THE CREATOR

Lee Falk was born in St. Louis in the United States, on April 28th 1911. Lee created his first character - Mandrake the Magician - while he was studying at the University of Illinois. Lee was at that time writing for a radio station. He managed to sell it to King Features Syndicate and the strip made its debut on June 11, 1934. Mandrake's features compared highly with Falk's own personal style, and many still insist that Falk himself was the model for Mandrake.

Madrake the Magician was such a hit, that Falk was later invited by King Features to create another comic strip. After much deliberation the Phantom was created in 1936.

Falk drew the first two weeks of the first Phantom story, 'The Singh Brotherhood', but decided that the assistant artist for 'Mandrake the Magician', Ray Moore, should take over.

The volume of stories has never really slowed with even the second world war not affecting the output of the Phantom comic. Both Falk and Moore, served with the United States Army. At the moment a lot of FREW's material is coming from the Scandinavian issues but there has been a resurgance of original ideas of late.

Falk had one great honour in 1990. He and his wife Elizabeth, appeared in the story, 'the Mystery of Cape Cod', a Swedish story based at the location of the Falk's holiday home in Cape Cod.

Falk also used his family members' names for the Phantom stories. His daughter, Valerie, was the model for Princess Valerie; Conley, the name of his son, was used in many stories as a name for young boys; and his wife's maiden name, Moxley was the title for the 1993 strip, 'The Moxley Awards'.

One of Lee's proudest moments would have had to have been in 1996, to see his creation finally reach the Big Screen. The Phantom Movie directed by Simon Wincer and starring Billy Zane (the Phantom), Kristy Swanson (Diana), Treat Williams (Drax), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Sala), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Kabai Sengh), Jon Tenney (Jimmy Wells), Patrick McGoohan (Phantom's Father) and Robert Coleby (Captain Horton), was considered by some to be a defining moment in the Phantoms history and certainly has added to the real legend behind Falk's creation.

Unfortunately, Lee passed away on Saturday morning, March 13th, 1999 of congestive heart failure, signifying the end of a great era. He will be sorely missed by Phantom and Mandrake fans worldwide. He had proven that he was the most successful comic creator with his 63 year legacy surviving to this day. Rest in peace, forever in all of our hearts.