Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY & SPIDER WIDOW Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroines...

Feature Comics #71

The Spider Widow and Phantom Lady, brought together to battle a menace threatening PL's father, US Senator Knight, have also developed a rivalry for the affections of The Raven.

Note: the order is changed this month as the Spider Widow tale comes first in story continuity.

Also, even though most sources list this as a Frank Borth job, it's not signed, as most of his work is, and the art style is a bit...off.

So while Borth probably wrote and penciled the story, he probably didn't ink it.

Now for the Phantom Lady installment...

Police Comics #22

The art here seems to be a combination of Frank Borth and Phantom Lady creator Arthur Peddy.

Both Spider Widow and Phantom Lady would make one more appearance in their respective series before being canceled.

While Phantom Lady was revived and revised at Fox Publishing, the Spider Widow hasn't appeared in a new story since.

We hope you enjoyed this look at the first version of Phantom Lady, and we'll be returning to the Fox Phantom Lady series in January, 2012...

Support Small Business this Christmas!

Visit the

Heroines™

Comic Collectibles Shop

Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY & SPIDER WIDOW Part 2

When Last We Left Our Heroines...

Police Comics #21

To that, we would add that the two heroines and a hero saved the life of Phantom Lady's father, Senator Knight!

Amazing, these crooks are yards away from the dueling damsels, yet they recognize Phantom Lady as Sandra Knight!

Her boyfriend in the Fox issues, Don, is even dumber than I thought!

Then the story continued in Spider Widow's home, Feature Comics...

Feature Comics #70

Scripter/artist Frank Borth was one of the under-appreciated craftsmen of the era.

He produced almost 100 stories, but never hit the "big time" with a major character or title.

Even his work on Phantom Lady is overshadowed by Matt Baker's more cheesecakey art on the later Fox version!

Be here next week for the final two chapters and a couple of surprises!

Support Small Business this Christmas!

Visit the

Heroines™

Comic Collectibles Shop

Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY & SPIDER WIDOW Part 1

SuperHERO team-ups were rare in the Golden Age.

SuperHEROINE team-ups were rarer!

And multi-issue cross-over team-ups were practically non-existent!

Police Comics #20

You'll note a couple of differences from the Phantom Lady you're used to seeing on this blog including a differently-colored costume, a mask, no black-light ray, and no Matt Baker art!

That's because this is the earlier Quality Comics version of the character, before she began her run at Fox in All Top Comics and her own title!

Just go with the flow, and all will be made clear...

Feature Comics #69

Beginning in Phantom Lady's strip Police Comics #20 and carrying over to Spider Widow's series in  Feature Comics #69 (both cover-dated July, 1943), Frank Borth (who wrote and drew both strips at the time) tried something a little different, tying the two series together for three months with an ongoing plotline!
Personally, I enjoy the "breaking the 4th wall bits" including mentioning that they're actually in comic books and referencing other characters like Blackhawk!
Be here next week for Part 2 (of 3).

Support Small Business!

Visit the

Heroines™

Comic Collectibles Shop

Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Jack-in-the-Box-Murders"

Last time we saw a villainess in a Phantom Lady costume...

 ...this time the roles are reversed as the Phantom Lady dons an evildoer's garb!

Both Senator Knight and Don Borden see Sandra in the Jack in the Box costume, yet both of them call her "Phantom Lady"!
You may notice a difference of art style in this story from Phantom Lady #21.
That's because the story is penciled and partially-inked by Jack Kamen with touchups by Matt Baker.
Kamen was being phased in as Baker's replacement as Matt moved on to other projects.
Baker's retouching grew less frequent as Kamen picked up the style, so by the end of the runs of both Phantom Lady and All Top Comics, the art was entirely Kamen.

Visit the

"Naughty" 

Phantom Lady

Collectibles Shop

featuring goodies emblazoned with cover art that Fredric Wertham railed against in Seduction of the Innocent.

Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Copy-Cat Killers"

Question: What's more fun than watching a scantly-clad Phantom Lady in action?

Answer: Watching two scantly-clad Phantom Ladies in action!

How dense is Don?
He spends hours sitting next to a woman who doesn't even wear a mask and can't figure out she's not Phantom Lady?
But then Don doesn't realize Sandra Knight is Phantom Lady when she's right in front of him...
While the story is typical of the type of slightly off-kilter plot Ruth Roche came up with, the art is another matter entirely.
While the inking style looks like Matt Baker, the layouts and pencils definitely are not.
Most people think it's Jack Kamen, who did a couple of Phantom Lady covers and stories later in the book's run.

Check out the

"Naughty" 

Phantom Lady

Collectibles Shop

featuring goodies emblazoned with cover art that Fredric Wertham railed against in Seduction of the Innocent.