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Phantom Eagle
Phantom Eagle is the name used by two fictional aviator heroes appearing in American comic books.
The first character to use the name was teenaged Mickey Malone, a young aviator who appeared in the 1940s in Fawcett Comics publications depicting contemporaneous World War II adventures. The second and better-known character, created in the 1960s by Marvel Comics, was Karl Kaufmann, the American son of German parents, who became a masked World War I ace.
The first Phantom Eagle was introduced by uncredited creators in Fawcett Comics' Wow Comics #6 (cover-dated July 1942), during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Following his debut, the Phantom Eagle appeared in every issue of Wow Comics, and by the final issue, #69 (August 1948) was a sidekick to Commando Yank. His primary writer-artist was Marc Swayze.
The Phantom Eagle was teenager Mickey Malone, who, though forbidden by superior officer Sergeant Flog at his military airbase in Great Britain, was determined to fight the World War II Axis powers. Donning an aviator-styled costume and building his own airplane, he takes the name Phantom Eagle and becomes a secret ace.
He later forms the Phoenix Squadron, a group of fellow teen pilots. During the post-war period, Malone formed a charter airline and searched for the Golden Chalice, a lost artifact upon which is inscribed the "Formula for Peace".
The second Phantom Eagle was an unrelated World War I hero created by writer Gary Friedrich and artist Herb Trimpe in Marvel Super-Heroes #16 (September 1968). As Trimpe described, Marvel production manager John Verpoorten "had been a classmate at SVA. When I got out of the Air Force in October 1966, he worked in the production department at Marvel. He said they were hiring freelance people, and I should come up to the office and show my work to Sol Brodsky, who was Stan [Lee]'s right-hand man at the time. I said, 'Okay'. Later, while I was in the photostat department, I did the Phantom Eagle freelance, the first book I penciled. I think".
Trimpe in 2002 described the character's creation:
[T]he Phantom Eagle was primarily Gary Friedrich's idea. He knew I was interested in airplanes and that kind of stuff, so he came up with this wacko idea that became the Phantom Eagle. However, I could not quite justify this Americanized version of some sort of WWI combat ace. ... There was too much of a superhero in the character. If you know anything of that time in history or the feel of that time, you would know that it was just so wrong. But it was fun and I got to make up some of the airplanes. ... [T]he Phantom Eagle airplanes were all made up, and not patterned after a real airplane, but an original design by me. ... It had a kind of corny design pattern painted on it, like wings and that kind of stuff, which was not that far from what the pilots painted on their planes. But that character was what Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were to the American Western – totally Hollywoodized.
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Phantom Eagle
Phantom Eagle is the name used by two fictional aviator heroes appearing in American comic books.
The first character to use the name was teenaged Mickey Malone, a young aviator who appeared in the 1940s in Fawcett Comics publications depicting contemporaneous World War II adventures. The second and better-known character, created in the 1960s by Marvel Comics, was Karl Kaufmann, the American son of German parents, who became a masked World War I ace.
The first Phantom Eagle was introduced by uncredited creators in Fawcett Comics' Wow Comics #6 (cover-dated July 1942), during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Following his debut, the Phantom Eagle appeared in every issue of Wow Comics, and by the final issue, #69 (August 1948) was a sidekick to Commando Yank. His primary writer-artist was Marc Swayze.
The Phantom Eagle was teenager Mickey Malone, who, though forbidden by superior officer Sergeant Flog at his military airbase in Great Britain, was determined to fight the World War II Axis powers. Donning an aviator-styled costume and building his own airplane, he takes the name Phantom Eagle and becomes a secret ace.
He later forms the Phoenix Squadron, a group of fellow teen pilots. During the post-war period, Malone formed a charter airline and searched for the Golden Chalice, a lost artifact upon which is inscribed the "Formula for Peace".
The second Phantom Eagle was an unrelated World War I hero created by writer Gary Friedrich and artist Herb Trimpe in Marvel Super-Heroes #16 (September 1968). As Trimpe described, Marvel production manager John Verpoorten "had been a classmate at SVA. When I got out of the Air Force in October 1966, he worked in the production department at Marvel. He said they were hiring freelance people, and I should come up to the office and show my work to Sol Brodsky, who was Stan [Lee]'s right-hand man at the time. I said, 'Okay'. Later, while I was in the photostat department, I did the Phantom Eagle freelance, the first book I penciled. I think".
Trimpe in 2002 described the character's creation:
[T]he Phantom Eagle was primarily Gary Friedrich's idea. He knew I was interested in airplanes and that kind of stuff, so he came up with this wacko idea that became the Phantom Eagle. However, I could not quite justify this Americanized version of some sort of WWI combat ace. ... There was too much of a superhero in the character. If you know anything of that time in history or the feel of that time, you would know that it was just so wrong. But it was fun and I got to make up some of the airplanes. ... [T]he Phantom Eagle airplanes were all made up, and not patterned after a real airplane, but an original design by me. ... It had a kind of corny design pattern painted on it, like wings and that kind of stuff, which was not that far from what the pilots painted on their planes. But that character was what Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were to the American Western – totally Hollywoodized.