Feature Book #20 [1]
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFeature Book #20 holds a singular place in comics history as the first comic book devoted entirely to a single character—The Phantom—making it a structural landmark for the medium at the same moment the Golden Age was taking shape. While Ace Comics #11 (February 1938) had introduced the Phantom to the comic book format as a strip within a multi-character anthology, Feature Book #20 gave the character his own dedicated publication for the first time in the United States, establishing the template of the solo hero comic book that would define the next decade of the industry. The issue reprints Lee Falk and Ray Moore's very first Phantom daily newspaper story, 'The Singh Brotherhood,' cementing in one package both the character's foundational origin and his earliest visual identity. The Phantom himself—a costumed, masked hero operating under a secret identity and dynastic mythology—predated Superman by more than two years, and this book is the primary artifact of his transition from the newspaper page to the comic book format.
Find on ebay
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The Phantom debuted in King Features Syndicate newspapers on February 17, 1936, written by Lee Falk and drawn initially by Falk himself for two weeks before Ray Moore—who had been assisting Phil Davis on Falk's earlier strip, Mandrake the Magician—took over art duties. David McKay Publications of Philadelphia, already reprinting King Features strips in anthology titles like Ace Comics and King Comics, applied the Feature Book format—previously used for other single-character reprints—to the Phantom with this issue, collecting the first run of daily strips from February 17 through June 20, 1936. The Feature Book series ran from 1937 to 1948, and the first 25 issues, including #20, were printed in a large-format oversized size before the series switched to standard comic book dimensions.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First comic book issue entirely devoted to The Phantom, published December 1938 by David McKay Publications of Philadelphia.
- Reprints the very first Phantom daily newspaper strip story, 'The Singh Brotherhood Part 1,' covering strips from February 17 to June 20, 1936.
- Written by Lee Falk; art by Lee Falk (first two weeks of the original strip run) and Ray Moore; cover by Ray Moore.
- Printed in black and white in an oversized format (approximately 9" × 12"), distinguishing it from standard-sized comics of the era; 72 pages.
- The Phantom's first comic book appearance overall was in the multi-character anthology Ace Comics #11 (February 1938); Feature Book #20 is his first solo, dedicated comic book.
- The issue introduces core Phantom mythology: the generational legacy of the Walker family, the Skull oath, the Singh Brotherhood as the Phantom's primary antagonists, and the character of Diana Palmer.
- The Phantom's costume is described as gray in the original strip text; the now-familiar purple coloring was not established until the Sunday strip launched May 28, 1939.
- Pacific Comics Club published a facsimile reprint of Feature Book #20 in 1993, measuring approximately 8.5" × 11", also in black and white.
Cast · 2 characters
Full credits
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.