# The Phantom comic **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925 "2005-08-20T22:29:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/1 "2005-08-20T22:29:25Z")
I read it when I was a child, and just began reading it on the web. It seems that Kit who was a child when our paper carried it is the current Phantom. Did dad die from foul play or has he retired to wrestle alligators in Florida? ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/2 "2005-08-20T23:07:13Z")
Foul play. [Maybe](http://www.deepwoods.org/phorum2/viewtopic.php?t=691). Singh river pirates? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/3 "2005-08-21T01:03:29Z")
What’s the appeal of this interminable, badly drawn, outdated comic? I haven’t seen an ounce of entertainment value in it for as long as I’ve seen it. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/4 "2005-08-21T01:07:29Z")
What’s not to love? You’ve got a friendly, innocent, adorable phantom who wanders the world, looking for friends. Though people are frightened by him, he means harm to noone. Oh, and he’s got a cute little sorceress as a girlfriend. Like I said, what’s not to love? ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/5 "2005-08-21T01:18:40Z")
:dubious: **GuanoLad** , don’t I recall having seen you in a thread in which you sounded interested in an adventure-comic strip storyline? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/6 "2005-08-21T03:23:30Z")
A good adventure comic strip, for sure. I’m a huge fan of [Thieves and Kings](http://www.iboxpublishing.com/) (which I think you’d probably really like, too). But The Phantom doesn’t have any of that kind of creativity in it, it’s quite pedestrian and meandring and has no sense of excitement, at least not for me. It’s still written and drawn in the same style as it was when it first began, which is woefully outdated. So something about it must resonate with people if it’s maintained its popularity so well, but I can’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/7 "2005-08-21T04:20:24Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > So something about it must resonate with people if it’s maintained its popularity so well, but I can’t see it. When I was a pup I saw it on Sundays when Dad and I visited Grandmother Plant. It’s nostalgia, like reading Spiderman. Nothing as cool as _Pearls Before Swine_ or _Sluggy Freelance_, although the sucker better get back to the Bun Bun returns story, damn his eyes! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/8 "2005-08-21T04:20:28Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > A good adventure comic strip, for sure. I’m a huge fan of [Thieves and Kings](http://www.iboxpublishing.com/) (which I think you’d probably really like, too). > > But The Phantom doesn’t have any of that kind of creativity in it, it’s quite pedestrian and meandring and has no sense of excitement, at least not for me. It’s still written and drawn in the same style as it was when it first began, which is woefully outdated. > > So something about it must resonate with people if it’s maintained its popularity so well, but I can’t see it. The artist’s style reminds me of the National Lampoon’s Trotts and Bonnie. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/9 "2005-08-21T04:33:41Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Oh, and he’s got a cute little sorceress as a girlfriend. Like I said, what’s not to love? Sorceress? What sorceress? Last I saw, he was still happily married to Diana Palmer-Walker (they just took a vacation a few months back). And **carnivorousplant** , I believe this is the same Phantom who’s been phantoming since at least the mid-70s. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/10 "2005-08-21T04:39:45Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > And **carnivorousplant** , I believe this is the same Phantom who’s been phantoming since at least the mid-70s. As I read the OP the Phantom he grew up with was from before the 70s, not Kit. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/11 "2005-08-21T04:42:30Z")
> [@astro](#): > > The artist’s style reminds me of the National Lampoon’s Trotts and Bonnie. [Good gad.](http://www.marksverylarge.com/people/flenniken.html) I thought it was all those chemicals in my youth…Seeing the dog with the sex toy…what do they…no…I think I’ll start smoking cigarettes again. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/12 "2005-08-21T04:44:24Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > As I read the OP the Phantom he grew up with was from before the 70s, not Kit. Yeah. Kit was some tow headed child in a loincloth that looked suspiciously like the tow headed kid who is prince of Freedonia or something in the current Sunday version. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/13 "2005-08-21T04:52:56Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Sorceress? What sorceress? Last I saw, he was still happily married to Diana Palmer-Walker (they just took a vacation a few months back). [This one.](http://www.toonopedia.com/wendy.htm) This here’s the gal that stole the phantom’s heart. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/14 "2005-08-21T04:53:29Z")
**All** the Phantoms are named “Kit”. But I’ve only been reading it, off and on, since the 70s, so I plead ignorance to what happened before then. And yes, the current Phantom’s son does look an awful lot like Rex. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/15 "2005-08-21T04:55:59Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > [This one.](http://www.toonopedia.com/wendy.htm) This here’s the gal that stole the phantom’s heart. I have been most thoroughly whooshed. Although I did rather wonder when I read your description saying he was a > [@](#): > > friendly, innocent, adorable phantom who wanders the world, looking for friends. Though people are frightened by him, he means harm to noone. No wonder I thought you’d confused the Phantom with Casper! ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/16 "2005-08-21T04:57:01Z")
Casper who? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-comic/317925/17 "2005-08-21T05:05:21Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Casper who? Casper Paginini, a comic strip about a mafia hit man.