Moonstone Forums

Thanks for taking the time to post such a cerebral response, Samy.

Thanks for taking the time to produce something worth responding to.

Is Mr Szilagyi a regular artist for the book, or just for this arc? Who will be drawing #20+?

Yes. He's done 16-19 so far and the upcoming Christmas story, then he gets an issue off before going full steam on the biggest Phantom arc we've done so far: Issues 21-25. :mrgreen:

#20 was drawn by guest artist Zeu, who may also do #26 (also featuring the 13th Phantom) but we haven't worked the art schedule out that far just yet.

The 13th Phantom? That sounds excellent. I've always been a huge fan of the generational approach to the Phantom, and I always thought that was one of his very unique selling points as a superhero.

What's your approach to the generational aspect, vis-a-vis modern time passing? Are we dealing with a 23rd Phantom now, as opposed to the 21st? Or are you stretching out the 21st to last forever, like most superheroes (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man), with us never seeing Kit and Heloise grow up or their descendants in the uniform? Does the 20th Phantom keep constantly moving forward through time from time period to time period, or is he always fixed in the...what, 1920s?

Myself, I'd love for the 21st to be treated as a period piece set in the older days and occasionally getting "grown up Kit and Heloise" tales as the 22nd Phantom in a more modern era. Annual back-ups, or special fill-in issues, or something like that. I'd love to see them take on the mantle, and what kind of loves they would eventually end up with. One of the most fascinating aspects about each generation's Phantom was who ended up with a pirate princess, who ended up with a noblewoman and so on. 21st/Diana Palmer is kind of over-iconic now -- just like Clark and Lois, you know no writer will never permanently break them up -- but what about later Phantoms than that? They could still have some soap opera about who they end up with.

Bring on the 22nd (Kit and Heloise) and the 23rd, I say!!!

Check out #20 for his first appearance in a Moonstone Book.

This is determined by King Features Syndicate, and they've decreed the current Phantom is the 21st.

I'd love to do a futuristic Phantom tale at some point, but I have so many ideas for historical and current day tales, it would probably be issue 50 before I even had a chance to think about it.

That's fair enough and not something I expect you to have power over. I am curious how you see that happening. Do the 21st's adventures take place in 1950s? Or in the modern day? If in the modern day, when did he start adventuring? In the 1930s? Or in the 1990s? Was the 20th Phantom, immediately preceding 21st, an Indiana Jones period character, or an Arnold Schwarzenegger period character? It kind of entirely transforms the character of the 20th Phantom, whether he fought Nazis pre-WWII or whether he was a Cold War Phantom.

I do realize that the easy answer is "these are the kinds of things that shouldn't be looked at too closely". But if you felt like considering the question at any depth, I'd love to hear your views on the temporal problem.

The Phantom in issues 12-19, 21-15 operates in the current time (2006-07). As for how I'd lay out the timeline were it up to me, I've never put too much thought into it since I was told the current Phantom is #21. However, since Mr. Falk wasn't above retcon'ing things, it wouldn't surprise me, were he still alive, if at some point he'd announce the current Phantom is the 22nd or 23rd...

Yeah, that's how I think I would go about it. It's not like the number 21 is terribly key to this Phantom's identity -- it could just as well be 22, 23 or 24, and he'd still be the same person.

It'd be interesting to see a WWII Phantom established, a Cold War Phantom, an 80s Phantom...but, when and if to allow those things is up to King Feature, as you noted. I would hope they'd be amenable to that route someday.

I am guessing you are talking about the Singh Brotherhood which was the first story and she is shown boxing the first mate on board a ship.

In Frew it was #1128 which has been the best print version but also recently at #1472

It's in the Frew 1500th Issue (actual #1472) that came out not long ago.