Number 2442: The Phantom and the Gray Gang

This 1950-51 story from the Phantom comic strip by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy starts out funny. Diana, who is the Phantom’s girlfriend, lives with her mom, and Diana’s mom does not approve of the Phantom. The first three strips of the continuity have her making cutting remarks of the Phantom’s jungle lifestyle. As he tells his dog, “We're taking a beating here, Devil, but it’ll be worth it to see Diana again.” Fictional dogs have near human capabilities, but there is no record of anything Devil might have said to the Phantom.

Something I find interesting about the Phantom is his costuming. He wears his purple tights and his mask under another costume, of a more typical gent in an overcoat, hat, and sunglasses. Of course, when fists start to fly the Phantom is back in his tights planting punches on his adversaries’ faces.

In the last panel, as the kissing starts between the Phantom and Diana (gosh, a spoiler...ain’t I a stinker?) the dialogue becomes...well, odd. I have never seen the likes of it.

It appeared in newspapers December 4, 1950 to March 24, 1951.

I found this continuity online, and don’t know exactly who to thank. To the anonymous donor, thank you!

Number 2436: Mandrake, Lothar, Molly, and a caveman named Lance

Mandrake the Magician, created in 1934 by Lee Falk, is a hero who doesn’t appear to spend any time performing magic on stage, just against evildoers. And what seems to be his only trick is to gesture hypnotically, which puts him in control of the situation.

This daily comic strip continuity, which I found reprinted in Classic Adventure Strips #11 (1986), is as full of goofy stuff as any comic strip of its era. Mandrake and Lothar, Mandrake's friend and aide, are searching for an aviator named Molly, who has disappeared during a flight over Antarctica. Mandrake and Lothar encounter polar bears (at the South Pole, no less) and find a tropic zone, a lost world with dinosaurs and Neanderthals, and even a handsome caveman named Lance. Oh, and some bad guys who want to get at a lake of “hot oil.” I think all they would have needed to make the story complete would be a giant ape.

The whole story appeared over a long time: from November 30, 1936 to April 17, 1937. It is by Mandrake creator Lee Falk, and drawn by Phil Davis. Falk wrote the Mandrake strip until he died in 1999, and Davis did the artwork for 30 years, until he died.

The thing that struck me the most was not the lost world, caveman Lance, or even the polar bears...but Mandrake and Lothar tromping over the Antarctic tundra, with Mandrake in his tuxedo, and Lothar wearing his animal skin, walking on his bare feet. I think it would probably take a lot more than a hypnotic gesture to keep the pair warm.

 

Mandrake and the werewolves! Just click on the thumbnail.