Fantomius

Fantomius
(Lord Quackett)

Page with soundtrack

The Phantom of the Opera
by Andrew Lloyd Webber

The character of Fantomius, created by Italian writer Guido Martina, is mentioned in several Italian stories: PAPERINIK IL DIABOLICO VENDICATORE TOP. n°706-707 (PHANTOM DUCK THE DEVILISH AVENGER), PAPERINIK ALLA RISCOSSA TOP. n°743-744 (THE REVENGE OF PHANTOM DUCK), PAPERINIK E IL RITORNO A VILLA ROSATOP. n°2129-2130 (PHANTOM DUCK AND THE RETURN TO VILLA ROSA), PAPERINIK CONTRO LE GIOVANI MARMOTTE TOP. n°2398 (PHANTOM DUCK AGAINST THE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS), PAPERINIK E L'ESTATE A VILLA LALLA TOP. n°2437 (PHANTOM DUCK AND THE SUMMER AT VILLA LALLA), PAPERINIK E L'OMBRA DI FANTOMIUS TOP. n°2455 (PHANTOM DUCK AND THE FANTOMIUS's SHADOW), PAPERINIK E L'OLTRAGGIO CINEMATOGRAFICO TOP n°2484 (PHANTOM DUCK AND THE CINEMA OFFENCE) and in the saga of the ULTRAHEROES TOP. 2726-2734. His image appears (drawn by Romano Scarpa and Giorgio Cavazzano) together with his fiancee Dolly Paprika, in the second adventure where Fantomius was impersonated both by Donald and Gladstone, and in this "misterious" story the costume of Dolly Paprika is worn by Daisy .
In the adventure PHANTOM DUCK AND THE FANTOMIUS's SHADOW the autor Gervasio let the worthless thief Bob Paperhide impersonate the misterious gentleman burglar. In the story PAPERINIK E IL TESORO DI DOLLY PAPRIKA TOP n° 2675 (PHANTOM DUCK AND THE TREASURE OF DOLLY PAPRIKA) the real characters of Fantomius and Dolly Paprika are shown in some flash back images.
In the Danish stories THE LEGACY (story code D D 2003-017) and HOT CHEMISTRY (story code D 2003-2917) published in 2005 an unusual modern version of Fantomius (PK style) is shown.

It is told in the first story that Fantomius was a gentleman thief who robbed only from the rich ("Pretty smart!" said Donald "what could he gain from robbing the poor?"). In his diary, casually found by Donald in the false-bottom of a big armchair in Villa Rosa Fantomius describes his double identity: "I was able to escape from the police because of Villa Rosa's secrets, which allow me to conduce a double life..."
"...I slept during the day and robbed at night. This way I had my revenge against the high society people who despised me and considered me good for nothing." Other than Villa Rosa, Fantomius described his "mobile tank" equipped with special devices in his diary .

The novelized version of the first story (printed in Italy in 1970 by Mondadori collection L'INTREPIDA) Guido Martina describes the first chapter of Fantomius's diary in this way:
"I Fantomius, called the elusive, write this memo so that those who come after me will know the truth about me, better if someone, in my same condition, will be able to imitate my deeds.
To this future unknown heir I dedicate my diary wishing good luck".

In a second diary found by Donald in the story PHANTOM DUCK AND THE RETURN TO VILLA ROSA, the tricks and machineries located in Villa Rosa's secret underground are better described.


About Fantomius lifetime, in the first story there is a temporal-incongruence. It is told in the letter which notifies the winning of Villa Rosa, that after 100 years from the death of the owner the mansion would become property of the state... If we suppose the story plays in the middle 50s, 100 years earlier would have places the death of Fantomius in the second half of the 1800s, still a "Far West" period in the California state. To place such a classy villain (with special devices and a mobile car) in that period is not credible. It Is much more reasonable to consider Fantomius a typical gentleman thief of the first decades of the twentieth century ("belle epoque" prohibitionist period) for sure years that fit pretty well to a tenebrous and misterious outlaw.
The story *PHANTOM DUCK AGAINST THE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS* shows an old book, which Donald found in the public library where some of Fantomius' missions and even some of his secret refuges such as Villa Rosa and the Ermine's house located in the shadowy mountains some miles out of Duckburg city limit are described.
In a third diary also found in Villa Rosa's underground in the story *PHANTOM DUCK AND THE SUMMER AT VILLA LALLA, Donald* discovers another one of Fantomius' secret places, the summer refuge of Villa Lalla in the Dune Bay, Dark Forest locality in the north part of Duckburg bay.
	In the story *PHANTOM DUCK AND THE FANTOMIUS's SHADOW, another not well identified diary (possibly the second one relevant to Villa Rosa's underground) is found by the worthless thief Bob Paperhide. He utilizes the diary to learn about Fantomius* and Villa Rosa's secrets and tricks in order to carry out robbery against Duckburg's bilionaires


