The Phantom Tribute | 365 Collage week 17

Did you ever read the comic strip The Phantom when you were a kid? I did. I mean, I read it when I was a bit older, early teen maybe, and often found vintage magazines in a cottage that we rented a few summers. Him and Tarzan were my favorites. I loved the different sayings about him, and all the adventures and the fact that he lived in Africa. He was, and still is, very popular in Sweden and the translated magazine / comic came out every week.

While reading the Wikipedia page about the figure, I found out that The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangali. Unlike many other superheroes, the Phantom has no superpowers; he relies on his strength, intelligence, skill at arms, and the myth of his immortality to take action against the forces of evil. His also married, with two kids and pets, and has a super nice body if you ask me. Ahem.

But did you also know that the Phantom was the first fictional hero to wear the skintight costume which has become a hallmark of comic-book superheroes, and that he was the first shown in a mask with no visible pupils (another superhero standard) – such an forerunner. In any case, I’ve gutted a few more vintage comic strip magazines and made collages out of them! Yay me.

That’s why this blog post contains seven new collage artworks, as I continue creating in my series “365 collages in 2025”. I hope you like ’em.

Not all of the images in my collages are snagged out of “The Phantom” but also a few others, including the cute toy elephant comic Pellefant, created by Rune Andréasson, the same guy who gave us the iconic Swedish children’s comic “Bamse” (the world’s strongest and kindest bear, also with a wife and later on kids) that I had a standing subscription for as a kid. The comic strip Pellefant had its own magazine from 1965–1992, and smack in the middle of that I read a few issues as a young child.

And gosh darn, how I love the colors of these pages, the cartoon boxes, the simplistic and cute style. All of it:

It’s not weird at all that one would like this elephant and his mouse friend Pip.

I picked some special images to be more visible here, but mostly I cut some pages up using the guillotine paper cutter, making strips, just as I did with the comic covers. I didn’t take note of how it cut, just made myself scraps to play with. It was a blast.

Mixing the two different magazines made for a interesting new world. A juxtaposition of danger and innocence. Artwork collage featuring both the longing to be a grown up and the reality of being a kid perhaps.

Even though these exact magazine issues are not from my own childhood, the look of them together makes me remember laying under the duvet cover, reading as the summer rain was falling outside the window and the smell of cut grass wafted in. Going back to bed after breakfast, to read. Walking barefoot through the grass outside and being greeted by the cows who grazed at the lot next to that summer house.

Love these colors:

Thanks again for letting me share these with you! It means a lot to me.

And thank you for clicking over, taking a closer look and leaving me a comment below telling me which of these collages you like best – and why you like it.

Have you ever cut up a comic strip and used in your own collage work or mixed media projects?

Please also check out week 17 2013 and week 17 2018 (Being a Paper Squirrel).

About this project: I am making one collage for each day of the year in 2025 and blogging seven at a time each week here. I have created 365 artworks in a year thrice before so I am hopeful that I can do it again. I’d love to know which of these you like best – and why you like it. Thanks for helping me finish this by cheering me on. I appreciate you being here.
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365 collages in 2025 | previously w. 16 | this is w. 17 | next up w. 18

All art created by hand by iHanna. Copyright Hanna Andersson. All rights reserved. AI FUCK OF