The Phantom - The Curse Of The Two-Headed Bull!

The Curse of the Two-Headed Bull is the final novel in the now long-ago series "The Story of the Phantom" from Avon Books starring Lee Falk's legendary comic strip creation. It sports a dynamic George Wilson cover and was written in 1975 by Carson Bingham from Lee Falk's and Sy Barry's "The Curse of the Sacred Image". 

This story begins in one of the settings which I detest about the Phantom -- the Isle of Eden. This is an  isolated island on which animals, predator and prey exist in harmony. I cannot imagine why Falk thought this was a good idea. It does suggest that the Phantom has some association with Jesus, but that's a lame idea. 

But while enjoying some time in this paradise the Phantom finds a man floating just off the shore. He rescues him and knows he a local fellow named Murph. Soon after being saved, he died. Then the Phantom gets a message that a sacred idol has been stolen. This idol is one of great importance and historical significance and the Ilongo tribe which lost it attaches all their good luck to its presence. Only a member of the tribe is allowed to touch it without calling down a curse, according to legend. One member of the tribe stole it, and the Phantom follows the trail to London. Sure, enough Diana Palmer tags along and sure enough she gets kidnapped by the perps to hold as leverage against the Phantom. We also see quite a bit of evidence that the curse of the idol just might be real. The scene shifts from London to a small kingdom of Suda-Kalara and Diana is made part of a harem. The Phantom is able to locate her and the idol, and his rescue is a bravura moment in the series. The idol is returned and the luck it brings returns. 

For whatever reason, this final installment of the Avon novel series proved to be a slog. I don't blame the book, but it is a bit more of a dense read than some of the breezy adventures which have come before. Still and all, it's a fascinating ending to a venerable series. I'm incredibly happy that Hermes saw fit to reprint these blasts from my past. It proves the Ghost Who Walks works in more mediums than just comics. 

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The Phantom - The Complete DC Comics Volume Three!

The third volume of The Phantom -The Complete DC Comics wraps up the relatively short run on the classic Lee Falk character by writer Mark Verheiden and artist Luke McDonnell. 

"Trains" from the ninth issue showcases just what Verheiden wanted to do with his Phantoms stories, and that is to confront the grim realities of Africa and somehow find a place for the Phantom's justice. The grinding poverty creates strange and dangerous games for children to play.

"Blind!" is perhaps the most tragic of the stories in the run. It speaks of people robbed of their sight by contamination and then into rice fields as slaves. The Phantom can possibly give them back their freedom, but they have lost something even beyond the powers of the Ghost Who Walks. He gets involved though when Dr. Axel, the man who delivered the current Phantom many years before is attacked. This is McDonnell's most powerful cover in the series. 

The story "Famine" is yet another brutal reminder of how this world is so powerfully indifferent to the suffering of the helpless. The Phantom rushes to save a Nun and her companion when they are captured by a warlord who is stealing food supplies. We also meet Rex, a young boy the Phantom adopted some years before. The impending marriage of the Phantom to Diana has given him some qualms. 

Verheiden and McDonnell wrap up this fascinating run of Phantom stories with a potent two-parter in which the Phantom himself is set up to look like a murderer. "Framed" introduces us to a noble leader who is assassinated, and the police believe the Phantom is involved when a mysterious skull is found on the victim's forehead. Sadly, the Ghost Who Walks must leave the Deep Woods just as his wedding to Diana Palmer is getting planned. We all know he will prevail. The wedding goes off without a hitch and includes a few guests we know. Though he's not namechecked a man in a top hat and tails, and his ally introduced as Prince Lothar shows up to celebrate the union. We are treated to a wonderful last page for this saga. 

I have always liked the Verheiden and McDonnell run on the character. Mark Verheiden is a fantastic writer and McDonnell's work is shown in its finest form in this series which presents the material in a slightly larger format. They brought more depth and a wonderful characterization to a hero who all too often is presented as invulnerable. And truth told, sometimes I like that juggernaut of justice, but it's great to see him as just a man, a man who has chosen a difficult path for honorable reasons, but sometimes struggles with the cost. 

And that wraps up my long look at The Phantom comics. I have one more glance at a classic Avon novel tomorrow. 

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The Phantom - The Assassins!

The Assassins is the fourteenth installment of "The Story of the Phantom" and was written by Carson Bingham for a 1975 release. Under George Wilson cover filled with arcane images, this was adapted from "The Thuggees" by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy from way back in 1949. 

