The Phantom Detective was the second pulp hero character published after
The ShadowThe Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of fictional vigilante The Shadow. One of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips, television,...
. The first issue was dated February 1933, a month before
Doc SavageDoc Savage is a fictional character originally published in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L...
- March 1933. The title continued till 1953, 170 issues. For the character pulps, this is the third most issues after the Shadow (325) and Doc Savage (181). In western titles, Texas Rangers would have around 212 issues of their main character, known as the Lone Wolf.
The publisher was
Ned PinesNed L. Pines was a New York publisher. He died in Paris, and lived in Paris, Manhattan and East Hampton NY.He was president and owner of Pines Publications, which he established in 1928 and remained as president until 1961. Pines published pulp magazines and others under a variety of company...
'
ThrillingThrilling Publications, aka Beacon Magazines , Better Publications and Standard Magazines , was a pulp magazine publisher run by Ned Pines, publishing such titles as Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories.A native of Malden, Massachusetts, Pines became the president of Pines Publications...
(also known as Better or Standard) Publishing.
The Phantom Detective was the second pulp hero character published after
The ShadowThe Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of fictional vigilante The Shadow. One of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips, television,...
. The first issue was dated February 1933, a month before
Doc SavageDoc Savage is a fictional character originally published in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L...
- March 1933. The title continued till 1953, 170 issues. For the character pulps, this is the third most issues after the Shadow (325) and Doc Savage (181). In western titles, Texas Rangers would have around 212 issues of their main character, known as the Lone Wolf.
The publisher was
Ned PinesNed L. Pines was a New York publisher. He died in Paris, and lived in Paris, Manhattan and East Hampton NY.He was president and owner of Pines Publications, which he established in 1928 and remained as president until 1961. Pines published pulp magazines and others under a variety of company...
'
ThrillingThrilling Publications, aka Beacon Magazines , Better Publications and Standard Magazines , was a pulp magazine publisher run by Ned Pines, publishing such titles as Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories.A native of Malden, Massachusetts, Pines became the president of Pines Publications...
(also known as Better or Standard) Publishing. Ned Pines had a comic book imprint, which collectors usually refer to as
Nedor ComicsNedor Comics was the comic book line of publisher Ned Pines, who also published pulp magazines under a variety of company names that he also used for the comics. In business from 1939 to 1956, Nedor was a prolific American publisher during the Golden Age of comic books. Its best-known character...
and The Phantom Detective had a series in their title
Thrilling ComicsThrilling Comics is the title of a comic book series published by Standard Comics for 80 issues from 1940 and 1951.It was used again in 1999 by DC Comics as the title of one of the issues of the Justice Society Returns storyline.-Characters:...
.
Stories were credited to several pseudonyms. The first eleven Phantom Detectives were published under the Better house pseudonym of "G. Wayman Jones", and were largely written by D. L. Champion, a.k.a Jack D'arcy. The rest were under the pseudonym "Robert Wallace". These were largely written by Edwin V. Burkholder, Norman Daniels(36+), Anatole F. Feldman, Charles Greenberg, George A. MacDonald, Laurence Donovan and C. S. Montanye. Lesser contributors included Paul Chadwick,
Norvell W. PageNorvell Wordsworth Page was an American pulp fiction writer, journalist and editor who later became a government intelligence worker. He is best known as the author of the majority of the adventures of the ruthless vigilante hero The Spider, which he and a handful of other writers wrote under the...
, Paul Ernst, Emile C. Tepperman, Henry Kuttner, Ray Cummings, Ralph Oppenheim and others. Ryerson Johnson is credited with #46,
The Silent Death.
There have been several reprints of stories over the years. The most were by soft porn publisher Corinth Books, which did about 20 titles.
The Phantom (as he was called in the stories) was wealthy Richard Curtis Van Loan. In the first few issues of the title, The Phantom was introduced as a world wide recognized detective, whose identity only one man knew, Frank Havens - the publisher of the Clarion newspaper. Richard Curtis Van Loan had become an orphan at an early age, but inherited wealth. Before the Great War, he had been an idle playboy. During the war he was a pilot who downed many German planes.
After the war Richard had a difficult time returning to his idle playboy life. At the suggestion of his father's friend, Havens, Richard set out to solve a crime the police couldn't. After solving it, Richard decided he'd found his calling, where he could have a life of adventure and danger.
He trained himself in all facets of detection and forensics. He became a master of disguise and escape. And then he made a name for himself as the Phantom, whom all police agencies around the world knew of and respected. He carried a platinum badge in the shape of a domino mask as proof of his true identity when dealing with law-enforcement officials. The initial stories were less of a detective than an adventurer using disguise and luck in escape to conclude his cases.
In one issue, the Havens had installed on the roof of the Clarion building a red beacon, which he'd turn on when he needed to see the Phantom. Batman's Bat-Signal may have been inspired by this signal device. Two early Batman editors, Jack Schiff and Mort Wesinger, got their start editing The Phantom Detective under Thrilling editor-in-chief Leo Margulies.
Other people in Richard's life were Muriel Havens, Frank Havens' daughter, with whom he was in love, but wouldn't get involved with because of the danger in his life, and Clarion reporter Steve Huston. Laurence Donovan introduced a kid sidekick named Chip Dorlan in the 1939 novel,
The Sampan Murders. After Pearl Harbor, Chip joined the Army as an Intelligence officer, returning briefly to the series after the war. Van Loan's former WWI mechanic and pilot, Jerry Lannigan, assisted him in several cases, as did others from time to time.
The Phantom employed several alternate identities, including Lester Cornwell and Dr.
Paul Bendix, a chemist.
The Phantom Detective is not to be confused with
Lee FalkLeon Harrison Gross, more known by the alias of Lee Falk , was an American writer, director and producer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strip superheroes The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, who at the height of their popularity secured him over a hundred million readers every...
's comic strip creation
The PhantomThe Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many forms of media, including television and film, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the African jungle...
.
Robert Wallace was coined to evoke popular British thriller novelist Edgar Wallace, and was used on short stories and novelettes not featuring the Phantom.
Cultural references
The early episodes of Lee Falk's Phantom newspaper strip strongly resemble the Thrilling Phantom. Abruptly, Falk abandoned this tack for the exotic adventure approach, abandoning his Manhattan locale and the Phantom's original identity of playboy Jimmy Wells.
In 2006 Wildside Press LLC printed the "first new Phantom Story in 50 years":
The Phantom's Phantom, which takes place in 1953 after the original pulp series ends. Interestingly enough it was written in the first person which allows an in-depth study of the Phantom's personality that never occurred in the pulps!
For the last several years, Adventure House has been reprinting the stories of The Phantom Detective. More than 20 full length stories have seen the light of day through this endeavor.
External links