- Announcing The Phantom Poll 2001. Here is your chance to enter three competitions and be in the running to win three great prizes. Simply select your favourite Frew Phantom comic story, Frew Phantom cover, and Egmont Fantomen cover. Entries close 31 January 2002. Click here to enter.
- The five lucky winners in The Panther competition are BJ, Sean Stiff, R Dhayalan, Phillip Luppino and Dave Hook. Congratulations! They will each receive a free issue of The Panther. Thanks to everyone who entered. Better luck in the The Phantom Poll 2001.
12 December 2001
- Phantom Phans may have noticed a new Australian comic book on the newsstands in recent months. The Panther, first published by Charles Young between 1957 and 1963, has now been relaunched bimonthly by publisher Kevin Patrick. Drawing on themes from The Phantom and Tarzan, The Panther is sure to be enjoyed by Phantom Phans.
How would you like to WIN a free issue of The Panther to keep you entertained over the Christmas holidays? Simply email your answer to the following question: "Who created The Panther?" (Hint - check The Panther Comic Website). The first five correct entries win a copy of issue #2. Entries close 5pm on 19 December (Australian Eastern Daylight-savings Time).
13 November 2001
- The launch of Moonstone's first Phantom book Ghost Killer is getting closer ... February 2002. Check out Khepri.com for a sneak preview of the cover art and three pages of the story. You can also pre-order the books from this site, and benefit from a 30% discount!
6 November 2001
- For those who would like to collect the new English-language Phantom comics from Indian Express Egmont Publications, I am delighted to inform that The Phantom's Vault now have the first 11 issues in stock, plus the promotional Phantom Adventure Kit. The regular issues cost Aus$3.30 each and the Phantom Adventure Kit is $11, both prices inclusive of GST. Contact Rene White to place your orders.
- Mikko Merilainen, a Finnish student studing in Norway, recently informed me about his new site, called Phantom Photos. It's not a large site but showcases a creative set of thirteen photos of The Phantom in Oslo, Norway.
8 October 2001
- Sy Barry is recovering from heart bypass surgery. We wish him a speedy and full recovery. Thanks to Ed Rhoades for this news.
- Another Yahoo! Club has started up that may be of interest to Phantom Phans ... it's called The Skull Cave.
25 September 2001
- The artwork for Moonstone's first Phantom book Ghost Killer has been completed by Fernando Blanco (pencils and inks). This was actually the last story of three to get started, but it's the first finished. This first book is expected to be released in February 2002. Other less promising news from Moonstone is that Clarke Hawbaker is off the project due to other commitments. The story he was working on (The Singh Web by Ben Raab) will now be pencilled and inked by Fernando Blanco. Moonstone editor Joe Gentile has approached several other writers and artists interested in working on his Phantom project, including Tom DeFalco (ex-Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics), Gordon Purcell, Lou Manna, and Gabriel Rearte.
- Australian Phantom Phan Paul Bartlett has launched another on-line Phantom community at Yahoo! Groups, a free, easy-to-use email group service. Yahoo! Groups provide one email address & website that allows you to share photos & files, plan events, send a newsletter, stay in touch with friends, and discuss events. To learn more, please visit the Phantom_Ghost_Who_Walks Group. Meanwhile, don't forget the other Phantom on-line options of alt.comics.the-phantom (Usenet newsgroup), Monkey Mail, Phantom Phan's Page at Yahoo Clubs, and Phantom Forum.
17 September 2001
- Sy and Simmy Barry are midway through their visit to Scandinavia, accompanied by a trail of delighted Phantom Phans! To mark the occasion, the latest issue (Nr.19/2001) of Egmont's Phantom comic features an original painted cover by Sy Barry, and three of his Phantom stories. Sy has already visited Norway and you can read about this on the websites of Karl-Johan Lien and Ivan Pedersen. On 10 September, Sy attended an internet chat session at the Aftenposten newspaper site where phans were able to quiz him about his long involvement with The Phantom. An edited transcript of the session is available here. Over the weekend, Sy attended a Swedish Comic Fair at Gothenburg and then last night, he was the guest speaker at a dinner for the Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club. It looks like Sy and Simmy are being shown a good time by his grateful phans!
