Riding videos & the Phantom & Cape Cod &…

SKIP halfway down to the Phantom material, if you like. First up, a word of farewell to Gary Noyes, a friend from a lifetime ago.

Gary went off into the beautiful mystery last week, the much-opined-upon maybe this, maybe that.

You’ve seen this image here before. It always seems to pop into my head when I hear that people I know have gone off to wherever it is we go, if anywhere.

This I find miraculous: that a puny naked ape perched on a speck of blue-green rock can photograph a place where stars were born of dust 6,000 years ago, a place said ape calls the Pillars of Creation. Science with a little poetry in it.


Gary was one of the good guys on the Earth. He and the bride graduated from high school a year apart, in Orono, Maine, their hometown.

There were a bunch of good guys at Orono High in those days. I got to know them over the years by tagging along to the Class of ’72 reunions. Lucky for me, every last one of those guys missed the woman of their dreams when she was right in front of their noses. They let her graduate and slip away to Philadelphia, my concrete & asphalt & not many pine trees at all hometown. And the rest you know.


On her 68th birthday last week we had lunch at The Boat House, in Tiverton. Had an outdoor table with a water view. Went for a walk along the shore afterwards.


Gary did have this going for him: he hit the jackpot double on the DNA for good nature.

We knew his mom, Gladys, a secretary in the elementary school office. His dad, Ron, a letter carrier, sang in a barbershop quartet and was known by all as a genuinely happy man. You’d never guess he had been through the wringer in his youth: his ship torpedoed in the South Pacific, followed up with a would-be coup de grâce: a high-speed crash landing by a Zero pilot with diabolical orders.

When we lived in Orono in the 80s, Gary, a Navy vet trained in nursing, was a paramedic on a volunteer ambulance crew in town. When we were expecting the arrival of Daughter #1, Gary saw his chance to get a stork decal on the fender. His crew was the only one around that hadn’t yet managed to start out for the hospital with one passenger and arrive with two.

He told us he’d be delighted to rush Pam to Bangor the long way! Say… over the jarring old corduroy road through the Stillwater swamp west of the interstate. That would likely get things happening.

This was half a lifetime ago, now. The little girl Gary had offered to deliver while bouncing down a road of rotten logs has two little girls of her own. We celebrated her 40th birthday over the weekend at a beach house on Cape Cod.


Which brings me to the deer we hit on the highway en route to that family rendezvous.

KER-BLAMMO!!

The hood folds up, we coast to the side of the road burning off coolant. In the side-view mirror I see the deer carcass still 20 feet in the air, spinning to a grassy landing near the treeline.

We had family treasure aboard: 7-year-old D1D1 and 3-year-old D1D2.

Scary to think how badly it could have gone—and does go for some. The deer didn’t come through the windshield; the car that was passing us at the moment of impact didn’t swerve, lose control and take the both of us out.


A conversation a few days later between the 3-year-old and Pam, her Mimi:

Mimi: “What was the best part of the trip?”

D1D2: “When you and Tone were calling the police when we hit the deer. I loved the police car, too. And their hats.”

Mimi: “That was your favorite part?”

D1D2: “Yeah.”



This was Cape Cod, where we had rented a spectacular house for a long weekend.

The family at the beach, seen from the house.

The granddaughters’ dad got this footage of an osprey dining in the backyard, fish blood running down the front of the sign. Got it by holding his phone to a spotting scope in the living room.



On matters of Lee Falk’s Phantom, the daily Wrack and Ruin saga goes swimmingly, if distressingly for readers who can’t bear to see the Phantom go off into the beautiful mystery himself; even if it does happen not in the present timeline but in a tale of days to come, as foretold by Old Man Mozz.

This one requires the reader to think, and to see; to see a lot by looking, as Yogi Berra would say. Many can’t, or don’t, or won’t. That said, it is a long story, and modern attention spans have gone all to hell, as you know.

