title: Lydia Night

text: In 2013, Pretty Little Demons released their debut EP "Flowers", followed by their album "Unknown Species" in 2014.


title: Lydia Night

text: In 2014, Night began attending Grand Arts High School, a performing arts high school in Downtown Los Angeles.


title: Lydia Night

text: In 2015, the duo changed their name to the Regrettes, releasing their debut four-track EP in October, called "Hey!", accompanied by a music video for its track "Hey Now!". Murphy subsequently departed from the band, leading to the hiring of, then-Genessa members, Genessa Gariano, Sage Chavis and Maxx Morando.


title: Lydia Night

text: Under this line-up, the band released their debut album "Feel Your Feelings Fool!" on January 13, 2017, and its follow up, the 2018 EP Attention Seeker.


title: Lydia Night

text: On April 8, 2019 she was featured on Morrissey's cover of "Wedding Bell Blues", also with Billie Joe Armstrong.


title: Lydia Night

text: On June 18, 2019, the band announced their second studio album, "How Do You Love?", would be released on August 9.


title: Lydia Night

text: On July 20, 2020, she revealed on her Instagram that Joey Armstrong of the band SWMRS sexually abused her during their relationship in 2017 when she was 16 and he was 22.


title: Lydia Night

text: Night has cited influences from artists including The Crystals, Lesley Gore, Patsy Cline, Bikini Kill, L7, 7 Year Bitch, The Marvelettes, Diana Ross and Four Tops.


title: Thapki Pyar Ki 2

text: Thapki Pyar Ki 2 ( "A light touch of love 2") is an Indian television series that premiered on 4 October 2021 on Colors TV. Produced by Shoonya Square Productions, it is a spiritual sequel to the 2015 series "Thapki Pyar Ki". It starred Jigyasa Singh and Prachi Bansal as Thapki and Aakash Ahuja as Purab.


title: Thapki Pyar Ki 2

text: Blessed with a melodious voice, Vaani "Thapki" Tripathi stammers whenever nervous, that is a major obstacle on her path of dreams. Her role-model Veena Devi, a Padma Shri awardee has a rich and handsome son, Purab. Thapki's mother Jaya lost her voice when her father Mukul left them years ago. He now lives with his second wife's daughter Hansika, a gold digger and Purab's colleague.


title: Thapki Pyar Ki 2

text: Upon hearing Thapki's voice, Veena in deeply impressed and wants Thapki to marry Purab who instead chooses to marry Hansika even though he doesn't love her. As per Veena's plans in a turn of events, Thapki weds Purab. Veena discovers her stuttering and now wants to throw her out. She is upset as Purab promises Jaya to support Thapki. They help each other in every moment. Slowly Purab and Thapki fall in love with each other.


title: Thapki Pyar Ki 2

text: When the second season was in pre-production, Jigyasa Singh who played Thapki in the first season, was then appearing in another Colors soap opera "Shakti – Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki" as Heer Singh. Later when her character was killed off in August-end, she signed the second season of this series. Aakash Ahuja was cast as Purab Singhania and Jaya Bhattacharya was cast as Veena Devi Singhania. Jigyasa Singh quit the show in February 2022 owing to health issues. In February 2022, Prachi Bansal replaced Jigyasa Singh as Thapki.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional country of Bangalla. The character was created by Lee Falk for the adventure comic strip "The Phantom", which debuted in newspapers on February 17, 1936.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom was later depicted in many forms of media, including television shows, films, and video games.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Lee Falk's syndicated newspaper comic strip "The Phantom" premiered on February 17, 1936, with the story "The Singh Brotherhood", written by Falk and illustrated first by himself, for two weeks, followed by Ray Moore, who was an assistant to artist Phil Davis on Falk's "Mandrake the Magician" strip. A Sunday "Phantom" strip was added to newspapers on May 28, 1939. During Moore's World War II military service, he left the strip to his assistant, Wilson McCoy. Upon Moore's return, he worked on the strip on and off until 1949, when McCoy succeeded him. Following McCoy's death in 1961, Carmine Infantino and Bill Lignante (who would later draw several Phantom stories directly for comic books) filled in before Sy Barry was chosen as a successor. Barry would continue working on the strip for over 30 years before retiring in 1994.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Barry's longtime assistant, George Olesen, remained on the strip as penciller, with Keith Williams joining as the inker for the daily strip. The Sunday strip was inked by Eric Doescher until Fred Fredericks became the regular inker in 1995.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Falk continued to script "Phantom" until his death on March 13, 1999. His last daily and Sunday strip stories, "Terror at the Opera" and "The Kidnappers", respectively, were finished by his wife, Elizabeth Falk, after the hospitalized Falk had torn off his oxygen mask to dictate the adventures. After Falk's passing, King Features Syndicate collaborated with the European comics publisher "Egmont" on the strip. They went from initially publishing Phantom stories in licensed comic books to providing the stories for the newspaper strip by adapting their own comic-book stories. Tony DePaul and Claes Reimerthi alternated as writers of the daily and Sunday newspaper strips, respectively. DePaul would later become the sole writer of the strip.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2000, Olesen and Fredericks retired from the Sunday strip, which was then taken over by artist Graham Nolan. Olesen and Williams left the daily strip after Olesen retired, and artist Paul Ryan took over the daily in early 2005. Ryan succeeded Nolan as artist on the Sunday strip in 2007. On July 31, 2011, Eduardo Barreto became the Sunday artist. Barreto died after only a few months of working on the strip, and Ryan did the January 15, 2012, Sunday page and the following week's comics before Terry Beatty became Barreto's permanent replacement.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Through the 1940s, "The Phantom" strips were reprinted in David McKay Publications' "Ace Comics". The following decade, Harvey Comics published "The Phantom" comic book. In 1962, Gold Key Comics took over, followed by King Comics in 1966 and Charlton Comics in 1969. This lasted until 1977, with a total of 73 issues being published. Some of the main Phantom artists during these years were Bill Lignante, Don Newton, Jim Aparo, and Pat Boyette.


title: Phantom (character)

text: DC Comics published a Phantom comic book from 1988 to 1990. The initial miniseries (dated May–August 1988) were written by Peter David and drawn by Joe Orlando and Dennis Janke. The subsequent series, written by Mark Verheiden and drawn by Luke McDonnell, ran for 13 issues (March 1989 – March 1990).


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 1987, Marvel Comics published a four-issue miniseries based on the "Defenders of the Earth" TV series, written by Stan Lee. A subsequent three-issue Marvel miniseries, "The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks" (Feb.-April 1995), was written and drawn by David de Vries and Glenn Lumsden. Marvel released another four-issue miniseries (May–August 1995) pencilled by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, based on the "Phantom 2040" TV series. One issue featured a pin-up by the original two Spider-Man signature artists, Ditko and John Romita Sr.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Beginning in 2002, Moonstone Books published five Phantom graphic novels, written by Tom DeFalco, Ben Raab, and Ron Goulart. In 2003, Moonstone debuted a Phantom comic-book series written by Raab, Rafael Nieves, and Chuck Dixon, and drawn by artists including Pat Quinn, Jerry DeCaire, Nick Derington, Rich Burchett, and EricJ. After 11 issues, Mike Bullock took over scripting, with Gabriel Rearte and Carlos Magno creating the artwork before Silvestre Szilagyi became the regular artist in 2007. In 2006, Moonstone published a retcon of the Phantom's origin, called "Legacy", by Raab and Quinn. That same year, the company published a hybrid comic book and prose book it called "wide-vision", premiering the format with the Phantom story "Law of the Jungle". Moonstone also released the first American Phantom annual. A second annual teamed up the Phantom with Mandrake the Magician.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2009, Moonstone re-launched the series as "The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks", starting with issue #0 (an origin retelling). That same year, Moonstone launched the 21 issue series "Phantom Generations", with each of the 21 Phantoms spotlighted in his own story, by different creative teams including writers Ben Raab, Tom DeFalco, Tony Bedard, Will Murray, and Mike Bullock, and artists including Pat Quinn, Alex Saviuk, Don Hudson, Scott Brooks, and Zeu. Moonstone also published "Phantom Action", written by Mike Bullock, that depicted the Phantom meeting Captain Action, a five-issue black-and-white miniseries called "The Phantom Double Shot: KGB Noir", and a two-issue miniseries, "The Phantom: Unmasked".


title: Phantom (character)

text: In August 2010, Dynamite Entertainment debuted the monthly series "The Last Phantom", by writer Scott Beatty and artist Eduardo Ferigato, with covers painted by Alex Ross. In 2013, the Phantom appeared in Dynamite's five-issue miniseries "Kings Watch". The story, written by Jeff Parker and drawn by Marc Laming, saw the Phantom teaming up with Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician to fight Ming the Merciless and prevent his attempt to take over the planet.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2014, Hermes Press announced the publication of a Phantom comic-book miniseries written by Peter David and illustrated by Sal Velluto. It debuted October 31, 2014. For Free Comic Book Day 2015, Hermes published a Phantom comic book with art by Bill Lignante and samples of the new miniseries.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In the jungles of the fictional African country of Bangalla, there is a myth featuring The Ghost Who Walks, a powerful and indestructible guardian of the innocent and fighter of all types of injustice. Because he seems to have existed for generations, many believe him to be immortal. In reality, the Phantom is a legacy hero, descended from 20 previous generations of crimefighters who all adopt the same persona. When a new Phantom takes the task from his dying father, he swears the Oath of the Skull: "I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms, and my sons and their sons shall follow me". The first Phantom married Christina, the daughter of a Norwegian sea captain, Eric the Rover. The second Phantom married Marabella, the granddaughter of Christopher Columbus.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The comic sometimes runs flashback adventures of previous Phantoms written by various authors who sometimes confuse Phantom history. Current stories have Marabella as the daughter of Columbus and marrying the first Phantom. As Columbus died in 1506 while, according to the new history, Marabella first meets the Phantom in 1544, this results in another inconsistency, requiring her to be at least 38 years old despite being depicted as in her early 20s. Inconsistencies in storylines and histories are not corrected as a mark of respect to authors, but Falk's original history takes precedence.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Although most of the Phantoms have been male, there has been one woman who took up the role: Julie Walker, twin sister of the 17th Phantom. While her brother


title: Phantom (character)

text: The present Phantom is the 21st in the line. Unlike most costumed heroes, he has no superhuman powers, relying only on his wits, physical strength, skill with his weapons, and fearsome reputation to fight crime. His real name is Kit Walker. References to "Mr. Walker" are in the strip often accompanied by a footnote saying "For 'The Ghost Who Walks'", although some versions of the Phantom's history suggest that Walker was actually the original surname of the man who became the first Phantom.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The story of the Phantom started with a young sailor named Christopher Walker (sometimes called Christopher Standish in certain versions of the story). Christopher was born in 1516 in Portsmouth. His father, also named Christopher Walker, had been a seaman since he was a young boy, and was the cabin boy on Christopher Columbus' ship, the "Santa María", when he sailed to the Americas. Christopher Jr. became a shipboy on his father's ship in 1526.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 1536, when Christopher was 20 years old, he was a part of what was supposed to be his father's last voyage. The ship was attacked by pirates and Christopher's father was murdered. He was the sole survivor and was washed ashore on a Bengalla beach, where he was found by pygmies of the Bandar tribe, who nursed him back to health and took care of him. He vows revenge on "the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms!"


