the phantom

the phantom is an american adventure comic strip created by lee falk, also creator of mandrake the magician. a popular feature adapted into many media, including television, film and video games, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the fictional african country bangalla.

the phantom is the 21st in a line of crimefighters that originated in 1536, when the father of british sailor christopher walker was killed during a pirate attack. swearing an oath on the skull of his father’s murderer to fight evil, christopher started the legacy of the phantom that would be p-ssed from father to son, leaving people to give the mysterious figure nicknames such as “the ghost who walks”, “guardian of the eastern dark” and “the man who cannot die”, believing him to be immortal.

unlike many fictional costumed heroes, the phantom does not have any superpowers but relies mainly on his strength, intelligence, and fearsome reputation of being an immortal ghost to defeat his foes. the 21st phantom is married to diana palmer, whom he met while studying in the united states; they have two children, kit and heloise. like all previous phantoms, he lives in the ancient skull cave, and has a trained wolf, devil, and a horse named hero.

the series began with a daily newspaper strip on february 17, 1936, followed by a color sunday strip on may 28, 1939; both are still running as of 2014. at the peak of its popularity, the strip was read by over 100 million people each day.
lee falk continued working on the phantom until his death in 1999. today, the comic strip is produced by writer tony depaul and artists paul ryan (monday-sat-rday) and terry beatty (sunday).