The Phantom 49: Maybe that masked man isn't dead.

This is a very curious thing about The Ghost Who Walks.
When he removes his disguise, he's wearing a cowl and a mask, a skintight bodysuit and twin guns...
His "disguise" is what makes him pass for one of us. "The Phantom" is who he really is.
He shares this topsy-turvy disguise characteristic with the Man of Steel. However, The Phantom was on the job before Superman made his first appearance, so he can lay claim to it.
Kent is admittedly a far more complex and resounding persona than Walker, but the similarity is there nevertheless.
And why is it so curious? The rest of the long-underwear heroes play dress-up to become their two-fisted alter egos; Superman and The Phantom already are who they are, and sometimes pass for one of us by dressing and acting as we do.

WRITER: Lee Falk
ARTIST: Ray Moore

The Phantom 48: Maybe Mama was right.

Diana has stormed off in a huff, and The Phantom has been left on his own, sitting outside and wondering what happened.

And how did he come to join the ranks of conventional manhood? He didn't say the expected things, and he didn't behave in the approved manner...

So now he has only his confused thoughts and a wolf for company on a romantic moonlit night.

A smooth charmer like Ferdy will fare much better than the bewildered Ghost Who Walks, no doubt...

Aside from all the other unsettling things regarding Diana's scheming mother, one of the most unnerving things about her is her spectacles, which have blank lenses, much in the style of The Phantom's own hoodoo mask.

One wonders why Mama didn't phone ahead to the dance, to warn the hapless Ferdy that a big angry guy and a wolf were on their way; but perhaps she was too shaken by The Phantom's inquisition.

And so all of Mama's manipulations begin to bear fruit... If only The Ghost Who Walks had decided to go to the jungle instead of the dance, all could have gone according to plan.

In all of this, I can't help feeling sorry for Ferdy, who didn't really do anything to deserve a Phantom punch. He was getting a little out of hand -- but I know Diana, and she could have sorted him out herself, had she really needed to.

But there's a silver lining...

See? This is what women really want! They want the quick-tempered he-man to crash a dance, knock down all the other suitors, and carry the woman off into the countryside!

Er... Maybe not.

WRITER: Lee Falk
ARTIST: Wilson McCoy

Wintry walks and wanderings

The Phantom 47: All the attractive men are married.

Janice Helm, pretty as a picture and with a figure that makes grown men weak at the knees, receives a call from Colonel Weeks of the Jungle Patrol, whose Supreme Commander just happens to be The Ghost Who Walks.



Janice is staying at the manse of her grandfather, Major Helm, but he has suddenly disappeared after inviting her for a vacation from her school in Paris.
She returned from the cinema to find a handwritten note from the Major telling her he was leaving for Europe.
It doesn't really make much sense to Janice, but she has no choice but to accept it, and now finds herself alone at her grandfather's residence, isolated and bored...



According to Janice, all the attractive men are married (and who am I to argue?), but while she is waiting for someone "marvellous" and "exciting" to show up, a couple of unattractive men arrive (unmarried, no doubt) to take her to her grandfather.





Janice gets high marks for moxie -- but, in hindsight, she could have hidden all doubt about the note, feigned acquiescence, announced she was going to get dressed so as to accompany her grandfather's emissaries, then come up with a strategy for getting help or getting away.


As it is, her angry resistance provokes the men, and things are going badly until The Phantom appears in the garden and makes short work of the two thugs.



A third man, the driver, gets away -- so whoever is after Janice will soon know his hirelings failed.
However, despite the danger she is in, she has become distracted by the appearance and manner of her strange rescuer...



Janice is convinced that a man who wears a mask must be up to no good, but she also convinces herself that he is her dream man, having finally arrived to save her from boredom...

Unfortunately for Janice, she is headed for bitter disappointment and heartbreak, as The Ghost Who Walks is spoken for -- and by adventure's end he will have denounced her as a "foolish child".



WRITER: Lee Falk
ARTIST: Sy Barry