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Bandars showed Christopher to a cave, which resembled a human skull in appearance. Christopher later carved the features out to enhance this. This Skull Cave became his home.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Wearing a costume based on the demon god, Christopher became the first of what would later be known as the Phantom. When he died, his son took over for him, when the second Phantom died, his son took over, and so on. So it would go on through the centuries, causing people to believe that the Phantom was immortal. These people gave him nicknames including "The Ghost Who Walks" and "The Man Who Cannot Die".


title: Phantom (character)

text: His base is in the Deep Woods of Bengali (originally "Bengalla", or "Bangalla" and renamed "Denkali" in the Indian edition), a fictional country initially said to be set in Asia, near India, but depicted as in Africa during and after the 1960s. The Phantom's base is the fabled Skull Cave, where all of the previous Phantoms are buried.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom is the commander of Bangalla's Jungle Patrol. Because of a betrayal leading to the death of the 14th Phantom, the identity of the commander has been kept hidden from members of the patrol ever since. The Phantom uses several ways to stay in contact. These include radio and a safe with a false bottom.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The 21st Phantom's birth name is Kit Walker, as was the name of many of the Phantoms before him. Kit was born in the Skull Cave and spent his first years in the jungle of Bangalla. His mother, Maud Thorne McPatrick, who had previously worked as Rita Hayworth's stunt double, was born in Mississippi, where Kit was sent to study when he was 12 years old, living with his aunt Lucy and uncle Jasper in the town of Clarksville, Missouri.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Here, he met his wife-to-be, Diana Palmer. Kit was an extremely talented sportsman and was predicted to become the world champion in many different events (even knocking out the world heavyweight boxing champion in a sparring match when the champion visited Clarksville). Despite the opportunity to choose practically any career he wanted, Kit faithfully returned to Bengalla to take over the role of the Phantom when he received word from Guran that his father was dying from a knife-wound.


title: Phantom (character)

text: One of Kit's first missions as the Phantom was to find his father's killer, Rama Singh, who had betrayed and murdered the 20th Phantom by first helping him to blow up a fleet of ships owned by the Singh Brotherhood, only to then stab him in the back, stealing his special gunbelt in the process. The 21st Phantom eventually found him and reclaimed the belt at the island of Gullique, but before he could avenge his father and bring the killer to jail, the desperate Rama blew up his lair, killing himself and his henchmen in the process.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom has two animal helpers, a mountain wolf named Devil and a horse named Hero. He also has a trained falcon named Fraka. From 1962 on, The Phantom raised an orphan named "Rex King", who was later revealed to be the prince of the kingdom of Baronkhan. He also has two dolphins named Solomon and Nefertiti, and numerous other animals kept on the island of Eden.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 1978, he married his sweetheart, Diana Palmer, who works at the United Nations. The Phantom and Diana have two children, Kit and Heloise. His chief aide and ally is Guran, chief of the local pygmy Bandar tribe, who are the only tribe to know the Phantom's true nature. Guran is the Phantom's best friend since childhood and a supporter of his cause. Other allies of the 21st Phantom include Doctor Axel, a Scandinavian doctor working in Bangalla, and Miss Tagama, the African teacher of Rex, Kit and Heloise.


title: Phantom (character)

text: As part of the official uniform, the Phantom wears a black domino mask and a purple skintight bodysuit. He also carries period-appropriate sidearms, currently two M1911 pistols in a special belt with a skull-like buckle. Falk has insisted that the Phantom only uses his guns to shoot out the guns of his opponents, a fact that writer Peter David was unaware of when he wrote DC Comics' 1988 four-issue "Phantom" miniseries, in which he had the Phantom shoot to wound his enemies. However, there are some early instances (in the Lee Falk strips) of the Phantom using his guns to shoot and kill people (sometimes in self-defense).


title: Phantom (character)

text: While there had been masked crime fighters like the costumed Zorro, The Shadow, or the business-suited The Clock, the Phantom was the first fictional character to wear the skintight costume and eyes with no visible pupils that has become a trademark of superheroes. Creator Lee Falk had originally envisioned a gray costume and even considered naming his creation "The Gray Ghost". It was not until the Phantom Sunday strip debuted in 1939 that the costume was shown to be purple. Falk, however, continued to refer to the costume as gray in the text of the strip on several occasions afterward, but finally accepted the purple color. In a Sunday strip story published in the 1960s it was shown that the first Phantom chose the costume based on the appearance of a jungle idol, and colored the cloth with purple jungle berries.


title: Phantom (character)

text: As part of a modernization of the character in the Moonstone Books' series, "The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks", the Phantom began wearing a costume made of kevlar.


title: Phantom (character)

text: A signature of the character is his two rings. One has a pattern formed like four crossing sabres, "The Good Mark", that he leaves on visitors whom he befriends, placing the person under his protection. The other, "The Evil Mark" or "Skull Mark" has a skull shape, which leaves a scar of the corresponding shape on the enemies he punches with it. He wears the Good Mark on his left hand because it is closer to the heart, and the Evil Mark on his right hand. According to the Team Fantomen stories, the Skull Ring was given to the first Phantom by Paracelsus. The original owner of the Skull Ring was Emperor Nero of the Roman empire and it would later be revealed that the ring had been made from the nails that hung Jesus to the cross. The Good Mark ring was made after the sixth Phantom founded the Jungle Patrol.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The most dangerous and lasting enemy of the Phantom is the Singh Brotherhood, active for centuries and responsible for the death of the 21st Phantom's father. In the 1970s, Falk's comics changed the group's name to the "Sengh Brotherhood", or "Sanngh Brotherhood". This is because "Singh" is a common name in India, and Falk wished to avoid offending Indian readers by implying that the organization originated in that country. The group's name was changed to "the Singa Pirates" in the Indian comics for the same reason. In Egmont's Phantom comics, the brotherhood has evolved into a modern company called Singh Corporations.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Another criminal organization that the Phantom repeatedly clashes with is the Sky Band, a group of all-female air pirates. Frequent antagonists of successive Phantoms are the depraved inhabitants of the "Eastern Dark" region (also known as "Dakk") who carry out human sacrifice and drug trafficking. The Phantom's repeated role in thwarting the activities of the Dakk people is the source of his "Guardian of the Eastern Dark" title. Recurring villainous characters in the newspaper strips are pirate leader Baron Grover, terrorist commander Skul, warmonger General Bababu, and international terrorist The Python. Antagonists in the Team Fantomen stories include larcenous art collector Jason Parnassos, thief Vasti Riba, dictator Prince Grigor, murderous treasure hunter Bail, and Goldhand, named for his prosthetic hand made of solid gold. A major threat to the Phantom was Kigali Lubanga, the President of Bengalla for several years. Foes of the Phantom in the Moonstone stories include disfigured kickboxer Manuel Ortega, Ali Gutaale and HIM. Other enemies of the Phantom include Rebecca Madison (in the "Phantom 2040" series), and Xander Drax (in the 1996 film).


title: Phantom (character)

text: Another villainous gang that has been a sworn enemy of The Phantom is the "Vultures". They have several "nests" spread across the world, and as their name suggests, they prey on the weak and fallen. They will strike the helpless, especially during crisis situations.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The first novel about the Phantom was published in 1944 by Whitman Publishing Company, and was called "The Son of the Phantom". Written by Dale Robertson, the book was based on Lee Falk's comic strip story "Childhood of the Phantom", although Falk had no involvement with the novel. It featured a cover drawn by Wilson McCoy.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Avon Publications in the United States put out 15 books based on Lee Falk's stories. The series ran from 1972 to 1975, and was written by several authors, including Falk; the covers were done by George Wilson. Many of the books were translated into foreign languages.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2006, the books "The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks" and "The Veiled Lady" were released as audiobooks in Norway and Sweden, as part of the celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the character.


title: Phantom (character)

text: To coincide with the 1996 Phantom movie, Avon published "The Phantom", based on the Paramount Pictures film. It was written by Rob MacGregor.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2007, Moonstone Books released "The Phantom Chronicles", a collection of short stories written by authors Mike Bullock, Ron Fortier, Jim Alexander, David Michelinie, Craig Shaw Gardner, CJ Henderson, Clay and Susan Griffith, Will Murray, Mike Oliveri, Nancy Kilpatrick, Ed Rhoades, David Bishop, Grant Suave, Trina Robbins, Richard Dean Starr, Dan Wickline, and Martin Powell.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The book was released in both a softcover and limited hardcover edition, and featured an introduction written by Lee Falk's daughter, Valerie Falk.