	Relevant to Fantomius' "mobile tank" we know for sure that it was equipped with the devices shown in the first story (*PHANTOM DUCK THE DEVILISH AVENGER), and installed by Gyro* in Donald's car according to the descriptions in Fantomius' diary: spring ejected seat, anti-pursuer oil and extensible bumpers. Also the smokers device was installed in the Fantomius' special car as described in the novelized version of the first story and shows by Marco Gervasio in his adventure *PHANTOM DUCK AND THE TREASURE OF DOLLY PAPRIKA*.
It is however reasonable that this special car was dotated with other devices such as the nails spreading system and others. For what concerns the typology of this car, the sketch shown in an illustration of the first story looks to much like a war heavy tank to be considerably reliable (it is pretty ridiculous to imagine Fantomius making his nightly secret mission in a war tank!). It is more logical to suppose the "special tank" as a modified sports car of the first decades of the twentieth century.

	A reasonable representation of the Fantomius' special car is shown in the story of Marco Gervasio *PHANTOM DUCK AND THE TREASURE OF DOLLY PAPRIKA. In this beautiful adventure there is also evidence of the Fantomius* lifetime being the story plays during the first years of the XXth century.


	As far as the special devices utilized by Fantomius are concerned, in the first and second adventures of Phantom Duck some of the tricks found by Donald in Villa Rosa are shown. Other than the black costume incorporating the pocket progressive opening parachute and the spring boots (whose allow to jump up to 10 meters -about 30 feet-), we have the hypnotic oil lamp, the double effect candle wax/dynamite, the melted mushroom, the instant effect corrosive spray and probably the sleep fast powder and the smoke bomb.
Quite a bit interesting is a drawing in the story *THE REVENGE OF PHANTOM DUCK* where Fantomius's personal weapon identifiable as a Colt .45 Model 1911 is well represented, probably found by Donald together with the costume.

In some of his undertakings Fantomius used to impersonate some other people by using rubber masks (as Phantom Duck would do as well). Some of those masks were found by Donald in the Ermine's house as shown in the story PHANTOM DUCK AGAINST THE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS. It is locical to think that the female masks were utilized by Fantomius' fianceé Dolly Paprika.

The real Fantomius and his fiancee are shown for the first time in some flash back of the story PHANTOM DUCK AND THE TREASURE OF DOLLY PAPRIKA published on the italian comic book TOPOLINO n° 2675 on March 2007 .

As any famous bandit or masked avenger who had a helper or a female partner (Diabolik-Eva Kant, Zorro-Bernardo, Fantomas-Lady Beltham, Arsene Lupin-Grognard and Natasha ecc...) also Fantomius realized his undertakings together with his fianceé Dolly Paprika.

little is known about the true identity of this character, in the stories where she "appeared" is when Daisy impersonated her, wearing the strange red costume with bat or fox style long ears, for a masquerade party. As above mentioned the real Dolly Paprika is shown for the first time in some images of the story PHANTOM DUCK AND THE TREASURE OF DOLLY PAPRIKA

In this story Marco Gervaso shows also the worty pendant of Dolly Paprika which is the secret key for a room, located in the Villa Rosa hideout, where Fantomius keeps his treasure. The entrance of this secret room is hide by a big portrait of Dolly Paprika. Because of the signature this portrait has been painted by Fantomius himself.

Always in the story PHANTOM DUCK AND THE TREASURE OF DOLLY PAPRIKA, a small picture in a room of Villa Rosa more likely attested the real aspect of the misterious Fantomius' fiancee; a pretty girl with fair hair comb in the style used during the 20s.

As far as Fantomius's true identity and name are concerned, an interesting indication is given by Marco Gervasio in his recent story PHANTOM DUCK AND THE FANTOMIUS's SHADE, where during a school excurtion to Villa Rosa's remains, the teacher of Donald's nephews describes to them the story of the mansion: " These are the remains of Villa Rosa, which belonged to Lord Quackett long ago! Because he didn't have any heirs the mansion become state property".
This sentence corresponds to what is said in the first story, that Villa Rosa's owner (who we know to be Fantomius) disappeared without heirs, thus we can deduce that Lord Quackett is nothing more than the true name of Fantomius!.


