Found on the CBR website, we read a post titled 10 Golden Age Comic Strips That Never Died written by Devon Lord-Moncrief.

The theme of the post is about comic book characters which have had a long enduring presence via comic strips, be it published in our newspapers or digitally online. These comic strips usually contain a few panels of the story per day, illustrated and read from left-to-right, traditionally referred to as either ‘Daily Stories‘ or ‘Sunday Stories‘, with 2 stories of the character often running at the same time, depending if the comic strip is published daily or on a Sunday.

Devon’s list is made up of the following comic book characters, seen below based on their longevity of publication. Interestingly, a number of these characters are licensed by King Features Syndicate.

• Gasoline Alley – 1918
• Popeye – 1929
• Blondie – 1930
• The Shadow – 1931
• Dick Tracey – 1931
• Doc Savage – 1933
• Flash Gordon – 1934
• Mandrake the Magician – 1934
• The Phantom – 1936
• Dennis the Menace – 1951

The Phantom makes an appearance in the post, with the first Phantom comic strip appearing in US newspapers on the 17th of February 1936, just recently marking its 88th Anniversary. Devon writes in the post about the Phantom:

“The Ghost Who Walks.” “Guardian of the Eastern Dark.” “The Man Who Cannot Die.” The Phantom goes by many names, his exploits of crimefighting and bravery famous the world over. The Phantom has continued to battle the forces of evil wherever they may appear. Designed as a follow-up to Falk’s previous hero, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom has proven himself to be an even more famous superhero.

The Phantom operates as a crime fighter who lives in Skull Cave in the fictitious African country of Bangalia. A supremely cool fact about The Phantom is that his iconic visage can be found painted on ceremonial shields among the native people of Papua New Guinea. When soldiers stationed there during World War II shared their comics with the native peoples, The Phantom was admired and respected for his bravery and commitment to justice for all.

Below we see the first Phantom daily comic strip appearing in the US on the 17th of February 1936, printed in black and white, a story titled ‘The Singh Brotherhood‘. The Phantom daily comic strip, which has continued relatively unbroken on a daily base, is still released up to this day.

The first Phantom Sunday comic strip to be published in newspapers was on the 28th of May 1939, also printed in black and white, a story titled ‘The League of Lost Men‘. The Phantom Sunday comic strip, same as the daily, continues to be released up to this day.

Both the daily and Sunday Phantom comic strip stories were originally written by Phantom creator Lee Falk and illustrated by Ray Moore.

In our current time, the daily Phantom comic strip story, number 265 is titled ‘The Chain’ and is written by Tony DePaul and illustrated by Bret Blevins, and the Sunday Phantom comic strip story number 194 is titled ‘The Commander Will See You Now’ and is written by Tony DePaul and illustrated by Jeff Weigel.

We as Phantom fans should mark ourselves extremely fortunate to continue to see the Phantom printed in comic strip form on a daily and Sunday basis, especially considering so many other more mainstream comic book characters ended their daily comic strip appearance a long time ago.

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To read the current Phantom comic strips stories as noted above on the Comics Kingdom website, operated by King Features Syndicate, click HERE

To read the 10 Golden Age Comic Strips That Never Died written by Devon Lord-Moncrief on the CBR website, click HERE

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