title: Phantom (character)

text: "The Phantom Chronicles 2" was released in 2010. It features a story where the Phantom teams up with Green Hornet, written by Harlan Ellison, and has a foreword written by Diane Falk.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In Umberto Eco's novel, "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana", the main character describes his childhood experiences of reading The Phantom, as well as other comic strip characters like Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician. The book also features illustrations of the Phantom, drawn by Ray Moore.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In Papua New Guinea, the Wahgi people have used images of the Phantom on their ceremonial war shields, or "kumbe reipe". Art historian N.F. Karlins believes that comic books featuring the Phantom may have been brought to Papua New Guinea by American troops as early as the 1940s. The Phantom's popularity amongst the Wahgi has been attributed to his being a "man who cannot die", and who vanquishes his enemies by using his "strength, intelligence, and fearsome reputation"; Karlins has suggested that, as Wahgi warriors wear masks, the Phantom's own mask may have also been a contributing factor. Similarly, anthropologist Susan Cochrane has described the Wahgi interpretation of the Phantom as being a "modern spirit".


title: Phantom (character)

text: A 15-episode, 240-minute movie serial, starring Tom Tyler in the title role, was made in 1943 by Columbia Pictures and directed by action specialist B. Reeves Eason, featuring Jeanne Bates as Diana Palmer, Frank Shannon as her uncle Professor Davidson, and Ace the Wonder Dog as Devil. Creator Lee Falk was billed on screen as "Leon Falk". The story shows the 21st Phantom's first mission after taking over the mantle of the Ghost Who Walks from his murdered father: to find the Lost City of Zoloz and prevent the evil Dr. Bremmer, played by Kenneth MacDonald, from building a secret airbase in the jungle. The serial has been released on DVD through VCI.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom's real name in the serial was Geoffrey Prescott, as the alias of Kit Walker had not been mentioned in the strip at that point. However, he goes by the alias of Mr. Walker after having become the Phantom.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Two episodes loosely adapted Lee Falk's story "The Fire Princess" for the screen, and fit it into the plot of the Phantom's fight against Dr. Bremmer. Tom Tyler in costume bore a striking resemblance to the comic-strip character, and the serial was a success.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 1955, when Columbia's serial producer Sam Katzman was making low-budget remakes of older cliffhangers, he cast John Hart in a sequel, filmed as "Return of the Phantom". Hart's new scenes as the Phantom were combined with older scenes of Tom Tyler in the identical costume. Katzman failed to check with the studio's legal department, and found that its rights to the Phantom character had lapsed. Katzman, unwilling to meet the rights holder's high price, reshot much of the action with Hart in a vaguely similar costume (helmet, mask, sweater, and riding breeches) to match the old footage with Tom Tyler. Katzman, having been forced to delete many of the action scenes from "The Phantom", filled the gaps with scenes from two more old serials, "The Desert Hawk" and "Jungle Menace". The new mashup was finally released as "The Adventures of Captain Africa".


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom was also adapted into a live-action film in 1996. Produced and released by Paramount Pictures, the movie was set in the 1930s, and incorporated elements from several of the Phantom's earliest comic-strip adventures. It starred Billy Zane in the title role, Kristy Swanson as Diana Palmer, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Sala, an aviatrix. It was directed by Simon Wincer, after director Joe Dante and producer Michael Douglas dropped out of the project, and was written by Jeffrey Boam, who also wrote "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". Cult-icon Bruce Campbell was another choice for the role, but Zane, already a huge fan of the comic strip since being introduced to Australian Frew comics on the set of "Dead Calm", ended up getting the part after actively lobbying for it for years. After his casting, he pumped iron for a year and a half to fill the Phantom's costume, refusing to wear a costume with moulded muscles. He also closely studied panels of the comic to capture the character's body language. Though the film was not a theatrical success, it was the reason why Zane was cast as Caledon Hockley in "Titanic", the world's third most commercially successful film, and has sold well on VHS and DVD.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The movie was filmed on location in Australia, Thailand, and Los Angeles, and featured the Phantom in his attempt to stop madman Xander Drax (Treat Williams) from obtaining a weapon of doom, the legendary "Skulls of Touganda". The story also features the Singh Brotherhood, the all-female clan of air pirates known as the Sky Band, of whom Sala is the leader and a subplot wherein the 21st Phantom recovers his father's gunbelt and avenges his father's murder, inspired by the Lee Falk/Wilson McCoy story "The Belt". The film also has elements taken from the 1936 story "The Singh Brotherhood", the first Phantom story, and its 1937 continuation "The Sky Band".


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2008, syndicated gossip columnist Liz Smith claimed that Paramount was putting a sequel into development, with Zane returning to play the title role, because of the good VHS and DVD sales of the first film. "The Phantom" was released on Blu-ray February 2010 by Lionsgate.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Sherlock Symington Productions secured the rights to the Phantom in December 2008, and were set to make a film called "The Phantom: Legacy" (unrelated to the Moonstone Books 2006 graphic novel of the same name and any other screen incarnation of the character). The film was set to have a budget of $130 million, and be written by Tim Boyle.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Bruce Sherlock, executive producer and head of Sherlock Symington Productions, said that "The Phantom: Legacy" would follow the lead of films like "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man", and present a serious treatment of the character. The film will be set in the present day, and revolve around the relationship between the Phantom and his son, and what it means to be the Phantom. Work on the film was expected to begin in 2009. Filming was scheduled to take place in Australia, and producers were in talks with both Australian and international actors to work on the film.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In an interview with Dark Horizons, Boyle said the film would feature two main antagonists, one taken from the comic and one created for the movie. The Phantom's costume was expected to be updated for the screen, with Boyle seeking to make it more reality-based. Characters such as Diana Palmer, Kit, Heloise Walker, Colonel Worubu, President Lamanda Luaga, and Guran would appear. The film was said to be heavily focused on the mythology of the comics, with a lot of screen time expected to be devoted to the origin of the 1st Phantom. The Phantom's eyes behind his mask would be white, unlike in previous film-versions. Actor Sam Worthington was considered to play the Phantom, after having worked with Boyle on the film "Fink".


title: Phantom (character)

text: Boyle was originally considered to direct the film, but in 2011 confirmed he was only attached as the writer.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2014 Mark Gordon and his production company were developing a new film with Management 360, Drew Simon was executive producing, and they were looking for a new writer on the script.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom made an appearance alongside other King Features characters in the 1972 animated movie "Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter". He also appeared in the animated Beatles movie "Yellow Submarine".


title: Phantom (character)

text: At least three unauthorized Phantom movies were made in Turkey. Two were made in 1968 and both were titled "Kızıl Maske" (the Turkish name for the Phantom, translated as "Red Mask"). The Phantom was played by Ismet Erten and Irfan Atasoy. The costume worn by Irfan Atasoy bears little resemblance to the one seen in the comic strip, but the uniforms worn by Ismet Erten and in "Kızıl Maske'nin Intikamı" (Revenge of the Red Mask), released in 1971, stayed close to the original outfit.


title: Phantom (character)

text: An unaired color Phantom TV-pilot was made in 1961 starring Roger Creed as the Phantom, with Lon Chaney Jr. and Paulette Goddard as the antagonists, and Richard Kiel as the assassin "Big Mike". Called "No Escape", the pilot saw the Phantom breaking up a slave camp in the jungle.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Made on a limited budget, the pilot features fight scenes and the Phantom terrorizing villains in the jungle. Writer John Carr originally wrote four episodes, but because the pilot was not picked up by a network, the remaining three were never filmed. Actress Marilyn Manning had originally been cast as Diana Palmer, but never appeared in the pilot. Devil, Hero, and the Jungle Patrol all appear throughout the course of the story.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The pilot was shown at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in 2008 and has also been shown at Comic Con in San Diego.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In "Defenders of the Earth", which ran from 1986 to 1987, the 27th Phantom, voiced by actor Peter Mark Richman, teams up with fellow King Features adventurers Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, and Mandrake's bodyguard and assistant Lothar. The cartoon also featured a daughter, Jedda Walker, who briefly took on the Phantom mantle in an episode where she believed her father to have perished.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Other episodes of the series featured classic Phantom villains like the Sky Band, the Phantom's evil older brother Kurt Walker (created specifically for the show), and a flashback to the days of the first Phantom. The episode "Return of the Sky Band" also featured lengthy flashbacks to the Phantom of Lee Falk's comic strip, the 21st Phantom, showing him and his wife, Diana Palmer, and their encounter with the original Sky Band.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In the original presentation pilot for the series, the Phantom had a son, Kit Walker, and Flash Gordon had a daughter, but this was changed for the final series.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In "Defenders of the Earth", the Phantom was able to use supernatural means to give himself increased strength and speed, by saying the incantation:


title: Phantom (character)

text: It is only in this cartoon series that the Phantom has such an ability. In the series, the Phantom also used a special helicopter nicknamed the Skull Copter, and had an updated Skull Ring that would shoot a laser on to the faces of antagonists, marking them for life.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Premiering in 1994 to widespread critical acclaim, "Phantom 2040" depicts the adventures of the 24th Phantom on a future Earth rife with pollution and heavy industrialization. Young Kit Walker, was living happily with his aunt Heloise (daughter of the 21st Phantom) in the city of Metropia (previously known as New York) in the year 2040, knowing nothing about his family's legacy, when one day, The Phantom's friend Guran turned up to reveal the secret of the Phantom legacy. Kit takes up the mantle of the Phantom, and starts a battle against the evil company Maximum Inc., and their plans for the "Maximum Era" (a horrific plan for world domination through mass extinction by the complete collapse of Earth's ecosystem). He also tries to solve the mystery of the death of his father, the 23rd Phantom.


title: Phantom (character)

text: This animated series, created by David J. Corbett and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, lasted two seasons (35 episodes) and spawned a number of merchandise tie-ins, a comic book series, and a video game. The show's ahead-of-its time voice casting and vocal direction by Stuart M. Rosen had a lasting impact on animated adventure television, introducing (alongside Andrea Romano's acclaimed work on "") a new level of maturity and complexity to animated vocal performance that set the standard for all TV animation that followed.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom was voiced by actor Scott Valentine and J.D.Hall played The Phantom's mentor "Guran". Margot Kidder voiced main antagonist "Rebecca Madison" while Jeff Bennett played her sociopathic son "Max Madison Jr". Ron Perlman (and, later, Richard Lynch) played tortured cyborg "Graft", Debbie Harry played "Vaingloria", and Mark Hamill lent his voice to the character of "Dr. Jak".


