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Phantom Lady

Entry updated 19 January 2026. Tagged: Character, Comics, Publication.

US Comic (1947-1949; 1954-1955). Fox Publications 1947-1949: eleven issues, numbered #13-#23. Farrell Publications 1954-1955: four issues, the first numbered #5, then #2-#4. Ruth Roche scripted most – probably all – the Phantom Lady strips; Baker drew most of them during the Fox era, though Jack Kamen did a few; Farrell-era artists are unidentified. 36 pages, with 3-4 long strips (2-3 starring Phantom Lady) and a short text story, plus occasional short pieces as filler. Some of the long strips were alleged true crime stories "narrated" by the Phantom Lady (not counted as strips starring her).

The Phantom Lady was created by Arthur Peddy and made her first appearance in Quality Comics' Police Comics #1 (1941) – home to Plastic Man and other Superheroes (see Plastic Man for a brief overview of Police Comics) – appearing in #1-#23 (1941-1943). She also turned up in All Top Comics #8-#17 (1947-1949) and occasionally elsewhere in the 1940s. The 1947 revival gave her a scantier costume that earned her an appearance in Frederic Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent (1954): the cover of #17 was reproduced with the caption "Sexual stimulation by combining 'headlights' with the sadist's dream of tying up a woman". The Phantom Lady was the alter ego of senator's daughter Sandra Knight, who uses a Ray that casts darkness as a torch emits light. She also had a futuristic car, which in #2 was rocket-ship shaped. Though having no superpowers, she is skilled in ju-jitsu and athletics: in #22 the US male team is drugged at the London Olympics, so the Phantom Lady competes in their events, winning them all, including boxing, hammer throwing, pole vaulting and sprinting. The Sandra Knight Phantom Lady would appear in DC Comics from the 1970s, as would other superheroes using the name, but with different alter egos.

#13 (that is, the first issue) opens with "The Beauty and the Brain", where a remote controlled Robot is used to impersonate Sandra Knight, committing a murder so she will be held responsible and given the death penalty (an act of vengeance by a mother for whose son's execution Sandra's senator father was responsible); Sandra ends up impersonating the robot. Another story features an Invention which stops the broadcast of radio waves. In "An Army of Walking Dead!" (#15) a doctor uses Zombies in an attempt to conquer the US; he also has a Drug that makes people suggestible. A female Werewolf appears in "The Monster in the Pool" (#16). "The Case of the Murderous Model!" has a plot to blow up the United Nations using an explosive carried by a model aeroplane attracted to the UN building by a magnet in a briefcase. The explosive is finger-sized: "enough here to blow New York off the map" (events suggest this might be hyperbole). "The Jack-In-the-Box Murders!" (#21) arguably has a Supervillain in Jack-in-the-Box: she wears a full costume, murders rival politicians and grooms her brother for the presidency. The Chessman, another villain in the same issue, has a mask and cape but does not really enter supervillain territory (curiously, his name is Algernon Blackwood, perhaps a nod to that author). "The Case of the Robbing Robot!" (#22) features a dual purpose robot: the turning of a knob changes it "from a thinking machine into a fighting machine" (see Computers). Of the non-Phantom Lady strips, most are crime or alleged true crime tales, though #13 has a Blue Beetle story, where a female archaeologist brings a mummy back to life (see Medicine) with science.

The Farrell comics were low on genre elements. #5's cover has our hero fighting a Scientist, but there were no genre tales inside. #2, aside from the aforementioned car, includes a non-Phantom Lady strip where the hero's sidekick is an intelligent seal (this seems to be a reprint from Captain Flight Comics #10). A villain in #3 has a television camera in a walking cane. #3 and #4 each have a strip starring the Red Rocket, a superhero mainly because of his costume, but whose athleticism is a little beyond human capabilities; in #4 he faces a villain with the strength of five men. Both tales are reprints, though #4's was a Black Cobra story from Dynamic Comics #1, reworked to star Red Rocket (a not uncommon practice in this era); #3's is a straight reprint from Captain Flight Comics #7. [SP]

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