An indepth & confusing look at the countries around Bangalla

We understand the Phantom is a comic but it does not stop us and other nerds going all nerdy in phandom. Team Fantomen attempted the impossible in 1984 by creating an epic painted map of Bangalla created by Ulf Granberg and Özcan Eralp. You can find a translated version of this Swedish poster on our Phantom Preservation Project (P3).

This map has always intrigued me and leads me to the logical next question, what about the surrounding countries of Bangalla?

In typical Falklore there have been numerous countries on the border of Bengalla. It is well known that Lee Falk did not keep records so details are not consistent. This is perhaps the fun but also the frustrating part of being a phan and trying to make sense of the phandom.

My first step in bringing real-world logic to the fictional Phantom universe was to identify if current countries have multiple borders with other countries. China has borders with 14 countries, Russia has borders with 13 countries, Germany has borders with 9 countries. From an African point of view, Congo (DRC), borders nine countries and other nations with numerous borders include Angola, Zambia, and Algeria. Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe also meet at a quadripoint, where the borders of all four countries converge at a single location.

I feel this is important because in Lee Falk's stories and also Team Fantomen stories, there have been several different countries that depicted as bordering Bangalla. For instance, in the 1991 Daily 173 newspaper story "The Jungle Patrol v The Drug Cartel" (Daily 173), the narration identifies that the Jungle Patrol patrols the borders of five countries.

So, let's try to identify the borders of these countries circling Bangalla. We are also focusing on Bangalla being located in eastern Africa rather than Indonesia or India, which were nominated as the Phantom's home countries before Falk settled on his final location for Bangalla from the 1960's onwards.

Surrounding countries of Bangalla created by Lee Falk

Ivory-Lana

Is a neighboring country to Bangalla. Its capital is named Tuskula, and besides Bangalla it also shares borders with Tarashima as shown on 16th December 1986.

In multiple stories this is shown as west and bordering a river with Bangalla. Fantomen have Ivory Lana located further south (more on this later).

It was first included in a Phantom story "The Little Girl" (Daily 95). The 127th Daily story "T" was the first story it featured prominently. Team Fantomen has also featured this country in several stories including were Luaga was hiding out when deported from Bangalla when President Kabai Lubanga was in power.

Tarashima

According to the same map (above), Tarashima is located inland north of Bengali and north-east of Ivory-Lana. This country has been depicted in a few newspaper stories: D160 "The Tarashima Terrorists" 1986-1987 D163 "The Man-Thing" 1988 D179 "Nukes" 1993 S143 "Battle of the Jungle Boys" 1994-1995

In the map shown and the stories Tarashima is depicted as being north of Bangalla.

Ughland

Another authoritarian nation country shown as north of Bangalla. In stories featuring Ughland, we are treated to the occasional map but frustratingly, these do not include either Tarashima or Ivory-Lana. In the maps provided, Ughland is represented as north of Bangalla. Again, Ughland has been depicted in a few newspaper stories: D150 "Ughland" 1983 D152 "Visit to Baronkhan" 1983 D179 "Nukes" 1993 S150 "The Kidnappers" 1999

Zabadaba

This country has been shown in two Lee Falk created newspaper stories: D162 "Zabadabah" 1987-1988 S136 "Return of the Thuggees" 1990-1991

What is it with dictators around Bangalla and Lee Falk having to feature the Phantom overthrow their authoritarian leaders? In the first 1988 story no location of the country was mentioned but in the second story the country Zabadaba is located south of Bangalla and separated by a river with Togana.

Togana

As you can see above, also featured in the 1990-1991 story (S136) "Return of the Thuggees" is another dictatorship: Togana . Lee Falk also uses Togana later in 1991, in (D173) "The Jungle Patrol v The Drug Cartel". In this story, Falk tells us that this country is bordering Bangalla and along with Ivory-Lana has their borders protected by the Jungle Patrol. I personally do not see how any dictatorship would allow the Jungle Patrol to help patrol their borders.

S136 "Return of the Thuggees" 1990-1991

D173 "The Jungle Patrol v The Drug Cartel" 1991

Brutalana

Another dictatorship nation appearing in a newspaper story is Brutalana, shown in the 1989 Sunday story titled "Death from the Sky" as south to Bangalla. Brutalana is only used once in a Falk story.

This story tells us that this country is south of Bangalla in a desert kingdom yet half the story features the Phantom running away from the border guards in the jungle.

Floradona

Another dictatorship country and once again south of Bangalla as shown in the 1999 Sunday story titled "The Floradon Mystery". Floradana is another location only appearing once in a newspaper story. Again worth noting this is shown as bordering on Bangalla and again, due south. The southern border of Bangalla certainly seems to have a lot of neighbours!

Have I missed any countries bordering Bengalia created by Lee Falk in the modern period of storytelling?

The Misty Mountains

The Misty Mountains where all the mountain kingdoms are located is on the eastern side of Bangalla. However, according to most fans and creators, Bangalla is on the east coast of Africa which makes east the sea. If you look at the common Sy Barry drawn Phantom country drawing (below) it shows the Misty Mountains more north of the country instead of 'direct-east' and located in a true 'North East'. This makes more sense with the ocean east of Bangalla.

Lee Falk identified at least 8 kingdoms in the misty mountains including Karola, Trondelay, Pathia, Corba, Grigoria, Buzanta, Baronkhan and Shardana (variously Shambad and Sharana).

