The Phantom:
A Publishing History in Australia

The Australian Woman's Mirror, a magazine published by Bulletin Productions on Tuesday of each week, was the first Australian publication to feature The Phantom strips. The magazine was first published in 1924 and ceased in 1961. The Phantom made his first appearance in the 1 Sep 1936 issue, running a full page and commencing each page with a story synopsis stripped across the top. Each daily strip was fitted neatly on a single line, but was slightly reduced relative to the typical size in today's Frew Phantom comics (with 12 panels per page). Of course they began with the only Phantom story in existence at the time, The Singh Brotherhood -- in fact it was still running in American newspapers and would not finish for another two months. The editors went out on a limb by changing the opening scenes from New York to Sydney and turned American-born Diana Palmer into an Australian girl. To strengthen the Australian flavour, several later references were made by re-lettering the text to include Port Darwin. Added to that, much of the dialogue was changed from American jargon to Aussie slang.

The Woman's Mirror continued to publish a weekly page of The Phantom with five daily strips on a single page in each issue of the magazine. At the completion of The Singh Brotherhood, the Woman's Mirror continued with the daily strips running in sequence roughly 12 months behind the original US newspaper appearance date. Occasionally, they skipped an entire story and so Little Tommy (D4), The Shark's Nest (D7) and Bent Beak Broder (D17) were never published in the regular magazine.

Beginning on 7 Aug 1946, publication of the Woman's Mirror moved to the Wednesday of each week. They also shifted away from regular appearances of the daily strip in sequence, instead publishing a mixture of Sunday and daily strips of different vintages. During an 18 month period, they printed:

• the Sundays from 7 years earlier, The League of Lost Men (S1) and The Precious Cargo of Colonel Winn (S2),
• swapped back to recent dailies The Mermaids of Melo Straits (D26) and Princess Valerie (D27) but skipped Lago the Lake God (D24) and The Wild Girl (D25),
• returned to the Sundays from 7 years earlier with The Fire Goddess (S3),
• then printed the recent Sundays Queen Pera the Perfect (S14) and King of Beasts (S15) but in the opposite order,
• returned to the Sundays from 7 years earlier for the last time with The Saboteurs (S5)
• before finally settling on publishing the recent Sundays starting on 7 Apr 1948 with The Scarlet Sorceress (S16).

Thereafter, the Woman's Mirror continued to publish the recent Sundays in sequential order, about 16 months behind the original US newspaper appearance date. Five months later on 5 Sep 1948, the fledgling company Frew Publications launched their first comic book entitled The Phantom. The Woman's Mirror ran cross promotion for Frew's Phantom comics, as shown in the example below from the 1 Nov 1950 issue.

The Phantom's run in The Australian Woman's Mirror came to an end on 28 Jun 1961 when the magazine ceased publication. It was almost immediately taken up in Everybody's weekly magazine before Sunday newspapers began to carry The Phantom in the early 1970s.

A complete list of the Phantom stories published in The Australian Woman's Mirror is shown below. This includes the publication date for the start of each story in the magazine, the story title and code (as per the daily and Sunday story lists), the original US newspaper starting date for each story, and the number of days of "lag" (ie. Mirror date minus newspaper date)

