LEE FALK, father of superheroes

[The Ghost Who Walks]

Lee Falk, creator of The Phantom, is known to have been responsible for influencing the entire industry of superheroes, sometimes with the creators not even knowing about it. The Phantom was the first hero with to wear a skin-tight costume, and to have white eyes inside his mask. Both of these features have been copied by almost every superhero who came after him. The Phantom was created in 1936, a few years before both Batman and Superman. Lee Falk wrote the Phantom strip from 1936 until his death in 1999.

Without Lee, the world of comics would look very much different.

Lee was also a respected playwright, and worked with people like Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Chico Marx, and Esthel Waters, after their breakthrough in Hollywood. Due to his comic strips, Mandrake and the Phantom, Lee had over a hundred million readers every single day in his prime. He also wrote several highly successfull novels with The Phantom.

For more about the life of this legend and how he created the Phantom, check out his Wikipedia profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Falk.

What is the point of this post, you may ask?
Thing is, Lee have been up to receive a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame (St. Louis was his hometown) for several years, but have never received enough votes to be accepted by the commite.

This, a group of fans want to do something with. Would you do the same as people like Lions, Tigers and Bears writer Mike Bullock's done? Please sign up on this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/falkstar/

To prove some of Mr. Falk's influence, here's a quote from Bob Kane's Wikipedia profile:

Kane's collaborator/studio writer, Bill Finger offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl instead of a simple domino mask, giving him a cape instead of wings, gloves, and removing the bright red sections of the original costume, suggesting a gray/black color scheme that would echo that worn by The Phantom, right down to leaving the eyeholes in the cowl blank to connote mystery. (Note: In fact, when Batman first appeared "on camera" Kane even drew Batman with his arms folded across his chest--a gesture frequently used by "The Ghost Who Walks"!)

[Agentum]

But i don't really think The Phantom is a superhero is has more about the setting to do than superpowers or the costume.

Superman is the first Superhero he started the wild rush with inventing new superheroes and he was presented in a comic book first, The Phantom was in newspaper strips.

But i agree that The Phantom may have contributed something to Batman and if The Phantom would have been in a city setting fighting crime he would be pretty close to a Batman.

And Mandrake is really a first version of a magican in this type of comics, look at DC's Zatara a copy in almost all aspects with the big servant and the look.

And Lee Falk should have a star even if he never was that big in his home country as he was over here.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

And Lee Falk should have a star even if he never was that big in his home country as he was over here.

I always wondered why the Phantom is not as big in the US as he is in Europe and Australia. Luckily, the excellent new stories from Moonstone Books might chance things.

[Agentum]

I think a reason was that he set The Phantom in Africa far away from US, it seems that americans wanted american heroes living in the US, i think this made him less popular when there was other more american heroes around.

[Hintermann]

I agree that The Phantom never was and never meant to be a 'Superhero' in the conventional sense. OK, he wears a trademark costume, but he is very much a normal human being, as we all know. His 'powers' are just extremely well developed and fine tuned normal physical and mental abilities. That makes him more special that any Superhero.

The Phantom's virtues come out best in Lee Falk's stories. With apologies to Scandinavians like Argentum, I have to confess that the "Fantomen" stories compare very poorly with Falk's style.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

His 'powers' are just extremely well developed and fine tuned normal physical and mental abilities. That makes him more special that any Superhero.


Well, yes. But Batman is considered to be a superhero, and he doesn't have any superpowers either.

[Hintermann]

OK, what is your favourite Phantom story of all time? Mine would be "The Masked Marvel" from 1949.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

Mine is the first Phantom story ever published (from 1936), The Singh Brotherhood. Possibly the most ambitious piece of comics writing I know about, with great action, mystery and humour.

[Hintermann]

Mine is the first Phantom story ever published (from 1936), The Singh Brotherhood. Possibly the most ambitious piece of comics writing I know about, with great action, mystery and humour.

I am not a great fan of Ray Moore's art, but the Phantom Comics fo the 1930's have their own charm. Did you notice how sassy and worldy the women were depicted in thos stories? I guess it was a sign of those times. Women like Sala & Margo from the 'Sky Band' were not seen in later comics, thanks to the CCA. In those early comics, even Diana Palmer was different - she had none of the silly 'little girl lost' demeanour that Wilson McCoy popularised from the mid-1940s.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

I love Moore's art. I think his shadowing is the best in comics history; and it gave the series a unique sense of mystery.

Yes, it's a great shame we never saw more of Sala after two stories (although she did have a quick look in at the end of Moonstone's The Aviatrix story).

I agree with you about Diana too, in the Moore era, she was a famous adventurer and world traveller, but when McCoy took over, she only sat home in her house waiting for the Phantom to drop in.

[InfoBroker]

The Phantom and his mythos has very strong ties to the criteria that is used to define the parameters of what constitutes a super-hero. His early comic strip adventures heavily influenced the early comic book creators of the late 30s and onward.

But I can't give him or his creator the moniker of "father of super-heroes" that title belong to Super-man and his creators. They had the impact and the defining moment belongs to them.

re: why Phantom doesn't do as well in the States as elsewhere

*scratches head* Probably because he is intellectual property not owned by Marvel or DC. Sad, but unfortunately it plays heavily into the scheme of things.

re: Favorite Stories

In the mid to late 60s I was reading the Phantom strips and clipping them on a regular basis. Unfortunately I haven't seen or read them since. But there were several adventures that I have memories of enjoying immensely in the time frame when I was 12-15 years old and greatly enjoying my early comical book wonder years. I especially enjoyed the stories of Phantoms from earlier times. I thought the concept of passing the traditions from one generation to the next was a cool idea, adding much to the legend of the charater.

