Number 1301: In India-Africa with the Phantom

I never thought much about where the Phantom is headquartered. Some jungle, somewhere, in a cave. One jungle and one cave is much like another, I thought. But then I read that originally the jungle-based Phantom stories were set in India (even using the derivative name, “Bengali,”) but were at some point re-set in Africa. In the Evansville Courier and Press of January 19, 2012, writer Andrew A. Smith, discussing his lifelong love of the Phantom comics wrote, “Sometimes The Phantom's jungle adventures seemed to be in India, sometimes Africa. (For the record, the strip was set in India in the 1930s, but The Phantom's home turf gradually shifted to Africa by the 1960s, and has been there ever since.)”

Okay, sounds good enough for me, and the only reason I point it out is in this story the Phantom’s girlfriend Diana is arrested for stealing a necklace from a maharajah, who is strictly Indian. The story itself...well, it’s fairly typical Phantom business, i.e., getting Diana out of trouble. What would that woman, born of privilege,* do without the Phantom? She'd probably be home in America married to a banker, spending afternoons having cocktails with her friends at the country club, that's what. Which would mean the Phantom wouldn't have much to do except hang around the Skull Cave, sitting on his stone throne.

From Harvey Comic Hits #56 (1952):

*According to a Wikipedia entry on Diana Palmer: “Diana was born into a wealthy family, to mother Lily Palmer and father Henry Zapman.” Zapman! I like that name.