23 August 2001
- Another new Brazilian Fantasma comic book has appeared publisher Opera Graphica Editora. This one is called Fantasma Pocket and as the name implies, it is 115mm x 175mm which is a bit smaller than the other two recent issues (see 7 June 2001 entry below). The first issue costs Rs.3.50 (Aus$2.90), runs for 84 black and white pages, and contains the 1995 daily story The Beasts of Phantom Head Peak (D184). The cover artwork is by Brazilian artist Mozart Couto.
But the good news doesn't end there! The same publisher also plans to launch another new comic on 1 September 2001. The comic book will be called Fantasma Gold, and is being launched at a special display of the 65th Anniversary of The Phantom - an event organized by a comic shop in São Paulo. The first issue of Fantasma Gold will reprint Sy Barry's first daily strip story from 1961 The Slave Market of Mucar (D82).
For more information on these and other Brazilian Phantom comics, please visit The Fantasma Fan Club. My thanks to Dédy Edson for providing the news and cover scans. - The latest issue of the Friends of The Phantom Newsletter (#22 - Summer 2001) was sent to subscribers in the last week. This edition previews the new US Phantom comic from Moonstone Books, including excellent interviews with writers Ben Raab and Ron Goulart, plus cover artist Joel Naprstek. Other feature articles include: an interview with Dan Davis, artist for the animated-style comic story that appeared in Fantomen Nr. 17/2001; an interview with Mark Verheiden, writer of the 13 issue DC Phantom comics; and an insight into the life of Wilson McCoy through family and friends. All this and more, wrapped with a great colour cover by Fred Fredericks. Highly recommended! Contact Ed Rhoades for subscription enquiries.
- The current Sunday strip story will conclude on 7 October 2001. The next story is called The War Mongers by Claes Reimerthi and Graham Nolan. The first page of the new story is definitely something to look out for!
4 August 2001
- Issue Nr.15/2001 of Fantomet contains the results of the annual reader poll to select the best cover of 2000. The poll results for the top 5 covers are summarised below. The clear winner was Cesar Spadari's cover for Nr.11/2000 (see right), and a fold-out poster of his design was included in this issue. This was Spadari's only cover for the year, proving that he is arguably the most popular Egmont artist amongst Norwegian readers (recently his four stories in 2000 were voted 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 10th). Several cover artists did not make it into the top 10: Joan & Ivan Boix, Germano Ferri, and Alexander Klingspor. A total of 315 votes were received this year, which is the highest response in the last six years.
| Nr. | Artist | Votes |
| 11 | César Spadari |  66 |
| 4 | Rolf Gohs | 38 |
| 15 | Hans Lindahl | 24 |
| 12 | Rudy Walk & Peter Friman | 20 |
| 7 | Rolf Gohs | 17 |
26 July 2001
- The current daily strip story finished on 21 July. The new story is written by Tony De Paul and the official title is The Ghost Pirates.
- My apologies for the long delay in updating the New@Egmont page. Apparently there has been a problem getting Fantomet Nr.13/2001 from the printer in Finland. I have recently received Nr.14/2001 but still waiting for the previous issue! This weekend, I'll update the page with Nr.14/2001, and post Nr.13/2001 sometime later ... when it eventually arrives.
5 July 2001
- The cover artwork for Moonstone's first Phantom book The Singh Web has just been finished by Joel Naprstek. Click HERE for a sneak preview. My thanks to Moonstone editor Joe Gentile for providing the scan.
- Many people have been asking about Phantom Themes for Windows and today I found a site that has one. Check out this site for your theme hit.
