Travelling with Wilson McCoy (From the Archives of FotP Newsletter 17)

[Editors note: This article was originally released in the amazing Friends of the Phantom Newsletter #17 released by the late Ed Rhoades and Pete Klaus in the USA Winter of 1998. This article was republished with permission. Access to all Friends of the Phantom newsletters and much more can be found at our Phantom Preservation Project.]

Wilson McCoy worked feverishly to get ahead so that he could travel, gathering vital information and experiences to enrich his approach. On one trip abroad with the Chicago Press club, he went on safari to Africa to visit the real “poison pygmies” of the Ituri forest, who lived near the seven-foot tall Watusi tribe.

In Lee Falk’s detailed story, the Phantom lives with such a tribe, which he rescued from domination by Wasaka giants. In real life, Wilson McCoy went on a fact-finding mission and found himself face to face with the fearsome tribe.

After a long drive, the small car that carried him stopped at a narrow dirt road where he was confronted by a scene that Lee Falk could have written. Suddenly, the pygmies appeared, emerging from the forest from all directions. They escorted him, six in front, six behind, down a centuries-old path to their village, where they initiated an exchange of goods. At one point, a conflict caused the warriors to threaten Wilson McCoy and his party with their poison arrows. The problem turned out to be caused by outsiders from a nearby village who angered the Ituri by competing in the barter.

Once this was understood, the transactions were kept separate solving the tension. Wilson McCoy, eventually befriended by the Ituri, played drums while they danced, communicating with the natives much like the fictional Phantom through jungle drums—an amazing case of life following fiction.

Wilson McCoy expressed his respect and appreciation for the peoples he met while in the Belgian Congo and Uganda. He spoke about his discourse with the intelligent and pleasant King of the Bunyoro province who discussed jazz great Louis Armstrong. At one point, Wilson McCoy found himself pursued by a charging rhino, then later was confronted by belligerent elephants. At another, he was jailed in Cairo under suspicion of being a spy while gathering information from photographs and sketches to enrich his rendering of the strip. He was released and allowed to continue taking pictures.

In Lee Falk’s stories, McCoy illustrated scenes where thieves ransacked property of travelers. In real life, McCoy found his hotel room broken into and his luggage and travelers checks stolen. In another case of irony, while visiting the pyramids, he encountered a couple of camel riders who happened to be fellow Barringtonians (the town from which Wilson McCoy hailed) with whom he enjoyed a brief visit comparing travel experiences.

With the exception of an isolated incident with hostile East Germans on a trip financed by Russia during the heat of the cold war, he found his encounters with all of the people pleasant and enjoyable. The bows and arrows that he brought back as souvenirs not only were used for authentic illustrations in the comic pages, but served as educational visual materials when he visited US classrooms to share his experiences with school children.

Some of the Phantom adventures which Wilson McCoy illustrated dealt with the Far East. For another trip, Wilson McCoy was part of a dozen artists from the National Cartoonists Society, who traveled to the Orient to provide entertainment for US troops stationed in Japan and Korea. Part of this morale-building tour including visiting GI hospitals.

Again his real-life experiences provided an adventure worthy of a comic strip when the plane developed engine trouble 1,000 miles out. After a second start, they traversed the sea from Hawaii to northern Japan to Korea, where they found themselves in the midst of a frightening protest directed against Czechoslovakians and Poles. While in the demilitarization zone, he entertained audiences in which every member was armed with a rifle. He joked about how “some entertainers worry about having tomatoes tossed at them.”

On a trip to Scandinavia, Wilson McCoy learned about the importance of the Phantom there during the German occupation. The Nazis had taken over the Afton Poston newspaper, using it as a tool of propaganda, but in an attempt to keep continuity in appearance, allowed the Phantom strip to remain. They never realized that the stories contradicted the other content. While the Germans claimed that the US was being bombed off the map, through the Phantom strip, the Norwegians knew otherwise.

Under Wilson McCoy, the Phantom enjoyed a distribution to 500 newspapers and he credited his travels with making his illustrations stronger. His approach to rendering architecture as well as portraits was strongly influenced by what he saw. His surprising death in 1961 came as a result of an illness brought about from his travels to the jungle.

With the exception of being nearly killed in an automobile accident, he enjoyed excellent health for most of his adult life and was an example of vitality and commitment. His involvement in the National Cartoonists Society, support of the US military, and contribution to the schools and community were hallmarks of his existence, as much as bringing joy to the millions of Phantom fans who appreciate his work on the vintage Phantom strips which still continue to be reprinted today.

[Editors note: This article was originally released in the amazing Friends of the Phantom Newsletter #17 released by the late Ed Rhoades and Pete Klaus in the USA Winter of 1998. This article was republished with permission. Access to all Friends of the Phantom newsletters and much more can be found at our Phantom Preservation Project.

We believe these photos were from the personal McCoy family collection and were used by permission from them. Due to their age and them being reproduced several times is a reason why the quality is average. We hope you will still enjoy them. If anyone has better qualities, please send them to us to update this article.]