The Chain of Patience

The chain of patience first appeared in the 1953 Sunday Story "The Chain" created by Lee Falk & Wilson McCoy.

The adventure features a story of the 21st Phantom's mother and father were a Misty Mountain prince named Prince Hakon kidnapped the 21st Phantom's mother, and she was taken to his highland palace. She refused to marry him, so he kept her locked in a cell until she changed her mind. Upon hearing of the kidnapping, the Phantom rides to the highland kingdom and attempts a rescue; however, due to his rage, he rushes things and is captured by the palace guards.

Instead of imprisoning or executing the Phantom, the Prince puts him to work pushing a mill in plain view of his fiance's cell. With each turn of the mill, the Phantom notices that the chain catches a little, scraping against stone, weakening the links. Month after month the Phantom labors, knowing that with each turn, he comes closer to freedom.

For Those Who Have Come in Late.... The 1953 story "The Chain" video catch up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCAgJ-D-Pf0

This story has been published in 16 countries in comics and newspapers, including Australia, Ireland, Brazil, France, India, Mexico, New Zealand, Italy, and many others.

Majority of phans love this story; however, what is surprising to many is that the chain on the throne has only been seen once in a newspaper adventure. Since this adventure was in the newspapers, it was seen once on a cover, once in the Avon novel, and once in a comic and then never seen again in any form of medium until 1996.

What follows is an investigation into this popular Phantom element that has largely been forgotten about. First of all, let us focus on the cover and comic it has appeared in after the newspaper story.

In 1964, Fratelli Spada published comics throughout Italy and France. In L'Uomo Mascherato #73, "The Chain" story was published, and the front cover by Mario Caria depicts the throne with the chain on it.

In the 1960s, the USA publisher Gold Key published several of Lee Falk stories with new artwork by Bill Lignante. In 1966 this story was republished in issue 16. Interestingly, even Bill Lignante did not show the chain in any of his other stories that were published by Gold Key & Charlton.

What I find interesting is that even with 40+ known comics featuring these two variations of the same story, only the Fratelli Spada L'Uomo Mascherato #73 cover depicts the chain on the throne. No other comics with the chain story inside featured the chain on the cover.

The first time the chain on the throne was seen again was in The Phantom movie in 1996. The first time it was seen again on a comic was Fantomen 10-11/2007, Fantomet 9-10/2007 & Mustanaamio 10-11/2007, and it was drawn by Sal Velluto. From an Australian point of view, Frew #1526 (2008) was the first time the chain was shown on a cover.

Apart from the times the original "The Chain" story was published in a dozen-plus countries the first time, another story featured the chain on the throne: "Blood Diamonds," drawn again by Sal Velluto and written by David Bishop. It was published in Mustanaamio 24/2008, Fantomet 23/2008, Fantomen 24/2008 & Frew #1526 (2008).

One other story the chain has been featured in is "Kid Phantom #1" with it appearing in issue one and also on the cover of issue 2 drawn by Paul Mason.

Gallery of the past examples of the chain being used

Naturally we asked Sal Velluto why he included the chain on the throne on his Egmont / Team Fantomen work and he has this to say:

That covers, as you remember, were my try-outs for Egmont [Editors note: discussed in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #125]. As such, I tried to include as much iconography from the world of The Phantom as I could to show that I was familiar with its history. So I used references from the movie.

An interesting note is that Lee Falk mentioned the chain story in the 1990 Sunday Story "Captain Amazon: Pirate Queen" by Lee Falk & Sy Barry. The story of the 20th Phantom being captive was retold, but the chain on the throne after the capture was not.

Surprisingly, the chain has never been seen again in any newspaper stories until 2024.

Tony DePaul in the 265th Phantom daily story "The Chain", revisited the chain storyline. However, instead of loving the story that many phans loved, he wanted to revisit it so he could dismantle the 1953 story and do a demolition job on both its underlying premise and its treatment of race.

It caused some angst among some phans, but what is missed by many phans is that the chain was largely neglected by other creators, publishers, cover artists, and writers (including Lee Falk) for 70+ years until Tony DePaul did his part to try and write it out of established Phantom lore. At the end of the day, the chain will only be removed if the phans want it to be.