Biography of the Phantom Blot

This page contains the collected **biography of the Phantom Blot**, collated from all available sources.

## Biography

### Childhood

   The Phantom Blot's birth name was "Basil Blackspot".

According to one account, the Blot's parents both wore inky rubber cloaks like his, with his father even wielding a huge fountain pen as if it were a staff or weapon. The Blot recalled bitterly how, ever since he was "a little boy", his parents had him wear a similar cloak to theirs. This habit was so deeply-ingrained in the young Blot's mind that he could not conceive of no longer wearing the cloak, even as he resented its monochrome nature.

### Shady dealings (1933-1939)

   By 1933, Basil Blackspot, not yet using the alias of “the Phantom Blot”, was a well-regarded businessman on the East Coast and the owner of the newspaper *The Morning Blot*. However, he was already engaged in illegal activities, being the secret mastermind behind a gang of bandits whose taskmaster was Peg-Leg Pete. Needing a new reporter for the *Blot*, he hired a young Goofy, recently arrived in town, under the belief that Goofy was so incompetent that he ran no risk of actually discovering his boss's illegal activities. However, Goofy's naiveté soon proved problematic.

### Meeting Mickey Mouse (1939)

   By 1939, the Blot was in the freelance employ of "a certain syndicate abroad", possibly F.O.W.L., which wished to acquire, at any cost, a newly-discovered chemical formula which allowed the production of an element similar to radium but much cheaper, which could be used for war purposes as well as peaceful medical ones. He narrowly managed to evade the police by hiding aboard a cargo ship, slipping the formula into one of the crates among which he was hiding. However, the crate, containing a number of identical cameras, was then unloaded before he could get it back, and the cameras sold all over Mouseton.

The Blot thus began a baffling crime spree across the city, stealing and immediately shattering all cameras of this model that he could get his hands on. Mickey Mouse was called in by Chief O'Hara as a special investigator, and was followed all the way to the police station by the silent Blot, who left a first threatening message to him and O'Hara before disappearing from the premises. The police, in their investigation, had started calling him “the Phantom”; this was soon combined with his calling card's signature (an ink blot) into the villain's definitive *nom de guerre,* "the Phantom Blot".

There ensued a lengthy game of cat-and-mouse between Mickey and the Blot, each chasing the other in turn, during which the Blot, at several points, forced Mickey into death-traps but fled before he had to witness Mickey's death himself (allowing Mickey to escape). Ultimately, after a pursuit over sea, land and air, Mickey managed to cause the Blot's personal aeroplane to crash. The Blot was knocked out in his hasty parachute jump and Mickey successfully captured him, using the strings of his own parachute to tie him up. He was subsequently brought back to the Mouseton police and unmasked for the first time, bitterly spilling his story to them but swearing revenge on Mickey.

## Behind the scenes

### Notes & References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *The Chance Chronicler* (2009).
2. ↑ *Mickey and the Color Caper* (2002).
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot* (1939).
4. ↑ Non-narrative speculation on *Joe Torcivia's The Issue At Hand* (2021).