Phantom Blot

DisneyChar
name = The Phantom Blot
first appearance =Mickey Mouse daily comic strip, storyline "Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot", 1939
created by =Floyd Gottfredson with Merrill De Maris, Bill Wright and Ted Thwaites
voiced by =Frank Welker, John O'Hurley
aliases =

The Phantom Blot is a figure from The Walt Disney Company. He is an enemy of Mickey Mouse. He first appeared in the Mickey Mouse comic strip adventure "Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot" by Floyd Gottfredson, which was published in the form of daily strips from 20 May to 9 September 1939.

History

Like already stated, the Phantom Blot, or simply "The Blot", made his first apperance in "Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot". In this story, Chief O'Hara hires Mickey to capture this new criminal who calls himself The Blot. According to O'Hara, he is the smartest thief they've ever meet. Detective Casey, however, calls this new criminal a looney. The only thing he steals a cameras of a special mark and he smashes them open on the spot. The strange crime and the motive behind it is very much like the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.In the end, Blot is captured and, for once, actually unmasked. Most later stories featuring the villain doesn't unmask him in order to keep him mysterious.

Many artists and writers have furthered the Phantom Blot throughout the years. The first reapparance was in the Italian story "Topolino e il doppio segreto di Macchia Nera", written by Guido Martina and drawn by Romano Scarpa, published in 1955 in issues 116-119 of "Topolino", the main Italian Disney magazine. In the United States after a long absence he was revived in the serial "The Return of The Phantom Blot" (drawn by Paul Murry) that ran in issues 284-287 (May-August 1964) of "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories". This was followed by a comic book series of seven issues (1964 to 1966) devoted to the Blot and his crimes. He next turned up in the mid-1970s in two issues of "Super Goof" written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Roger Armstrong. Fan writer Joe Torcivia notes Armstrong was the first to draw the character with a mouth, make him look like a shadow instead of someone under a black cloak. This convention has since been followed by many artists, include Murry.

The Phantom Blot was unmasked at the end of "Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot". The Phantom Blot's gaunt face and thin mustaches, as revealed at the end of "Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot", were reportedly based on the features of Walt Disney himself [ [http://www.deagostiniedicola.it/frontend/content.asp?artcat=11&artID=698 Topolino: un’icona del ‘900 ] ] . His depiction in Disney comics has varied with the artists using him: in stories published by Egmont, as well as french stories, he is always shown wearing his hood, while in italian ones, he frequently appears unmasked, sometimes not wearing his cloak at all. It should be noted that french translators often took liberties with Italian material and apparently decided that the Phantom Blot's appearances without his cloak and mask should be classified as depicting a completely different character. In the french translations of the Italian stories where the Blot appeared unmasked, he was frequently given the name "Jo Crisse", and depicted as a common gangster, while he retained his Italian name "Macchia Nera" in the original Italian versions.

Along with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Scrooge McDuck, Gyro Gearloose, Super Goof, Eega Beeva, Minnie Mouse, and Chief O'Hara have all encountered the Blot, and thus successfully tried to stop him. The Blot sometimes teams up with other bad guys like the Beagle Boys and Mad Madam Mim, who is in love with him.

In European stories he is often presented as a more dangerous figure than the American version. While still trying to kill Mickey and his allies he has other agendas as well.

While still being a criminal he usually operates as the mastermind behind gangs rather that a common crook. He prefers pulling strings rather than being directly involved in many cases.

During his career he has gained large amounts of money and he has invested them in business. His relative wealth allows him to finance his ambitious plans.

He 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. He has quite a talent in acting. 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, mainly in physics, mechanics and biology, 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 information about everything that is going on in the city and 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. Other times he takes adavntage of the terrain or weather. In one issue where he is attempting a robbery on a winter night, he is seen in his normal black outfit. Goofy, who has taken a job as a night watchman, is patrolling the businesses when the Blot realizes he must abort his plans and says "I always come prepared", where he removes his black robes and replaces them with white ones, allowing himself to camouflage with the snowy streets. Though he desires money and power his greatest lust is for fame. Some of his plans have no monetary gain for him but their purpose is to spread fear to the public, adding to his reputation. The Blot is himself very vain and his desire for money and power is only surpassed by his desire to immortalize his name in "the annals of crime".

Other Media

The Phantom Blot's first appearance in animation was in the "DuckTales" episode "All Ducks on Deck", voiced by Frank Welker. In that episode, he steals a secret bomber from the Navy aircraft carrier on which Donald Duck serves.

The Phantom Blot later appeared in a short featured on "Mickey Mouse Works", based on the comic strips in which he first appeared in, titled "Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot" and originally broadcast on November 7, 1999. In this short, he steals a "radium card" from Ludwig Von Drake and uses it to rob every bank in the world. As the title suggests, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy manage to foil his plans. The short was double the length of most of the shorts featured on the series and is considered by many Disney fans to be the best of the "Mickey Mouse Works" shorts.

The Blot soon reappeared in another "Mouse Works" short titled "Mickey and the Color Caper", this one featured in the "House of Mouse" episode "Where's Minnie?" In this short, the Blot is now stealing colors from everything in the world, simply because he's bored with his inky black cloth and plans to become The Phantom Rainbow. Again, Mickey, Donald and Goofy show up to foil his plans.

The Blot made one "more" appearance so far in the "House of Mouse" episode "House of Crime". Here, he is stealing things from all over the house and then kidnapping characters both good and evil. Unbeknownst to everyone, the Blot is hiding in a device that Ludwig Von Drake has invented to give out clues to find the criminal, so he continually makes the machine give out clues that don't lead the good guys anywhere. After everybody but him disappears, Mickey soon figures out that the Blot is behind this and corners him. In his attempt to escape on his newly-repaired blimp from his first "Mickey Mouse Works" appearance (shown as the featured cartoon earlier), it pops and the Blot is foiled once again.

In both "Mickey Mouse Works" and "House of Mouse", the Blot was voiced by John O'Hurley.

References

External links

*Inducks character|PB