I'm looking at the family tree of the various Phantoms, and it is a bit surprising to see no female versions of the Ghost Who Walks. Surely one of those generations would fail to have a male offspring. It's been know to happen.

Or maybe I'm missing something in my scan of the chart, because I have a twinge of memory tissue that thinks it read a tale featurign a female Phantom somewhere and at sometime.


One things for sure, I would greatly enjoy seeing reprints from the strips of the 50s and 60s, not just the commonly reprint early strips of the 30s.

-jb the (14 and 1/2 Phantom) ib -

[The Ghost Who Walks]

I'm looking at the family tree of the various Phantoms, and it is a bit surprising to see no female versions of the Ghost Who Walks. Surely one of those generations would fail to have a male offspring. It's been know to happen.

The 17th Phantom had a twin sister named Julie, who stepped into his place as a female-Phantom (looking good in the tights, I might add ;) ) on several occasions, when he was wounded or something.

re: why Phantom doesn't do as well in the States as elsewhere

*scratches head* Probably because he is intellectual property not owned by Marvel or DC. Sad, but unfortunately it plays heavily into the scheme of things.

Well, I guess you hit the nail on the head there. The Phantom started out as a (still running) comic strip, and comic strip characters never seem to play with the big guys when it comes to comic book sales. So the Phantom probably suffers the same fate as Modesty Blaise, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake the Magician here.

Still, independent publisher Moonstone is well with the character, both creativily and, I am told, commercially.

[zilch]

Its just a matter of time before Falk lands on the Walk of Fame (its a really fun walk in University City)

Something i read in the local paper a while back... seems that one of Falks former homes is a small wooded area and may be made into a county park. Its to be called the Phantom Forest.

Look around the St. Louis Post-Dispatch webpage. There may be something there about it.

[Hintermann]

I'm looking at the family tree of the various Phantoms, and it is a bit surprising to see no female versions of the Ghost Who Walks. Surely one of those generations would fail to have a male offspring. It's been know to happen. -

Apart from a temporary stand-in by a Phantom's twin sister, there have been no real female Phantoms. Tradition has to have it that all Phantoms have at least one male offspring to carry on the line and every one of them has to acquire a Caucasian wife to continue the image. The Pygmies would not accept anything else and rest of the Junglefolk would only be confused if their "immortal" Phantom started to look different.

[Agentum]

The Phantom's virtues come out best in Lee Falk's stories. With apologies to Scandinavians like Argentum, I have to confess that the "Fantomen" stories compare very poorly with Falk's style.

I don't like Falks The Phantom that much i must say, Falks writing is very campy today and was never evolving from the 60s style ever, the family Phantom is the most boring thing i can think of, and the static world, whenever a adventure is finished all return to status quo again.
The GA storys have their own charm of course bu the 60s- by Falk storys mostly bores me.

Since the 60s we here have had or own Phantom storys written so over time the number of those storys is two times what Falk ever wrote so he evolved somewhat in another direction but nobody else in the world seems to care anyway.
Like we couldn't have Phantom as a ruler of the jungle here, so that was changed to him only be a advisor, a white colony master did not strike well with many people here.

A lot of storys of his ancestors has been written here and those is the best storys i think, a character like the Phantom works best in older times.

The storys and the art was first done mostly in Sweden but in the latest years a lot of americans have been trying to do it.

The best The Phantom i have read is the DC version from the late 80s, i read the Swedish ones because they are very cheap to get here.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

Its just a matter of time before Falk lands on the Walk of Fame (its a really fun walk in University City)

Something i read in the local paper a while back... seems that one of Falks former homes is a small wooded area and may be made into a county park. Its to be called the Phantom Forest.

Look around the St. Louis Post-Dispatch webpage. There may be something there about it.

I never heard about that before, very interesting.
I will try to Google it up, so thanks for telling this!

[The Ghost Who Walks]

BTW, what do people here think about the Phantom movie starring Billy Zane?

It was fairly faithful to the comic (although more light hearted), and I thought it was a fun ride. Very Indiana Jones-like, that's for sure.

Billy Zane is my favorite onscreen superhero, together with Christian Bale's Batman.

[Hintermann]

BTW, what do people here think about the Phantom movie starring Billy Zane?

I am not a Zane fan (mainly because of his effete lips) and so did not like the film. But then Phantom stories would be difficult to transfer to one off feature films because people have to be aware of the character's past history and what he stands for. I believe a well mad TV series would work much better.

[Agentum]

I don't like that they changed the history about the Phantom in the film when they could easy have done it right.
So i have to say it's not very good at all and thets bad because i don't thing Phantom will get a chance to be on film again.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

So i have to say it's not very good at all and thets bad because i don't thing Phantom will get a chance to be on film again.

Well, a new film have been announced, but I am not sure if it will ever get off the ground though.

I also agree with Hintermann that a TV series would be just as fine for the Phantom.

[Hintermann]

The reason I strongly feel that a TV series would work much better than a one-off feature film for the Phantom is because there has to be a proper following to enjoy the successive episodes. Viewers can be more aware of the Phantom's background chronology through a long pilot episode in a TV series but not in a feature film.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

I do agree with you here.