Word: phantoms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Papua New Guinea-homeland of the cargo cults and of islanders who once regarded L.B.J. as a demigod-have a new Western hero to worship. No, not the Fonz or Jimmy Carter, but the masked comic-strip marvel who lives in the Skull Cave of Bangalla-namely, the Phantom...
...same language), a weekly publication in pidgin distributed by Papua New Guinea's Protestant and Catholic churches. Until 1972, many of the natives bought such publications only for the paper, which they used to roll their pungent plug tobacco. But then Wantok began carrying the adventures of the Phantom translated into pidgin. (Sample dialogue: "Fantom, yu pren tru bilong mi. Inap yu ken helpim mi nau?" Meaning: "Phantom, you are a true friend of mine. Are you able to help me now?") Circulation of the paper began to climb. Illiterates bought their copies and then waited patiently for public...
...Phantom caught on with the Papua New Guineans? Answers Alan Spanos, a former government nutritionist: "He succeeds here because his image strikes deep chords. He is big and strong and white, like the much-admired and envied Europeans. He is generous and fair and helps the weak, like the government in the colonial era. He has magical powers and is solitary and of mysterious origin, so he may well be really a returned ancestor...
...natives may have to do without their favorite unless a dispute over syndication rights to the strip is resolved. Local rights to The Phantom have long been owned by the nation's sole daily newspaper, the Post-Courier, which publishes The Phantom in English, not pidgin. This summer, after the fast-growing Wantok moved to a new and larger plant, the Australian-owned Post-Courier decided to assert its exclusive right to the comic strip, and the local distributor pulled The Phantom from Wan-tok. Says Father Frank Mihalic, editor of Wantok: "I don't see any conflict...
They are named Phantom Flasher, Lazarus, The Red Onion, Chiquita Vanana, Vandal and such. They ride high and graceless, as always, but now their boxy bodies cry out for attention with garish designs and obstreperous Pap art: frontier scenes, Hawaii schlock, seascapes, erotic mush. Even one-the specimen, say, that flashes nude girls in and out of view with Op-artful magic-can pop the eyeballs. When large numbers heave into sight, zooming along the road in a spaced-out phantasmagoria of a caravan, they can set the innocent motorist to gaping and muttering, "What is going on here...