Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 12, 2016

Tracy knew who it was.

.Good morning fellow DT and Phantom fans!.What/who is The Phantom in pursuit of, I wonder!

Wonder when and where they met.

Mike had to finesse the copyright there.

Honeymoon’s already a better detective than Tracy.

She can tell a Mountain Wolf from a Service Dog.

If you enlarge the strip, you can make out one of the famous skull rings on his hand.

Does this mean this is an unofficial crossover? Then we will be seeing the Phantom in the shadows.____________________

‘The Ghost Who Walks’ often does so in the shadows.

It’s getting so that we need a cameo/crossover list, with publication dates and details as to whether the crossover character/characters appear on-camera, in shadow, or are referenced in dialogue..

Anyone care to take up the challenge?

Sweet! I’m happy.

So Tracy had already met Walker. Interesting.

@AnyFace, @22phWith the string of Harvey Awards that Joe, Mike & the crew have racked up, I think just about any character they want to invite in for a crossover or cameo is fair game. Even the big kahuna that is King Features Syndicate would jump across the table to pick up their call hoping for a “Tracy bump” in readers here checking out The Phantom if they don’t do so already. I know I will, so it’s already working…

Night-Gaunt49 said, about 3 hours ago (yesterday)I don’t know where he got a wolf. Certainly not in Africa.

I’m not a reader of The Phantom, but I did a little research. The current Phantom’s mother, Maude Thorne McPatrick, “died around 1956 in the Skull Cave of an illness, with her son and her husband present. Her son had then reached the age of 17.” The story is told, in a 1979 Swedish comic book, apparently, that The Phantom found the mountain wolf Devil, while still a cub, "under the body of his dead mother, shot down by Colonel Bagshot, a merciless hunter. After his father’s death, the Phantom found himself lonely, and takes the cub home, trying to ease his feelings of pain and solitude. He called him initially “Little Devil”, since he was heir to the feared mountain wolf Satan."

Obviously, this story takes place in Africa, in the fictional Bengalla (aka Bengali). So, I was wondering if there are wolves in Africa. There are two species that I found, both fairly rare and both thought by some to be a type of grey wolf. There are six subspecies of African Golden Wolf, according to Wikipedia, though the classification is controversial and some or all may be jackals. Hair colour varies between subspecies. According to one source, the Egyptian Wolf is critically endangered and there may be no more than 40 in the world, but they are very similar to grey wolves. It’s obviously difficult to do DNA studies on such rare animals (hard to get samples).

The Ethiopian wolf, (aka Abyssinian Wolf or Simien Jackal) “is believed by some scientists not to be a true wolf. However, DNA studies show it to be more closely related to gray wolves and coyotes than to any other African canines. It is the most endangered canine species in Africa” and there may be fewer than 450 alive in the wild.

Here is the rage of the African Golden Wolf, according to Wikipedia:

The Phantom’s country could actually be anywhere in Africa since it is fictitious and is surrounded by several other fictitious countries in various maps.

It is a common joke with me that I seem to know everyone, so I decided to give that trait to Tracy long ago. Anyone here seen the 1964 PHANTOM TV live action pilot with Roger Creed as the Ghost who Walks? It don’t get much worse folks.

He’s after a female media mogul. He’s going to be The Phantom of the Oprah.

(Just wanted to wait people up a little.)

OMG! First, Tracy and Fosdick (even if it’s a dream sequence)! Then, only a few days later, Tracy meets Mr. Walker*! I’m having a nerdgasm!

*"Mr. Walker," for Ghost Who Walks.

And, yes, Honeymoon had the sharper eye in the Tracy family this time. She will grow up to be an ace sleuth!

I wish thar Mr. Walker was partnering with T’Challa on his case – but that would be a double licensing headache.

I have been reading the Phantom for a while. Very nice to see him here!

It does seem odd to me that Dick would know Kit Walker from before, but be surprised by his always trusty companion, Devil. Sharp eyed Honeymoon, though. Otherwise, the running gag is that people always take Devil to be a dog until they are shown otherwise.

Old jungle saying: The Phantom is rough with roughnecks.

In Pursuit…Hmmm..I wonder if we’re gonna see Sherlock or Dupin along the way..on our European Tour with Abner???

“This is my friend, Mr. Walker. He somehow thinks walking around in a trenchcoat, scarf, hat and sunglasses, even if it’s Cancun in midsummer, sometimes with a wolf on a leash, makes him inconspicuous.”

