The Phantom:
A Publishing History in the U.S.A.

The Phantom has never been terribly successful in comic book form in the USA, despite the efforts of several different publishers using a myriad of alternative presentation styles. Although the dailies and Sundays were reprinted in serialised form in the Ace, King, Future, and Feature comics, it was not until the 1950s that complete Phantom stories were contained in individual issues (Harvey Comics). The first American comic dedicated completely to The Phantom was the Gold Key series, but by this stage reprints of newspaper strips were unfashionable, and stories were created especially for the comic book medium. This trend has continued to the present day with little commercial success. It leaves one to ponder whether a comic book in the style of Australia's Frew Publications (ie. reprinted newspaper strip stories), would have received a more dedicated following in the USA.

A detailed catalogue of all the American Phantom publications is provided in the following pages. You will find thumbnail images of numerous Phantom comic covers and larger images are available by clicking on them. Some descriptive and historical information is also provided in most cases.

Index

© 2006 KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, INC. THE HEARST CORPORATION

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