More than a year ago, upon suggestion of a friend, I had started working on coloring of a Phantom daily strip by Falk and Barry. It was strip No. "D179 - Nukes" (publication dates 21 June 1993 to 13 Nov 1993).
This is a strip from post Indrajal era (which had ceased publication in 1990 as we already know). So it was never published in Indrajal Comics. Moreover as per trend in those days, newspapers published daily strip only in black and white format. Hence, it can be assumed that this strip was never published in color anywhere in the world.
In a more recent past, I tried to revive the work but felt lethargy and lack of momentum to continue. Now, because I have already spent so much time on this particular strip, the desire to see it in complete form is also quite strong within me.
So, in an attempt to push myself, I am going to present this daily strip in form of a daily strip. That means I'll post one strip per day here on this blog. It'll come six days a week, Monday to Saturday. I have some buffer stock which will allow me some time to work on remaining strips.
Here is the first installment. Today I am posting the first three strips to make up for the three days of this week. From tomorrow, a strip a day pattern will resume.
A summary of the story (taken from this ipcomics page):
Six powerful nuclear missiles due for decommissioning at the end of the Cold War have been stolen from Russian silos and sold on the black market. Intelligence has traced the missiles to Bangalla’s two inherently unstable neighbours and non-U.N. members Ughland and Tarakimo.
Agreeing to investigate, the Phantom infiltrates the border of Tarakimo, where he must employ covert skills and cunning subterfuge to even get near the madmen holding the world as hostage...
day 1
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day 2
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day 3
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I notice that the art work of Sy Barry has changed alot. Earlier it was quite different. We may see the difference when we look at art work in "Hanta witch", "The Jungle Patrol" and many others. I do not know the reason.
ReplyDeleteSy took over from McCoy in 1961 and continued till 1994. Thirty three years is a long time for any artist to maintain a consistency. Moreover he had a team of assistants and his own work progressively reduced to supervision and correction over the years.
ReplyDeleteWhile initially he solely contributed to the artwork, in later years he became more of in inker with pencils job mainly performed by olessan. (and others) Hence the difference.
Welcome back after so long time. Please don't disappear this time. Comic blog world is incomplete without talented person like you.
ReplyDeleteRajesh
Thanks Rajesh. I have every intention to stay here long this time.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back.
ReplyDeleteThanks Venkit. The Mandrake Sunday is nearly 50% complete now. Planning to fill the sundays here with that story.
ReplyDeleteI think what you are doing here is great. I remember reading the first week of this story line strips when they were originally published. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks for appreciating the effort. I personally liked this story which also has some really nice artwork by Sy Barry. Though a few sequences are repetitive but still it unfolds well.
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