I know Tracy appeared in a full story arc in Gasoline Alley, and of course has single-strip cameod in many strips, from Blondie to On The FasTrack to Mother Goose and Grimm.

Tracy, The Phantom, Devil, and Tracy’s Lunarian/Human granddaughter, (the fabulous) Honeymoon, all in the same panel. Comic strip heaven!

The Phantom wears dark glasses out of uniform because to look him in the eyes is fatal, or so the myth goes. His family and Guran (pygmy tribal chief and close friend) are the only ones who can look him in the eyes and live. Also, with someone who is supposed to be immortal, if his eye color was to suddenly change from father to son, that would give away the myth.

Common Phantom retorts: Snooty Woman on plane; “My word!” " Bringing a dog on a plane,disgusting!" Walker:For ghost who walks; “He’s not a dog, he’s a wolf” (case closed)

Now back to Skull Island where all animals of Africa dwell in peace e.g. Lions, great apes,Tigers etc.

Mad Magazine does a story “The Funtum” where you know who tip toes around in the flowers (need to look that one up)

I would like to see a phantom-dick tracy-mark trail A3G, at this point

C’mon guys, we’ve gotta crack 100 Comments today!

Do it …

… for “The Ghost Who Walks.”

Whoopee! If Honeymoon’s around, can Mysta be far behind??

For those confused by my “Naruto-Style Special Training” comment …

… here’s a little taste that will likely confuse you all the more!

Something which I only just now discovered …

“Apartment 3-G” limped to – I hesitate to call it such – a ‘conclusion’ in 2015. November 22, to be precise.

Maybe Mike & Joe can tie up the loose ends, like they did for Annie …?

Intriguingly, Gil Thorp – Or ‘Gil Throp,’ as he was misidentified in the header at least once, I believe in one of Mike Curtis’ local papers – seems to be owned by Tribune Media.

“Murder on The Gridiron,” anyone …?

The Phantom?? Very fun! Great seeing Honeymoon, too.

The Phantom has a new artist: Mike Manley. Took over from Paul Ryan. Dont know if thats been mentioned today.

According to IMDB, Roger Creed served as Bob Hope’s stuntman as well.

An oddly meandering career path there.

Shouldn’t that be “career road?” ;o)____________________

Ouch!

Where’s Dorothy Lamour when we really need her?

Now if someone would just issue a collection of “The Jackson Twins” …

Did you ever see the one film with Billy Zane as the Ghost Who Walks?____________________

Pretty sure I’m the only one here who actually liked it – but that might have been the ice cream bars talking. :)

A few years ago there was a Phantom flashback to the Great War and one of the earlier Kit Walkers experiences that played to a current story at that time.____________________

I’m not sure if there are any precedents for The Phantom’s “400+ Year Dynasty” in fiction. It’s certainly a unique aspect of his lore.

Superficially, The Phantom and The Lone Ranger share certain traits: Perpetually masked, each with a signature weapon (Skull Ring/Silver Bullets) and – I’m pretty sure – a source of nigh-limitless wealth (Pirate Treasure/Hidden Silver Mine) with which to wage war on crime.

[ Or, in The Lone Ranger’s case, to forge bullets. ]

Also, each (… well, the first Phantom at least) was the last survivor of a massacre.

Even assuming that The Lone Ranger came first – I’d have to check the dates – where did Lee Falk come up with the generational passing of the baton from?

Not a clue.

Just checked the dates.

THE LONE RANGER: January 30th or 31st, 1933 [Sources differ] out of WXYZ-AM, Detroit, MI

THE PHANTOM: February 17th, 1936

There’s enough of a time window that Lee Falk might conceivably have been influenced by The Lone Ranger, though he certainly took The Phantom comic strip in its own bold, original direction.

Oh, and that actress Kristy Swanson looked great as a brunette.

Maybe not quite as great as Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was also in the movie!

As were Samantha Eggar and Patrick McGoohan.

Damn.

I really need to watch this again.

Oh, and quite belatedly …

Tony DePaul, current writer of The Phantom, did indeed cut his teeth writing stories for Scandinavian publication.

According to Wikipedia, he assumed authorship of the daily and Sunday strips upon Lee Falk’s passing in 1999, Mr. Falk having guided his creation for a breathtaking 63 years.