Ray Moore

Australian Woman's Mirror, featuring the story "The Singh Brotherhood". Drawn by Ray Moore.

Raymond S. Moore (February 27, 1905 – January 13, 1984) was an American comic strip artist. After Lee Falk, he was the first artist on what would become the world's most popular adventure comic strip, The Phantom, which started in 1936.

Biography Moore was born in Montgomery City, Missouri, in 1905. He was the son of a jeweler and clockmaker, and originally intended to become an engineer (at the request of his father), before he realised that he could live off his job as an artist. He attended Washington University Art School in St. Louis. McCoy took over the responsibilities of illustrating The Phantom.

Differing sources conflict in their accounts of the transition from Moore to McCoy. In a 1978 interview with Phantom writer Falk, he described the change this way: McCoy was Moore's assistant and good friend. When Moore was called into the military, McCoy took over and he also continued when Moore came back. From then on Moore drew on extremely rare occasions, but he was still on the pay list, and at first his signature was also on some of the series he did not draw. In yet another interview, Falk stated, "Ray only drew it for three or four years, then he went off to war as a pilot. Then Wilson McCoy, who was a friend of his... took over in his absence. But he kept Ray's name on it right through the war.

Personal life and death Moore was known to be as mysterious as the Phantom character he illustrated. He lived most of his life in Missouri, together with his wife, Claire. Moore slightly changed his style later on, focusing less on the dark atmosphere he had become known for, in favor of a more realistic style, with more details and a less moody style of drawing.

Moore would sometimes use his wife Claire as a model when drawing the Phantom's girlfriend, Diana Palmer.

Lee Falk always claimed that Moore was the best artist on the Phantom, because of his talent for drawing beautiful women. It was this talent that led Falk to create many crime corporations only consisting of women, like the infamous Sky Band.

Tributes In Paramount Pictures' The Phantom film adaptation, starring Billy Zane, the butler of the Palmer family is called "Falkmoore", a reference to Lee Falk and Ray Moore.

List of the daily strip stories drawn by Ray Moore The first Phantom Sunday strip from May 28, 1939. Art by Ray Moore. "The Singh Brotherhood" "The Sky Band" "The Diamond Hunters" "Little Tommy" "The Prisoner of the Himalayas" "Adventure in Algiers" "The Shark's Nest" "Fishers of Pearls" "The Slave Traders" "The Mysterious Girl" "The Golden Circle" "The Seahorse" "The Game of Alvar" "Diana Aviatrix" "The Phantom's Treasure" "The Phantom Goes to War"

All of these stories have been reprinted, in Australia by Frew Publications, and in the United States by Pacific Comics Club or Comics Revue magazine.

List of Sunday strip stories drawn by Ray Moore 1 "The League of Lost Men" 2 "The Precious Cargo of Colonel Winn" 3 "The Fire Goddess" 4 "The Beachcomber" 5 "The Saboteurs" 6 "The Return of the Sky Band" 7 "The Impostor" 8 "Castle in the Clouds" (with Wilson McCoy) 14 "Queen Pera The Perfect" 15 "King of Beasts" 16 "The Scarlet Sorceress" (with Wilson McCoy) 17 "The Twelve Tasks" (with Wilson McCoy) 18 "The Dragon God" 19 "The Marshall Sisters" (with Wilson McCoy) 20 "The Phantom Trophy" (with Wilson McCoy) 21 "The Haunted Castle" (with Wilson McCoy)