This one begins with wee a bit of humor when the Phantom finds a young woman dipping her toes in the waters around the Skull Cave and finds out that Guan has plotted to arrange for him to get a mate. This prompts the Ghost Who Walks to head to America to find his true love Diana Palmer who it turns out is flying to meet him. Her flight is hijacked by a baddie named Kali with the intention of kidnapping her and just as soon as the Phantom arrives, he's on the case of rescuing her from a murderous gang called "The Assassins", a remnant of the ancient Thuggee cult from the Middle East. She is taken to a remote island and held captive in an ancient Crusader castle. The attempts to collect a ransom for Diana are foiled by the Phantom, but just as soon as that happens a new wrinkle appears. 

Prince Tydore of Tydia and his daughter Naja are the next victims of the cult, and the Phantom tries to stop these predations in hopes of finding a clue to Diana's whereabouts. There is much hemming and hawing and a great deal of plotting by the assassins who we know by names such as Curly, Crewcut, and Pinhead. Eventually the Phanom takes Naja to the Skull Cave for her safety then he pretends to be the King and is mistakenly kidnapped by the villains and taken to the island where Diana is being held. But before he can rescue her, he must confront a deadly gorilla named Toto and survive the blades of a demonic idol.

The Phantom in this story is quite fallible, quite unlike his presentation in other stories. In fact, he makes so many mistakes in his tactics that I began to wonder if Diana was doomed myself. Nesting the one kidnap story inside the other created a pacing problem in the small novel in that we lose track of Diana's story for a very long time. And the "Assassins" for their part seem only capable of killing their own when captured. Often, they capture people when it seemed to me killing them would have been more prudent. I know that in a novel of this kind such random murder would be difficult to promote, but it does undermine the real nature of their threat. This is a swift breezy read, ideal for a single sitting But, it's low on the list of Avon novels to date.

There's one more to go when the Phantom must confront Lee Falk's own The Curse of the Two-Headed Bull in the final of Avon's "The Story of the Phantom" novels. 

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The Phantom - The Complete DC Comics Volume Two!

This second volume of The Phantom -The Complete DC Comics puts its focus on the creators, especially artist Luke McDonnell. We are treated to a short interview with him conducted by Hermes head honcho Dave Herman. Included are pages of original art by McDonnell from various projects for Marvel and DC. 

"Pirates" from the third issue takes the Ghost Who Walks right back to his roots and has him confront piracy, but a modern and especially brutal kind. Needless to say, that with a little help from members of the Jungle Patrol he is able to get a little justice. It's not perfect, but this is a somewhat harsher universe than that of Lee Falk's comic strip. 

The Phantom returns to America and specifically the town of Clarksville in a two-part story beginning with "HATE in the U.S.A." and wrapping up in "Unleashed" when a friend from school is set upon by racists trying to stop his newspaper and to run him out of town. His black skin is all that is required for "The Order" to hate him and mark him for death. Given the nature of the modern world today, it was nice to see some racist assholes get their butts handed to them. While he's in America he proposes to Diana Palmer. 

"Waste" from the sixth issue is a heartbreaker, and much of the story is told from the point of view of a father just trying to make life better for his family and only finding he's brought death to them. Modern society has never confronted out necessity to do away with the toxic chemicals our world requires. This story speaks to that dilemma in a most wrenching way. 

The story "Gold" has Diana Palmer learn of the Phantom's trip to South America to confront the villains who prey on the miners drawn there by a desire for wealth that consumes them. In many ways this mission is a failure for the Phantom and Diana learns much about the man she is planning to marry. 

"Apes" wraps up this second tome and tells the story of a researcher who grew up in the jungle studying gorillas. She has seen both her parents die, both researchers like herself. Now she continues their work in the face of killers who want to poach these precious animals. The Phantom steps in. 

These stories hold up exceptionally well. Despite attempting to being topical and relate to the problems of the time over three decades ago, they still resonate. Much to our shame, these problems seem to be still with us. 

The Verheiden-McDonnell Phantom returns in the third and final Hermes volume next time. 

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The Phantom - The Island Of Dogs!

The Island of Dogs is the thirteenth installment in the Avon Books series "The Story of the Phantom". It was originally published in 1975 and was written by Warren Shanahan. It's adapted from the Lee Falk and Sy Barry story from 1963 titled "The Mystery of the Island of the Dogs". It features an incredibly dynamic Geore Wilson cover. The Phantom look seriously dangerous. 

When a young couple are treated to the local lore about a remote island which once upon a time was filled with stray dogs and became literally a savage dog-eat-dog hell, they choose to trot along the beach and find a strange, electrified fence which warns of trespassing. They are then shot at, and this news finds its way to the Phantom who moves to take a hand. We meet an impulsive but capable young woman named Janice Helm who is liberated and just so happens to be the niece of the man who owns the island. She is attacked and the Phantom saves the day. When the Jungle Patrol takes a helicopter over the island and is shot at, the situation is elevated. Things really get hairy when Janice and Riggs, the young and alert Jungle Patrol officer take a boat out to the island. At the same time the Phantom makes a quiet incursion and discovers a deadly secret which threatens not just Bangalla but the whole world. 

