L.Miller & Son Ltd. London
King Comic (1954)
#4
The first comic book from England that included The Phantom was King Comic (changed to King Comics from #9), published by L.Miller & Son Ltd. London in 1954. The comics reprinted a wide range of syndicated Sunday strips from King Features. The series was only short-lived with a total of 14 editions published every Wednesday from 5 May to 4 August 1954 (from #8 the date on the cover was for the Saturday of the "week ending"). Each issue contained one Sunday strip of the following titles: Popeye, Flash Gordon, Beetle Bailey, Mandrake, Polly and Pals, Jungle Jim, Hubert, The Phantom, Etta Kett, Prince Valiant, Buz Sawyer, Brick Bradford, Henry, Johnny Hazard, Tillie the Toiler, Tim Tyler's Luck, Mister Breger, Dick's Adventures, Teena, Grandma, Snuffy Smith, Room and Board, Pete the Tramp, Katzenjammer Kids, Home with Myrtle, and Rusty Riley. Cover price was 6d and they had 26 pages each plus the wrap-around glossy cover. The Phantom pages printed were from the story The Chain (S34), commencing on the fourth week of the story (1 March 1953). The story ended in issue #13 and the final issue of the series had the first week of Madcap Miriam (31 May 1953).L.Miller & Son also produced a series of comics called Four Aces in 1954, which contained daily strip comics instead of the Sundays in King Comic. Cover price was 6d and they had 26 pages each plus the wrap-around glossy cover. The Phantom story Little Toma was serialised across several issues.
(My thanks to Les Gray for providing this information)
 #1 |  #2 |  #3 |  #4 |  #5 |  #6 |
 #7 |  #8 |  #9 |  #10 |  #11 |  #12 |
 #13 |  #14 |  #15 |  #16 |  #17 |  #18 |
In 1959, L.Miller & Son Ltd. London launched the first Phantom comic to be published in England. Each black and white monthly publication ran for 68 pages (#16 to #18 were 52 pages), and sold for one shilling. The title of the comic was altered several times; other names used on the cover were The Phantom Adventures and The Phantom. From issue #4, the publisher name changed to "L.Miller & Co. (Hackney) Ltd. London". A publication year did not appear anywhere in the first six issues, but for issue #8 the copyright information was transfered from the outside back cover to the inside front cover. A publication year 1960 was shown for issues #8 to #14. It appears that publication may have ceased during 1961 because #16 was published in 1962, with a reduction in the page count. The series finished soon after with a total of only 18 issues.A comment regarding the construction of these comics is worthwhile. The first ten or so issues had square glued spines (no staples), with the covers and inside pages printed by Manton Press in London and Monument Press in the Republic of Ireland, respectively. By issue #14, the publisher changed printers, and the entire book was printed by S.R.Verstage & Sons Ltd., Basingstoke, using inferior quality paper for the covers. The book construction was also altered (for the worse), whereby the inside pages were stapled through the front and the covers were glued over them with a square spine.
The comics reprinted edited versions of the original newspaper strip stories, and a complete index is provided below. All but four of the daily stories from 1953 to 1962 were printed, in addition to several daily stories from the 1945-50 period, and one Sunday story from 1957/58.
Many of the covers of these comics were credited to someone called "Wilding". Thanks to Jon Cookson, "chezdenis", Ed Rhoades, and Les Gray for providing cover scans.
Issue Miller's Story Title Code 1 The Jewels of Corba
The White PrincessD68
D662 The Scorpia
The Good Mark
Sleepy Valley (Part 1)D69
D70
D673 Princess Valerie
Sleepy Valley (Part 2)
Wild Girl (Part 1)D27
D67
D254 The Mermaids of Melo Straits
Wild Girl (Part 2)
The Sleeping GiantD26
D25
D625 The Cry Baby
The Claim Jumpers
The Prodigal SonD71
D61
D656 Man of Many Faces
The Lonely Giant
The ChampD63
S50
D647 Astra - Barbaric Queen
The Devil Road (Part 1)D28
D318 The Devil Road (Part 2)
Mister HogD31
D299 Romance On the High Seas D30 10 Dr. Axel and the Witchmen
The Living Ape Idol
The Crooked TourneyD58
D37
D5411 The Hunter
The MobD52
D5312 Nicer Without a Country
The Fat Prince
The ChroniclesD55
D56
D5713 Underwater Diamond Thieves
The Monkey Mailman
The Jungle OlympicsD72
D77
D7814 The Swamp Rats
The Match-MakerD74
D5015 The Fiftieth Wife
The Iron Dragon
The Reporter Who Knew Too MuchD79
D80
D7616 The Werewolf
Phantom Versus OogooruD81
D7517 The Phantom Slave City D82 18 Trial By Fire D83
© 2004 KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, INC. THE HEARST CORPORATION
