The Phantom Ranger

    (Frew, 1948)
™ and © Frew Publications

Kina was the only survivor of a band of settlers slaughtered by bandits. Adopted and raised by the Navajo, the boy excelled at hunting and tracking. Eventually his adoptive father told him of his origin and encouraged him to return to the white man’s world to learn their ways. Years later as his father, the Great One, lies close to death, Kina returns to undergo a series of arduous tests. Incredibly his father tells him the secret of eternal life just as he himself dies. And so Kina becomes the Deathless One of Navajo legend and the Phantom Ranger to the white man.

This comic, based on a radio show broadcast in Australia, is a product of its times. The amazing expertise of an orphaned white child at skills and abilities that are inherent to the Native American culture (in time, even assuming the role of a Navajo legend) unfortunately implies a superiority of the intended audience.

— George Haberberger
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