The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies: Volume Four

The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies: Volume Four 1940-1943
Author: Lee Falk
Artists: Ray Moore and Wilson McCoy
ISBN: 9781613450086
Reprint publisher: Hermes Press
First printing of reprint book: 2012
Cost at time of publication: $ 60
Reviewed by: Allen Klingelhoets
Jazma Online
Leon Harrison Gross, more known by his alias of Lee Falk (April 28th, 1911 - March 13th,1999).

The stories in volume 4 like volume one contains introduction. This time introduction is wrote by Billy Zane who played The Phantom in 1996 big screen version.

The King Features reprints are done with great care from many sources told in acknowledgments section. The daily newspaper strips were told in chapter format.

Chapter one was from page 10 to page 101 called Diana Aviatrix Lost.

Chapter two was called The Phantom’s Treasure which went from page 102-190.

Chapter 3 was called The Phantom Goes to War (The Inexorables) on pages 190-334.

I would suggest getting book from library. There are many volumes in Hermes Press reprint series. The books only reprint newspaper strips not comic book spin-offs or Big Little Book stories containing stories about the Phantom..

The stories are in sequence. All stories in volume 4 are in black and white format.

What I really like about The Phantom is that he does not have any super powers. He has amazing ability to escape injury. He is mortal. He will be killed by bullets or even fever from illness. I really enjoy imagination Lee Falk puts into all characters in The Phantom story line. Lee Falk put The Phantom into stories of his age like World War II era. He did not have detective skills of Batman. He was though able to solve mysteries like who took his Phantom treasure? He was always seeking to help his girlfriend Diana Palmer who was always in some sort of trouble. The story of The Phantom from 12-16-1940 tells his origins. The story of The Phantom. Four centuries ago, the lone survivor of a pirate raid was washed upon a remote Bengali shore. Friendly natives nursed him back to health...One day, he found another body on the beach... the pirate that murdered his father! On this pirate’s skull he swore the oath of the skull! This man was the first Phantom! This is the oath. “I swear to devote my life to the destruction of all forms of piracy, greed and cruelty--- and my sons will follow me.” The ghost who walks can never die! For four centuries, the line of the Phantom continued from father to son! But the natives of the east, believing it has always been the same man--- speak his name in awed whispers.... They speak of his fabulous strength and daring--- and they him to be immortal! Fighting for justice and truth, the Phantom works alone!

I like how Devil though works with The Phantom. Devil is Phantom’s wolf. Devil has saved The Phantom from many people who have tried to hurt the Phantom.

The setting is not always in jungle. The Phantom has to go to many world-wide locations in search of Diana or his treasure. I think very enjoyable story telling.

Here is what he front cover says about The Phantom.

Lee Falk’s work on the Phantom was on the cutting edge of storytelling for most of his career whether anyone cares to acknowledge it or not. He addressed modern piracy, uranium thieves, WMD’s, and international terrorists, often before these things became world news. He fastidiously studied world events and wove them deeply into his tales for both the Phantom and for his other comic creation Mandrake the Magician.

Falk took those real world atrocities and peppered them throughout the mythos of the Phantom, giving his character something the Phantom’s comic book dwelling off-spring lacked, a sense of reality and relevance to the modern times. Sadly, just as with Falk’s influence on comic book writers, this relevance is often overlooked these days, as to many consider the Phantom a period character, forever trapped in the late 1930’s with his pulp fiction siblings. However, the Phantom isn’t technically a pulp character, and Falk’s unmatched run of stories over six decades proves for all the world to see.

In the 1930’s, the Phantom’s tales were pregnant with the grim anxiety of the pre- WWII era. The stories in the ‘50s and ‘60s brought with them the sense of wonder inherent in the so called Space Age. The “70s and ‘80s saw a more understanding and peaceful take, with the Phantom finally marrying his long time love, Diana and having children of their own. In the late 1990’s he tackled global terrorism, foreshadowing the events that would lead to 9/11. Sounds pretty cosmopolitan for a period character doesn’t it? So, read on for some classic Phantom stories!



Lee Falk


Allen Klingelhoets