3 July 2001
- In response to the news that free ListBot services that host the Mr Walker mailing list are being closed down by Microsoft, Greg Raftery has established a new mailing list to cater for the discussion needs of the Phantom community.
To subscribe to the new list, go to http://www.skullcave.net and follow the link from the homepage. The mailing list also acts as a gateway to the Usenet newsgroup alt.comics.the-phantom, which was created a year ago by Oyvind Bjugan. This will hopefully result in a larger number of Phantom related conversations.
28 June 2001
- A Danish version of The Phantom movie (Paramount 1996) has been recently released. With Region 2 coding, the DVD comes with subtitles in English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish and Turkish. In case you were wondering, the Danish title is Fantomet - lammet æver ondskaben (The Phantom - Slam Evil). Thanks to Simon Treschow for this news.
- Moonstone are still forging ahead with preparation of their first Phantom comics for release in the USA. The production team has changed quite a bit in recent times, but the first three books are well underway. Book #1 has been written by Ben Raab, is being pencilled by S. Clarke Hawbaker, and will be inked by Mike Weatherbee. Book #2 has been written by Ron Goulart is being pencilled by Mike Collins, and is to be inked by either Art Nichols or Keith Williams. Book #3 has been written by Ben Raab and is being pencilled and inked by Fernando Blanco. Joel Naprstek is the only survivor from the original creative team (apart from editor Joe Gentile), and his first cover is nearly complete. Moonstone's first (non-Phantom) books will be out in October, and The Phantom will follow sometime after that.
15 June 2001
- The upcoming issue Nr.19 / 2001 of Egmont's Phantom comic (Fantomen, Fantomet and Mustanaamio) will be a Sy Barry special issue, no Scandinavian story. This issue will also feature a painted cover by Sy Barry ... the first of it's kind anywhere in the world. Due to go on sale 6 September in Sweden and Finland, and 11 September in Norway. Thanks to Kjell Steen for this news.
- After many production problems, the second Phantom phone card is now available from The Phantom's Vault. Each individually numbered and signed card is priced at Aus$22 (inc. GST) and is limited to only 2000.
7 June 2001
- The new Brazilian Fantasma comic book has hit the newsstands. It has arrived a couple weeks later than planned, but this is more than compensated by the news that there are actually TWO editions ... Fantasma Colecão and Crônicas de Fantasma:
15 May 2001
- Kevin Patrick, a Melbourne based freelance writer/editor and die-hard Phantom fan, recently interviewed Jim Shepherd, publisher of Frew's The Phantom comic book. This interview is now available for your reading pleasure at OzComics.com, a great new Australian website devoted to Australian and international comic books, writers and artists.
- In the discussion board for this interview, Australian comic book artist Gary Chaloner discussed his contribution to the Rumble in the Jungle project that was subsequently handed to Keith Chatto. Some of this art was printed a few years back with another interview with Jim in David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview magazine. Scans of the splash page artwork are available in low or high resolution.
10 May 2001
- A rare crossover has occurred this week in the Mandrake the Magician dailies. Mandrake and Narda have paid a visit to The Phantom at the Skull Cave. Stay tuned for a team-up between the famous crime-fighters.
- A new Phantom site from Jon Ove Storhaug in Norway.
7 May 2001
- On May 15, Comix Editora will launch a new Fantasma (Phantom) comic in Brazil, in book format with 100 pages. Issue #1 will reprint the Falk-Barry Sunday stories The Veiled Lady and The Golden Beach of Keela-Wee. For more information, please visit The Fantasma Fan Club. My thanks to Dédy Edson for providing this cover scan.
- Thanks to the persistence of new artist Graham Nolan, the King Features website has finally started providing scans of The Phantom Sundays. The same strips are also available up to a week in advance via a backdoor entrance to King On-Line.