The yarn’s been running six days a week for a year now and could easily go another year. I haven’t written the final couple of chapters yet.

In a way, I’m not certain whether the story ever does come to an end.

Oh, the narrative thread will jog off in a whole new direction at some point. One day the familiar old Lee Falk tagline will pop up—Next: New Adventure!—but the entire dynamic of the Phantom universe may be fundamentally different from that point on.

We are, after all, dealing with ultimate questions of fate, destiny. The Phantom’s going to have to figure out whether such things can be thwarted, altered somehow, and, if they can, whether they’ve been altered for all time or have merely paused to re-calibrate; to map out a slightly different way of coming to pass after all.


None of this is to say I’m indifferent to the anxiety that long-time, thinking readers may be feeling, the ones we so rarely hear from. Many can’t bear to even think about the Phantom dying let alone see it happen right before their eyes. For 86 years now he’s been that kind of beloved character. Not your ordinary superhero.

He’s not super at all, in fact, which is the best thing about him. He’s not puffed up on an ego trip, not soured on the world, not haunted by his mission, not consumed by the pursuit of vengeance, all that hyper-violent mind rot DC and Marvel sold in the 80s and 90s.

I’ve said it before, but the great Sy Barry’s art, cynically mocked by some as “the happy Phantom,” did more to define and differentiate the character than Lee Falk’s writing ever did.

Falk was a good concept man, the founder who made it all possible, but Sy Barry was the thinker in their 30-year partnership. Without him, I believe the Phantom strip would have run its course and been canceled two generations ago, while Falk was still writing it.


The Phantom was never a part of that haunted antihero thing, the cliche his traumatized son becomes in the Mozz prophecy.

The Phantom has “shockingly good mental health,” as Michael Herr once said of Sean Flynn. For me, it’s the thing that makes him fun to write.

Revenge and the pursuit thereof is a theme running through the current daily story: how the naked ape can always justify it, dress it up as a virtue, a duty, how it’s never enough, how one good wrong deserves another, and so it goes, all the way back to the first biped who picked up a rock to bash his brother’s skull in a principled stand over the last banana.

The human condition, right? Past. Present. Future.


Another dominant theme: the butterfly effect. Not as you’ve heard the term used in chaos theory—the flap of a butterfly’s wings in South America sets into motion a hurricane in the northern hemisphere—but in the Ray Bradbury sense of one little thing changing all that follows.

In this case, the butterfly’s a woman locked up in Gravelines Prison, awaiting her appointed hour with a fascist hangman.


The prophecy in a nutshell: if the Phantom frees Savarna, she’ll be alive to learn that her mortal enemy ne plus ultra is hiding out in India. He has a new life as the chief constable of a remote Himalayan city, where he also spies for a foreign aggressor. Savarna will go there to get her revenge, the foreign power will bomb the city in retaliation, and this, in turn, will launch the Phantom’s son, Kit Walker, on a mercenary quest for vengeance of his own.

The 21st Phantom will meet his end while searching for the son Savarna had unwittingly diverted down a most un-Phantom-like path in life.


The current chapter started here, on April 18:

Kit’s coming up on his 18th birthday in the present timeline of the strip.

Here he is at 29, in the prophecy of Old Man Mozz.

This wasn’t our finest hour color-wise. It’s nobody’s fault: just the normal grind of the mass-market publishing mill, deadlines that really mean it, standard everyday levels of miscommunication. I hope to get it adjusted at some point because we’re going to see this version of Kit again. If we can’t readjust I’m going to rewrite the character around the edges.

That thing Kit’s wearing is supposed to be an African print he bears as a cultural emblem of his birth in East Africa. It’s a totem of the war-dog legend he’s created for himself.

And it means something to the narrative, but who knows how many readers have caught it: it tells us that Kit hasn’t kept the secret of his origin, the one and only secret he had a duty to guard at all costs when he went to India at 15. He’s talked about his origin in East Africa freely enough to have that information make its way back to his enemies, hence the nom de guerre they use in their pursuit of him.

