The Phantom Detective is a pulp character that transferred to the medium of comics. His stories have some elements (professional working relationship with police chief, signal to summon him (although on top of a newspaper office, rather than on top of police HQ), expert in disguise) that will be hauntingly familiar to any fan of Batman... Richard Curtis Van Loan is a wealthy socialite who after serving in World War I becomes bored and craves the same level of "excitement" that he became used to in the trenches of the Great War.