Customer Reviews

The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies Volume 1: 1936-1937

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3 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Well, I have been long awaiting for a final version of Phantom. And there it is. But, what a small reproduction of the drawings. There are large 'empty' spaces in all the sheets. Why not to occupy the spaces by enlarging the strips? I bet the stories would be much more attractive to the public. Please Hermes Press' guys, take a look in the IDW's comics like Terry and Dick Tracy, and follow them. My Brazilian edition of the first Phantom story (Singh) has enlarged strips, which made the adventure very enjoyable.

It is never late to acknowledge the mistake and to improve the next volumes!

First off, its a huge relief that this book is finally out. Its almost a year since I placed my order at Amazon.

Its good to have the first ever Phantom hardbound. It is a Huge book, similar to the format most reprints these days come in. Great to get started on the complete collection of Phantom.

For those who grew with the stories as a kid, Phantom is a truely remarkable character. The stories, the settings, the action, the adventure, the travels, the dangers, the fun, the romance.. It had everything. The Jungle settings, the caves, the chronicle chamber, the treasure chamber, the island of Eden, the continuum of Phantoms, it is a wonderful set of tales spun by Lee Falk.

The Phantom evolved over the decades, the character as well as physical appearance, due to the fact that it was drawn by different artists over this wast span of time. Each artist was unique, had his unique recipe for bringing Lee Falk's tales to life. Ray Moore, Wilson McCoy and Sy Barry among the most prolific Phatom illustrators. The story as well as the settings, and art work evolved and improved vastly year over year, this is easily noted even within an artist's span, one can see Ray's artwork remarkably improve over time.

There has been reprints of the Phantom in book format from various publishers. Noted among them is the Australian Frew. They have been consistently producing Phantom for decades. Then there was Pacific Comics Club, who came up with great editions of the reprints. Also there used to be a large number of stories that were printed in India known as Indarjal Comics. Mostly these were one story per book. There are the Frew Annuals, humongous books with tons of stories. very well printed.

The version under review is probably one of the best yet. Excellent paper, nicely hardbound, very well printed collector's edition class, and promising to collect all the stories.

It is important to note that these are dailies, and are the earliest of the strip. Also, newspaper comic strips were just evolving then. There was a fixed format and a necessity to hold some suspense every single day, and there was a panel daily. All this meant the artist would be at work on a rigid timeframe. Compared to that the Sundays were more carefully rendered and of course the color would enhance the quality.

Given that, the printing of the first stories have come out very well in this edition. As the stories progress, and the art matures, it is only going to get better. Looking forward to more art work of Moore, McCoy and of course Barry.

It was about time for Lee Falk's The Phantom to get the recognition it deserved. It undoubtedly is one of the best written and best illustrated newspaper adventure series ever created. Sophisticated, humorous, suspenseful and most of all cinematic. It has been and still is one of the most popular strips in the world... except in the U.S.! you go figure. As a long time fan, with a large collection of reprints from Italy, Australia, Brazil, etc. I can attest to the completeness of each story in volume 1. As to some of the criticisms that have been made. The quality of the strip reprints is outstanding with the blackest blacks and whitest whites. Just to focus on the main story -the Singh Brotherhood--- it is as good as or better than the reprint in the Italian book "L'uomo mascherato" (Garzanti 1972) but that volume lacked a few panels here and there. It is far better than the last FREW reprint of the Singh Brotherhood, number 1472 (2007) which while complete story-wise, the strip reproductions were quite muddy; e.g. a lovely image of Diana after a shower (3/11/36)was reproduced in FREW as if her hair was drawn with a magic marker. The American version edited by Bill Blackbeard was not as bad, the panels just looked murky and lacking background but despite its claims it was not complete. I have no problems with two panels per page showing them most likely at their original size-- but I wished it could have been printed in somewhat larger size so we could have more fully enjoyed Ray Moore's art. All in all I'm looking forward to future volumes, especially the Color Sundays. Could we hope for reprints of Mandrake the Magician next?

Just got this book and I have to say it's the best reprint of the strip I've ever seen. I read the other reviews and it's clear many of them just don't know what prior reprints look like. First, these stories have never been reprinted in their original format together. This is a first for the Phantom. Next, they've never looked so good. It's great to have one of the best comic strips ever done in one volume. I've ordered the second volume.

... but was it worth it? The reproduction is below standard in some places, looking like third generation xeroxes from newspapers and it only gets better towards the end of the book. Will this mean that from then onwards the reproduction in future volumes will be better because Hermes could finally get hold of the real proofs from the syndicate? Here's hoping so...