title: Phantom (character)

text: The first four episodes of the series were edited into a feature-length film and released on VHS in 1994 and 1996 (and later on DVD in 2004), called "Phantom 2040: The Ghost Who Walks". Other episodes of the series were released on VHS in 1995. Season One (containing the first 20 episodes of the show) was released on DVD in Australia in 2013.


title: Phantom (character)

text: A series aired on Doordarshan in 1997 named "Betaal Pachisi" depicting the 25th Phantom played by Shahbaz Khan.


title: Phantom (character)

text: He is shown fighting poachers and supernatural entities. Krutika Desai Khan plays Naina Jogan, the jungle spirit in love with Betaal (the Phantom). Sonu Walia plays a TV reporter who becomes his love interest.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Screenwriter Daniel Knauf and his son and collaborator Charles Knauf completed a four-hour TV-movie script for Sci Fi Channel, later renamed Syfy, starring the 22nd Phantom. Sci Fi Channel made mini-series, simply called "The Phantom", and was produced by Muse Entertainment and RHI Entertainment. It premiered in Canada on The Movie Network in December 2009, as a two-part mini-series, a total of three hours.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Ryan Carnes stars as the Phantom, with Paolo Barzman directing. The series was shot in New York City, Costa Rica and Montreal.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The story sees law student Kit learning that he was adopted, and that he is actually the son of the 21st Phantom and Diana Palmer Walker. He joins the Phantom team in the jungles of Bengalla (in this version, Bengalla is a small island in Indonesia), and is trained in martial arts and combat, emerging as the next Phantom to battle the Singh Brotherhood and save the only man who can bring peace to the Middle East. The 22nd Phantom wears a modified costume that is highly resistant to bullets, blades and falls, doubles his strength and can make him move faster.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The mini-series aired on Syfy in June 2010, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Vivendi Entertainment.


title: Phantom (character)

text: Paul Hogan, of "Crocodile Dundee" fame, continually parodied the Phantom on his Australian TV-show, "The Paul Hogan Show". He would dress up in the purple Phantom costume, and act out different humorous situations. The Phantom had also been frequently parodied on Scandinavian television, in different humor programs.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 1984, Australian stand-up comedian Austen Tayshus released a single "Phantom Shuffle" in the video of which he appeared in Phantom costume, wearing sunglasses instead of a mask. Many elements of the Phantom myth were parodied, such as him being "Mr Walker, the man who cannot drive".


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2017, Australian comedian Sammy J began touring with a new show, "Hero Complex", in which he pays tribute to what he says is the role the Phantom has played in his life: "a chance encounter set off a chain of events that led to me meeting my wife and ended with police searching my attic". "Hero Complex" has won a "Best Comedy" award or nomination in every festival in which it has featured.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In the Adult Swim show "The Venture Bros.", the character The Phantom Limb bears a strong visual resemblance to the Phantom, right down to the same purple suit and mask, except that the Phantom Limb's limbs are invisible, making him look like a floating torso. However, The Phantom Limb is a villainous character.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The myth surrounding the Phantom also provided Turkish humorists with a lot of material. The humor magazine "Leman" has published many comic strips some of which were inspired by the (imaginary) saying "in the jungle, it is rumored that the Phantom has the strength of ten tigers" where Phantom runs into trouble with 11 or more tigers.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom was parodied in a 2007 episode of "Robot Chicken" titled "Werewolf vs. Unicorn", where he appeared alongside Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician. He was voiced by Frank Welker.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom was a frequently appearing character in the Finnish comic strip "Fingerpori" by Pertti Jarla. He was often involved in humorous situations such as using his throne as a toilet seat.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 1996, the A&E Network created a documentary about the history of the Phantom for television, called "The Phantom: Comic Strip Crusader". Narrated by Peter Graves, it featured interviews with creator Lee Falk, actors Billy Zane and Kristy Swanson, director Simon Wincer, Frew-editor Jim Shepherd, George Olesen, Keith Williams, and president of the US Phantom fan club "Friends of the Phantom", Ed Rhoades. The documentary was released on DVD in 2006.


title: Phantom (character)

text: To promote the 1996 Paramount Phantom movie, an HBO special called "Making of The Phantom" was made. It featured behind-the-scenes information on the movie and the comic.


title: Phantom (character)

text: An original documentary presentation called "History of the Phantom" was shown at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in September 2008.


title: Phantom (character)

text: On "MythBusters" season 5, episode 17 "Superhero Hour", it was tested whether the Phantom's skull ring would make an imprint on someone when you punch them while wearing it, as it did in the comic. The result was that the myth was "busted", in that hitting a person in the face hard enough to leave a ring imprint on the skin required more than enough force to crush a human skull.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In the comic, it had been revealed that the Phantom's ring actually had sharp edges and was covered with a permanent ink synthesized from plants found in the depths of the Bengallan jungle, leaving a permanent scar-like mark. It was, in effect, an instant tattoo.


title: Phantom (character)

text: The Phantom has appeared as a playable character in two video games, "Phantom 2040" and "Defenders of the Earth". Both were based on the animated series with the same titles. However, in "Defenders of the Earth", the Phantom was not the only playable character, as players were given the choice to control Mandrake the Magician and Flash Gordon as well.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In "Phantom 2040", released on Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and Super NES, the Phantom was the only playable character. He had use of a number of his special skills and high-tech gadgets from the Phantom 2040 TV-series. The game had a complex storyline and featured several different endings, which were dependent on the choices the player made during the game.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2003, a video game made for Game Boy Advance was announced, called "The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks". It was developed by 7th Sense and produced by Microids, and it was described as a free-roaming jungle adventure. During the development process, Microids went bankrupt, and the game was never released.


title: Phantom (character)

text: In 2006, "The Phantom Mobile Game" became available for cellphones, where the Phantom fought zombies, floating skulls, and other magical creatures to find his kidnapped wife, Diana Palmer. It was described as a free-roaming jungle adventure, with a film-like plot.


title: Phantom (character)

text: "Fantomenland" ("Phantom Land") was a part of the Swedish zoo Parken Zoo, Eskilstuna, where audiences could visit the Skull Cave, and several other places from the comic, like the Whispering Grove and the headquarters of the Jungle Patrol. Visitors could also meet actors dressed up as the Phantom and witness short plays featuring the characters of the comic. Fantomenland was inaugurated by Lee Falk in 1986. Fantomenland closed in April 2010.


title: Phantom (character)

text: A gallery in Brisbane, Australia, ran an exhibit of Phantom-inspired artwork in 1973. Australian Galleries ran an exhibit, "The Phantom Show", consisting of traditional art inspired by the Phantom, from December 9–21, 2014. Curated by Peter Kingston, "The Phantom Show" opened in Sydney in 2014 and travelled across Australia, stopping in Wollongong, Mackay, Toowoomba and Broken Hill. Contributing artists, all fans of The Phantom, sought to revive the spirit of Ray Moore and Wilsom McCoy's work on the original comic strip before, as Kingston put it, "The Phantom became a slick, purple superhero".


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: Action Jackson is a 1988 American action film directed by Craig R. Baxley in his feature film directorial debut, and starring Carl Weathers, Vanity, Craig T. Nelson, and Sharon Stone. The film was released in the United States on February 12, 1988.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: Paula Abdul was the film choreographer. The film was released by Lorimar Film Entertainment. Although the film was quite successful at the box office, it received mostly negative reviews. Vanity was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Actress.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: The prologue shows two auto-worker union officials addressing the recent death of a peer. Within moments, both are brutally murdered by a group of shadowy, almost supernatural killers that seem to move, disappear and reappear at will during a daring skyscraper assault.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: Detroit Police Department Detective Sergeant Jericho Jackson, known locally as "Action Jackson", was a celebrated lieutenant in the police force but demoted (nearly two years before) because of a case he headed involving the criminal son of successful businessman Peter Anthony Dellaplane. The fallout over the case also collapsed Jackson's marriage and put the law-school-educated, star athlete and hometown hero at odds with the public. Even after his demotion, Jackson's continued interest leads to conflicts with his commander, Captain Armbruster, but he begins investigating Dellaplane's professional exploits, eventually uncovering a string of murdered trade-union members connected to Dellaplane's company. He discovers Dellaplane is secretly maneuvering into a "behind-the-throne" seat of power, and has been using a group of assassins, "The Invisible Men", to murder uncooperative union officials.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: Jackson is assisted by Dellaplane's mistress, Sydney Ash, a local lounge singer and heroin addict, whom the businessman has assisted financially. He is eventually framed in the murder of Dellaplane's wife Patrice (who was actually killed by her husband, after her discovery of his plot, and her seeking help from Jackson). On the run from the police, Jackson is helped by friends from his old neighborhood: Kid Sable, a local hotel owner and retired professional boxer and Dee, a lively local hairdresser (and gossip informant) who gives Jackson a way to discreetly get to Dellaplane


