Origin of The Phantom Annotated
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The Phantom creator Lee Falk told readers a little bit of what happened before that first panel above and a lot, 66 years worth, of what happened after the second panel above, but nothing of the events between those two panels. That lapse of history bothered the current writer of The Phantom comic strip. Says Tony DePaul:
“I’ve always been surprised that Falk, in writing the strip seven days a week for 66 years, never did anything more than what you see here on a shipwrecked man becoming the Phantom.
“Leaving quite a load of grist there on the mill floor, aren’t you, fella? Nothing happens between those two panels? A shipwrecked man never thinks about getting back home?”
So every Sunday since February 1, 2026 DePaul and artist Jeff Weigel have been telling the untold story of The Phantom’s origin, what happened between that shore scene and the taking of the oath.
“This Sunday, in Lee Falk’s Phantom, Jeff Weigel and I will wrap up a 35-week origin story that Falk somehow never got around to writing. Think of 1536 as the opposite bookend to The Death of the 21st Phantom, the end-of-lore tale Mike Manley and I told four years ago.”
With the origin story ending this coming Sunday DePaul gives us a behind the scenes synopsis.
Or as DePaul says, “Here I’ll give you the quick tour.” A fully illustrated summation.
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