Also, why is it that recent reprints from newspaper strips seem to have no restoration whatsoever and look just as if they were scanned and left like that?

I have various versions of the Phantom reprints from all over the world and frankly, the italian version looks much better than this, even if it was printed at a smaller size. How come? Do they have better proofs? I doubt it, because the best they can get is second generation proofs that have already been translated... Some people say it's because the printing in Europe is better than in the US, but nowadays most books are printed in China, so the printing is the same all over the world. These differences will remain a mystery to me.

Also I think the cover could have profited from a better design as it looks really cheap and poor. How can it catch the eye of a potential new reader with such an unappealing cover? C'mon, the Phantom is such an iconic figure, is this is all you could come up with?

Other than that I like the format and size, and two strips per page is good enough (more would clutter up the space), and then I guess it was done to accommodate the Sunday pages in future volumes. Also the volumes aren't as heavy as those by IDW, meaning that they are easier to read anywhere. Let's hope the reproduction quality in future volumes gets better and this could be a winner...

And now, when are we getting Mandrake the Magician?

After months and months of waiting, probably more, Hermes Press' 'The Complete Newspaper Dailies: Volume One 1936 - 1937' has been released! I have not been let down.

I've been a Phantom fan ever since I was introduced to him for the old movie starring Billy Zane. After following the Moonstone comics and so forth have always wanted to read the original newspaper stories. Well here they are!

Included in this are three:

The Singh Brotherhood

The Sky Band

The Diamond Hunters

Both the Singh Brotherhood and Sky Band stories are must reads for anyone who likes the Phantom. This is where we are introduced to both! As a matter of fact the movie actually covered both as well, with Sala being portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones. The Diamond Hunters is the weakest of the stories, but probably because I found the first two just so danged good!

I cannot wait for each new book to arrive.

This book is something Phantom fans all over the world have been waiting for forever: a definitive reprint of the strip, with all the complete strips in their original continuity. The reproduction, like Hermes Buck Rogers reprints, is superb. The strips never looked better and I've been collecting different reprints of these strips for thirty years. The Phantom is one of the most influential "hero" strips and re-reading this book makes that point again and again. The Phantom strip creates memorable characters who the reader actually gets to know through the strip. The first three stories are printed together in this book, in their original horizontal strip format(not in a comic book format). The book has two excellent supplements, a Foreword by comics historian Ron Goulart and an Afterword by Phantom expert Ed Rhoades. The cover design is striking, the production values of the book are first rate, and the entire package is as close to perfect as we could dare wish for. I've already ordered Volume Two.

A wonderful book and, unlike the new Li'l Abner book, only two strips to a page and easy to read. The early Phantom is so different from what we know today but is just as interesting. A discovery!

The phantom, volume 1 is available again through Hermes Press. I assume this is a second printing (the cover art is different) but it is hard to find. What seems unusual is to see the publisher selling this at a $100.00 premium price. Any comments?

So many comic strips take a while to find themselves, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Phantom pretty much hit the ground running from its earliest days, almost identical to the strip it is today. Some of the dialogue isn't as polished as it would later become (although Lee Falk's dialogue always strikes me as idiosyncratically distinct), and Ray Moore's art eventually loses much of its unnecessary over-rendered detail in favor of clear, economical storytelling. And some of the details take some time to settle down (is the Phantom the defender of the jungles of Asia or Africa in these early stories?). But it feels like Falk's enduring story of the jungle avenger emerges almost fully-formed from the start.

How surprising, then, to discover in Ron Goulart's illuminating introduction, that the character was originally conceived as an urban avenger, the alter ego of a bored playboy, like so many pulp heroes before him, and so many costumed heroes after! Fortunately, Falk quickly became seduced by his own idea of a generational hero, the mantle of the Phantom passed from father to son, appearing to be an undying hero, fighting piracy for hundreds of years. The strip quickly adopts that idea and runs with it, and it feels like that was the plan all along.

Like most period entertainment, the strips in this book contain unfortunate racial stereotypes of their time. It's sad that such depictions ever existed, but it's also important that we don't just ignore, forget, or dismiss them. We need to be reminded to struggle to be better and more enlightened, because while things may be better, we can always try harder.

The Phantom may be one of the first costumed heroes, although he doesn't have the PR machine that later characters like Superman and Batman have. His comic strip still survives, but it's hardly the hit it once was. Reading these early strips, it's clear why the strip was such a success worldwide, and why it still endures today. The worlds of Falk and Moore in these pages hold their own with other adventure strips of their day, telling some gripping adventures mixed with humor and romance. I look forward to continuing to read these reprints.