In some countries most people probably know the phantom from the billy zane movie but in others the character remains hugely popular to this day begun in the usa in 1936 by artist lee falk the character had over 100 million readers at its high point as a newspaper strip with new strips still being published today today his popularity continues particularly in scandinavia and australia where comics have been printed uninterrupted for over 50 years phantom pop vinyl figure stands around 9