| The Phantom Detective | |
|---|---|
Third issue of Phantom Detective. June 1933. |
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| Publisher | Thrilling Publications |
| First appearance | The Phantom Detective (February 1933) |
| Created by | D. L. Champion |
| In story information | |
| Real name | Richard Curtis Van Loan |
| Abilities | Excellent detective, master of disguise and escape. |
| Supporting characters | Frank Havens Muriel Havens Steve Huston Chip Dorlan Jerry Lannigan |
| The Phantom Detective | |
| Publisher | Thrilling Publications |
| Schedule | Monthly (#1-108) Bi-monthly (#109-152) Quarterly (#153-170) |
| Genre | Pulp hero |
| Publication date | February 1933 – Summer 1953 |
| Number of issues | 170 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | "G. Wayman Jones" "Robert Wallace" (Housenames) |
The Phantom Detective was the second pulp hero character published, after The Shadow. The first issue was released in February 1933, a month before Doc Savage, which was released in March 1933. The title continued to be released until 1953, with a total 170 issues. This is the third highest number of issues for a character pulp, after The Shadow, which had 325 issues, and Doc Savage, which had 181. In western titles, Texas Rangers would have around 212 issues of their main character, known as the Lone Wolf.
The series was published by Ned Pines' Thrilling (also known as Better or Standard) Publishing. Ned Pines had a comic book imprint, which collectors usually refer to as Nedor Comics, and The Phantom Detective had a series in their title Thrilling Comics.
Stories were credited to several pseudonyms. The first eleven Phantom Detective stories were published under the Better house pseudonym of "G. Wayman Jones", and were largely written by D. L. Champion, a.k.a Jack D'arcy. The rest were published under the pseudonym "Robert Wallace". These were largely written by Edwin V. Burkholder, Norman Daniels(36+), Anatole F. Feldman, Charles Greenberg, George A. MacDonald, Laurence Donovan and C. S. Montanye. Lesser contributors included Paul Chadwick, Norvell W. Page, Paul Ernst, Emile C. Tepperman, Henry Kuttner, Ray Cummings, Ralph Oppenheim and others. Ryerson Johnson is credited with #46, The Silent Death.
There have been several reprints of Phantom Detective stories over the years. Soft porn publisher Corinth Books released the most, with 20 titles.
The Phantom (as he was called in the stories) was actually the wealthy Richard Curtis Van Loan. In the first few issues of the title, The Phantom was introduced as a world-famous detective, whose true identity was only known by one man. That man was Frank Havens, the publisher of the Clarion newspaper. Richard Curtis Van Loan was orphaned at an early age, but inherited wealth. Before the Great War he was an idle playboy, but during the war he became a pilot and downed many German planes.
After the war Richard had a difficult time returning to his idle playboy life. At the suggestion of his father's friend, Havens, Richard set out to solve a crime that had stumped the police. After solving it, Richard decided he'd found his calling, where he could have a life of adventure and danger.
He trained himself in all facets of detection and forensics. He became a master of disguise and escape. And then he made a name for himself as the Phantom, whom all police agencies around the world knew and respected. When dealing with law-enforcement officials he carried a platinum badge in the shape of a domino mask as proof of his true identity. The initial stories were less about a detective than an adventurer using disguise and lucky escapes to conclude his cases.
In one issue, Havens installed a red beacon on the roof of the Clarion building, which he'd turn on when he needed to see the Phantom. Batman's Bat-Signal may have been inspired by this signal device. Two early Batman editors, Jack Schiff and Mort Weisinger, got their start editing The Phantom Detective under Thrilling editor-in-chief Leo Margulies.
Other people in Richard's life were Muriel Havens, Frank Havens' daughter, with whom he was in love, but wouldn't get involved with because of the danger in his life, and Clarion reporter Steve Huston. Laurence Donovan introduced a kid sidekick named Chip Dorlan in the 1939 novel, The Sampan Murders. After Pearl Harbor, Chip joined the Army as an Intelligence officer, returning briefly to the series after the war. Van Loan's former WWI mechanic and pilot, Jerry Lannigan, assisted him in several cases, as did others from time to time.
The Phantom employed several alternate identities, including Lester Cornwell and Dr. Paul Bendix, a chemist.
The Phantom Detective is not to be confused with Lee Falk's comic strip creation The Phantom.
The pseudonym "Robert Wallace" was coined to evoke popular British thriller novelist Edgar Wallace, and was used on short stories and novelettes not featuring the Phantom.
The early episodes of Lee Falk's Phantom newspaper strip strongly resemble the Thrilling Phantom. Abruptly, Falk abandoned this tack for the exotic adventure approach, abandoning his Manhattan locale and the Phantom's original identity of playboy Jimmy Wells.
In 2006 Wildside Press LLC printed the "first new Phantom Story in 50 years": The Phantom's Phantom, which takes place in 1953 after the original pulp series ends. Interestingly enough it was written in the first person which allows an in-depth study of the Phantom's personality that never occurred in the pulps!
For the last several years, Adventure House has been reprinting the stories of The Phantom Detective. More than 20 full length stories have seen the light of day through this endeavor.