Books:
"...Adams gave him the cape and the turtleneck sweater with the medallion around his neck. At first, I just drew a circle for the medallion, but Joe Orlando, the editor back then, said it needed something in the middle. I asked him what, and he said "Anything!" I said I had to keep it simple or I'd go crazy drawing the thing. I drew a couple of squiggles. It didn't represent anything, but it looked occult."
Aparo talks about the Stranger's look.
JIM APARO prevails; days without Googling:"Writer Len Wein took the character all over the world! I remember once, I went crazy. There was a story that took place in Rio de Janiero, and it started out with a Mardi Gras scene. Phantom Stranger is standing in the middle of the panel, and he's talking; "I'm the Phantom Stranger, follow me" etc. In the background is a mountain and on top is a statue of Christ the redeemer, a huge thing, with outstretched arms overlooking the ocean. You have to go up this long staircase to get to it. I went crazy trying to find a picture of that statue! I looked through my set of Encyclopedia Britannica and I went to the library. All I find is a little picture of it. I stumbled upon it; a front view of it. I got it under a magnifying glass and I had to surmise what it would look like sideways and from the back. It worked out."
Gerry Talaoc is the splendid Filipino artist who faced the impossible task of filling the boots of Aparo. I enjoyed his Stranger immensely, as well as his Unknown Soldier with writer David Michelinie and inks on Sal Buscema and Mike Mignola on the Crossroads issues of the Hulk.
SEEN ON THE MORTAL PLAINS...
Lord knows there are a million Elvis sightings a year going into those x-files, (whose x-files I'm not saying)...
The big cover-up are the Johnny Cash sightings beginning to be heard about...
Yup. Johnny Cash. Johnny...
Or someone else?
(This sighting visually confirmed by agent Robert McKinney.)