Public Domain Funnies

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Public Domain Funnies Page 4

Air Raid Robertson

on June 3, 2009

This page ably demonstrates the crime fighting technique of Fantomah. Fantomah is quite a reactionary even by superhero standards. She pretty much starts out by watching the bad guy butcher the living hell out of a bunch of people. Then , after a couple of hours of wanton slaughter, she finally turns on her skull face so she can swoop in to avenge them.

I have never read a Fantomah comic where she's even the least bit interested in rescuing people. Her only desire is to punish the wicked.

Coloring this comic is often a multiple choice scenario. Backgrounds, faces, and other such things tend to shift in hue solely to the whim of a disinterested colorist in the 1940 version. Fantomah's skull face is a good example. Sometimes it's bone white and sometimes it's blue.

I went with blue. I prefer her face blue for whatever reason. Occasionally her whole body turns blue along with her face, but I prefer the vibe where she remains caucasian in every respect except for her "war face". (Although I do change her skin tone slightly, as you may have picked up on)

The most significant color change I made was in the bottom tier of panels. You may have noticed that the narrative captions shift in hue along with the transformation of Fantomah's visage. I thought that was a cute touch.