Phantom Sunday Strip #136 - More Coloured Pages

It is really a long strip, and I am slightly getting bored now with the repetitive job of coloring the same characters and same scenarios. Looking for something new. Still wonder, was it a mistake to select this long story as my first shot in coloring.

Was only able to produce 5 pages this time. Wanted to make it 10 but it is taking more time now and I don't want to keep this unposted for long. So here is whatever I could. Only 10 more remains after this.

TPH #069: Phantom Daily Strip (D-208 "The Hit Men")

Continuing the series on Phantom Daily Strips. Here comes another one, D-208, "The Hit Men".

Story

Cici, a young and innocent teenager, accidentally becomes an eye-witness to  a murder order by a highly placed underworld agent. She is encouraged by  her mother to stand by the truth and to testify in the court against the  evils. Courageously she follows the advice and becomes star witness in  the case.

Her testimony in the case could prove fatal for a number of high  positions. So, A plan is carefully laid to get rid of her, but her death  should not arise any doubts, so an accident is planned. She, along with  few of her friends, is sent to Bangalla jungle in the name of a high  adventure trip where two professional killers are in wait for her.

Trailer from the new Phantom series and The Veiled Lady (Adaptation of Lee Falk's original story in Novel Form)

A new TV series on The Phantom by RHI entertainment (official website, wiki page) is about to be launched next year (i.e. in 2010). The miniseries will be aired on SyFy Channel (official website, wiki page) that specialises in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming.

A trailer has just been released. Watch it.

TPH Exclusive: Novel by Lee Falk - The Story of the Phantom

Few phans know that between 1972 and 1975, Avon publications in USA had brought out a series of Phantom books (novels, not comics). Total 15 books were released in the series out of which some were written by Lee Falk himself and others were done by ghost writers for him. [Ghost writing on ghost who walks. Funny, isn't it? :-)]

The covers for the series were created by George Wilson, who was also attached with Gold Key publications and had previously illustrated several excellent Phantom covers for them.

While most of the books in this series are regarded as just average by the literary perspective, those written by Falk himself are considered better works.

TPH #068: The Albees (Phantom daily strip D-194)

Today I am going to talk about another Phantom daily strip coming from Mr Lee Falk's own pen. While reading this story one thing which kept coming to my mind, and confirmed my believe, is that the magic of Falk was certainly on a decline during his last phase. He only appears as a shadow of himelf in the stories he created during the 90s. The special Falkian flavour which kept the readers glued to his creations for so long (almost 5 decades) is completely missing. It seems he was finding it difficult to cultivate new ideas and to develop them in some interesting manner, once Sy Barry bid a farewell to the illustration job. That's why we often get to see either the repetition of past events or long references to them. It's tolerable or even good upto some extent but when it overshadows the main storyline the things start to turn boring.

TPH #67: Phantom daily strip by Lee Falk (D-193, The Dakk Pirates)

A repeatitive theme in Phantom stories is 'the eastern dark' and the evildoers belonging to that land. For centuries phantoms have been fighting a constant battle against the ever upsurging crime-waves from the lands of dark. Lee Falk created at least four different stories on this topic.

One of the titles that Phantom holds declares him "the guardian of the eastern dark". The age old rivalry between the pirates/thugs of eastern dark and phantoms have provided Phantom lovers with some great stuff to read. The last of these (from Falk's pen) was the daily strip number 193, "The Dakk Pirates". This is presented in the current post.

TPH #066: Another Phantom Daily Strip (D-222, The New Recruits)

Another phantom daily strip. This time one created by Tony DePaul and Paul Ryan.

Story:

Jungle Patrol second in command, Colonel Worobu, is facing a unique situation. T wo young ladies from Mawitaan (capital city of Bangalla), tired of their boring routine work life, one working as a policewoman and the other a waitress in a restaurant, want to join the famed organisation, patroling the borders of 7 countries.


The girls are fed up with their current jobs and are in search for some stiff challenges and excitement in their lives. The two happened to be friends of Diana, from whom they get to know about the strange history of the only guarding unit of 1000 miles spreading jungle.