You’ve seen photos of mercenaries and special ops guys gone native in Afghanistan or wherever; gone around the blood-soaked bend at the cost of their humanity.

This is the idea as far as the native garb goes.


Here’s the black & white art Mike filed with Orlando on that March 26 strip. What a great storytelling talent he is!

So the city is bombed, everything Kit knew and loved about the place is wiped off the map.

He finds a man sitting in the rubble, dying of a heart attack. He uses the man’s satellite phone to call home to the Deep Woods.

It’s the first time Kit’s parents have heard his voice in nearly three years.

Also wandering the rubble… a girl who works the counter at a local tea house.


I’ve blathered on way too long to post any riding videos now. Will do so in a separate post before the week is out.

I should also write something soon about what Jeff Weigel’s doing in the Sunday strip. The story we’re working on is built around a couple of elements that Jeff excels at.

Finally: we’ve had a rough couple of weeks on the Phantom enterprise, hence you can expect to see a bit of news break by Monday, at the latest. I’d tell it if it were my news to tell, except it ain’t.

Watch for the June 13 strip.

Cheers to all.

Tony DePaul, June 8, 2022, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA

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About Tony

The occasional scribblings of Tony DePaul, 68, father, grandfather, husband, freelance writer in many forms, recovering journalist, long-distance motorcycle rider, blue routes wanderer, topo map bushwhacker, blah blah...
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39 Responses to Riding videos & the Phantom & Cape Cod &…

  1. Sagnik says:

    Hello Tony,
    In today’s sunday, we finally have seen Eden more than a decade later, I think. A waterfall is seen in the frontal part of this island and I don’t think there was one in the older strips (didn’t physically check my books though).

    Is this your idea or Jeff himself added this bit? Either way Eden is looking great and Diana’s expression in the 4th panel is just awesome! 😀

    I have noticed that sunday format allows Jeff to draw two joint/bigger panels per strip and hence we get more details and overall a sunday strip always looks far more beautiful than a week’s worth of dailies, even when I like Mike’s art as much!

  2. My condolences on the passing of Gary. Baruch Dayan Ha’emet. Those Hubble photos have a way of making me think about how foolish it is to pit science against religion. One explores the “how” of life, while the other explores the “why.”

    When it comes to hitting a deer, I’ve been there; one morning years ago, I braked for one and, in the process, accidentally hit another. Watching him die in front of me was a sickening feeling. Deer have become more frequent in our neighborhood as new housing developments have been built.

    Am looking forward to seeing how the current Phantom storyline works out. I have sometimes wondered whether part of the dynamic that propels the Phantom to free Savarna in spite of the risks to his family and the legend is that he’s kind of in love with her … not to the point at which he’d leave Diana for her, but to the point at which it might cloud his judgment. Not asking you to tip your hand here! But I now am looking forward to Monday’s strip all the more, based on your comment.

    I do like the traditional superhero approach you take. I went to see the newest Batman film recently and decided I’m tired of the it’s-always-raining-on-the-orphan-in-Gotham Dark Knight approach.

    Best wishes to you and your family.

    • Tony says:

      Thank you, Stephen. You’re an astute reader of the strip. Your comments kind of zero in on things happening in the next several weeks.

      About Monday, I may have given the wrong impression in the blog post. What’s coming up Monday has to do with the art, not the story. It won’t be Mike Manley’s art. I shouldn’t say more, that’s up to Mike.

      Couldn’t agree more about the Dark Knight throwing himself a lifelong pity party.

