkers.
As the next story starts he is still visiting Diana. The Phantom stays for a while helping her through the swimming over the Whirlpool channel, and some other things.
The story ends, so what now? We will not find out until a few weeks later, traveling was not that fast back then.
The next story, as you did find when reading it, did not show the Phantom in the first weeks. When we see him he is on a ship heading home, just as it should be according to what I have just told you!