This is a rare adventure novel which seems more interested in character than plot. We get extensive insights into the personalities of Janice Helm and later her uncle Matt Helm. (It's only now as I type this that I wonder if that name is an homage to the spy-fi hero played by Dean Martin.) The top nemesis is named Serge, and we find out a great deal about his past and his motivations for the plot which is uncovered on the Island of the Dogs. The Phantom for his part in this adventure is more of a mysterious figure, which adds to his power. 

I was fascinated by this one beyond its adventure which is pretty good. We seem to have an actual theme here about the way societies organize themselves. We are given a literal dog-eat-dog situation that metamorphizes into a larger threat which then becomes a problem for the civilized law enforcement. On top of that we have the Phantom's law which is that he enforces peace for the good of all. There are echoes of the Cuban Missile Crisis which brings to the fore all manner of political implications for the story. All in all, it's a fascinating little Phantom adventure. 

Next time the Phantom confronts The Assassins. 

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The Phantom - The Complete DC Comics Volume One!

The tale of The Phantom in comic books is a tattered one indeed. The Phantom was created by Lee Falk for the comic strip pages in 1936 and is the first of the costumed heroes which would fill the imaginations of youngsters and others in the decades to come. The comic strip is immensely popular and still appears today with new stories. The Phantom has proven to be wildly popular around the globe and many countries produce comics starring "The Ghost Who Walks". But for some strange reason the Phantom has never had great success in comics in the U.S. There were reprints of the strips for decades until Gold Key initiated a series of fresh stories in the early 60's. This was taken over by King Features briefly before Charlton Comics got hold of the hero and produced some very interesting comics with the character in the 70's. Then it went silent for many years. And then DC showed up at the door. 

Hermes Press has reprinted the DC Comics Phantoms in three volumes. The first begins with the original 1987 four-part limited series by writer Peter David and veteran artist Joe Orlando and Dennis Janke. We are treated to parallel stories about Phantoms of different eras. Despite the fact that he carries two automatic pistols, the Phantom has always been a relatively bloodless adventure series. That changes here. When a Jungle Patrol officer is murdered the Phantom is off to the streets of the modern city to find the culprits. It is a powerful businessman named Chessman, who it turns out is a friend of the Phantom's girlfriend Diana Palmer. He's also the descendant of a family of pirates who fought against the thirteenth Phantom centuries before. We follow that long ago saga as related in the Phantom's Chronicles at the same time as we follow the modern Phantom on his quest for justice. 

I am of two minds on its success at what it sets out to do. David seems to have wanted to make the Phantom a bit less of a cypher when it comes to his emotions and that seems a good idea, but in practice I'm not sure I like seeing his cool exterior cracked by rage. Joe Orlando's art is lively and Dennis Janke's inks it well and in keeping with the styles of the time. But it seems off to me somehow, and that could my problem. I've always thought that the franchise didn't mine its rich history enough and that we needed to see the adventures of long-ago Phantoms, and this certainly delivers on that score. But the thirteenth Phantom actually comes across early on as a bit too weak for my tastes.

Above are the action-filled covers for the limited series by Joe Orlando and inker Dave Gibbons. 

The volume then shifts its focus to the next series with new creators Mark Verheiden and Luke McDonnell. Verheiden was a writer who a time was fresh from the Indy market where he raised eyebrows with The American series. He brings that same toughness to this new project. Luke McDonnell was an artist I knew well from his tenure on Iron Man. McDonnell had a style which wasn't that fan-friendly, but not unlike Herb Trimpe found a way to warm you to his work. 

We get the first two issues which together tell the story titled merely "Guns". A ruthless run runner kills three members of the Jungle Patrol, and the Phantom has him in his sights from that point on. The spar with each gaining an advantage in the struggle, but we all know the inevitable outcome. It's a nice yarn told with vigor and power.

Overall, a nice beginning. The second volume by Verheiden and McDonnell will be reviewed next time. 

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The Phantom - The Vampires And The Witch!

Avon's "The Story of the Phantom" twelve is titled The Vampires and the Witch and is based to some extent on the 1965 comic strip "The Hanta Witch" from 1965 and "The Things" from 1973 by Lee Falk and Sy Barry. The creator of the Phantom Falk returns to pen this novel. George Wilson produces quite an evocative cover for the novel, playing up themes of horror which was popular in the early 70's. 