Little is known about the aspect of Lord Quackett alias Fantomius, the only references are in some paintings in the story *PHANTOM DUCK AND THE RETURN TO VILLA ROSA, where Fantomius* face (squared bill, deep glance, curly feathers) without the dark-blue mask is shown. About his characteristic mask, in the beautiful novelized version of the first story, Guido Martina, describing the moment when Donald found Fantomius's costume, lets us know as follows: "lifting the cover of the false bottom armchair, there was the night black costume with the black cloak, well folded and protected by moth-balls as well as the spring sole boots which allow 30 feet jumps. There was also a silk dark mask but Donald didn't make use of it: he had already decided what to use to hide his face!" It seems that in the beginning also Phantom Duck should have worn the blue mask, but due to a mistake made by the coloring department he remained without the mask in his firt story.
Other sinister pictures of Duckburg's gentleman thief placed in Villa Rosa's secret undergrounds are shown in the stories *PHANTOM DUCK AND THE SUMMER IN VILLA LALLA* and *PHANTOM DUCK AND THE FANTOMIUS's SHADOW*.

An important indication is present in the story PHANTOM DUCK AND THE TREASURE OF DOLLY PAPRIKA where on a picture a blond girl with short hair and an old fashion handsome are shown. More likely these are the portraits of Fantomius and Dolly Paprika.

In the same story the images of the Mad Duke of Duckburg and the Phantom of Notre Duck are present in Villa Rosa as well. This is also a possible indication that these misterious characters could have been related with Lord Quackett or his fiancee.

Other unidentified portraits are also present in Villa Rosa. These could represent possible ancestors of Fantomius or Dolly Paprika, or even historical duckburgian characters not necessarly related with them.

In this nice acrylic painting, the Italian artist Andrea Cipolla hypothesizes a very young Lord Quackett together with his mother walking near the family mausoleum in England at the end of the 1800s.

In this interesting painting the same Andrea Cipolla shows a teenage Lord Quackett photographed together with the Irish author Oscar Wilde, a scene which takes place in London in 1895.

DUCKBURG IN THE 20s
This drawing shows the gentleman thief Fantomius and his girlfriend Dolly Paprika during one of their bold robbery actions, carried out in a suggestive full moon night in Duckburg's downtown during the early 1900s.

Even if it has nothing to do with the real Fantomius, there is a strange curiosity in Martina's story LA RISPOSTA DI PAPERINIK (PHANTOM DUCK's ANSWER) published in the Italian comic PAPERINO MESE n° 138 December 1991, where Phantom Duck is helped in one of his missions by a strange small robot built by Gyro.
This mechanical man "who looks like Frankenstein", wore a Phantom Duck-like costume with the letter F on the chest. And he is called Fantomius by his creator.

A modern version (PK style) of Fantomius is shown in the Danish story THE LEGACY published in 2005. In this adventure, after several years of isolation in an oriental monastery where he went through martial arts training, the gentleman thief comes back to Duckburg as an old master to know and train the mysterious Phantom duck who has become his heir.

A Flashback of this Fantomius is shown again in another Danish story titled HOT CHEMISTRY, translate also in the German comic book LTB N°347 with the title SCHATTED DER VERGANGENHEIT (SHADOWS FROM THE PAST). In this strange adventure Phantom Duck remind his previous meeting with Fantomius. A memory album or one of the gentleman thief's diary with an old photo of Fantomius it is also shown.
In this story an alternative politically correct version of Fantomius; is given, basically a second "Robin Hood" who robbed from the rich to give to the poor.

Very interesting in this adventure is the mysterious character of Ireyon who despite her young aspect seems to have been a helper of Fantomius during the years of his activity. The images of Ireyon (she looks like a fox ) is present in one of the photos found by Donald in Villa Rosa. It is not clear who this character really is, maybe another friend of Fantomius or she could be and alternative variant of Dolly Paprika created by the Danish writer. And why she is still so young despite she was acting many years ago with Fantomius? This doubful is still in the mind of Phantom Duck at the end of the story.

Because of his name and his dark mask who hid his true identity, the character of Fantomius takes reference from the smart criminal Fantomas created in 1911 by the French writers Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. After a long series of novelles and mute films, realized from 1911 to 1930, Fantomas came back into the European public eye during the middle 60s because of a funny movie trilogy well acted by the unforgettable actor Louis De Funés who played the police inspector Juvé, tireless enemy of Fantomas. Furthermore an interesting but less known TV series in four episodies, has been realized in 1979 by a French-German co-production.

An interesting comparison between Fantomas and Fantomius was drawn by Dario Brugnone of Genova Italy. Taking reference from the cover of the first Fantomas novel of 1911, he created this fascinating drawing, showing a hypothetical Fantomius adventure located in the city of Duckburg in 1928 and properly titled "The terror of Duckburg".

Fantomas is for sure an elusive thief, but is not much of a gentleman. The nobil side the personality of Villa Rosa's owner Fantomius comes from the gentleman thief par excellence Arsène Lupin, created by the French writer Maurice Leblanc in 1905, who came back into the public eye during the 70s because of a lucky TV serial elegantly acted by French actor, Georges Descrières.
TOP