However, he also wrote stories which featured unnamed kingdoms of some 16 other rulers. The rate the Phantom dispatches bad dictators and rulers it makes sense that some of these 16 other rulers could easily be a ruler of one of these named kingdoms.

For completeness sake, Tony DePaul has introduced another two kingdoms and Team Fantomen another 11 knigdoms with another 9 leaders shown who may be a ruler of one of the 20 odd kingdoms introduced by the three sets of creators or another standalone kingdom.

We won't get into how the Misty Mountain kingdoms fit into the world wide stage. This article is already too long. I have a theory on how these kingdoms came into being, that will be another article.

The Eastern Dark (Dakk)

With the Misty Mountains north east of Bangalla and the Eastern Dark located further east again, it fits logically into the Phantom universe. This allows for the Eastern Dark to be beyond the mountains and near the ocean given that a port is depicted in several stories by Lee Falk, as well as and other creators stories.

What country lies where?

So according to these stories, we have Tarashima and Ughland to the north, Ivory-Lana to the West and a host of countries in Zabadaba, Togana, Floradona and Brutalana on Bangalla's southern border. Finally we have the Misty Mountains with the Eastern Dark to the north east on the coast above Bangalla. This fits with Bangalla at least partially laying in a bay where the 1st Phantom was shipwrecked 450+ years ago.

According to Lee Falk stories alone we have 8 countries (including the Misty Mountains as one) sharing borders with Bangalla. This could be possible - could be even more possible if some of the southern countries changed names as they swapped dictators and leaders. We will get into this later but first of all, let us try and do the impossible and merge the Lee Falk and newspaper universe with the universe in the Team Fantomen created stories.

Surrounding countries of Bangalla created by Team Fantomen

Team Fantomen has a history of keeping fairly loyal and true to Lee Falk stories, however they have added two countries in their stories. One of these has made its own way into the newspaper stories. Before fans get upset, it must be noted that these two countries were added decades before some of the countries Lee Falk created in Zabadaba, Togana, Floradona, Brutalana, Eastern Dark and Tarashima in the 1980's and 1990's.

Rodia

Probably the most popular bordering country and while it was created by Team Fantomen, it has since also been added into the 'newspaper canon' by Tony DePaul.

In "Deadly Cargo" (1989 Team Fantomen) Ivory-Lana is shown to the south with Rodia introduced as being to the west. Tony DePaul matched that iIn the 2005 Sunday Story "The Iron Python" (S161), depicting Rodia as bordering both Ivory-Lana and Bangalla.

In the "Deadly Cargo" story there is a map shown which in theory makes sense with Ivory-Lana to the south west over the river but where do Zabadaba, Togana and Floradona all fit given they have all been depicted by Lee Falk as sharing a southern border with Bangalla?

Sotuland

Sotuland was created in the 1970's by the Team Fantomen crew of Ulf Granberg, Magnus Knutsson, Jaime Vallvé and Janne Lundström. The main story we learn about this country is "The Diamond War" (1973) which has not yet been published outside of Scandinavia. In "The Skull Murders" (2011) we learn it is south of Bangalla, likely next to Ivory Lana and was colonised by Germany.

It is not 100% clear if this country actually borders Bangalla or not. It would fit more logically into the universe if it does not borde Bangalla and borders Ivory-Lana instead.

Haman

While Haman has only appeared in the one story "The Elephant Sect" (1987), it does not actually make the local geography more complicated, gven that this story is set in 1858 when England had colonised this part of Africa both in Phantom lore and in real life.

Haman is shown to the west of Bangalla and for our purposes we could surmise that it likely changed names since this area was decolonised after the second world war, along with Bangalla and likely some of the other surrounding countries.

During decolonisation, many territories and areas could have been split up depending on many factors and we could say that Haman has become Rodia and maybe even Tarashima or Ughland as well.

The problem and a solution?

The problem is there are too many countries that have been identified as bordering Bangalla. The problem was not made any simpler when Lee Falk introduced four new countries bordering Bangalla in the 1980's and another two in the 1990's. This happened after Team Fantomen introduced Rodia and Sotuland. No wonder Bangalla and Ivory Lana are always on tenterhooks and dodging assassination attempts with all these dictatorships around them!

One possible feasible solution is that some of these countries introduced by Lee Falk have changed the names, which has happened in real life. A name change is often made for political or nationalistic reasons such as removing traces of colonial rule or reflecting the ideologies of the government in power. For instance, in the real world Cambodia changed its name five (5) times in the space of 40 odd years (1953 to 1993). In Africa, Bechuanaland became Botswana, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and Nyasaland became Malawi.

There is a pattern of this happening in the Phantom world too, with the change of certain Bangalla locations following their independance. For example Morristown became Mawitaan in the 1960's, after changing from Moribar to Morristown sometime in the 19th century.

We can use this trend to speculate that several of the neighbouring nations followed suit, especially the ones only mentioned once by Lee Falk like Togana, Floradona and Brutalana. Maybe one or more of these countries are now Ivory-Lana, now a democracy with President Goranda as the leader

My attempt to the solution is:

Misty Mountains to the north east with the Eastern Dark beyond North.

Tarashima, Ughland and Rodia to the west with Rodia the southern of these three.

Ivory-Lana to the south, bordering Rodia with Sotuland further south or south east.

Please note, these are just my thoughts and opinions and in no way reflects the opinions of King Features or even other fans. Would love to hear other fans' thoughts and opinions.