The Phantom is a comic strip created by Lee Falk, recounting the adventures of a costumed crime-fighter called the Phantom. The series began with a daily newspaper strip in February of 1936, which was joined by a colour Sunday strip in May of 1939; both are still running.
The Phantom is credited as being the first "costumed superhero", i.e. the first crimefighter to wear the skintight costume attributed to comic book superheroes. Previous fictional crime fighters, such as Zorro and Doc Savage, were not designed especially for newspaper comic strips or comic books.
The Phantom wears a mask, a purple skintight costume, and carries two .45 pistols. His base is in the Deep Woods of Bangalla, a fictional country in Africa where he is the secret commander of the Jungle Patrol. He is particularly the enemy of pirates. It is notable that he has no supernatural powers.
In the African jungle, the Phantom is called "The Ghost who Walks" because he seems to have been around for generations. This is because the Phantom is descended from twenty previous generations of crime-fighters that all share the same persona. Frequently the strip highlights the adventures of previous Phantoms, set in the past, and some European publications have featured the Phantom's children as future crimefighters.
"There are times when the Phantom leaves his jungle home and travels as an ordinary man." When he does, he wears a fedora, sunglasses, and an overcoat and is known as "Mr. Walker". References to "Mr. Walker" are traditionally accompanied by a footnote saying "For 'The Ghost Who Walks'", although some versions of the Phantom's history suggest that Walker was actually the surname of the man who became the first Phantom.
In addition to the two newspaper strips, original stories are published by Egmont Publications in Scandinavia (where the Phantom is very popular). Egmont publishes a fortnightly Phantom comic book in Norway (as Fantomet), Sweden (as Fantomen), and Finland (as Mustanaamio). Most of the writers and artists who have worked on the newspaper strips since Lee Falk's death have been members of Egmont's talent pool.
Another country where the Phantom is popular is Australia, where Frew Publications has published a fortnightly comic book, The Phantom, since 1948. Frew's book mostly contains reprints, from the newspaper strips and from Fantomen (in English translation), but has occasionally also included an original story.
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