  3. Barbara Polichetti says:

    Hey Tony…So glad everyone survived the accident relatively unscathed! Just wanted to thank you for including the link to the story of you and Pam, and the growth of the DePaul tribe. I always loved hearing about how you two met, but to read it all woven together from the 2012 blog was just beautiful.
    Blessings indeed,
    Babs

  4. joseph j pomis says:

    Tony, deepest sympathy on the loss of your friend. Life can really hurt sometimes.
    Also, I have been struggling with the latest story the past year or so- so much to take in and so hard to understand. It challenges the brain for sure. But I enjoy being challenged and I press on, engrossed. I need to suspend disbelief of Mozz’s detailed prescience, but I understand (I think) its importance. Carry on in good health, I love your stuff.
    I have been a fan of the Phantom since I learned to read in the 50’s and applaud your efforts.

    • Tony says:

      Thanks for hanging in there, Joe. Yeah the nature of the prophecy, the actual form it takes in the interaction between Mozz and the Phantom, I’ve left the reader to interpret that narrative conceit as they see fit.

      To me, when the narrative slips into the prophecy timeline, that has to be its own thing entirely, it can’t be what the Phantom is hearing when Mozz speaks. We don’t really know the form the story takes as the Phantom receives it in that personal one-on-one interaction. He must be getting the basics but Mozz can’t be relating every thought, feeling and word that will transpire among the characters in a time that hasn’t happened yet.

      So I think of the prophecy timeline as a gateway that opens for the reader if not the Phantom. The reader is privileged to know more than the Phantom can know, to see the future as it will unfold in every detail; details that won’t be available to the Phantom until he lives those experiences in a present hour yet to be.

      BTW, are you a motorcyclist by any chance? I’ll try to get around to loading those videos before the day is out.

      • joseph j pomis says:

        Not a cyclist, but I enjoyed your descriptions of your cross country trips, discovering America in an Easy Rider sort of way. Your hobby of busting your knuckles working on your little Piggy reveal the Renaissance Man in you. I was in healthcare finance for over thirty years and now I take photos at Disney part time so the wife gets the cast member discount and I get to interact with people from everywhere. Look forward to the videos. Been following this blog for years now. As compelling as the current arc is I must say the most fun story for me was about John X.

        • Tony says:

          Ah! Yeah the John X story was fun. And he’s still out there somewhere on special duty, reporting to the Unknown Commander. Reporting to himself, in other words.

          You probably recall that at the beginning of the current daily story Colonel Worubu was fishing for information on whether John X was the guy who had infiltrated Gravelines to make away with the prisoner roster on a thumbdrive.

          Sooner or later, John X will turn up in another adventure, likely with Hawa Aguda and Kay Molloy of the Jungle Patrol. They’re pretty determined to learn his true identity.

  5. Mari Nelson says:

    My favorite part:
    That you are called “Tone”.
    Peace and love friend.

    • Tony says:

      Haha… that started with her big sister when the family lived here with us while saving for a house of their own. The little girl used to look down through the cast iron grate in the floor and talk to me first thing in the morning. Happy days.

  6. AMIR BASHIR says:

    Sorry to hear about your friend. My deepest condolences.

    I loooooove reading about the Phantom. Very interesting twist to the current story but I am sure ‘Falkists’ would be appalled at this. But as I have argued with many earlier that since Falk is no more so where do we go from here?
    Yes we would like to read about the story on the Sunday strip as well. Will look forward to it in your future newsletters.
    The new TPB by Regal is out now and your interview was very informative. I loved the whole story arc of Chatu. I did want to know whether you had planned out Savarna’s story (up to her current adventures in India) at the time of introducing her character in the strip or was that built upon later?

    Regards

    • Tony says:

      Hello, Amir. The Regal book arrived here in the mail just the other day. It’s hefty! Very well done, beautifully printed.

      As for Savarna, I started thinking about that character in 2008. The role she’s playing now, traveling to the Himalayas to shoot Jampa and set the Phantom’s world awry, that must have occurred to me sometime in 2015. It would have been before the story on the twins heading off to foreign schools was published.

      I have no idea where that came from, except to say that Savarna suggested it. 🙂 It’s strange but true: over time the characters tell you who they are and how they fit in. They often wake me up at 3 a.m. to tell me something. Which is why I keep a notebook by the bed.