- Starting with #1290, Frew Publications have increased the price of their standard 36-page Phantom comic from Aus$1.92 to Aus$2.20 (inc. GST). There will be no price increase for the larger Frew issues. The price increase has been attributed to rising cost of newsprint and other production costs. Frew's Phantom comic is now almost 50% more expensive than it was about two years ago (one of these price rises can be blamed on the GST). However, it still represents excellent value for money and is easily the cheapest comic on the Australian market.
28 April 2001
- Here are a couple things that might be of interest. Firstly, an interview with Charlton Phantom artist Jim Aparo. There's not much there about his involvement in The Phantom, but it's still worth a read. And secondly, a proposal sketch by Marvel comics veteran Jack Kirby for an animated Phantom series. My thanks to Jonas Vesterlund for notifying me of these links.
12 April 2001
- A new Phantom website from yet another veteran Aussie phan, Warren Shardlow. Regular readers of Frew's Phantom comic may recognise this name from Forum letters!
- Keep your eyes on the Mandrake the Magician daily strip in coming weeks. The new story The Missing Aviatrix sees Mandrake journey to territory very familiar to Phantom Phans.
- If you ever want to see the Phantom figure be produced by Flatt World, it is strongly recommended that you answer a brief questionnaire on their site.
- American publisher Wildstorm has redone their site and among other things it includes a profile with Phantom writer Ben Raab. Thanks to James Moore for this news.
- There have been some major changes to the line-up for the new American Phantom comics in production at Moonstone. The contributors are now as follows: Ron Goulart (writer), Ben Raab (writer), Ron Lim (penciller), Michael Collins (penciller), Keith Williams (inker), and Joel Naprstek (cover artist).
31 March 2001
- 99.94 Editions have commenced delivery of the inaugral set of Phantom Masterworks Prints. Check here for previews and details of how to place your order. Don't miss out!
- VCI Home Video have recently released the much anticipated DVD version of the 15 chapter Phantom Serial from 1943. The picture is crisp and clear and the sound is good considering how old it is. The damaged chapter 11 has been digitally restored using a cast of actors to recreate some of the voices based on the original studio cutting continuity. Special features include interactive menus, dolby digital, chapter stops, biographies, chapter one commentary by Max Allan Collins, and an image library of some American Phantom comics and lobby card photos. An absolute bargain for only US$30. Non-US residents should be aware that the disc is Region 1 encoded so you will need a multi-region DVD player. Orders can be placed directly with VCI Home Video or (like me) from Amazon.
29 March 2001
- My apologies for the absence of updates over the last fortnight. Fiona and I were on holidays in Thailand. Slowly catching up with a huge backlog of emails, so please bear with me.
- San Jose Mercury News has suddenly decided to drop The Phantom, Mandrake and Rex Morgan MD (amongst many others) from their comics website. A travesty! Please take a few minutes to register your word of protest. Hopefully we can convince them to change their plans.
- The current daily newspaper strip story finished on 17 March. The new story Ghost Quest written by Tony De Paul, seems to be picking up where the last one left off. The latest Sunday story finished a couple weeks ago, and the new story The Lion's Head Tamarine is written by Claes Reimerthi.
1 March 2001
- The latest issue of the English fanzine Thriller UK features a superb Phantom cover and an article by Chris Howarth called The Story of the Phantom. ThrillerUK is a small press bi-monthly fan magazine which celebrates the golden age of pulp fiction. The Phantom has never been very popular in England so it is interesting the read the views of a closet Phan. Regular websurfers may recognise the artwork used on this cover -- it was "borrowed" from an original artwork by Romano Felmang for the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club. My thanks to Kjell Steen and Ed Rhoades for this piece of news.
23 February 2001
- Egmont Norway have recently published a new Fantomet Special book (#9 in the series). This one features an excellent black and white reprint of the classic 1942/43 daily story The Phantom Goes To War. Click HERE for a preview.
13 January 2001
- Dèdy Edson has recently launched a wonderful new Brazilian Phantom website called Fantasma Fanclube. Check it out!
