New Phan Art!

Hey there Phans! We've had our first contribution to the "Phan Art Page". These nifty new pieces come from Jungle Patrolman, Lysdexicus. If you've ever been to his blog, Ten Cent Dreams and seen his UFO Dream Notebook, then you know this cat has an artistic streak a mile wide. AND he lives in Pirate Waters!!

Lysdexicus provided a nice summation of his design ethic:

"I still prefer the original Lee Falk version, and

my doodles are an homage to that style.

I like the idea of less visible muscles, and more texture on

the shirt part of his costume, to show that it is a REAL fabric,

thus making him more human, less Super, and hence, more

vulnerable !"

Thanks for contributing!

The King Comics Corner Store

This in-house ad was run in issues of King Comics. Amongst the everyday toys and games for sale, they offer Captain Action, one of the most bizarre and versatile superhero toys of the 20th century. Although the good Captain had tons of alter-ego costumes for characters from Marvel and DC, King has gone out of their way to offer you only two choices, Flash Gordon and The Phantom! After all, they're the only heroes that matter. ;)

A Double Helping of Bill Lignante

Since Bill Lignante was the Artist of the day yesterday, it seemed like a great time to showcase a little of his work. First up, we have "The Phantom's Boyhood, Part III- SCHOOL" from Gold Key Phantom #7- May, 1964. (note the spectacular -as always- cover art by the polished and prolific George Wilson)











Next up, we have "SOS Phantom: The Pirate Raiders" from King's Mandrake The Magician #2 - November, 1966:












And if those weren't enough Bill Lignante for you... stop by my good friend Mykal Banta's blog, Gold Key Comics and check out Gold Key Phantom #11: "Blind Man's Bluff" !

Guess Who's 74 Years Old Today??

No, not my wife Amy (aka Spectergirl) although today IS her birthday, also. No, today is the 74th birthday of The Ghost Who Walks. Yep, today, February 17th, 1936 the first Phantom comic strip hit newspapers and the superhero adventure comic was born!


Happy Birthday, Mr. Walker!!


He looks pretty good for a man of 74.

Phantom Artist Profile- Bill Lignante

Bill Lignante: 1925-

A graduate of the Pratt Institute, Bill Lignante first became associated with The Phantom when he was asked to finish a strip which had been uncompleted at the time of Wilson McCoy's death in 1961. He then went on to draw the Sunday strip from August, 1961 to May 1962.

Lignante was hired to draw The Phantom for the comic books which were licensed by King Features Syndicate to Gold Key and King Comics.

(From "The Belt" The Phantom #8, Gold Key, 1962)

He also worked as an artist at the Hanna-Barbera animation studio for 16 years and worked for ABC news as a courtroom artist for 26 years, illustrating the trials of Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan and Patty Hearst, among others.

For more on Gold Key Comics, and to read "The Belt" in it's entirety, be sure to visit Mykal Banta's Gold Key Comics Blog

Phantom Artist Profile- Wilson McCoy

The artist himself had THIS to say:


Wikipedia adds some further, posthumous details:

R. Wilson McCoy (1902-1961) was the second artist on the (still running) The Phantom comic strip. He started out as Ray Moore's assistant, but when Moore retired from the strip after a war-injury, McCoy took over the entire strip (1949).

McCoy is well known for his unique, naive style of drawing. Unlike Ray Moore, he always drew with tremendous attention to details, and used photographic references for every drawing, having his family and friends pose for him and act out the different situations happening in the stories he worked on.

Like Phantom-creator Lee Falk, Wilson McCoy was a world traveler with an adventurous spirit. He frequently visited far off jungles, and visited several native tribes, among them the Ituri tribe, consisting of pygmies, much like the Bandar tribe in the Phantom strip.

Wilson McCoy studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The American Academy, and Washington University's School of Fine Arts, where he later served on the faculty. Working as a commercial artist, he made paintings for Liberty Magazine covers, calendars, prints, pin-ups and advertisements for major companies. When his friend Ray Moore served in the military during WWII, McCoy took over the responsibilities of illustrating the syndicated newspaper strip, 'The Phantom'. His wife, Dorothy, did the lettering. McCoy continued drawing the strip until his death in 1961, after which it was continued by Bill Lignante for a short while, and then Sy Barry.

Robert Wilson McCoy was born in Troy, Missouri on April 6, 1902. McCoy died on July 20, 1961 after a heart attack, with Sy Barry succeeding him on the Phantom. He was survived by his wife Dorothy and two children, Robert and Carol.

His Phantom stories are occasionally published in the Australian Frew Publications Phantom comic, and the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish Phantom comic books, and also in hardcover editions.

Phantom Artist Profile- Ray Moore

Raymond S. Moore
1905?-1984

Moore drew sixteen separate storylines for the dailies and eight separate storylines for the Sunday strip from 1936 until 1949 when he retired as the result of a war injury he received as a pilot during WWII.

Moore started as an art assistant to Phil Davis on Lee Falk's adventure strip Mandrake The Magician. When Falk realized he was not going to be able to handle drawing The Phantom on a regular basis, he hired Moore to take over the art chores.

Moore's period on The Phantom is known for it's moody and atmospheric- if sometimes simplified- quality.


Falk was pleased with Moore's work and was especially impressed with his ability to draw beautiful women. It's for this very reason that Falk wrote several stories featuring gangs of women criminals, such as "The Sky Band".

Mr. Moore passed away of natural causes in 1984.

(images swiped from Google images)