  7. CCjon says:

    Am left speechless, here I thought your were playing the grandfatherly slow pace carpenter on the ole homestead, stopping to pass on a life lesson to the little ones…
    then Bam! a dead deer, the Phantom is up to his neck in the thick, Pam getting better looking each year, destroyed your car, peaceful water front retreat.. Whew, quite a roller coaster ride you are having my friend.

    What’s on for next week?

    • Tony says:

      Hey, amigo. I know what I would like to get done but never will: the piglet 650 has been idle for a couple of years now, ever since I got back from the Arctic in 2019. I went through it with lots of new equipment in 2020: new suspension fore & aft, all new controls, a new pumper carb for better throttle control off road. Never even got around to fueling it and taking it out for a blast.

      Speaking of the Arctic, are you doing the Key West to Prudhoe Bay run again this season?

  8. Pat Douglas says:

    Thanks for the wonderful tribute to Gary and his folks. They were good people and will be missed.

    • Tony says:

      Thanks, Pat. We used to see Gary, Gladys and Ron on Sunday mornings, when Douglas Young always had something to say that was worth thinking about. And all these years later I can never think about Dr. Young without thinking of Muriel. What a sweetheart she was.

  9. Terry Close says:

    Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. I too, wonder if there is anything more or the light just fades away. Glad everyone is ok on the accident, it could have so easily been much, much worse. As to my dear and beloved Phantom, as I know that you know my feelings on him, and my ideas on where I would like to see things go, well, I am still reading my friend, on what may or may not be in the time to come. To close ones mind, is to shut off ones learning, and I for one am still learning, and I don’t plan on ever stopping, so I am still with you my friend.
    Cheers Tony

  10. Jim Marlett says:

    Sorry to hear about your friend’s death. Regardless of whether you believe in an afterlife or not, it is always sad.

    Glad your family survived the deer incident. Hitting one can be serious. I hit one once, but mine wasn’t nearly as serious. It was already dead and laying prostrate on the highway. I was about to pass a semi and was closer than normal when the carcass suddenly appeared out from under the truck. I can assure you that a Prius will not clear a dead deer and it took quite a bounce. Fortunately, I only broke a few panels under the car and did a bit to the front bumper. The car was still quite drivable, but it was a nervewracking drive home waiting for something to fail. We had a neighbor who saw a badger on one of the city streets and warned our neighborhood Facebook page to be careful because hitting a badger would destroy your car. Her dad had told her so. I can’t imagine a badger that could do the damage a deer could do and they aren’t nearly as common. I don’t think I’ll worry about badgers, but deer I take seriously. Patty’s dad once hit a cow. Watch out for them, too.

    • Tony says:

      Ha! Cows. I’ve definitely been alert to cows while night riding in the West on open range. Hit a black angus at speed on a motorcycle & yer luck has just about run out. Badgers & motorcycles don’t mix, either. Or rabbits & motorcycles, or any 5-pound bag of grease you might squish on a curve.

      A few hours before we hit the deer I was motorcycling up the highway at 80-plus to a regular 4-month oncology check-in. Definitely got lucky hitting a deer on four wheels that day instead of two.

      • Tony says:

        Oh… meant to say, Jim: Daughter #3 owns a Prius. We borrowed it to get home from the Cape on Sunday. She caught a ride back in her boyfriend’s vehicle. First time I had ever driven a Prius. Not a bad little car. The display on the dash said we had gotten almost 70mpg on the way back. Is that possible? I’ve heard it said they’re performing well when they get around 50mpg.

  11. Robert says:

    Tony, I cut to the Phantom material and completely skipped the part about the accident.

    Yikes!

    I am glad to hear that the children are unharmed and that they apparently came through unaffected by the accident.

    I like Saabs and I imagine yours contributed to the safe outcome.

    Be well, and safe!

    • Tony says:

      They are (were) great cars. We had three of them when the girls were young drivers. It was the only car where I felt I could fall asleep before they were home for the night.