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: Jackson and Sydney arrange a meeting with Dellaplane's figurehead replacement for the auto union, unaware that The Invisible Men had been tracking them and allowed the meeting so that Dellaplane could confront Jackson face to face. Before he leaves with Sydney in tow, Dellaplane arrogantly reveals the reasoning for his plans and intends to exact it using Jackson as a pawn. He intends to kill Jackson, put one of The Invisible Men in his place, have him kill an important union official, and then have Jackson's charred body discovered after he failed his getaway. "Dellaplane, one of these days you are really going to piss me off," Jackson calls after his nemesis as he leaves with all but three of The Invisible Men. "We're going to have ourselves a little barbecue," claims Shaker, The Invisible Men's leader, as they prepare to burn Jackson alive. But Jackson is suddenly rescued by Sydney's bodyguard "Big" Edd and the pair battle the Invisible Men. Edd overpowers Birch, knocking him into a control panel, electrocuting him, while Jackson turns the welding torch they were about to use on him on Thaw, who is killed when the gasoline can he is holding explodes. Shaker opens fire on the pair with his grenade launcher, sending them running for cover. They lure him outside where Edd disarms him and Jackson takes the grenade launcher.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: Jackson's escape leads to a fight at Dellaplane's mansion during the birthday party for the union leader Dellaplane plans to have assassinated. During the melee, the other members of The Invisible Men are killed by Jackson (who personally deals with the one set to make the kill and frame him), Edd, Jackson's old partner Detective Kotterwell, and a rehabilitated young thief named Albert, with help from Kid Sable. However, Dellaplane takes Sydney hostage and hides inside a bedroom in his mansion. After being given a gun by Kotterwell, Jackson commandeers a car being displayed at the party, crashes into the house, kills Dellaplane's butler/bodyguard, Cartier by ramming him into a wall as the latter fires at him, and roars upstairs to crash into the room Dellaplane is holding Sydney in. After a brief standoff, Dellaplane, (a trained martial artist) challenges Jackson to hand-to-hand combat. At first Dellaplane has the upper hand, but after ramming Jackson into a car window, he is abruptly shoved back by Jackson, who turns and shouts "Now you've pissed me off!" Jackson proceeds to thrash Dellaplane. In desperation, Dellaplane goes for his gun, only for Jackson to seize his own and engage in a crossfire exchange, with Jackson killing Dellaplane and receiving a wound in the shoulder in return. Captain Armbruster arrives with reinforcements, informs Jackson that he wants a full report on his desk "in the morning..." and calls Jackson "Lieutenant." Sydney soon reveals she plans to go "cold turkey" off of heroin, promising Jackson can have her "on Thanksgiving." Jackson replies, "Can I have you any sooner?" Sydney giggles and the two kiss passionately as the screen fades to black.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: A creation that came about when I was doing "Predator" and talking to Joel Silver, who loved blaxploitation movies. Joel said, "Well, you know, why don't you put something together?" So during that time of shooting down in Puerto Vallarta, I created this story and came up with this guy – or at least this title – Action Jackson. And Joel found a writer [who] wrote the screenplay, and that was it. We got it made.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: In 1990 Weathers starred in "Dangerous Passion", an action film, which was released in Germany under the title "Action Jackson 2", although it did not relate to the original film.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: The "" features new music by Sister Sledge, The Pointer Sisters, Vanity, and Herbie Hancock. Vanity's two songs, "Faraway Eyes" and "Undress," were produced by musician Jesse Johnson.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: Weathers said he hoped the film would become a franchise "but Lorimar sold the lot to Sony and sold the library to Warner Bros., and that was that. It never resurfaced again, unfortunately."


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: The film received a score of 13% on Rotten Tomatoes from 15 reviews. On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". It grossed $20 million on an $8 million budget, and made another $45 million in VHS sales.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: The film is the subject of the first season "Lazor Wulf" episode, "Keep It Moving," in which the last VHS copy of the film has been stolen, and the main characters attempt to recreate moments they believe are in the film in order to become more like Action Jackson and retrieve the tape.


title: Action Jackson (1988 film)

text: The film would be referenced again in the second season "Lazor Wulf" episode, "Keep Going," where this time the series' titular character is convinced that "Action Jackson" is a documentary and pesters Carl Weathers into admitting that the actor himself killed off the character. In the episode, Weathers is voiced by WWE Superstar Xavier Woods, who previously wrestled in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the name Consequences Creed, in a gimmick inspired by Weathers' Apollo Creed character from the "Rocky" film series.


title: Japanese horror

text: Japanese horror is horror fiction derived from popular culture in Japan, generally noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre differing from the traditional Western representation of horror. Japanese horror tends to focus on psychological horror, tension building (suspense), and supernatural horror, particularly involving ghosts ("yūrei") and poltergeists. Other Japanese horror fiction contains themes of folk religion such as possession, exorcism, shamanism, precognition, and "yōkai". Forms of Japanese horror fiction include artwork, theater, literature, film, anime and video games.


title: Japanese horror

text: The origins of Japanese horror can be traced back to the horror fiction and ghost stories of the Edo period and the Meiji period, which were known as "kaidan" (sometimes transliterated "kwaidan"; literally meaning "strange story"). Elements of these popular folktales have routinely been used in various forms of Japanese horror, especially the traditional stories of ghosts and "yōkai". The term "yōkai" was first used to refer to any supernatural phenomenon and was brought to common use by the Meiji period scholar Inoue Enryo. "Kaidan" stories became popular in Japan during this period after the invention of printing technologies, allowing the spread of the written stories. Early "kaidan" stories include "Otogi Boko" by Asai Ryoi, "Inga Monogatari" by Suzuki Shojo, and "Otogi Monogatari" by Ogita Ansei.


title: Japanese horror

text: Later, the term "yōkai" evolved to refer to vengeful states that "kami" ("gods" or spirits in the Shinto religion) would morph into when disrespected or neglected by people living around their shrines. Over time, Shinto Gods were not the only ones able to morph into "yōkai", but this ability to transform came to be applied to all beings who have an untamed energy surrounding them, referred to as Mononoke.


title: Japanese horror

text: Kabuki and Noh, forms of traditional Japanese theater, often depict horror tales of revenge and ghastly appearances. One difference between these two forms of theater is Noh is formal and targeted for upperclassmen while Kabuki is interactive and seen as "the theater of the people." The subject matter often portrayed in original Noh theater include vengeful spirits, demon plays, stories of death, and others. Many of the storylines of these traditional plays have inspired modern horror depictions, and these stories have been used as source material for Japanese horror films. In fact, Kabuki was a major subject of early Japanese films, and Kabuki gradually was woven into the framework of the modern horror films seen today. For example, the physical description of the ghost character Sadako Yamamura in Koji Suzuki's "Ring" series of novels is derived from what was seen in Noh and Kabuki theater performances.


title: Japanese horror

text: Elements of Japanese horror in folk art are represented in the works of 18 century artist, Katsushika Hokusai. He was a painter during the Edo period famous for his block prints of Mt Fuji. In the realm of horror fiction, Hokusai produced a series based on a traditional game of telling ghost stories called "A Hundred Horror Stories" in which he depicted the apparitions and monsters that were so common in these stories. Only five of the prints are known to have survived, but they represent some of the better-known ghost stories from the folklore of this time period. They include the ghost of "Okiku," a servant girl who is killed and thrown in a well and whose ghost appears limbless rising from a well to torment her killer. The traditional imagery around this particular folktale is thought to have influenced the novel "Ringu." Other images from this collection are of the "Ghost of Oiwa" and the Phantom of "Kohada Koheiji". The Oiwa story centers around betrayal and revenge, wherein the devoted wife is killed by her disreputable husband and her ghost appears and torments and tricks him. Her image is of a woman disfigured by the poison her husband used to kill her. The Kohada image is drawn from the story of a murdered actor, whose wife conspires to kill him. Her lover drowns Kohada on a fishing trip and Hokusai represents his decayed and skeletal spirit captured in a fishing net.


title: Japanese horror

text: After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japanese horror cinema would mainly consist of vengeful ghosts, radiation mutants, and "kaiju" (giant irradiated monsters) starting with Godzilla (1954). The post-war era is also when the horror genre rose to prominence in Japan. One of the first major Japanese horror films was "Onibaba" (1964), directed by Kaneto Shindo. The film is categorized as a historical horror drama where a woman and her mother-in-law attempt to survive during a civil war. Like many early Japanese horror films, elements are drawn largely from traditional Kabuki and Noh theater. "Onibaba" also shows heavy influence from World War II. Shindo himself revealed the make-up used in the unmasking scene was inspired by photos he had seen of mutilated victims of the atomic bombings. In 1965, the film "Kwaidan" was released. Directed by Masaki Kobayashi, "Kwaidan" is an anthology film comprising four stories, each based upon traditional ghost stories. Similar to "Onibaba", "Kwaidan" weaves elements of "Noh" theater into the story. The anthology uses elements of psychological horror rather than jump scare tactics common in Western horror films. Additionally, "Kwaidan" showcases one commonality seen in various Japanese horror films, that being the recurring imagery of the woman with long, unkempt hair falling over her face. Examples of other films created after "Kwaidan" weaving this motif into the story are "Ring" (1998), "The Grudge" (2004), and "Exte" (2007). This imagery was directly taken from a traditional Japanese folklore tale similar to the Medusa.


title: Japanese horror

text: In the 1980s, there was a distinct shift away from gory, slasher-style films of violent spectacle, towards the psychologically thrilling and intensely atmospheric type, led by the director Norio Tsuruta. Tsuruta's 1991 and 1992 film series "Scary True Stories" began a categorical shift in these films, which are sometimes abbreviated to "J-horror".


title: Japanese horror

text: In contemporary Japanese horror films, a dominant feature is haunted houses and the break-up of nuclear families. Additionally, monstrous mothers become a major theme, not just in films but in Japanese horror novels as well. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film "Sweet Home" (1989) provides the basis for the contemporary haunted house film and also served as an inspiration to the "Resident Evil" games. Japanese culture has seen increased focus on family life, where loyalty to superiors has been de-emphasized. From this, any act of dissolving a family was seen as horrifying, making it a topic of particular interest in Japanese horror media.


title: Japanese horror

text: "Ring" (1998) was influential in Western cinema and gained cult status in the West. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Hollywood horror had largely been dominated by the slasher sub-genre, which relied on on-screen violence, shock tactics, and gore. "Ring," whose release in Japan roughly coincided with "The Blair Witch Project" in the United States, helped to revitalise the genre by taking a more restrained approach to horror, leaving much of the terror to the audience's imagination. The film initiated global interest in Japanese cinema in general and Japanese horror cinema in particular, a renaissance which led to the coining of the term "J-Horror" in the West. This "New Asian Horror" resulted in further successful releases, such as "" and "Dark Water". In addition to Japanese productions, this boom also managed to bring attention to similar films made in other East Asian nations at the same time, such as South Korea ("A Tale of Two Sisters") and Hong Kong ("The Eye").


title: Japanese horror

text: Since the early 2000s, several of the more popular Japanese horror films have been remade. "Ring" (1998) was one of the first to be remade in English as "The Ring", and later "The Ring Two" (although this sequel bears almost no similarity to the original Japanese sequel). Other notable examples include "The Grudge" (2004), "Dark Water" (2005), and "One Missed Call" (2008).


