When Ray Moore went to war, his friend Wilson McCoy took over the artistic duties of creating the Phantom strip. When Moore came back, he tried to resume drawing the Phantom, but a war injury made it difficult, so then McCoy returned and continued as the artist until his death in 1961.
During his tenure on the strip, McCoy took his job as the Phantom artist very seriously and once said “Maybe the Phantom is my subconscious self finding an outlet.”
He had a special skull ring made for his personal use and he created the clay model of the Phantom which Moore is shown holding in a publicity photo.
There were times when in response to request, McCoy sent original art from his strips to fans who requested them. He also created a special certificate with a Phantom seal, which he designed and autographed.
The certificate was witnessed by his wife Dorothy (who also contributed to the strip by ruling and lettering the panels and modeling as Diana’s mother). These documents were sent to Phantom fans who wrote to McCoy, and verified that the fan was a member of an exclusive club.
Very few are known to exist today and rarest of all are examples with the autographs and the gold seal. Another very special rare version of the document was created just for Christmas.
(Although knock off of these documents have been reproduced, the originals are on aged paper with a watermark that makes them impossible to copy.)
