Over the past month or so there has been a story line where The Phantom has been told a prophesy where, if he goes on with a plan to rescue a certain person it will create a chain of events where he eventually dies, his wife leaves him and his twins decide not to carry on the legacy. He decides to carry on the rescue, and in today’s strip these words are written:
“The men he fought covered his body with earth and rock to honor the courage of the stranger who stood one against many. Thus ends the tale of the 21st Phantom’s final hour.”
I can’t find any news online-Is this the end of the strip?
In that order?
I mean, it even sounds like it if they were burying him under a pile of dirt and rocks!
The daughter gets married and becomes a housewife, the person who The Phantom frees does something that eventually convinces the son to become a mercenary, the wife leaves him because of all this and goes back to the U.S., The Phantom flies off to try to reconcile with his son…then this strip happens.
Let’s see what happens in tomorrow’s strip…if it isn’t a re-run.
…Wait, it didn’t end, like, 50 years ago? I’ve never seen references to the strip except in historical context.
It has been an ongoing strip until, perhaps, today.
ISTR DePaul writing about this in his blog a while back. Sounded to me like the entire arc is his and Manley’s way of thumbing their noses at the wet blankets and trolls infesting Comics Kingdom’s comments.
ETA: found it.
That’s what I assumed. I read it as a kid, but lumped it in with Prince Valiant as “what to read when you get to the end of the comic section of the family newspaper and there’s nothing to do.”
But then I got hooked on The Comics Curmudgeon, where a superhero named Josh snarks all over newspaper strips. Especially the soap opera ones… his take on Mary Worth, especially the Aldo and Wilbur periods? Brilliant! As are the comments.
So I’ve been privy to discussions of the Phantom (“The Ghost Who Walks Around Following Teenage Girls” recently). And it’s been a crazy ride, shifting abruptly from mission to mission, continent to continent. With the help of an out-of-proportion airplane (and the maps it flies over).
So who knows? One guess is this prophecy MAY come to pass (cop out!) OR it will, but in a year or so, and we’ll have a long slog until then…
From those comments:
Sooooo… somewhere between the time when Kit is flying his red plane over the map of Asia and his death, he battles a large group of men. Kit is killed but, on the bright side, earns the respect of his enemies. His desolate tomb is as was shown in the Flea-bitten Forest by his Flaming Skellington Dad, and as later scritched out artistically… by Mozz.
More snark from the commenters: “Jesus, are we lighting the entire jungle around here? Candles don’t grow on trees, you know.”
Seems to me that the prophecy will come to pass – as a way to have one of the kids take over as the 22nd Phantom. DePaul wrote about one of the kids taking over a long time ago, on his old Phantom Comics site.
According to that same prophesy, neither will become The Phantom, and the line ends.
The Phantom’s Facebook page, Fan Ghost Who Walks Wiki Page, and the Podcast all know nothing of this.
Czarcasm, this is your time! Don the purple tights and claim Skull Cave for your own!
Nope! I’m wrong. Looking at that strip, it tells of the end of the 21st Phantom. We’re on the 22nd.
The 22nd Phantom’s story begins with no Phantom. The 21st Phantom was the last of the line of succession of Phantoms stretching back over four centuries. Kit Walker Jr. refused to take up the mantle as the masked crime fighter and instead chose a comfortable ride of both life and family, while handling the day-to-day affairs of the Walkabout Foundation, a philanthropic organization created by one of the previous Walkers to help support charities in Bangalla and the surrounding nations of Africa. Kit had broken the chain and was no longer The Phantom. However, no matter how much he fought it, fate had other ideas
That version of 22 is from a comic book, not the syndicated strip.
Perhaps DePaul & Manley plan to link the two.
'Twould seem likely.
Nope. Didn’t end.
Mozz lied, to manipulate The Phantom.
Comics Kingdom has been really pushing their premium plan, only allowing a couple of free views per day. Phantom fortunately still has a mirror.
I use the Seattle Times comics page.
I’m wondering, is the Phantom as of this date really dead now? Is his son Kit going to become the new Phantom? Is Kit Jr. in todays strip the son or grandson? Sorry, I haven’t kept up and can’t really find an answer.
Is this the original possible Phantom used as a warning to the real Phantom not to go ahead with the plan, a secondary possible Phantom being used to show what will happen if the real Phantom goes ahead with the plan anyway after hearing what will happen, the real Phantom going ahead with the plan,…or a bad dream Devil is having after eating some bad gazelle meat?
ya got me