“I am the whisper of a memory. I am the fear you might have lost your mind. I am the face you don’t remember, but you have seen a thousand times. The ghost who is still alive.” From The Ghost Who Is Still Alive, written by Beth Crowley.
As far as many are concerned, he is over 400 years old. Technically, he’s been in print for 89 years and counting. He is often called America’s first costumed superhero in comics; one could debate that, but only because comics fans will debate anything.
He is The Ghost Who Walks, trademarked under the name “The Phantom.” Back in the hallowed days of viable newspapers, he appeared every day in hundreds of ‘em. That newspaper comic strip exists to this day and is easily found online. Over these past 89 years The Phantom’s adventures have graced the comic book racks almost continuously, both reprints and original stories. About a dozen publishers have licensed the character in comic books, and I’ve edited some of those myself.
Last week The Phantom was added to the Mad Cave Studios line-up with a brand new series joining Dick Tracy and Flash Gordon in the publisher’s campaign to make us baby boomers truly feel our age. Lee Falk’s 1936 creation gets updated a bit, as often was the case in previous comics as well as in movies (feature film and serial) and teevee. I’ll let our critic and my editor Bob Harrison review it because that’s his turf, and he keeps the grass well cut. I will say this: It is written and drawn, respectively and respectfully, by Ray Fawkes and Russell Olson. I enjoyed it a lot, and I’m real picky
Mad Cave has done a nice job promoting The Phantom, starting with a zero issue for Diamond’s final Free Comic Book Day. Even if you missed that you can follow the story with ease.
But for a character whose presence has been significantly diminished with the vaporization of the daily newspaper, The Ghost Who Walks is getting a great deal of exposure right now. The strip, both daily and Sunday, is available to all at Comics Kingdom, as are full reprints of the original series written by Falk. But if you look around a bit you’ll find the link to the latest, newest Phantom venture, and I haven’t heard enough noise about it.
This other brand-new Phantom series is being done in the smartphone-driven vertical comics format, which I find extremely limiting when continuity stories are involved. They operate on a castrated art board. And there my negativity ends.
Given my personal knowledge of this series consists only of that which is online, I enjoyed the premiere. There’s a lot more turf to be plowed here as it is in the style and mood of The Phantom 2040 animated series from the mid-1990s.
My confidence in this series comes from its talent. It’s written by friend-of-the-Squad Alex Segura, who, probably not coincidentally, co-writes Dick Tracy for Mad Cave when he’s not busy writing lots of other comics and really good novels. He’s got just the right “contemporary pulp” approach for this character. I’ll check out anything Alex writes.
This series is drawn by John Amor, artist of both vertical and horizontal comics such as Webtoon’s Urban Animal (with Justin Jordan), the Eisner Award winning graphic novel One Week in the Library, and all sorts of publishers such as DC and IDW.
They call it Phantom 2040: A New Shadow. Alex promises this series will pick up where Lee Falk left off.
Phantom 2040: A New Shadow is quite good. New lead characters to be sure, but familiar surroundings and, like the new Mad Cave series (which sports a great villain), is solidly within The Phantom universe.
Here is what is almost as good as Phantom 2040: A New Shadow. Comics Kingdom has this series up there for free. The website is a great source of wonderful comic strips old and new, and it’s so good you might even want a paid subscription to get all the bells and whistles.
When the original Phantom strips start slipping into public domain in a few years, Phantom 2040 should still be under copyright protection. The series might be set in 2040, but it is built for the corporate future as well.
