Styrofoam cup
Hmm. You're probably thinking that I've already started to lose interest in this blogging business but the truth is that my home pc is playing up and won't let me post new entries so I'm writing this at work (during my lunch hour!).

Here, as promised, is that entry on The Phantom

Dad blamed my Nana for getting me onto superhero comics and he was right. She sent one of those big brown paper parcels for Christmas when I was eleven. The stuff inside was never labelled but we figured out who owned what. I had no trouble recognizing Thor "O Bitter Victory!" and Amazing Spider-Man "The Arms of Doctor Octopus!*" as mine. And I was hooked from that point on.

[*titles and dialogue always had exclamation marks:"Peter, dear, could you swing by the deli and get some milk!"]

So, strange then, that I was already well familiar with The Phantom. In fact, I'd already sold a large collection of Phantom comics at a district fete (something I'd never do now!) Well The Phantom is a bit like Joh; just as the Queensland dictator was 'not a politician' despite having a longer rein at the top than all other state premiers, so The Ghost Who Walks was 'not a superhero'. Phantom comics are available in dusty little shops in the outback that have never sold (or seen) an Avengers or X-Men. And they are read by truckies, farmers, shearers...

What marks him off as different? Clearly the Phantom is the seminal superhero, the epitome of his kind (...NOW READ ON)