Cover Contest 8 December - 14 December: All the World's a Stage!

[Englehart Humperdinck]

Whiz Comics #71

[MajorHoy]

[LordMikel]

So many great covers. Mentions alone will get a lot.

Proof that sometimes Robin got to hit Batman.

182-1.jpg

[kjn]

Never heard of this one, and the fact that there is a character named "the Phantom Stranger" that looks exactly like the civilian disguise for the Phantom makes me wonder how DC managed to get this past the lawyers.

[MajorHoy]

Never heard of this one, and the fact that there is a character named "the Phantom Stranger" that looks exactly like the civilian disguise for the Phantom makes me wonder how DC managed to get this past the lawyers.

Seriously?

The character has been around for nearly seventy years.
See: https://community.cbr.com/showthread...on-Thread-2021 (among others).

[Kirby101]

Never heard of this one, and the fact that there is a character named "the Phantom Stranger" that looks exactly like the civilian disguise for the Phantom makes me wonder how DC managed to get this past the lawyers.

The Phantom Stranger has been a character in the DCU for decades (1952), he is very well known to American comic readers. He is a supernatural character. He looks nothing like the Phantom comic strip.



He was originally a guy in a trenchcoat, so I don't think there was anything to "get away with" as far as Lee Falk's Phantom.

[Scott Taylor]

All the world's a stage ... with ducks on it.

[Jack Dracula]

It's on a kabuki stage.

[Iron Maiden]

Seriously?

The character has been around for nearly seventy years.
See: https://community.cbr.com/showthread...on-Thread-2021 (among others).

But Lee Falk's newspaper strip The Phantom began publishing in 1936 for King Syndicate so he has quite a jump on Phantom Stranger, who does look an awful lot like the Phantom in the cover, except for the addition of a hat. Plus having "Phantom" as part of his name and one does wonder how DC slipped that one by.

That cover is very much an homage to Phantom of the Opera with the Phantom imperiling the audience with the chandelier. I did get to go to the stage version that Andrew Lloyd Webber created for the special theater in Las Vegas. And a chandelier above the audience was rigged to look like it was going to come crashing down.

[foxley]

And somehow Marvel got away with ripping off Plastic Man and calling him Mr. Fantastic. Go figure.

[kjn]

But Lee Falk's newspaper strip The Phantom began publishing in 1936 for King Syndicate so he has quite a jump on Phantom Stranger, who does look an awful lot like the Phantom in the cover, except for the addition of a hat. Plus having "Phantom" as part of his name and one does wonder how DC slipped that one by.

Heck, the hat is an important part when the Phantom goes disguised as mr. Walker.

But the age of the characters is probably a huge part. The creative industries were a lot less concerned about trademark law at the time.

And somehow Marvel got away with ripping off Plastic Man and calling him Mr. Fantastic. Go figure.

That's easier to get, since the designs and the names are so dissimilar. Compare Aquaman and Namor.

[MRP]

Heck, the hat is an important part when the Phantom goes disguised as mr. Walker.

But the age of the characters is probably a huge part. The creative industries were a lot less concerned about trademark law at the time.



That's easier to get, since the designs and the names are so dissimilar. Compare Aquaman and Namor.

Trademark also requires something distinctive, and not mundane or ordinary, that sets it apart as being identifiable and uniquely associated with your brand to warrant a trademark. There is nothing distinctive or unique about a hat and trench coat. And if there was a brand that was associated with a hat and trench coat coming out of comic strips it would have been Dick Tracy and that had the distinctive yellow color to set it apart from the others. There are requirements to qualify getting a trademark registered, it's not carte blanche I did this first or I claim this so now its ours. The Phantom's distinctive purple costume is unique enough to qualify for a trademark. Someone wearing a trench coat and a hat, even with the unique costume underneath, is not. Trademarks also require you to defend them every time someone infringes on them, if you don't defend it, it is considered abandoned. King Features would have gone broke trying to legally challenge every time a character appeared wearing a hat and trench coat in comic strips or books. That's a lot of court costs for not much return on that investment.

-M

[Kirby101]

The Phantom Stranger looks more like Mandrake to me than The Phantom.

[MajorHoy]

Don't forget, people, there's still time to submit new entries for this week's theme if you haven't already done so!

[Ravin' Ray]

When Marvel had to build a rogue's gallery for the then new (and savage) She-Hulk:



Which was then homaged into this non-entry:

https://braveandboldlost.blogspot.co...-she-hulk.html