Issue 1591 - Annual Special, 2011

Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy

Daily story May 28 –August 11, l945

One for the Phantom historical buffs! Lago is the first living ‘God ‘ to appear in a Phantom adventure, daily or Sunday. He is also the first white man to be left in the custody of the natives he tried to dupe—and Hero is billed as the ‘Wonder Horse’. The character masquerading as Lago the Lake God is Trader Smith, who is the forerunner to the much better known Trader Joe.

Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy

Daily story August 13—November 10, 1945

Lee Falk clearly had a love of inventing oddball characters he placed in the jungle or nearby remote islands. Dara—The Wild Girl  and her pet lion Tabby, is one of the many, but one of the first.

Lee Falk and Ray Moore (officially)

Daily story November 12 1945—February 16, 1946

Many Phantom historians now believe some doubt exists over authorship by Falk and art by Moore because the creative quality is below the normal high standard of the pair. It is a comparatively minor issue and more interesting are two strange pieces of continuity detailed on the splash page.

Lee Falk and Sy Barry. Daily story, June 03—December 14, 1963

Sy Barry’s fifth daily story as illustrator—and one of his longest Lee Falk leaned heavily on a major world crisis of the time to help maintain reader interest and succeeded admirably. The story remains high on the most requested list, not only with Frew, but with major Phantom comic book publishers throughout the world. Lee keeps up a furious scripting pace and Sy almost goes overboard with many dramatic Phantom poses, some of which have almost ’superhero’ overtones! From this time onwards, Sy admitted he began easing back on such depictions of The Phantom. Buffs have plenty of interesting avenues to explore….Look for Colonel Weeks explaining the Jungle Patrol uses ’carrier pigeons’ to take messages to The Unknown Commander. (In The Slave Market of Mucar, published the year before, they were called ‘homing pigeons’). The character Janice has a maid called Gooley. In 1971 the name was to become famous with the publication of the story, The Gooley-Gooley Witch! Colonel Weeks makes an interesting observation. He says he suspects the Unknown Commander is, in fact, The Phantom. However he adds…‛That doesn’t help much—who is The Phantom?’

Lee Falk and Sy Barry

Sunday story, October 31, 1965—May 08, 1966

Both Lee and Sy excelled themselves on this classic creation….Lee with his special feel for fantasy and Sy with his well-honed skills in illustrating science fiction stories. More than a few touches of Jules Verne’s famous Journey to the Centre of the Earth novel! The giant creatures The Phantom and various scientists encounter in the giant volcano are brilliantly described and depicted.

Lee Falk and Sy Barry

Sunday story, May 15—December 11, 1966

This story introduced Rex! He was to be extensively written about in following daily stories. There are many firsts contained in the story….first appearance of Kateena the lioness and Joomba the elephant, first depiction of a school in the Deep Woods (and an unnamed teacher who is to become Miss Tagama) and first appearance of Tom-Tom.

Lee Falk and Sy Barry

Sunday Story, April 09– August 06. 1967

An almost over-the-top action thriller which includes scenes of The Phantom actually killing man-eating lions. (The slaying of animals was almost taboo in Phantom stories during Lee Falk’s lifetime.) Lee was obviously making a special point about tyrants and how they should be kept under control. Not one, but three jungle tribes are mentioned and there is powerful use of Old Jungle Sayings and Old Native Sayings.

Lee Falk and Sy Barry

Daily story, July 08—October 12, 1968.