We get the tales of two Phantoms in this one. To begin we learn of the eighth Phantom over three hundred and fifty years ago who travels to the European country of Koqania to battle the Hanta Witch. The chronicle is incomplete and so while it's obvious that the Phantom survived the encounter it's unclear how. For the modern Phantom, news reports of vampires in Koqania killing citizens provokes his interest and when a sensor in the Phantom's hideout in that region signals trespass, he heads to Koqania with Devil. He finds a country terrorized by the fear of fearsome and deadly vampires as well as sightings of the Hantas Witch. He also encounters several brutish fellows in law enforcement and otherwise who seek to stop his investigations. 

This story is strong in that it focuses on the Phantom the entire time. We experience the story as he does, and we encounter the mysteries as well. Falk presents us with a Phantom who runs into trouble and who even might have a hesitation or two as the story rolls along. While he's mighty, he's not inhuman, especially when the Hanta Witch, a hag who seemingly becomes a great beauty lures him into her clutches. There's no doubt this would've been this Phantom's last adventure if not for the assistance of Devil. 

The weakness of the story is that it tries to do a bit too much. Falk seems to be blending the two source stories into one and that adds complications as well as making the motivations a bit murky for the crimes. The ending drags more than a bit as the mysteries are resolved in a very chatty manner. We even get a third Phantom story tagged onto this main yarn when we learn about his encounter with the Gooley-Gooley Witch. It's great lore, but the narrative seems overburdened a bit. 

That said it was still full of grand Phantom action and I look forward to the next volume titled The Island of Dogs. 

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The Phantom - The Swamp Rats!

The Swamp Rats was written by the late Ron Goulart under the pseudonym "Frank Shawn" for Avon 's "The Story of the Phantom" series of novels in 1974 and was based on the comic strip of the same name from 1959. 

The Hermes edition also has an essay titled "With the Phantom Everything is Possible -- Except Boredom" by Francis Lacassin a lecturer at the Sorbonne. The essay was written in 1972 in connection with an exhibit which opened at the museum. It's a glowing analysis of Lee Falk's storytelling skills and compares him in many with Homer of all people. 

The set-up gets going pretty quickly when a train goes off the rails near a deadly swamp and prisoners aboard that train escape into what is called "The Great Swamp". Later reports of raids in towns alongside the swamp by a gang calling themselves "The Swamp Rats" bring the Phantom to the case. I was struck how efficiently the story begins, drawing the reader in quickly. 

The self-styled Swamp Rats have in their midst an older man whose daughter comes looking for him. It's one of the oldest gags in adventure yarns designed specifically to get a dame into the mix. She finds a great-white hunter type to lead her into the swamp, but he turns out to be less experienced than advertised. Another unfortunate hooks up with the Swamp Rats after he committed a crime out of desperation. Add to the mix to loyal members of the Jungle Patrol and you have a downright mob wandering the deadly swamp. The scenes switch quickly from group to group with the make-up of each changing constantly. The Phantom works tirelessly to try and keep everyone safe as he can and still bring the villains to justice. 

Next month we'll take a look at The Vampires and the Witch. I'm very much looking forward to this one. 

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The Phantom - The Goggle-Eyed Pirates!

The tenth entry in Avon's "The Story of the Phantom" novel series is The Goggle-Eyed Pirates by Ron Goulart as Frank S. Shawn from the original 1960's comic strip story by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy. The story was also adapted to comic book form by Bill Lignante in the fourth issue of Gold Key's The Phantom series. George Wilson supplies a fetching cover for this one, with the Phantom clutching a machine gun. 

The story is straight forward enough affair. Diana Palmer is aboard a luxury ship which is attacked by strangely garbed pirates wearing goggles and robes with other devices to make them seem taller. These items are tossed into the sea after the robberies and the pirates resume their roles as actual passengers of the ship. This is suspected almost immediately and even before the ship actually docks the Phantom gets aboard to check on Diana and begin his investigation. 

The pirates prove to be a devious lot and the Phantom is challenged in bringing them to justice. This is a solid adventure all the way through, albeit a brief one. Goulart is always able to keep a brisk pace in his stories and this yarn switches back and forth between three protagonists -- two Insurance Agents, Diana Palmer and the Phantom. The insurance agents named Bockman and Lumbard are well crafted enough for the purposes of the story. My only quibble with the tale is a moment when Lumbard performs a stunt which seemed a tad too dangerous to survive. 

There are no heavy themes in The Goggle-Eyed Pirates, unless it is a cautionary tale for rich folks to leave their valuables at home or in the bank when they are on a cruise. We meet a few folks who are part of the scheme unknowingly or only in tangential ways and that showcases how quickly anyone can be snared into a bit of larceny. 

Something that always comes across to me vividly in Goulart's stories is how potent a puncher the Phantom is. He drops villains with a hefty one-two or sometimes even just a powerful single blow. The reader can feel those punches. I'm always fascinated about the Phantom seems to bring out the best in the talents who work on his stories. 

Next time the Phantom takes on The Swamp Rats. 

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