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Friday, October 25, 2013

Number 1460: The Phantom Ladies

A week ago I showed a story drawn by Frank Borth, and I included the splash panel for his first Phantom Lady story in Police Comics #17 (1943). I have that story today, and you can see what a superb artist Borth was, one of the top-notch talents at Quality Comics. The story, though, is filler; a bit of fluff.

The Phantom Lady, who is Sandra Knight, has a beau named Don, who doesn’t have a lot to do in that first story. He appears again in our second story from Phantom Lady #22 (1949). I don’t know why Phantom Lady, still Sandra Knight, moved from Quality to Fox Features and got a new costume. I assume the reason no one notices Phantom Lady is Sandra is because in those sexy costumes no one is looking at her face.

Sandra’s boyfriend, Don, is back in “The Case of the Robbing Robot,” with more to do in this story. He gets to dress in drag. The story has some humor to it, and is drawn by Jack Kamen in his pre-EC days.

















3 comments:

Brian Barnes said...

Kamen always kind of toiled under the more well know artists at EC, but he was every inch the same talent, and his skill at good girl art were put to great use here.

Not to dwell to far into comic sexism, but it's interesting to think in this period most superhero girlfriends were shrew-like insulting harpies, while most boyfriends -- while next to useless -- were at least lovable lugs, or clueless but insanely manly (which was thought of as a good property.)

Darci said...

Hi Pappy!
Re: "I don’t know why Phantom Lady, still Sandra Knight, moved from Quality to Fox Features and got a new costume."

When Busy Arnold gave up on comics in 1956 some of his characters were sold to DC, but not all. The titles DC chose to continue were Blackhawks, G. I. Combat, Heart Throbs, and Robin Hood. Jerry Iger believed he owned Phantom Lady and sold the character to Fox. 17 years later DC laid claim to the character. Bill Black at AC disputes their claim, but doesn't have the money to fight it out in court. He renamed his version of the character Nightveil rather than suffer their barratry.
Hope this helps!

AB said...

I didn't realize that "swag" for fine goods was a 1940s expression. I thought it was more recent. The things you learn reading Fox comic books.