title: Japanese horror

text: With the exception of "The Ring", most English-language remakes of Japanese horror films have received negative reviews (although "The Grudge" received mixed reviews). "One Missed Call" has received the worst reception of all, having earned the Moldy Tomato Award at Rotten Tomatoes for garnering a 0% critical approval rating. "The Ring 3D" was green-lit by Paramount in 2010, and later the film was renamed "Rings" and released in early 2017.


title: Japanese horror

text: Many of the original directors who created these Asian horror films have gone on to direct the English-language remakes. For example, Hideo Nakata, director of "Ring", directed the remake "The Ring Two"; and Takashi Shimizu, director of the original "Ju-on", directed the remake "The Grudge" as well as its sequel, "The Grudge 2".


title: Japanese horror

text: Several other Asian countries have also remade Japanese horror films. For example, South Korea created their own version of the Japanese horror classic "Ring", titled "The Ring Virus".


title: Japanese horror

text: In 2007, Los Angeles-based writer-director Jason Cuadrado released the film "Tales from the Dead", a horror film in four parts that Cuadrado filmed in the United States with a cast of Japanese actors speaking their native language.


title: Japanese horror

text: The first influential Japanese horror films were "kaiju" monster films, most notably the "Godzilla" series, which debuted the original "Godzilla" in 1954. In 1973, "The Monster Times" magazine conducted a poll to determine the most popular movie monster. Godzilla was voted the most popular movie monster, beating Count Dracula, King Kong, Wolf Man, The Mummy, Creature From the Black Lagoon, and Frankenstein's monster.


title: Japanese horror

text: "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" (1956), a re-edited Americanized version of the original "Godzilla" for the North American market, notably inspired Steven Spielberg when he was a youth. He described "Godzilla" as "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies" because "it made you believe it was really happening." "Godzilla" has also been cited as an inspiration by filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton.


title: Japanese horror

text: There are numerous Japanese works of zombie fiction. One of the earliest Japanese zombie films with considerable gore and violence was "" (1991) directed by Kazuo Komizu. However, "Battle Girl" failed to generate a significant national response at the Japanese box office. It was not until the release of two 1996 Japanese zombie games, Capcom's "Resident Evil" and Sega's "The House of the Dead", whose success sparked an international craze for zombie media, that many filmmakers began to capitalize on zombie films. In addition to featuring George Romero's classic slow zombies, "The House of the Dead" also introduced a new type of zombie: the fast-running zombie.


title: Japanese horror

text: According to Kim Newman in the book "Nightmare Movies" (2011), the "zombie revival began in the Far East" during the late 1990s, largely inspired by two Japanese zombie games released in 1996: "Resident Evil", which started the "Resident Evil" video game series, and Sega's arcade shooter "House of the Dead". The success of these two 1996 zombie games inspired a wave of Asian zombie films, such as the zombie comedy "Bio Zombie" (1998) and action film "Versus" (2000). The zombie films released after "Resident Evil" were influenced by zombie video games, which inspired them to dwell more on the action compared to older George Romero films.


title: Japanese horror

text: The zombie revival which began in the Far East eventually went global following the worldwide success of the Japanese zombie games "Resident Evil" and "The House of the Dead". They sparked a revival of the zombie genre in popular culture, leading to a renewed global interest in zombie films during the early 2000s. In addition to being adapted into the "Resident Evil" and "House of the Dead" films from 2002 onwards, the original video games themselves also inspired zombie films such as "28 Days Later" (2002) and "Shaun of the Dead" (2004), leading to the revival of zombie films during the 2000s. In 2013, George Romero said it was the video games "Resident Evil" and "House of the Dead" "more than anything else" that popularised his zombie concept in early 21st century popular culture. The fast-running zombies introduced in "The House of the Dead" games also began appearing in zombie films during the 2000s, including the "Resident Evil" and "House of the Dead" films, "28 Days Later", and the 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake.


title: Japanese horror

text: The low-budget Japanese zombie comedy "One Cut of the Dead" (2017) became a sleeper hit in Japan, receiving general acclaim worldwide and making Japanese box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget.


title: Japanese horror

text: Horror manga are a modern evolution of serialized stories produced as texts in wood block print form during the Edo period. These graphic novels usually deal in historical tropes of horror that are based on Buddhism "rokudo" (six realms) and the frightening notion of fluidity, that one can move between these realms unintentionally, like moving between heaven, earth and hell, and non-duality, that the realms are intermingled. Some popular Japanese horror films are based on these manga, including "Tomie", "Uzumaki", and "Yogen". Examples of horror anime include "Death Note", "" and "Boogiepop Phantom".


title: Japanese horror

text: Examples of Japanese horror based video games include "Resident Evil", "Ghost House", "Castlevania", "Silent Hill" and "Fatal Frame".


title: Castra

text: In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word castrum, plural castra, was a military-related term.


title: Castra

text: In Latin usage, the singular form "castrum" meant 'fort', while the plural form "castra" meant 'camp'. The singular and plural forms could refer in Latin to either a building or plot of land, used as a fortified military base.


title: Castra

text: In English usage, "castrum" commonly translates to "Roman fort", "Roman camp" and "Roman fortress". However, scholastic convention tends to translate "castrum" as "fort", "camp", "marching camp" or "fortress".


title: Castra

text: Romans used the term "castrum" for different sizes of camps – including large legionary fortresses, smaller forts for cohorts or for auxiliary forces, temporary encampments, and "marching" forts. The diminutive form "castellum" was used for fortlets, typically occupied by a detachment of a cohort or a "centuria".


title: Castra

text: "Castrum" appears in Oscan and Umbrian, two other Italic languages, suggesting an origin at least as old as Proto-Italic language.


title: Castra

text: These Italic reflexes based on *kastrom include Oscan (genitive case) and Umbrian , (accusative case). They have the same meaning, says Pokorny, as Latin , an estate, or tract of land. This is not any land, but is a prepared or cultivated tract, such as a farm enclosed by a fence or a wooden or stone wall of some kind. Cornelius Nepos uses Latin in that sense: when Alcibiades deserts to the Persians, Pharnabazus gives him an estate () worth 500 talents in tax revenues. This is a change of meaning from the reflexes in other languages, which still mean some sort of knife, axe, or spear. Pokorny explains it as , "a lager, as a cut-off piece of land">


title: Castra

text: If this is the civilian interpretation, the military version must be "military reservation", a piece of land cut off from the common land around it and modified for military use. All castra must be defended by works, often no more than a stockade, for which the soldiers carried stakes, and a ditch. The could be prepared under attack within a hollow square or behind a battle line. Considering that the earliest military shelters were tents made of hide or cloth, and all but the most permanent bases housed the men in tents placed in quadrangles and separated by numbered streets, one may well have acquired the connotation of tent.


title: Castra

text: In Latin the term is much more frequently used as a proper name for geographical locations: e.g., , , , , . The plural was also used as a place name, as , and from this comes the Welsh place name prefix (e.g. Caerleon and Caerwent) and English suffixes "-caster" and "-chester" (e.g. Winchester and Lancaster).


title: Castra

text: , "son of the camps", was one of the names used by the emperor Caligula and then also by other emperors.


title: Castra

text: , also derived from , is a common Spanish family name as well as toponym in Spain and other Hispanophone countries, Italy, and the Balkans, either by itself or in various compounds such as the World Heritage Site of (earlier ).


title: Castra

text: The terms ("army camp") and ("fortification") were used by Greek language authors to translate and , respectively.


title: Castra

text: A "castrum" was designed to house and protect the soldiers, their equipment and supplies when they were not fighting or marching.


title: Castra

text: The most detailed description that survives about Roman military camps is "De Munitionibus Castrorum", a manuscript of 11 pages that dates most probably from the late 1st to early 2nd century AD.


title: Castra

text: Regulations required a major unit in the field to retire to a properly constructed camp every day. "… as soon as they have marched into an enemy's land, they do not begin to fight until they have walled their camp about; nor is the fence they raise rashly made, or uneven; nor do they all abide ill it, nor do those that are in it take their places at random; but if it happens that the ground is uneven, it is first levelled: their camp is also four-square by measure, and carpenters are ready, in great numbers, with their tools, to erect their buildings for them." To this end a marching column ported the equipment needed to build and stock the camp in a baggage train of wagons and on the backs of the soldiers.


title: Castra

text: Camps were the responsibility of engineering units to which specialists of many types belonged, officered by "architecti", "chief engineers", who requisitioned manual labor from the soldiers at large as required. They could throw up a camp under enemy attack in as little as a few hours. Judging from the names, they probably used a repertory of camp plans, selecting the one appropriate to the length of time a legion would spend in it: "tertia castra", "quarta castra", etc. ("a camp of three days", "four days", etc.).


title: Castra

text: More permanent camps were "castra stativa" ("standing camps"). The least permanent of these were "castra aestiva" or "aestivalia", "summer camps", in which the soldiers were housed "sub pellibus" or "sub tentoriis", "under tents". Summer was the campaign season. For the winter the soldiers retired to "castra hiberna" containing barracks and other buildings of more solid materials, with timber construction gradually being replaced by stone. "Castra hibernas" held eight soldiers to a room, who slept on bunkbeds. The soldiers in each room were also required to cook their own meals and eat with their "roommates".


title: Castra

text: The camp allowed the Romans to keep a rested and supplied army in the field. Neither the Celtic nor Germanic armies had this capability: they found it necessary to disperse after only a few days.


title: Castra

text: From the time of Augustus more permanent castra with wooden or stone buildings and walls were introduced as the distant and hard-won boundaries of the expanding empire required permanent garrisons to control local and external threats from warlike tribes. Previously, legions were raised for specific military campaigns and subsequently disbanded, requiring only temporary castra. From then on many castra of various sizes were established many of which became permanent settlements.


title: Castra

text: From the most ancient times Roman camps were constructed according to a certain ideal pattern, formally described in two main sources, the "De Munitionibus Castrorum" and the works of Polybius. P. Fl. Vegetius Renatus has a small section on entrenched camps as well. The terminology varies but the basic plan is the same. The hypothesis of an Etruscan origin is a viable alternative.