Publication Start Date	Story Title	Code	Original Start Date	Days Lag
1 Sep 1936	The Singh Brotherhood	D1	17 Feb 1936	197
21 Sep 1937	The Sky Band	D2	9 Nov 1936	316
3 May 1938	The Diamond Hunters	D3	12 Apr 1937	386
22 Nov 1938	The Prisoner of the Himalayas	D5	7 Feb 1938	288
28 Mar 1939	Adventure in Algiers	D6	20 Jun 1938	281
9 May 1939 *	Fishers of Pearls	D8	7 Nov 1938	183
15 Aug 1939	The Slave Traders	D9	30 Jan 1939	197
5 Dec 1939	The Mysterious Girl	D10	8 May 1939	211
2 Apr 1940	The Golden Circle	D11	4 Sep 1939	211
24 Sep 1940	The Seahorse	D12	22 Jan 1940	246
17 Jun 1941	The Game of Alvar	D13	29 Jul 1940	323
2 Dec 1941	Diana Aviatrix Lost	D14	16 Dec 1940	351
21 Jul 1942	The Phantom's Treasure	D15	14 Jul 1941	372
20 Apr 1943	The Phantom Goes to War	D16	2 Feb 1942	442
23 May 1944	The Phantom's Engagement	D18	24 May 1943	365
8 Aug 1944	High Seas Hijacker	D19	26 Jul 1943	379
27 Mar 1945	The Spy Gang	D20	28 Feb 1944	393
10 Jul 1945	The Crooner	D21	22 May 1944	414
30 Oct 1945	The Maharajah's Daughter	D22	28 Aug 1944	428
4 Jun 1946	The Blue Gang	D23	26 Mar 1945	435
7 Aug 1946	The League of Lost Men	S1	28 May 1939	2628
25 Sep 1946	The Precious Cargo of Colonel Winn	S2	22 Oct 1939	2530
13 Nov 1946	The Mermaids of Melo Straits	D26	12 Nov 1945	366
12 Feb 1947	Princess Valerie	D27	18 Feb 1946	366
25 Jun 1947	The Fire Goddess	S3	17 Mar 1940	2656
17 Sep 1947	King of Beasts	S15	24 Mar 1946	542
17 Dec 1947	Queen Pera the Perfect	S14	9 Dec 1945	738
25 Feb 1948	The Saboteurs	S5	5 Jan 1941	2607
7 Apr 1948	The Scarlet Sorceress	S16	11 Aug 1946	605
7 Jul 1948	The 12 Tasks	S17	29 Dec 1946	556
3 Nov 1948	The Dragon God	S18	6 Jul 1947	486
23 Mar 1949	The Marshall Sisters	S19	23 Nov 1947	486
21 Sep 1949	The Phantom Trophy	S20	23 May 1948	486
11 Jan 1950	The Haunted Castle	S21	12 Sep 1948	486
21 Jun 1950	Fathers and Sons	S22	20 Feb 1949	486
30 Aug 1950	The Flirtatious Princess	S23	1 May 1949	486
27 Dec 1950	The Thuggees	S24	28 Aug 1949	486
20 Jun 1951	The Ape Idol of the Durugu	S25	26 Feb 1950	479
5 Sep 1951	The Mysterious Passenger	S26	14 May 1950	479
14 Nov 1951	Jungle King	S27	23 Jul 1950	479
13 Feb 1952	The Phantom's Ring	S28	29 Oct 1950	472
24 Sep 1952	The Rope People	S29	17 Jun 1951	465
18 Feb 1953	Tale of Devil	S30	11 Nov 1951	465
8 Jul 1953	The 'Copter Pirates	S31	30 Mar 1952	465
4 Nov 1953	The Female Phantom	S32	20 Jul 1952	472
27 Jan 1954	Diana and the Bank Robbers	S33	19 Oct 1952	465
19 May 1954	The Chain	S34	8 Feb 1953	465
8 Sep 1954	Madcap Miriam	S35	31 May 1953	465
26 Jan 1955	The Imaginary Playmate	S36	25 Oct 1953	458
11 May 1955	The Belt	S37	7 Feb 1954	458
14 Sep 1955	The Master Spy	S38	13 Jun 1954	458
18 Jan 1956	Alexander's Cup	S39	17 Oct 1954	458
6 Jun 1956	The Gibs Brothers	S40	6 Mar 1955	458
11 Jul 1956	The Crescent Cult	S41	10 Apr 1955	458
14 Nov 1956	The Horned Star Demons	S42	14 Aug 1955	458
13 Feb 1957	A Proper Husband	S43	13 Nov 1955	458
22 May 1957	The Jungle Tourneys	S44	19 Feb 1956	458
28 Aug 1957	Pirate Day	S45	27 May 1956	458
27 Nov 1957	The Rattle	S46	26 Aug 1956	458
23 Apr 1958	Danglor, International Bank Thief	S47	20 Jan 1957	458
13 Aug 1958	A Lesson for Prince Orq	S48	14 Apr 1957	486
24 Dec 1958	The Frameup	S49	25 Aug 1957	486
29 Apr 1959	The Monster of Green Valley	S50	29 Dec 1957	486
9 Dec 1959	The Plant God of the Massau	S51	3 Aug 1958	493
27 Apr 1960	Conley's Good Mark	S52	28 Dec 1958	486
19 Oct 1960	The Childhood of the Phantom	S53	21 Jun 1959	486
10 May 1961	The River Gang	S54	10 Jan 1960	486

* = date may not be correct

Thanks to Barry Stubbersfield for his list of stories in The Australian Woman's Mirror

© 2006 KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, INC. THE HEARST CORPORATION

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