By Ed Rhoades
The Phantom is credited by most as the first costumed hero in comics. He predates Superman and Batman and the plethora of others to wear a skintight outfit in following years. In a business where everyone is inspired or influenced by someone, how did The Phantom begin the whole thing?
Having already created the successful comic strip Mandrake the Magician in June of 1934, Lee Falk turned his attention to a new kind of hero. Since his original plan was to name his protagonist ‘The Gray Ghost’, it’s possible that John Singleton Mosby was the kind of hero Lee had in mind. Mosby was a real-life daring figure whose exploits during the Civil War were similar to those of Lee’s new character. Both Mosby and The Phantom single handedly captured an important general, freed imprisoned men and captured the attention of the public.
Mosby was gray because of his Civil War uniform, and it’s possible that was the way Lee envisioned The Gray Ghost.
However, when Mandrake assistant artist, Ray Moore, began to translate Lee’s ideas to comic panels, he and a group of fellow artists who shared a studio had meetings and discussions during which Ray and the guys planned how The Phantom would appear. Ray’s widow, Claire Moore, told me that Lee only came to one or two of the meetings, and all of the Phantom art that was printed was Ray’s work. 
The hood or cowl was reminiscent of an old time executioner with a form suggesting a skull. The skintight shirt and tights were the sort of thing an old time circus performer would wear. The shorts were drawn with a hatching that gradually evolved into stripes that might be inspired by a costume from a Shakespearean play. It was no accident that the visual to the Oath sworn on the skull bears a resemblance to Hamlet’s ‘Alas Poor Yorick’ scene.
The Phantom’s eyes were shown early on in Ray Moore’s drawings. Later, the convention of leaving white spaces instead had two advantages. It was easier to draw, and it looked a little spooky. Lee said the white eyes on ancient Greek and Roman statues inspired it, but in their day, those statues had eyes painted over them. The white eyes were a convention maintained by Wilson McCoy and Sy Barry. There were two rare occasions where Sunday strip artist, Bill Lignante, showed the Phantom’s eyes. Once was when Queen Samaris asked the Phantom to marry her. Bill thought showing him wide-eyed made sense for the situation. Fans still haven’t quit talking about it.
For the movies, discussions showed an expectation of not showing the Phantom’s eyes or his face. However, I’m sure Billy Zane’s agent had other ideas. When wearing the hard plastic molded mask, the area around his eyes was blackened so nothing showed but the whites of his eyes, however, his scenes as Mr. Walker made no attempt to hide his face. Billy and Phantom serial actor Tom Tyler wore a thick black mask when in costume. In the comics, the mask has varied somewhat being a bit thinner in the early 70’s and thicker in the following decades.
The costume’s color has been the subject of much discussion amongst Phantom fans. In the newspapers, The Phantom was referred to as a gray figure. The first color version of the character adorned the cover of the Big Little Book in 1936. For that issue, the Phantom’s costume was an orange color. In the following Better Little Books, he was again orange for The Sign of the Skull, green for Desert Justice, purple for The Return of The Phantom blue for The Sky Pirates and back to purple for The Phantom and the Girl of Mystery.
In the first US Phantom comic to feature color, the character was given a brown costume.
When King Features Syndicate finally produced a Sunday version of the strip, they had to decide upon an official color. There is much speculation about this including a rumor that it was a printer’s error making The Phantom purple. When considering possibilities, gray was just too drab to take advantage of color printing. Perhaps they tried using red and blue to get a neutral color…a substitute for an ‘off gray.’ The new Phantom purple was seen in all the US papers, but in other countries, they decided for themselves. In Scandinavia, his outfit is blue; in South America, Turkey, France, and Italy, it is red.
The Tom Tyler Columbia serial from 1943 was in black and white and Lee expressed a disappointment saying, “It’s too bad they didn’t have stretch material back then.”
For the Paramount big budget film, there were about a dozen designs created, with the final one being two thin layers with a fabric showing lines that reacted as a moray pattern. The man responsible for the costume, Matt Britton says they were inspired by tribal tattoos from real pygmies to make an intricate design echoing the skull motif in the belt and ring.
In the animated cartoon series and the unused pilot for a newer Phantom film, the costume had chameleon like qualities.
I suspect that when a new film actually begins development, they will try to distance themselves from the Billy Zane film, which could disappoint fans, since that movie played pretty close to traditional Phantom lore. More thought is going into movie costumes for comic characters these days. Batman’s armored suit was result of a research and development for the military, Daredevil’s leather costume is practical for gymnastic stunts over cement. In Superman Returns, the costume has a beveled ‘S’ with a leather like cape. A major concern in such designs is licensing. Making sure that kids are sold on buying action figures is almost as important as promoting the movie itself.
Moonstone’s Phantom has a traditional purple costume with white spaces in the mask. The painted pulp-like covers of Joel Naprstek and the tight painted Doug Klauba covers provided an especially chilling effect. Moonstone’s Legacy presented a realistic depiction of how the first Phantom might have looked with a makeshift costume inspired by the Wasaka idol.
Both recent covers and interiors present a vintage look with the exception of metallic skull belt buckles that add another additional touch of realism.
While other comic heroes’ costumes have changed through the years, the first costumed hero of comics continues with a mysterious look that holds up and still looks great after 70 years.
