About Me
In the jungles of the (fictional) African country Bangalla, there is a myth about "The Ghost Who Walks", a powerful and indestructible guardian of the innocent. Because he seems to have been around for generations, people around the world believe him to be immortal. In reality, the Phantom is descended from twenty previous generations of crime-fighters who all adopt the same persona. When a new Phantom takes the task from his dying father, he swears the Oath of the Skull: "I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms, and my sons and their sons shall follow me." Frequently the comic highlights the adventures of previous Phantoms, set in the past.Today's Phantom is the twenty-first in the line. Unlike most costumed heroes, he has no superhuman powers, relying only on his wits, physical strength, skill with his weapons, and fearsome reputation to fight crime.Two signatures of the character are the two rings he wears. One has a pattern that he leaves on visitors whom he befriends, called "The Good Mark" which marks the person as under his protection. The other has a skull shape and is worn on his favored punching hand, called "The Evil Mark", which leaves a skull-like scar on the enemies he punches.His base is in the Deep Woods of Bengali (originally "Bengalla", or "Bangalla" and renamed Denkali in the Indian edition), a fictional country initially said to be set in Asia somewhere near India but moved to Africa in the 1960s, where it has stayed since. The Phantom lives in the fabled Skull Cave, where all previous Phantoms are buried.The Phantom is an unknown commander of Bangalla's world-famous Jungle Patrol. Due to a betrayal leading to the death of the 14th Phantom, the identity of the commander has been kept hidden from members of the patrol ever since. The 6th Phantom originally formed the Jungle Patrol with the help of former pirate Redbeard and his men back in 1664.Another character who aided the Phantom is the chief of the Pygmy tribe, Guran. Guran is the Phantom's best friend since childhood, and has been a valuable support in the hard battle against evil. The Pygmies, unlike most people, are fully aware of the Phantom's true identity and nature.The Phantom has two helpers, a mountain wolf, Devil, and a horse, Hero. He also has a trained falcon named Fraka. From 1962 on, The Phantom raised an orphan named Rex King, who was later on revealed to be the prince of the kingdom of Baronkhan.In 1978, he married his sweetheart since his days in American college, Diana Palmer, who works at the United Nations. Guran, his best friend since boyhood, was best man. The guests present at the wedding included Mandrake the Magician, the Presidents of Bangalla, Ivory Lana; Luaga and Goranda.A year later, twins were born to the Palmer-Walkers; Kit and Heloise.The Phantom's family have always played a significant role in the series. His romance with Diana Palmer was an ongoing part of the story from the beginning, and many later stories revolved around the Phantom becoming involved in adventures as a result of young charges including his children.When the Phantom leaves the jungle, he dresses in a fedora, a trench coat, and sunglasses, and is known as "Kit Walker". References to "Mr. Walker" are traditionally accompanied by a footnote saying "For 'The Ghost Who Walks'", although some versions of the Phantom's history suggest that Walker was actually the surname of the man who became the first Phantom. Like The Lone Ranger, the Phantom does not allow his unmasked or undisguised face to be seen except by close friends or members of his family. (In the newspaper strips, even the readers were never shown the Phantom's unmasked face clearly.)The story of the Phantom started with a young sailor named Christopher Walker (sometimes called Christopher Standish in certain versions of the story). Christopher was born in 1516 in Portsmouth. His father, also named Christopher Walker, had been a seaman since he was a young boy, and was the cabin boy on Christopher Columbus's ship Santa MarÃa when he sailed to the Americas.Christopher Jr. became a shipboy on his father's ship in 1526, of which Christopher Sr. was Captain.In 1536, when Christopher was 20 years old, he was a part of what was supposed to be his father's last voyage. On February 17, the ship was attacked by pirates of the Singh Brotherhood in a bay on the coast of Bengalla. The last thing Christopher saw before he fell unconscious and fell to the sea was his father being murdered by the leader of the pirates. Both ships exploded, making Christopher the sole survivor of the attack.Christopher was washed ashore on a Bengalla beach, seemingly half dead. He was found by pygmies of the Bandar tribe, who nursed him and