What’s Going On In The Phantom (Weekdays)? What’s with the art in The Phantom? September – December 2023

Regular Phantom weekday-strip artist Mike Manley has been ill, and has had to take time off. Sunday artist Jeff Weigel stepped in, with strips featuring his work appearing from last week on. On his blog, Phantom writer Tony DePaul reports that Bret Blevins — who’s filled in in the past — will be on the strip full time for the new stor, “to begin soon”. (It’s startling to imagine the conclusion of the Wrack And Ruin story, which has been running since 2021, but there we are.)

I don’t have any details on Manley’s condition, but DePaul does say “there’s more to come from what I hear. Not good … ” It’s not the sort of merry hint I like to bring, but that’s what we have.

After the title card, though, I should catch you up on the weekday continuity in The Phantom for mid-December 2023. If you’re interested in the separate Sunday continuity, or are reading this after about March 2024, there’s likely a more useful recap here. And if any news about Manley, or other people with The Phantom, comes across my desk I’ll share it there, too.

The Phantom (weekdays).

24 September – 16 December 2023.

My last plot recap came at the start of this segment story, “The Journey Home”. And this week begins “The Epilogue”. It’s almost suspicious in its tidiness.

The important thing about all this was getting folks back where they belong, so far as Destiny will allow it. We got some points that might set up future stories, though. First is Bangallan President Lamanda Luaga giving asylum to the prisoners freed from Gravelines. It’s a courageous move: Rhodia — any nation — would feel humiliated by such a jailbreak, and to have most or all of the freed prisoners right next door could be an irresistible temptation. The second is that Rhodia was already plotting the assassination of President Luaga. And hoped to suborn Savarna Devi into doing the murder. Rhodian Admiral Leopold Braga was scheduled to visit Devi in her cell the day of the jailbreak for her final answer. Which, from the safety of the ride home, she says would always have been no.

Tony DePaul and Mike Manley’s The Phantom for the 27th of October, 2023. I would assume that The Phantom has passed on a warning that Rhodia is looking to assassinate President Luaga. We know he didn’t do it as the Unknown Commander of the Jungle Patrol. But he’s had a lot of time unaccounted-for on screen and we can suppose he does the things it makes sense to do.

Back at Skull Cave is Kit Junior, who it turns out had an irresistible temptation to return home. The idea came to him, turns out, the moment The Phantom stopped to listen to Mozz’s prophecy of Wrack and Ruin. Kit explains he was careful about his track, taking a path that went through Guwahati (in northeastern India), Delhi, Rome, Casablanca, Mombasa, and more, which is all the more impressive when I thought it had only been two, three days tops since this story began. But then the essential power of The Phantom is having time to get stuff done and not be exhausted at the end of it.

The Phantom briefly tries to keep Kit from talking about the Mountain City with Devi, but realizes better. In the prophecy, Devi meeting up with Kit and then murdering Inspector Jampa instigates the bombing of the Mountain City. But if Devi learns where her onetime enslaver was and succumbs to the irresistible temptation to murder him? And Kit’s nowhere on the same continent? Why would this go beyond Devi and Jampa then? And so The Phantom decides to trust in things working out like they ‘should’.

But, like someone or other said, even a miracle needs a hand. And, particularly, they have to keep Kit from being in the Mountain City anytime Devi might murder Jampa. Diana has a plan and it’s oddly matchmaker-y of her. Kit surely won’t go back to the Mountain City without seeing his sister Heloise. And Heloise won’t let him leave without meeting Kadia. And, heck, could Kadia be a potential partner for Kit Jr? So over weeks, we gather, Heloise keeps teasing that she could come home anytime, but not now, and Kit does put up with this.

Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel’s The Phantom for the 4th of December, 2023. Can I just pause a moment to mention how adorable Devil is here? Because Devil is just so adorable here.

And for Devi — she seems to have a fine time, allowed into the world of the Bandar, and Skull Cave and all its cool stuff. And, in an echo of what she swore in Mozz’s prophecy, thinks of how she is done killing. And, last week, Kit unknowingly said something which set Devi leaving immediately. We may infer that she learned something which placed an irresistible temptation in the way of her giving up revenge. We don’t know how that’s to work out.

This Monday, the 18th, started the epilogue, Kit trying to convince Heloise that he’s leaving next weekend whether she sees him or not, Heloise calling his bluff. And Heloise wondering if she and her mother can make Kit-and-Kadia happen, in case that’s a thing that should.

Next Week!

Murder in the library! I forget whether there was in fact a library murder, but it was certainly book-themed. I’ll just check some things quickly and get back to you with Mike Curtis, Shelley Pleger, and Shane Fisher’s Dick Tracy, all going well. See you then.