The Phantom – Why We Reprint Wilson McCoy

Note: A version of this essay was prepared for Comics Revue in early 2013 (February issue; sent to press in December 2012). The text below revises and clarifies that original note. Now, Aug 2025, it sadly looks like the magazine has ended.

Why Wilson McCoy?

The Phantom is among the earliest masked-hero comic strips. Since its debut in 1936 it has attracted devoted readers worldwide. In many countries the character has had his own comic book, often reprinting newspaper strips or presenting new licensed stories—some close to Falk’s vision, others more loosely adapted. In Scandinavia, and particularly in Norway and Sweden, the strip developed an especially loyal following: Fantomen has been published in Sweden since the early 1950s, and in Norway since 1964.

When I became associate editor of Comics Revue, it was natural for me to advocate for Phantom stories. I was granted considerable freedom in selecting material, and given that the strip had been relatively little reprinted in the United States, I felt it made sense to feature it prominently.

My personal history also played a role. The first Phantom comic I bought in Norway in 1967 was drawn by Wilson McCoy, and for some years his artwork defined the character for me. Later I grew to admire Sy Barry’s elegant style, but when I discovered old Australian Frew editions of McCoy strips, my interest in his work was rekindled. That discovery led me to begin collecting the strip seriously, which deepened my appreciation of McCoy’s period.

Reduced Strips and the Importance of Restoration

Another reason for emphasizing McCoy’s work is that, although these stories have been reprinted many times abroad, they remain scarce in the United States. Even more importantly, most reprints worldwide present reduced strips: versions where the bottoms or sides of panels were cut away. This practice originated during World War II as a way to conserve paper, and continued afterward because it allowed newspapers to print more strips per page. The same was true of the Sunday pages, which were often reduced from a half page to a third.

You can compare the difference here:

By the late 1950s the reduced format had become the norm, and subsequent reprints generally perpetuated these cropped versions. For collectors such as myself, however, it is essential that the Falk–McCoy dailies be reproduced as close to their original form as possible. In 2010 Comics Revue published the first part of “The White Monkey” in complete, full-sized strips. Producing this edition was challenging—complete runs of proofs are nearly impossible to locate, and much editing is required—but the results are worth the effort. To my knowledge, Comics Revue remains the only publication in the world to present these stories in their entirety.

When it comes to the Sunday strips for the same period, they were also reduced in their height, but in another way. The panels were reformatted—some art taken away and some added. I have a complete set of half pages and they are the “full” and original versions of the Sundays, but in b/w. Colors have to be added. KFS does not store the Sundays in colors or Dailies in full.

The Unique Daily–Sunday Continuity

Beginning in February 1949 the strip attempted something unusual: a continuous narrative told across both the daily and Sunday strips. Readers could follow only the dailies or only the Sundays and still grasp the plot, but the complete story required both. This experiment concluded with the strip of May 7, 1950, and has never been repeated. Starting in December 2011, Comics Revue began reprinting this important run in its entirety—with the Sundays in color—for the first time anywhere.

Why McCoy Matters

In short, our choice to emphasize Wilson McCoy’s strips is guided by two factors: first, that complete runs of these stories, in their full format, have never before been reprinted; and second, that the years when Falk and McCoy collaborated were, in my view, among the most formative in the history of The Phantom. During this period the legend of the character expanded: the Jungle Patrol was introduced, the Monkey Mail appeared, and the dual marks of The Phantom—both the Good Mark and the Skull Mark—became central to his mythology.

To follow the reprints of Wilson McCoy in Comics Revue is to rediscover the essence of The Phantom. While it is true that not every detail at the bottom of a panel is crucial, it remains regrettable that so many reprints have deprived readers of the strip in its full form. Preserving McCoy’s work in its original layout allows us to appreciate not only Falk’s storytelling but also the artistry of a period that shaped the legend for generations of readers.