Number 1460: The Phantom Ladies

A week ago I showed a story drawn by Frank Borth, and I included the splash panel for his first Phantom Lady story in Police Comics #17 (1943). I have that story today, and you can see what a superb artist Borth was, one of the top-notch talents at Quality Comics. The story, though, is filler; a bit of fluff.

The Phantom Lady, who is Sandra Knight, has a beau named Don, who doesn’t have a lot to do in that first story. He appears again in our second story from Phantom Lady #22 (1949). I don’t know why Phantom Lady, still Sandra Knight, moved from Quality to Fox Features and got a new costume. I assume the reason no one notices Phantom Lady is Sandra is because in those sexy costumes no one is looking at her face.

Sandra’s boyfriend, Don, is back in “The Case of the Robbing Robot,” with more to do in this story. He gets to dress in drag. The story has some humor to it, and is drawn by Jack Kamen in his pre-EC days.

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Number 1456: Are you afraid of clown marionettes?

To answer my own question posed in the headline, yes, I would be afraid if said clown marionette was walking around without being suspended by strings or puppeteer, and especially yes, I would be afraid if I saw said marionette riding my cat.

Moppo the Marionette is by Frank Borth, longtime journeyman comic artist. Later in life Borth did a lot of work in Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact comics, published for Catholic school children, but in his early days he did more typical comic book fare. He did Phantom Lady for five issues of Police Comics, for instance. Here is the splash panel for his first Phantom Lady story.*

Although it says “Introducing Moppo” in the splash panel this is actually Moppo’s one and only appearance, from the last issue of Champ Comics #25 (1943).

*You might be asking yourself why I don’t just show his Phantom Lady and all I can say is, be patient.

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