Yesterdays Heroes, The Ghost who Walks.... meet The Phantom

The fictional  hero called the Phantom is also known as "The Ghost Who Walks" due to the belief he is a person who has lived for over 400 years.

This is a myth as although the Jungle legend has existed for a long time, it is a title and roll that has been passed down from Father to son over a long period.  When the Father retires is  unable to continue as the Ghost Who Walks, his son or sometimes daughter takes up the mantle. Usually retirement means the death of the former Phantom. The hero is a man of great wealth, most of which has been gathered over the years by his forefathers, being it from Pirate Treasure, to mined Gold and  gem stones found in the location of his home.

All the old Phantoms are buried in the catacombs of his home and base of operations  in Skull Cave, thus helping the legend continue.

As the new Phantom dresses and acts like his predecessor, people  believe he is the same person.

First appearing in 1936 as a Newspaper Comic strip he became very popular with young and old alike at the time. Over the years he has appeared in his own comic, Radio Show, Movie Serial, Major Motion Picture and even TV Cartoon. Although this character was never as big as the Big Bad Bat from Gotham City, both heroes have similarities.

The original Phantom of the 1930's was Christopher Walker who was the 21st person to have taken up the mantle as the adventurer. Later his son Kit would inherit the roll as the 22nd Phantom.

Although the Phantom operates out of his Skull Cave in Bangalla  a fictional place in Central Africa, his dentures at times took him all over the Globe.

With no Super Powers accept his two fists and athletic abilities, this mystery man or should I say MEN, only relays on two hand guns. Evil doers usually get marked after being defected by The Phantom by being branded by the hero's Skull Ring.

Next Time another forgotten Hero


Until then     ENJOY !

THANKS 37000 Still going Stong after so many years thanks to you guys !

I have doing my strange Dawg Blog since 14th December 2010  and it always amazed me that so many of you come back and enjoy my work.
 What I produce now compared to then is worlds apart. Less Puns and a more uniformed look these days, I still get a lot of enjoyment doing what I do.

Over the last few months finding time to post has been hard, and some of the subjects and their stories have taken a VERY LONG TIME to tell and relate in my "Unique" way.

My Tales of the New Teen Titans began back in August 2015 and although I never plan for the stories to go on and on, by the time you have covered the basic characters and their back grounds that can run into a lot of pictures and new drawing..... and the time just flies by.

Anyway, that's my problem..... so please bare with me.

Whilst I was going my Titans Tales, I missed a few Thank You Posts..... so here is the last one featuring "more" Teen Titans. Sorry I did promise, but its a chance to use some of the pictures I did not get around to posting.

Hopefully I have captured all of the best Bits from the first few years of the Teen Aged Heroes. Most of these characters again I had to tweak and clean up as when I did the originals I made little errors and the lines were not as crisp as I do them now. This a basically a Pre - Crisis (the first DC Crisis I mean ) set of Heroes.  When Bat Girl was Bette Kane and Cyborg was a Titan and not in the "Big" League, When Wonder Woman's Mum was Blond and when Donna Troy just an adopted orphan with no mystical past, when Dick Grayson finally Grew up and got quickly replaced TWICE by two other Robin's, and when Superman still  wore his Knickers over his Tights and Lois Lane hadn't a Scooby Doo he was Clark Kent.  .....and when Heroes that Died STAYED DEAD and didn't get better after a re boot........ The Good Old Days !!!!

All of the Key Characters and some of the now forgotten ones too.

Plus the original Bodies of my "Dawg" Buddy have changed over time.... have a look at my early posts.  I am still proud of them but they do look a bit basic and rough around the edges.

Finding new subjects is difficult. Especially these days where most Super Heroes seem to change their look all them time. Sometime it is good, but I think its more about the artist wanting to "own" the characters and therefore they want to up date them and their look in their unique ways too.

I am more of a classic comic book boy, so I tend to go for the Classic Heroes and the look they are mostly associated with.. If it ain't broke......  as they say!

Remember if you have any ideas of subjects that I could cover, let me know. I am very much enjoying my Yesterdays Heroes theme, and hopefully you will see one of two new faces that you had forgotten all about.

Anyway enjoy this post.

Until Next Time


ENJOY !

YESTERDAYS HEROES REMEMBERING FLASH GORDON the Savour of the Universe.

Flash Gordon was first Published as a news paper comic strip adventure in January 1934. His creator Alex Raymond had been asked to produce a space inspired hero that could rival the already established Buck Rogers Adventure strip that had first hit the newsstands in the  August of 1928.

Although many would think that Flash Gordon was the first space adventurer, he owes much to Buck Rogers.  Many other writers at this time were penning fanatical tales of time travel and adventure in what we now call science fiction.

The set up of the character was simple, Alex Gordon better known as Flash to his friends was a Yale University Graduate based in the 1930's. A football hero and all round athlete.  Unlike his "competitor" Buck Rogers who had ended up in the 24th Century, Flash's stories were based in the modern time, but due to most of his adventures being on the Planet Mongo, allowed a mix of Sci Fi with a bit of Medieval Adventure and Aliens thrown in for good cause.

Flash in the style of the comic strip and the Movie Serials

The stories were all basically the same, Flash and his companions Dr Hans Zarkov the brilliant if sometimes mad earth scientist , and Dale Arden the society girl from a rich back ground would end up fighting and rebelling against Ming the Merciless from the wandering  planet Mongo . It would later be claimed Dale was a news reporter by trade. BUT unlike some female characters in books and comics of the time, she was not just used as to help spice up the plot by being kidnapped or needing saving from the bad guys........ However, she did tend to get kidnapped a lot and she was always saved by Flash...... plus she did usually end up wearing some very sexy outfits as a result.

The Ruler of Mongo, Ming would spend most of his time tying to kill Flash and marry Dale.

Flash Gordon stories had it all. Space Battles, Evil Dictators, Beautiful Princess's, Rocket Ships, Robots, Aliens, Ray Guns, Heroes and Villains....... everything that we now expect in a good SciFi story. Sounds a lot like STAR WARS, which used some of the "ideas" of the film serials in its creation. Remember the opening credits and the way one scene fades into the next..... Flash Gordon and crew did it first.

My version of a 1930's inspired Rocket Ship

By 1936 Flash Gordon was now appearing in a weekly cinema serial featuring Buster Crabbe, and these stories cemented the look that we all associate with the Flash Gordon myth.

Although Flash Gordon did feature in a BIG BUDGET cinema film in the 1980's and in various cartoon series in the 1990's, and a short lived live action series in the 2000's... BUT Flash  he will always be remembered for the 1930's Black & Whites film serials by most.

Flash and Dale exploring an Alien planet.

Next Time another hero of Yesterday


Until then     ENJOY !