In 1994 this futuristic take on The Phantom debuted. This animated series was developed by Hearst Corporation with character designs by Peter Chung, creator and director of cult animated series Æon Flux.
Dealing with the issues of environmentalism, coporate greet and political mechinations as well as how the media can skew facts, the series was praised for its high level concept and not talking down to its audience. Featuring the voices of Mark Hamill, Margot Kidder, Ron Perlman and Deborah Harry, the series had a pretty impressive voice cast. Although it only lasted two seasons, the show still boasts a cult following to this day, even outside "traditional" Phantom fans.
The whole series can be watched on YouTube.
The first, and so far only, The Phantom movie released some 60 years after the character's debut. At the time it was not considered successful as it did not perform well at the US box office, thus plans for sequles were cancelled. It did perform well in countires where the character was much more well known, such as Australia and India. However, it has gained something of a cult following since its release on home media and streaming platforms.
Australian DVD and BluRay Release:
HMV Premium Collection BluRay
UK retailer HMV released a series of films under an Premium Collection banner. These releases came in a a slip case, art cards and a poster. The Phantom collection was released crica 2021.
Defenders of the Earth
Defenders of the Earth was an animated series that debuted in 1986 which brought together several King Features-owned characters, including The Phantom, into an Avengers-like team. The series lasted for 65 episodes and the whole thing can be seen on YouTube
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1943 Serial
For those who aren't in their 70s, a movie serial is a series of short episodes that would play before the main feature at a cinema. Think of it like watching an episode of a TV series before watching a full film. The Phantom serial starred Tom Tyler in the lead role. Lee Falk himself described the serial as "terrible" due to the change of many aspects of the strip, such as The Phantom's real name. It's pretty corney by today's standards, but worth a watch for Phantom and film fans.
Publications
Avon/ Hermes Novels
In 1972, American publisher Avon released a series of 15 prose novels based upon The Phantom strip stories. Of these, Lee Falk himself wrote five while the remaining ten were written by comics historian Ron Goulart. The last of the novels was released in 1975 and remained out of publication until 2016 when publisher Hermes Press began to release facsimile editions of the novels.
I've a complete run of both the original 1972 novels as well as the Hermes reprints in my collection. Also included is a German edition of novel 5 The Golden Circle (last image).
Diaries
Beginning in 1993 and published almost annually by Mallon in Australia, the Phantom diary has become something of a staple for Aussie Phantom phans at Christmas time. The series began as oversized hardcover editions containting lots of background information and trivia about The Phantom.The 1998 edition moved to spiral binding and instead concentrated on cover art, reproduicing art from Phantom comic covers from around the world. 2005 then combined these two ideas together with ring binding and a hard cover. These editions also saw the return of trivia.
The last diary I purchased was 2016 as I had moved to England the year before and, in 2018, Mallon moved to a mail-order system which made it quite hard to precure them internationally. There were no diaries produced for 1999, 2001, 2002 or 2019.
One other diary was produced in Australia, this time to tie in with the Phantom movie (see last image below). Produced by Trielle, it contained lots of stills and background information on the film.
Defenders of the Earth Books
Fan Club Newsletters
Here we have several newsletter from two different Phantom fan clubs. The first is The Official Phantom Fan Club of Australia which began in 1991 in celebration of Frew Publications' 1000th issue, and ran until 1999 due to King Features not renewing the licence. It was run by a gift/ novelty company known as Famous Faces that also ran fan clubs for Elvis Presley, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and others. A newsletter was sent out to all members with a total of 15 being produced, although the last of these was released in January of '98.
The second is an American club called Friends of The Phantom which was produced by Phantom historian, consultant, writer and legend within the Phantom phan community, Ed Rhoades. Begun in 1993, the club ran until 2002 and released a total of 23 newsletters.
Various
Items of Note:
- The Enter: The Phantom Exhibition catalogue comes from an exhibition where Bradley Peach, something of a legend amoung Aussie Phantom collectors, put part of his collection on display in 214 (and again in 2017) at the Albury Library Museum in Albury, New South Wales.
- The Phantom Project Kit is a small supplement of behind the scenes info that came free with Frew #1094 in 1994.
- Lee Falk: Story Teller is a rather comprehensive book put together by the Scandinavian chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengalla Explorer's Club that collects many articles about and interviews with The Phantom's creator.
