Robert Wilson McCoy (April 6, 1902 – July 20, 1961) was an American illustrator and painter, best known as the second artist on The Phantom comic strip.

[5] The couple had moved to Barrington, Illinois 13 years prior to Wilson's death and lived on E. County Line Road.

He made paintings for Liberty magazine covers, calendars, prints, pin-ups, and advertisements for major companies such as Shell Oil, Tums, Dr Pepper, and U.S. Rubber.

[9] In a 1978 interview with Phantom writer Falk, he described the change this way: McCoy was Moore's assistant and good friend.

[11] McCoy's wife, Dorothy, was also an artist, and she penciled in the lettering and panel borders on her husband's strips.

[14] (It should also be noted that in March 1960 The Phantom was being published in 467 newspapers, with half of them being outside the U.S.)[8] McCoy ceased drawing the strip after he became ill in 1961.

On safari in Central Africa, he traveled in an unreliable vehicle, was chased by an aggressive rhino, and confronted belligerent elephants.

This was his tour to the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) in 1961 for researching the Mbuti pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest tribe for episodes of The Phantom.

McCoy participated in four trips abroad sponsored by the National Cartoonists Society for the entertainment of military personnel.

In 1954, a Christmas card to his family lists the countries he visited in the spring: Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Libya, French Morocco, and France, with the following caption: "I cant wait to show these to Dorothy, Carol and to Alice and Bob, Spring 1954, While drawing funny pictures to entertain overseas military personnel — The Phantom has fun.

He claimed to be a "camera bug" and used his photographs as models for some of his work, often including in his strip people of whom he had taken pictures.

R. Wilson McCoy died July 19, 1961, at age 59, on a Wednesday afternoon in Wesley Memorial Hospital, Chicago, following a heart attack the previous Thursday morning.

[19] Son Robert Wilson McCoy Jr[20] was the proprietor of the Museum of Questionable Devices in Minneapolis and a frequent guest at talk shows such as Late Night with David Letterman.

[citation needed] In his work on The Phantom he "started out copying Moore exactly",[22] but after a while, he found his own distinctive style.

[10] McCoy always drew with attention to detail, and he used photographic references for every drawing, having his family and friends pose for him and act out the different situations happening in the stories he worked on.

"[23]The Sunday page artworks are characterized by the ligne claire style of drawing similar to that of Hergé's Tintin.

Lee Falk said in an interview: "Many of the comic book aficionados I meet in Europe like McCoy's work.

Aspects of American Realism may also be perceived in McCoy's work due to the use of photographic references in his panels.

In a Phantom exhibition held in Sweden, a parallel was drawn between Wilson McCoy and American artist Edward Hopper.

One such certificate of induction was later given to Anthony Tollin,[25] the American comics colorist, by Bob McCoy, who filled in his name and the date of 20 Feb 1952.

McCoy wrote: "About a year and a half ago, my wife, daughter, and I had dinner in Bangor on our way thru to Harborside where we spent about a week, and where I did some landscape painting.

·In a letter written on Sept 17, 1952, to Harrell Jacob Leigeber (Alabama, USA) McCoy wrote: "Was glad to learn that I had a friend and a Phantom reader in Birmingham.

·In a letter to fellow cartoonist Clarence Allen on April 3, 1953, McCoy wrote: Congratulations on doing a bang-up job with your new book.

It is good that you have both the pro and con, contained in the same volume, since each is so convincing that if either were seen alone a reader would be inclined to believe it without dreaming that there could be another side of the story.

It began in 1936 about half of the papers where the Phantom appears are in the U.S.The strip is specially popular in Scandinavian countries and in Central and South America.

Please give my personal regards to the boys and girls serving overseas.Sincerely yours Wilson McCoy" ·In a note to Bill Lignante on an illustrated card (of the Phantom playing a drum), McCoy wrote: "Hey Bill, I'm out in the jungle drummin' up business for good ol' Adelphi Inn — The Phantom.

Several artists have been inspired to create works based on panels from Wilson's Phantom comic strips: Dick Frizzell (New Zealand): Peter Kingston (Australia): Running Mr. Walker Jan Håfström (Sweden): On 24 September 2012 a McCoy-inspired Mr. Walker postage stamp, illustrated by Jan Håfström, was released in the Faroe Islands.

[citation needed] Dare Jennings, founder of the brands Deus Ex Machina and Mambo Graphics, cited Wilson McCoy as his favorite artist in his opening speech[29] at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery Phantom art show in New South Wales, Australia.

[citation needed] In 1975, the publishing company Biblioteca Unviversale Rizzoli of Milan released a Wilson McCoy special in the series I Giganti del Fumetto with a 5-page foreword titled, "Un fantasma che cammina da quarant anni" ("A Ghost who walks since 40 years") written by Ferruccio Alessandri.

[30] In the year 2000, Egmont Publications from Sweden published a special edition called Wilson McCoy - de opublicerade äventyren.