My introduction to Lee Falk's the Phantom was in comic books, not the syndicated comic strip. Thanks to Hermes Press, you can experience both at the same time.
The Phantom is the great-granddaddy of costumed heroes, first appearing as a newspaper comic strip in 1936 in the now-traditional skintight costume, and a mask where white shows where the eyes ought to be. (Superman didn't appear in his circus suit for two more years, and Batman, with his pupil-less eyes, debuted in 1939.) For the record, the Phantom's creator intended for the character's outfit to be gray -- Falk even considered calling him the Grey Ghost -- but a printer's error resulted in the familiar, albeit impractical, purple suit.
But what's coolest about the Phantom is the mythology that Falk spun around "The Ghost Who Walks." The Phantom is actually a family, with the purple long johns and mission to fight "piracy, greed, cruelty and injustice" passed on from father to son. Given that there has always been a Phantom going back to 1936, even after witnesses have seen a Phantom get killed, a legend has sprung up that he is immortal -- "The Man Who Cannot Die." The current Phantom lives in a cool Skull Cave in "the Deep Woods," has a loyal army of pygmies with poison arrows, anonymously commands the Jungle Patrol (a law-enforcement outfit) and has never revealed his face to anyone outside his immediate circle. He's probably the wealthiest man on the planet, has a wolf and a huge white horse for partners, terrorizes bad guys and is married (as of 1977) with two kids. That's a cool gig.
Hermes Press began reprinting the original comic strip in a hardback collection in 2009, and they are vastly entertaining. They're sort of a cross between a screwball comedy and movie serials -- hardly a surprise given their 1930s origins -- whose tone is that of gleeful, barely controlled chaos, a feeling the Indiana Jones movies captured so well. (That also seems to have been the tone attempted in the 1996 "Phantom" movie with Billy Zane, which I quite enjoyed, even if the critics didn't.) "The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies" is approaching volume four, with collections of the color Sunday strips (which began in 1939) beginning soon.
Hermes is also reprinting the 1960s "Phantom" comic book, published by Gold Key, that made me a fan. The first volume already is out ($50). It will be followed not only by additional Gold Key volumes, but also by collections from the publishers that followed Gold Key, King Comics (1966-69) and Charlton (1969-77).
If it's newer stories you want, the current "Phantom" comic strip features the 22nd Phantom being trained by his dad, the one who's been around since the '60s. Dynamite Entertainment publishes comic books starring the 22nd Phantom as an adult, and those are often released as trade paperbacks.
They're good, but I'm still partial to the older stories. Thanks to Hermes Press, those ghosts still walk.
