Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Indian Tiger Murders"

Here's a Phantom Lady story that gives new meaning to the phrase "catfight"!

Despite the caption above, this issue (#23) of Phantom Lady was her last one at Fox Comics.

I find it amazing that Senator Knight doesn't realize his daughter is Phantom Lady.

(I'd given up on Don Borden having more than a couple of functioning brain cells long ago.)

Story probably by Ruth Roche, art likely by Jack Kamen.

This is the first of three stories from the final Fox issue of Phantom Lady.

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Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Man Who Lost His Stuff"

Spring Training is about to begin for Major League Baseball...

...but, no matter the season, the pulchritudinous Phantom Lady always hits a home run with us!

This tawdry tale from All Top Comics #16 (1949) was probably written by Ruth Roche, definitely penciled and partially-inked by Jack Kamen, and partially-inked by Matt Baker.

Oddly, though the Phantom Lady is based in Washington DC (her dad is a US Senator), the writers didn't use the existing Washington Senators or a surrogate like the "DC Representatives" or the "Washington Congressmen" or somesuch.

For those keeping chronological score, we skipped the second story from Phantom Lady #22, since it featured our heroine traveling to London and getting involved in the 1948 Olympics.

We'll be running that one in late July, around the time the Olympics open.

Next up will be the final Fox Comics issue of Phantom Lady, then her final All Top Comics appearance.

After that, we'll present her Ajax/Farrell stories from both her own title and her back-up tales in Wonder Boy!

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Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Case of the Robbing Robot"

It's Maiden of Mystery against Monster of Metal...

...as our favorite barely-clad heroine takes on her first cyber-criminal in this tale from Phantom Lady #22 (1949)

The usual scripted wackiness by Ruth Roche and full pencil/ink art by Jack Kamen who seems to have finally gotten the knack for both storytelling and rendering.
It's not quite on the level of Matt Baker, but close enough.

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Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Substitute Cinderella"

The Phantom Lady gives new meaning to the phrase...

..."If the shoe fits, wear it!", as seen in this tale from All Top Comics #15 (1949).

Of course, the old "evil twin nobody knows about" trick!

Story, such as it is, probably by Ruth Roche.

The art is a mixed bag, there's some inking by Matt Baker, but the penciling and most of the inking is unusually-stiff and awkward.

Perhaps it was Jack Kamen's first art job, but it didn't see print until after several of his later assignments had been published!

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Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Case of the Criminal Chessman"

Some people compare the War on Crime to a chess game...

...but the pulchritudinous Phantom Lady is nobody's pawn!

Lipstick?

Don runs into Sandra's bedroom, finds the Phantom Lady trussed up to a bedpost, and the only thing he notices on the unmasked woman's face is her lipstick?

Believe me, Sandra, you don't have to change lipstick!

Hell, you could wear a nametag saying "Sandra Knight" while in your Phantom Lady garb, and Don wouldn't put 1+1 together!

BTW, if the villain's name is familiar, that's because "Algernon Blackwood" was one of the premier ghost story writers of the late 19th/early 20th Centuries!

He was not short, so I presume Ruth Roche's use of his name here was just a "tip of the hat" to the spooky story author.

The art for this never-reprinted story from Phantom Lady #21 (1948) is unusual.

Pages 1 and 2 are totally Matt Baker.

The remainder of the story appears to be Jack Kamen, retouched by Baker.

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