The Son of the Phantom by Dale Robertson

The Son of the Phantom
1st publication:	The Son of the Phantom
# of pages:	numbered 9-248
Writer:	Dale Robertson
Artist:	Wilson McCoy
Producer:	Whitman Publishing Company

"The Son of the Phantom" is a 1946 prose story of the Phantom Sunday story "The Childhood of the Phantom" from 1944. It was written by Dale Robertson and edited Wilson McCoy panels are used to illustrate the story.

History

"The Son of the Phantom" is one of several similar books by Whitman Publishing, known as authorized editions. These editions belong to the Whitman 2300 series and were released in the years 1941 to 1948, inspired by various media such as radio, film, and comic strips. Each book features personalities from the selected media. The 2300 numbering is not chronological from 2301 to 2399, and the same 2300 number may be used on different titles.

The books have been reprinted several times and there is some confusion as to which books are reprints and which are original. The same book can be found with various colored covers; brown, green, blue or tan. The back-list found in the back pages in the books can have different listings. In addition the dust jackets also have a back list, which may be different - also from the one inside the book.

In terms of new titles published, four books were published in 1941, nine in 1942, thirteen in 1943, three in 1944, four in 1945, eighteen in 1946, eight in 1947 and two in 1948. Some of these books continued to be printed in the early 50s, but then under a different series name.

The release of "The Son of the Phantom"

As for "The Son of the Phantom", it comes in three different cover colors: blue, green and brown.

Inside a green variant (a Christmas present in 1949 according to an inscription inside the book) the back-list lists most releases from before October 10th but none from the same date or later.

Two variants of the dust jacket are known. One with "Don Winslow and the FBI" (numbered 2330) as the last book in the list, and one with "Sandra of the Girl Orchestra" (numbered 2322) as the last book. It seems that the dust jacket with "Don Winslov " was printed before the dust jacket with "Sandra ". These two different back lists can also be found on the dust jacket of many other titles as well.

• 
  copyright card
• 
  Don Winslov
• 
  Sandra

To understand the releases at the time "The Son of the Phantom" was released, one can list the 1946 releases as follows:

copyrighted	title	inside	2330	2322
10.06.1946	Boy Sailor with John Paul Jones	X	X
31.08.1946	Patty O'Neal on the Airways	X	X
31.08.1946	The Long Rider and the Treasure of Vanished Men	X	X	X
31.08.1946	Red Ryder and the Adventure at Chimney Rock	X	X	X
31.08.1946	Boy Fighter with Andrew Jackson
31.08.1946	Tom Harmon and the Great Gridiron Plot			X
31.08.1946	Sandra of the Girl Orchestra			X
31.08.1946	Gene Autry and the Redwood Pirates			X
31.08.1946	Peggy Parker, Girl Inventor			X
31.08.1946	Roy Rogers and the Raiders of Sawtooth Ridge			X
06.10.1946	Blue Streak and Doctor Medusa	X	X	X
06.10.1946	Sylvia Sanders and the Tangled Web	X	X
10.10.1946	The Son of the Phantom	X	X	X
10.10.1946	Winnie Winkle and the Diamond Heirlooms		X	X
10.10.1946	King of the Royal Mounted and the Ghost Guns of Roaring River		X	X
10.10.1946	Don Winslow and the Scorpion's Stronghold		X	X
10.10.1946	Quiz Kids and the Crazy Question Mystery			X
10.10.1946	Shirley Temple and the Screaming Specter			X

For the years 1947-1948, these do not have a back-lists on the dust jacket, but only on the inside. Both the first release (Van Johnson, the Luckiest Guy in the World (04.09.1947)) and the last (Tom Stetson on the trail of the lost tribe (12.10.1948)) do list "The Son of the Phantom".

Comparing the the dust jacket back lists on the two known from "The Son of the Phantom", the one with the number 2330 on the spine matches a publication in October 1946. The one with 3322 sometime between October 1946 and September 1947.

Regarding the cover colors, it seems like the one with the blue cover is the first printing, but this is an assumption after following online auctions for this book for about 15 years.

The story

The story itself follows the original Sunday story as it was written and drawn, only more comprehensively. New names are found where they are missing from the original story, like Eric Nelson as the first Phantom.

The author

Dale Robertson is not mentioned as an author of any other books in the 40s, and there is no further information about him. Dale is most often a male name but can also be used as a female name. Reading the book, the depictions between the young Phantom and his mother and aunt seem written by a man. Likewise, the sporting depictions that exist also indicate a male author.

It must also be taken into account that Dale Robertson may be a pseudonym (pen name).

The art

If you count the dust jacket, there are 22 illustrations in the book. The drawing on the dust jacket is partly taken from the original story. The drawing on the inside cover and first page is inspired by a panel from the original story. The other nineteen are taken directly from original panels by Wilson McCoy, but have extra ink to fit a book page, as well as to remove speech bubbles and text.

• 
  first ill.
• 
  second ill.
• 
  ninth ill.

Brazilian edition

In 1965, RGE published a Brazilian edition of this book translated into Portuguese. The 29 illustrations in this edition were drawn by Gutenberg Monteiro.