title: Castra

text: The ideal enforced a linear plan for a camp or fort: a square for camps to contain one legion or smaller unit, a rectangle for two legions, each legion being placed back-to-back with headquarters next to each other. Laying it out was a geometric exercise conducted by experienced officers called "metatores", who used graduated measuring rods called "decempedae" ("10-footers") and "gromatici" who used a groma, a sighting device consisting of a vertical staff with horizontal cross pieces and vertical plumb-lines. Ideally the process started in the centre of the planned camp at the site of the headquarters tent or building (principia). Streets and other features were marked with coloured pennants or rods.


title: Castra

text: The street plans of various present-day cities still retain traces of a Roman camp, for example Marsala in Sicily, the ancient Lilybaeum, where the name of the main street, the Cassaro, perpetuates the name "castrum".


title: Castra

text: The base ("munimentum", "fortification") was placed entirely within the "vallum" ("wall"), which could be constructed under the protection of the legion in battle formation if necessary. The "vallum" was quadrangular aligned on the cardinal points of the compass. The construction crews dug a trench ("fossa"), throwing the excavated material inward, to be formed into the rampart ("agger"). On top of this a palisade of stakes ("sudes" or "valli") was erected. The soldiers had to carry these stakes on the march. Over the course of time, the palisade might be replaced by a fine brick or stone wall, and the ditch serve also as a moat. A legion-sized camp always placed towers at intervals along the wall with positions between for the division artillery.


title: Castra

text: Around the inside periphery of the "vallum" was a clear space, the "intervallum", which served to catch enemy missiles, as an access route to the "vallum" and as a storage space for cattle ("capita") and plunder ("praeda"). Legionaries were quartered in a peripheral zone inside the "intervallum", which they could rapidly cross to take up position on the "vallum". Inside of the legionary quarters was a peripheral road, the "Via Sagularis", probably a type of "service road", as the "sagum", a kind of cloak, was the garment of soldiers.


title: Castra

text: Every camp included "main street", which ran through the camp in a north–south direction and was very wide. The names of streets in many cities formerly occupied by the Romans suggest that the street was called "cardo" or "cardus maximus". This name applies more to cities than it does to ancient camps.


title: Castra

text: Typically "main street" was the "via principalis". The central portion was used as a parade ground and headquarters area. The "headquarters" building was called the "praetorium" because it housed the "praetor" or base commander ("first officer"), and his staff. In the camp of a full legion he held the rank of "consul" or "proconsul" but officers of lesser ranks might command.


title: Castra

text: On one side of the "praetorium" was the "quaestorium", the building of the "quaestor" (supply officer). On the other side was the "forum", a small duplicate of an urban forum, where public business could be conducted. Along the "Via Principalis" were the homes or tents of the several tribunes in front of the barracks of the units they commanded.


title: Castra

text: The "Via Principalis" went through the "vallum" in the "Porta Principalis Dextra" ("right principal gate") and "Porta Principalis Sinistra" ("left, etc."), which were gates fortified with "turres" ("towers"). Which was on the north and which on the south depends on whether the praetorium faced east or west, which remains unknown.


title: Castra

text: The central region of the "Via Principalis" with the buildings for the command staff was called the "Principia" (plural of "principium"). It was actually a square, as across this at right angles to the "Via Principalis" was the "Via Praetoria", so called because the "praetorium" interrupted it. The "Via Principalis" and the "Via Praetoria" offered another division of the camp into four quarters.


title: Castra

text: Across the central plaza ("principia") to the east or west was the main gate, the "Porta Praetoria". Marching through it and down "headquarters street" a unit ended up in formation in front of the headquarters. The standards of the legion were located on display there, very much like the flag of modern camps.


title: Castra

text: On the other side of the praetorium the "Via Praetoria" continued to the wall, where it went through the "Porta Decumana". In theory this was the back gate. Supplies were supposed to come in through it and so it was also called, descriptively, the "Porta Quaestoria". The term Decumana, "of the 10th", came from the arranging of "manipuli" or "turmae" from the first to the 10th, such that the 10th was near the "intervallum" on that side. The "Via Praetoria" on that side might take the name "Via Decumana" or the entire "Via Praetoria" be replaced with "Decumanus Maximus".


title: Castra

text: In peaceful times the camp set up a marketplace with the natives in the area. They were allowed into the camp as far as the units numbered 5 (half-way to the praetorium). There another street crossed the camp at right angles to the "Via Decumana", called the "Via Quintana", "5th street". If the camp needed more gates, one or two of the "Porta Quintana" were built, presumably named "dextra" and "sinistra". If the gates were not built, the "Porta Decumana" also became the "Porta Quintana". At "5th street" a public market was allowed.


title: Castra

text: The "Via Quintana" and the "Via Principalis" divided the camp into three districts: the "Latera Praetorii", the "Praetentura" and the "Retentura". In the "latera" ("sides") were the "Arae" (sacrificial altars), the "Auguratorium" (for auspices), the "Tribunal", where courts martial and arbitrations were conducted (it had a raised platform), the guardhouse, the quarters of various kinds of staff and the storehouses for grain ("horrea") or meat ("carnarea"). Sometimes the "horrea" were located near the barracks and the meat was stored on the hoof. Analysis of sewage from latrines indicates the legionary diet was mainly grain. Also located in the "Latera" was the "Armamentarium", a long shed containing any heavy weapons and artillery not on the wall.


title: Castra

text: The "Praetentura" ("stretching to the front") contained the "Scamnum Legatorum", the quarters of officers who were below general but higher than company commanders ("Legati"). Near the "Principia" were the "Valetudinarium" (hospital), "Veterinarium" (for horses), "Fabrica" ("workshop", metals and wood), and further to the front the quarters of special forces. These included "Classici" ("marines", as most European camps were on rivers and contained a river naval command), "Equites" ("cavalry"), "Exploratores" ("scouts"), and "Vexillarii" (carriers of vexillae, the official pennants of the legion and its units). Troops who did not fit elsewhere also were there.


title: Castra

text: The part of the "Retentura" ("stretching to the rear") closest to the "Principia" contained the "Quaestorium". By the late empire it had developed also into a safekeep for plunder and a prison for hostages and high-ranking enemy captives. Near the "Quaestorium" were the quarters of the headquarters guard ("Statores"), who amounted to two centuries (companies). If the "Imperator" was present they served as his bodyguard.


title: Castra

text: Further from the "Quaestorium" were the tents of the "Nationes" ("natives"), who were auxiliaries of foreign troops, and the legionaries themselves in double rows of tents or barracks ("Strigae"). One "Striga" was as long as required and 18 m wide. In it were two "Hemistrigia" of facing tents centered in its 9 m strip. Arms could be stacked before the tents and baggage carts kept there as well. Space on the other side of the tent was for passage.


title: Castra

text: In the northern places like Britain, where it got cold in the winter, they would make wood or stone barracks. The Romans would also put a fireplace in the barracks. They had about three bunk beds in it. They had a small room beside it where they put their armour; it was as big as the tents. They would also make these barracks if the fort they had was going to stay there for good.


title: Castra

text: A tent was 3 by 3.5 metres (0.6 m for the aisle), ten men per tent. Ideally a company took 10 tents, arranged in a line of 10 companies, with the 10th near the "Porta Decumana". Of the c. 9.2 square metres of bunk space each man received 0.9, or about 0.6 by 1.5 m, which was only practical if they slept with heads to the aisle. The single tent with its men was called "contubernium", also used for "squad". A squad during some periods was 8 men or fewer.


title: Castra

text: The "Centurion", or company commander, had a double-sized tent for his quarters, which served also as official company area. Other than there, the men had to find other places to be. To avoid mutiny, it became extremely important for the officers to keep them busy.


title: Castra

text: A covered portico might protect the walkway along the tents. If barracks had been constructed, one company was housed in one barracks building, with the arms at one end and the common area at the other. The company area was used for cooking and recreation, such as gaming. The army provisioned the men and had their bread ("panis militaris") baked in outdoor ovens, but the men were responsible for cooking and serving themselves. They could buy meals or supplementary foods at the canteen. The officers were allowed servants.


title: Castra

text: For sanitary facilities, a camp had both public and private latrines. A public latrine consisted of a bank of seats situated over a channel of running water. One of the major considerations for selecting the site of a camp was the presence of running water, which the engineers diverted into the sanitary channels. Drinking water came from wells; however, the larger and more permanent bases featured the "aqueduct", a structure running a stream captured from high ground (sometimes miles away) into the camp. The praetorium had its own latrine, and probably the quarters of the high-ranking officers. In or near the "intervallum", where they could easily be accessed, were the latrines of the soldiers. A public bathhouse for the soldiers, also containing a latrine, was located near or on the "Via Principalis".


title: Castra

text: The influence of a base extended far beyond its walls. The total land required for the maintenance of a permanent base was called its "territoria". In it were located all the resources of nature and the terrain required by the base: pastures, woodlots, water sources, stone quarries, mines, exercise fields and attached villages. The central castra might also support various fortified adjuncts to the main base, which were not in themselves self-sustaining (as was the base). In this category were "speculae", "watchtowers", "castella", "small camps", and naval bases.


title: Castra

text: All the major bases near rivers featured some sort of fortified naval installation, one side of which was formed by the river or lake. The other sides were formed by a polygonal wall and ditch constructed in the usual way, with gates and watchtowers. The main internal features were the boat sheds and the docks. When not in use, the boats were drawn up into the sheds for maintenance and protection. Since the camp was placed to best advantage on a hill or slope near the river, the naval base was usually outside its walls. The "classici" and the "optiones" of the naval installation relied on the camp for its permanent defense. Naval personnel generally enjoyed better quarters and facilities. Many were civilians working for the military.


title: Castra

text: This ideal was always modified to suit the terrain and the circumstances. Each camp discovered by archaeology has its own specific layout and architectural features, which makes sense from a military point of view.


title: Castra

text: If, for example, the camp was built on an outcrop, it followed the lines of the outcrop. The terrain for which it was best suited and for which it was probably designed in distant prehistoric times was the rolling plain. The camp was best placed on the summit and along the side of a low hill, with spring water running in rivulets through the camp ("aquatio") and pastureland to provide grazing ("pabulatio") for the animals. In case of attack, arrows, javelins and sling missiles could be fired down at an enemy tiring himself to come up. For defence troops could be formed in an "acies", or "battle-line", outside the gates, where they could be easily resupplied and replenished, as well as being supported by archery from the palisade.


