The Phantom: The Gold Key Years Volume 1

(I)Gold Key Series? 'For Those Who came in Late',... The Phantom originated as Newspaper strips and typical of comic strips, they were published in black and white Dailies, and color Sundays. There were several attempts at bringing out comic book version of these strips. Most of them were reprints. with exception of some adaptations. In 1962,KK publications decided to bring out comic book versions of this famous strip. It began under the label Gold Key. The stories in these series were neither new stories, nor reprints of the already published strips. But were completely re-scripted and re-drawn versions of selected Dailies and Sundays. The artwork for these were done more liesurly and hence more detailed and colorful. But one cannot really judge whether they are actually better than the original. There certainly is a charm to the originals as they appeared in the strips day after day. Bill Lignante did the art work inside and George Wilson painted the covers for this series. One can tell that they were talented artists. So, what we have in this book, are collections of the very early exclusively 'comic book' format of The Phantom. (II) Book quality This collection is a nice hardbound edition, with dust jacket.The stories are printed on nice thick high quality paper. The print quality itself is not extraordinary, but pretty good. the glossy paper coming in the way of enjoying the fine art work. But probably the original books were the only sources, and so this can be summed up as a good quality photocopy at the best. Still 5 stars? absolutely. I think this book has more value than just the production quality. (III) What does it contain This particular collection contains the books #1 through #8 from the Gold Key series. These are replicas of the orginal books, including the colorful covers of each of the book. The stories in these books are adaptations from the Dailies and Sundays from the late fifties and were originally drawn by the talented Wilson McCoy. #1 Nov 1962 The Game (Original details: Daily #52: Ragon's Game) #2 Feb 1963 The Rattle (Sunday #46: The Rattle) The Test (Sunday #42: The Horned Star Demons) #3 May 1963 The Diamond Cup (Sunday #39: Alexander's Cup) The Crybaby (Daily #71: The Crybaby) #4 Aug 1963 Ooogooru (Daily #75: Oogooru and the Witchmen) The Goggle-Eye Pirates (Sunday #56 : The Goggle-Eye Pirates) #5 Nov 1963 The Swamp Rats (Daily #74: The Swamp Rats) The Phantom's Boyhood (Sunday #53: The Childhood of the Phantom) #6 Feb 1964 The Lady From Nowhere (Daily #49, The Lady From Nowhere) The Phantom's Boyhood: Diana (Sunday #53: The Childhood of the Phantom) #7 May 1964 The Super Apes ( Daily #51, The Super Apes) The Phantom's Boyhood: School (Sunday #53: The Childhood of the Phantom) #8 Aug 1964 The Belt (Sunday #37, The Belt) This is certainly a collectors item for Phantom fans, since this series collects the beginnings of interesting adaptation in the comic book format.

The Phantom! These are the Gold Key reprints of the Lee Falk's jungle hero. Very nicely reprinted and a joy to read. Brings back memories of my comic book hero stage....(not that it has ever left). If you love the character of the Phantom you will enjoy these tales: however if you are a younger generation comicbook fan you will find these tales dry and stale, but even you will appreciate the great art work and fine 60's story telling. This volume includes the origin of the "Ghost Who Walks."

This long-overdue collection of Gold Key Phantom comic books from the '60s is outstanding. The look and feel of the book is top-notch - sewn pages, glossy bright reproductions of the comics, and the cover (on the book and the dustjacket) is the great first-issue painting by George Wilson. The painted covers were a big draw for Gold Key comics, and all of the Wilson painted covers are included, and are reproduced full-sized. A tiny bit of fine detail is lost in the story drawings, but is more than made up for with clear vibrant colors and premium production values. I will definitely get the next volume. Well done (again) Hermes Press.

This book is just fantastic collection of first 8 stories of Gold Key series It has enlarged cover with enhanced colors!!!!!!!! SWEET!!! The interior art is excellent. The pages have not only been recreated with rich glossy colors but also enlarged. This book is slightly more in both width and thickness compared to any regular hardcovers that come out these days. However the length is a bit shorter than regular HCs. It is also bit heavier. Unlike the other hardcovers, the art is there both on the dust jacket as well as the hard cover. So in case you loose the dust jacket, the book still has the exact same art printed on the hard sides! It comes with an introduction to the legend, The Phantom in the beginning and an illustration of a couple of important art pieces. It has a sample old page - how it looked before and how it has been now enlarged - so that you get an idea on how this has been actually recreated. Each story has the same art as Gold Key and starts with respective issue cover. Art is also exactly same as original gold key books but as I said is enhanced. This is an excellent collectible book. Although the cover price seems on the higher side, $49.99 but you can get it cheap here in Amazon or elsewhere if you can grab it on deals/ offers. Hope this is helpful for those thinking of buying this book. If you are a Phantom fan this would be a nice addition to your nostalgic collection. Going with 4.5 out of 5. The 0.5 is due to the high cost - but that can definitely be overcome ;)

When it comes to pop culture, each generation has it's own favorites. This is one item that spans generations of lovers. My father used to read Phantom comic books when he was a teen and I was lucky enough to start early on my own. In fact, it wasn't till later that I found out my dad also liked reading Phantom. These reprints are a far superior to the cheap Indrajal comic publications which I read when growing up. The stories and adventures of The Ghost who Walks still inspire my imagination as they did all those years ago when I was a kid. Now that I finished the Gold Key years, I am getting the next installment in the series.

I grew up with The Phantom in the Sunday Comic Section of my father's newspaper in the 1950s. Nice to see this reissue (Hermes Press) of the early Phantom Sunday Comic Strips.

Alles gut, alles, wie es sein soll. Gerne wieder.

As edições do Fantasma dos anos 1960 Editora Gold Key são indespensáveis aos colecionadores deste personagem maravilhoso. Ricardo Pereira Cabral de Melo

A1

Es una buena recopilación de este grande del cómic que no es muy conocido por el público en genera, una rareza.

Big fan - read countless Phantom comics growing up. Was excited to see this modern compilation. Sure the stories are the same, but the artwork is nothing like the original. The lettering and coloring are completely off. It’s like someone jacked up the contrast to 200%. For the price, it’s simply not worth it. Not returning for nostalgic reasons, but it’s caused me serious emotional stress to see my childhood hero in such bad print.