took care of him.A time later, Christopher took a walk on the same beach, and found a dead body there, whom he recognized as the pirate who killed his father. He allowed the vultures flying around the body to eat its meat, took up the skull of the killer, raised it above his head, and swore an oath: "I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms! My sons and their sons, shall follow me".After learning the language of the Bandar tribe, Christopher found out that they were slaves of the Wasaka, a tribe consisting of what the Bandars called "giants". The Bandars who had found him was only a small group of people who had managed to escape from the village of the Wasaka. Immediately, Christopher walked into the village of the Wasaka, and asked them to set the Bandars free. He was taken prisoner, and laid before the Demon God of the Wasaka, Uzuki, who was supposed to decide his destiny. Christopher was tied up and laid on an altar made of stone, where vultures surrounded him, the Wasaka allowing them to eat him. Christopher was quickly saved by a group of Bandar before the vultures or the Wasaka could do him any real harm. They managed to escape from the village of the Wasaka unharmed.Christopher later learned about an ancient Bandar legend about a man coming from the ocean to save them from their slavery. He made a costume inspired by the look of the Demon God of the Wasaka, and went to the Wasaka village again, this time with a small army of Bandar armed with their newly discovered extremely poisoned arrows, capable of killing a man in a few seconds. The Wasaka, shocked at seeing what many of them thought was their Demon God come alive, were fought down, and the Bandars were finally set free, after centuries in slavery. This resulted in a dedicated friendship between Christopher and the Bandars, which would be brought on to the generations to come after them.The Bandars showed Christopher to a cave, which resembled the look of a human skull. Christopher later carved it out to make it look even more like a skull. This Skull Cave became his home.Wearing the costume based on the Demon God, Christopher became the first of what would later be known as the Phantom. When he died, his son took over for him; when the 2nd Phantom died, his son took over. So it would go on through the centuries, causing people to believe that the Phantom was immortal, giving him nicknames as "The Ghost Who Walks" and "The Man Who Cannot Die".Over the course of more than seventy years' worth of stories, the backstory "legend" of the Phantom grew to become an integral part of the series. The legend of the "Ghost Who Walks" made the character stand out from the innumerable costumed heroes who have battled crime throughout the 20th Century, and has helped maintain his appeal through to the present day.Much of the underlying, continuing plots and "themes" of the series focus on the continuing legend of the Phantom. The series regularly gives quotes from "old jungle sayings" surrounding the myth of the Phantom. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the tradition that anyone who sees the Phantom's true face without his mask will certainly "die a terrible death". This is true only for those whom he cannot trust, whom he kills or in whose deaths he is involved soon after their seeing of his face.The Phantom is feared by criminals over the entire world, and he knows how to use his frightening image against them.The twenty-first Phantom's birth name is Kit Walker, as was the name of all the Phantoms before him. Kit was born in the Skull Cave, and spent his first years in the jungle in Bengalla. His mother, Maud Thorne McPatrick, was born in Mississippi United States, where Walker went to study when he was twelve years old, living with his aunt Lucy and uncle Jasper in the town of Clarksville.Here he met his wife-to-be, Diana Palmer. Kit was an extremely talented sportsman, and was predicted to become the world champion of many different events (even knocking out the world heavyweight boxing champion in a sparring match when the champion visited Clarksville). Despite being able to choose practically any career he wanted, Kit faithfully returned to Bengalla to take over the role of the Phantom when he received word that his father was dying from a knife-wound.One of Kit's first missions as the Phantom was to find his father's killer, Rama Singh, who had betrayed and murdered the 20th Phantom by stabbing him in the back, stealing his special gunbelt in the process. The Phantom eventually found him and reclaimed the belt at the island of Gullique, but before he could avenge his father and bring Rama to jail, Rama managed to blow up his lair, killing himself and his henchmen in the process.
