Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot

by Romano Scarpa, Guido Martina

A Disney super-sized collector's classic comic strip album. The Phantom Blot is a fictional evil comic strip figure from The Walt Disney Company. The Blot is a skillful hypnotist and occasionally uses this skill to force others to do his bidding. He has even ordered Mickey himself to act as a criminal in order to frame him. The Blot often operates in disguise and has acted under various aliases and identities, adopting many different personalities to suit his parts. He has some scientific knowledge and has often used this in his plans. He has invented various devices he uses as weapons. He claims to be an artistic nature and has considerable skill in painting, which he uses to create forgeries of famous works of art. He later proceeds in stealing the original and leaving his copy behind. He seems to have ways to get info about everything that is going on in the city, even from the police headquarters. His ways of persuading others to follow him include using their own greed, promising them means of revenge or blackmailing them. He seems to enjoy seducing citizens with no criminal records to act as his agents. He has a fairly good knowledge of psychology and is very skilled in spreading fear to his victims, causing them to doubt their relationships and in some cases even their own sanity. He often uses their vanity to turn them into pawns. He is a master of escape. Even if the police do manage to capture and imprison him, which rarely happens, he is soon out again. The Blot is himself very vain. His desire for money and power is only surpassed by his desire to immortalize his name in "the annals of crime". At times other criminals have impersonated the Blot but the original has never let any of this impostors operate for long. Any attempt at impersonating him infuriates him because he claims to be unique and will not let anyone use his "glorified" name. He is still the most dangerous man in his universe.

Genres: Graphic Novels

70 pages, Paperback

About the author

Romano Scarpa was one of the most famous Italian creators of Disney comics.

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just ran across a copy of this terrific graphic novel, originally published in 1939, and which I first read more than fifty years ago. The Phantom Blot effectively combines pre-war paranoia with a plot from Sherlock Holmes and a format borrowed from cliffhanger serials. The result is solid nostalgic entertainment, humorous and suspenseful.