  12. My sympathy to you and Pam on the loss of your friend, Gary Noyes.
    And a belated happy birthday to you, Pam, what a lovely photo.
    I’m so glad no one (except the poor deer) was hurt in the accident.
    I didn’t know the Phantom was 86 years old, that’s amazing.

  13. Linnea Krajewski says:

    Tony–

    If you get into a jam with the insurance company over the value of the Saab, give me a ring. I’ll be happy to help.

    • Tony says:

      Haha, you’re reading my mind, Linnea. I’m sure they’re going to offer me a third of what it’s worth. It’s AAA. The rep is no one local. He’s in Portland, Maine.

      • Linnea Krajewski says:

        Welp, you know where I am, so feel free to give me a jingle. By the way, there are still tons of 9.5s available on Saabnet…….

  14. Dennis says:

    Tony,

    To decide whether or not to portray fate, and or destiny, as something that can be altered, or not, is a heavy task. If memory serves, Dr Who splits the decision, some “fixed points are, well, fixed, and other, I guess, minor stuff, but maybe not so minor, can be changed? And who, what people or power, has that ability is also interesting? And can the ability to alter be the result of much training? Or must one be born with ability? Too deep for my old brain, makes we want to nap.

    Good riding weather.
    Dennis

    • Tony says:

      Nice riding weather here, too. Alas, I’m still buried on the house project and can’t really see daylight yet.

      Where are you off to this season, Dennis?

      • Dennis says:

        House projects, and hobby projects, will always be around. It’s comforting to do something with tangible result at the end of each day.
        Heading this season? You have me confused with some person of adventure. I rarely leave the north end of the state – just sort of joyride around Burrillville. Since downsizing the bike a few years ago coffee and ice cream runs with the wife don’t even happen as she preferred the larger bike – or at least that’s what she claims. Maybe it’s my riding style.
        Dennis

        • Tony says:

          It never does go away though, does it? I hope it never does for me.

          Once upon a time in British Columbia a 90-year-old guy tottered up to the iron piggy, told me he had ridden a thumper across Canada in his youth and that he still had the urge to go somewhere on two wheels, though the ability was long gone.

          If I last as long as he did, I hope I’m that wizened old scarecrow made of beef jerky, putt putt puttin’ up to Alaska on a bicycle with a 49-cc motor.

  15. Bill says:

    Wow! You survived that one! Good on you. A Saab story that didn’t turn out so well for the deer. Sadly I suppose the Saab is a write off?

    And before I forget… Happy Birthday Pam!

    • Tony says:

      Hey, Bill. Yeah I imagine the car’s totaled. The insurance company was supposed to have an adjuster take a look at it today. I haven’t heard a verdict yet.

      What do you know about electric cars? Or electric/gas hybrids? Just starting to shop around, trying to educate myself on the brave new world of motor vehicles.

  16. Robert says:

    I’ve always maintained that the genius of Tony DePaul’s tenure of writing the Phantom is his emphasis on the legend, history, and heritage of the Phantom. Tony “looks under the hood” of the Phantom legend to see how and why it works; the enjoyment comes from seeing the details. If it weren’t for this view, the Phantom would be another action hero-nothing wrong with that–but it wouldn’t be enough.

    The current adventure is free form enough to show how it can go wrong–even with the best of intentions, as well as getting to see among the 22 Phantoms, how one transition from father to son (?) actually happens. It is no accident that Falk wrote in twins for Diana’s and Kit’s children–and now we are seeing its resolution.

    • Tony says:

      That really was a good move on Falk’s part, and not at all surprising, given how he wrote Diana Palmer’s introduction in 1936; that scene where Diana’s male sparring partner has had enough of a workout, would just as soon hang up the gloves for the day. So yeah, Falk definitely saw the story potential behind giving the Phantom a daughter as well as a son. Definitely no accident.

      Thanks for the good word, Robert.

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