title: Castra

text: The streets, gates and buildings present depended on the requirements and resources of the camp. The gates might vary from two to six and not be centred on the sides. Not all the streets and buildings might be present.


title: Castra

text: Many settlements in Europe originated as Roman military camps and still show traces of their original pattern (e.g. Castres in France, Barcelona in Spain). The pattern was also used by Spanish colonizers in America following strict rules by the Spanish monarchy for founding new cities in the New World.


title: Castra

text: Many of the towns of England still retain forms of the word "castra" in their names, usually as the suffixes "-caster", "-cester" or "-chester" – Lancaster, Tadcaster, Worcester, Gloucester, Mancetter, Uttoxeter, Colchester, Chester, Manchester and Ribchester for example. Castle has the same derivation, from the diminutive "castellum" or "little fort", but does not usually indicate a former Roman camp. Whitley Castle however is an exception, referring to the Roman fort of Epiacum in Northumberland. It is now provided with a car park and café and open to the public under its Roman name of Epiacum.


title: Castra

text: Activities conducted in a castra can be divided into ordinary and "the duty" or "the watch". Ordinary activity was performed during regular working hours. The duty was associated with operating the installation as a military facility. For example, none of the soldiers were required to man the walls all the time, but round-the clock duty always required a portion of the soldiers to be on duty at any time.


title: Castra

text: Duty time was divided into "vigilia", the eight watches into which the 24-hour day was divided so they stood guard for 3 hours that day. The Romans used signals on brass instruments to mark time. These were mainly the "buccina" or "bucina", the "cornu" and the "tuba". As they did not possess valves for regulating the pitch, the range of these instruments was somewhat limited. Nevertheless, the musicians ("Aenatores", "brassmen") managed to define enough signals for issuing commands. The instrument used to mark the passage of a watch was the "buccina", from which the trumpet derives. It was sounded by a "buccinator".


title: Castra

text: Ordinary camp life began with a "buccina" call at daybreak, the first watch of the day. The soldiers arose at this time and shortly after collected in the company area for breakfast and assembly. The centurions were up before them and off to the "principia" where they and the "equites" were required to assemble. The regimental commanders, the tribunes, were already converging on the "praetorium". There the general staff was busily at work planning the day. At a staff meeting the "Tribunes" received the password and the orders of the day. They brought those back to the "centuriones", who returned to their company areas to instruct the men.


title: Castra

text: For soldiers, the main item of the agenda was a vigorous training session lasting about a watch long. Recruits received two, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Planning and supervision of training were under a general staff officer, who might manage training at several camps. According to Vegetius, the men might take a hike or a jog under full pack, or swim a river. Marching drill was always in order.


title: Castra

text: Each soldier was taught the use of every weapon and also was taught to ride. Seamanship was taught at naval bases. Soldiers were generalists in the military and construction arts. They practiced archery, spear-throwing and above all swordsmanship against posts ("pali") fixed in the ground. Training was taken very seriously and was democratic. Ordinary soldiers would see all the officers training with them including the "praetor", or the Emperor, if he was in camp.


title: Castra

text: Swordsmanship lessons and use of the shooting range probably took place on the "campus", a "field" outside the "castra", from which English camp derives. Its surface could be lightly paved. Winter curtailed outdoor training. The general might in that case have sheds constructed, which served as field houses for training. There is archaeological evidence in one case of an indoor equestrian ring.


title: Castra

text: Apart from the training, each soldier had a regular job on the base, of which there were a large variety from the various kinds of clerks to the craftsmen. Soldiers changed jobs frequently. The commander's policy was to have all the soldiers skilled in all the arts and crafts so that they could be as interchangeable as possible. Even then the goal was not entirely achievable. The gap was bridged by the specialists, the "optiones" or "chosen men", of which there were many different kinds. For example, a skilled artisan might be chosen to superintend a workshop. Soldiers were also expected to build the camp upon arrival before engaging in any sort of warfare after a day's march.


title: Castra

text: The supply administration was run as a business using money as the medium of exchange. The aureus was the preferred coin of the late republic and early empire; in the late empire the solidus came into use. The larger bases, such as "Moguntiacum", minted their own coins. As does any business, the base quaestorium required careful record keeping, performed mainly by the optiones. A chance cache of tablets from Vindolanda in Britain gives us a glimpse of some supply transactions. They record, among other things, the purchase of consumables and raw supplies, the storage and repair of clothing and other items, and the sale of items, including foodstuffs, to achieve an income. Vindolanda traded vigorously with the surrounding natives.


title: Castra

text: Another feature of the camp was the military hospital ("valetudinarium", later "hospitium"). Augustus instituted the first permanent medical corps in the Roman army. Its physicians, the "medici ordinarii", had to be qualified physicians. They were allowed medical students, practitioners and whatever orderlies they needed; i.e., the military hospitals were medical schools and places of residency as well.


title: Castra

text: Officers were allowed to marry and to reside with their families on base. The army did not extend the same privileges to the men, who were not allowed to marry. However, they often kept common law families off base in communities nearby. The communities might be native, as the tribesmen tended to build around a permanent base for purposes of trade, but also the base sponsored villages ("vici") of dependents and businessmen. Dependants were not allowed to follow an army on the march into hostile territory.


title: Castra

text: Military service was for about 25 years. At the end of that time, the veteran was given a certificate of honorable discharge ("honesta missio"). Some of these have survived engraved on stone. Typically they certify that the veteran, his wife (one per veteran) and children or his sweetheart were now Roman citizens, which is a good indication that troops, which were used chiefly on the frontier, were from peoples elsewhere on the frontier who wished to earn Roman citizenship. However, under Antoninus Pius, citizenship was no longer granted to the children of rank-and-file veterans, the privilege becoming restricted only to officers.


title: Castra

text: Veterans often went into business in the communities near a base. They became permanent members of the community and would stay on after the troops were withdrawn, as in the notable case of Saint Patrick's family.


title: Castra

text: Conducted in parallel with the ordinary activities was "the duty", the official chores required by the camp under strict military discipline. The "Legate" was ultimately responsible for them as he was for the entire camp, but he delegated the duty to a tribune chosen as officer of the day. The line "Tribunes" were commanders of "Cohortes" and were approximately the equivalent of colonels. The 6 tribunes were divided into units of two, with each unit being responsible for filling the position of officer of the day for two months. The two men of a unit decided among themselves who would take what day. They could alternate days or each take a month. One filled in for the other in case of illness. On his day, the tribune effectively commanded the camp and was even respected as such by the "Legate".


title: Castra

text: The equivalent concept of the duties performed in modern camps is roughly the detail. The responsibilities ("curae") of the many kinds of detail were distributed to the men by all the methods considered fair and democratic: lot, rotation and negotiation. Certain kinds of "cura" were assigned certain classes or types of troops; for example, wall sentries were chosen only from "Velites". Soldiers could be temporarily or permanently exempted: the "immunes". For example, a Triarius was "immunis" from the "curae" of the Hastati.


title: Castra

text: The duty year was divided into time slices, typically one or two months, which were apportioned to units, typically maniples or centuries. They were always allowed to negotiate who took the duty and when. The most common kind of "cura" were the posts of the sentinels, called the "excubiae" by day and the "vigilae" at night. Wall posts were "praesidia", gate posts, "custodiae", advance positions before the gates, "stationes".


title: Castra

text: In addition were special guards and details. One post was typically filled by four men, one sentinel and the others at ease until a situation arose or it was their turn to be sentinel. Some of the details were:


title: Castra

text: Below are a number of links to sites reporting or summarizing current research or thinking. Many are reprints of articles made available to the public at no charge. The historical researcher will find their bibliographies of great interest.


title: Samanea saman

text: Samanea saman, also sometimes known as the rain tree, is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, now in the Mimosoid clade and is native to Central and South America. Its range extends from Mexico south to Peru and Brazil, but it has been widely introduced to South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii. Common names include "saman", "rain tree" and "monkeypod" (see also below). It is often placed in the genus "Samanea", which by yet other authors is subsumed in "Albizia" entirely.


title: Samanea saman

text: Saman is a wide-canopied tree with a large symmetrical umbrella-shaped crown. It usually reaches a height of and a diameter of . The leaves fold in rainy weather and in the evening, hence the names "rain tree" and "five o'clock tree" ("Pukul Lima" in Malay). The tree has pinkish flowers with white and red stamens, set on heads with around 12–25 flowers per head. These heads may number in the thousands, covering the whole tree. The seed pods of the tree contain sticky, edible flesh.


title: Samanea saman

text: During his 1799–1804 travels in the Americas, Alexander von Humboldt encountered a giant saman tree near Maracay, Venezuela. He measured the circumference of the parasol-shaped crown at 576 ft (about 180.8 m), its diameter was around 190 ft (about 59.6 m), on a trunk at 9 ft (about 2.8 m) in diameter and reaching just 60 ft (nearly 19 m) in height. Humboldt mentioned the tree was reported to have changed little since the Spanish colonization of Venezuela; he estimated it to be as old as the famous Canary Islands dragon tree ("Dracaena draco") of Icod de los Vinos on Tenerife.


title: Samanea saman

text: The tree, called "Samán de Güere" (transcribed "Zamang del Guayre" by von Humboldt) still stands today, and is a Venezuelan national treasure. Just like the dragon tree on Tenerife, the age of the saman in Venezuela is rather indeterminate. As von Humboldt's report makes clear, according to local tradition, it would be older than 500 years today, which is rather outstanding by the genus' standards. It is certain, however, the tree is quite more than 200 years old today, but it is one exceptional individual; even the well-learned von Humboldt could not believe it was actually the same species as the saman trees he knew from the greenhouses at Schönbrunn Castle. A famous specimen called the "Brahmaputra Rain Tree" located at Guwahati on the banks of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India has the thickest trunk of any Saman; approximately diameter at breast height (DBH). The size of the pollen is around 119 microns and it is polyad of 24 to 32 grains.


title: Samanea saman

text: Large branches of the tree tend to break off, particularly during rainstorms. This can be hazardous as the tree is very commonly used for avenue plantation.