Q- Who created the comic book character Phantom?
Answer:
Lee Falk (Leon Harrison Gross) created the comic book character Phantom. Falk was an American writer, theatre director and producer. Before Phantom, Falk had created Mandrake the Magician which turned out to be a huge success. The King Features newspaper syndicate which used to publish the Mandrake comic strip wanted a new feature. Thus he created the Phantom during 1936. The series began with a daily newspaper strip on February 17, 1936, followed by a colour Sunday strip on May 28, 1939. These both strips are still running as of 2012.
Lee Falk had travelled half the world and he developed a fascination for myths and legends like El Cid, King Arthur, Nordic, Greek folklore heroes. Phantom was partially inspired by these. Furthermore characters like Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli (The Jungle Book) and Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
The skin tight costume of Phantom was inspired by Robin Hood who was often shown dressed in tights. The mask holes not showing eyes were inspired by ancient Greek stone busts which had no eye pupils. The blank mask holes gave the character an interesting look. Initially Falk wanted to call the character Gray Ghost but he went for the Phantom.
He was not expecting the Phantom to be a hit but it turned out otherwise. He kept writing Phantom stories for more than 60 years and kept writing until his death in 1999.
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