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Frequently Asked Phantom Questions
Recent Phantom Happenings
This is the place where we answer some of the common Phantom related questions we get asked all the time. If you have any questions, we have not answered yet, please contact us at chroniclechamber@gmail.com.
An item is only worth as much as what someone is willing to pay for it.
The best place to sell your collection, or your relatives you have been left with is on the Trader Joes Facebook page.
Post photos of the item with a description and ideally with a price your looking for. Be weary that once you post on the Facebook page, the seagulls will be ready to swoop.
The other option is if you want an impartial valuation, please email us. We can help give you an idea on prices.
It all depends on condition.
A good website to give you an idea on what your Frews are worth is ComicsPriceGuide.com (Frew list here). If you have any Frew comics under #50 or #100 we would suggest an independant value on them.
A mint Frew can easily top $30,000 but a replica issue will only reach $50 tops.
If you would like to contact us about getting a value or finding an independant value on them, please email us.
You can buy direct from Frew Publications via their website here or you can buy via Harley Slavik which is a comic book distribution company based in the USA. You can order and visit their website or their Facebook account.
You can buy Frew comics through Rregal Publishers which is an Indian publisher publishing their own comics. Go to their website to buy them in Indian Rupees.
If you live in Sweden you can get these comics in most shops were magazines are sold. If you live outside Sweden, you can get an international subscription service which includes postal service to Australia, USA and India.
Click here to go to the Dintidning website and you subscribe to either 6 issues or 13 and 26. They produce 26 issues a year.
With Fantomen and Frew producing over 4,000 comics together and with close to 2,000 different stories published it can be a daunting task.
Over on this page, the team of Chronicle Chamber (Jermayn Parker, Mikael Lyck, Dan Fraser & Stephen East) have collected a strong 100+ stories which we believe are a must read. Go visit here for the full list and what comics they have been published in.
If you think we are missing any stories, let us know - this list aim is to be updated regularly.
We also recommend the Phantomwiki as they have short summeries on majority of the stories.
There is no "official lore" by King Features and or Hearst the managing companies that own the rights to the Phantom.
However, majority of Phans have an unofficial cannon which is the stories created by co-creator Lee Falk between 1936 and his death in 1999.
The other stories created by Team Fantomen, Frew, RGE, Moonstone and the newspaper stories created post Lee Falk's generally do not contradict the unofficial cannon too much.
The debate sits were phans see these collection of stories and whether they sit within or alongside the lore.
The Phantom's official costume is a purple body suit, cowl; blue trunks with diagonal stripes, a black leather gun belt with a death's head skull on front, black domino mark and riding boots.
Throughout the publishing history of the Phantom, various comic book publishers have changed the colour of his uniform. For example, the colour is red in France, Italy, Spain and Brazil, almost a bluish-silver during the early years in Scandinavia before blue with yellow striped trucks and a yellowish-brown in New Zealand.
The Phantom began life in a black and white daily newspaper strip on 17 February 1936. Various panels had the word grey desribing the Phantoms colour.
Most current Phantom creators sell their original artwork and are open for commissions. Your best bet is to contact them via their social media accounts or websites.
Here is a list of creators:
If you know of any other Phantom artists who are available for commissions, please let us know.
Comic years are different than real life years. The Phantom was in his early 20's in 1936 which would make him around 110 today if based on real life years.
In comic years, The Phantom would be around 43 to 45.
We would assume The Phantom married at 25-ish to Diana Palmer his childhood sweetheart and they had twins Kit and Heloise a year later. The twins are now around 17-18 in todays stories.
Of course, in the comics world, there are always going to be wrinkles for any timeline you set. For example Rex who was found by the 21st Phantom, yet was at least 8 years old when he married to Diana. The debate will continue.
At this stage officially, no! However who knows what is bubblinb in the background.
There was two sequels destined after the 1996 Billy Zane movie which never happened.
In 2008 writer and director Tim Boyle wrote a two part Phantom movie script featuring the 22nd Phantom in Kit and Heloise. This movie was very close to being created.
We recommend watching/listening to two podcasts that touch upon these movies.
Comics Kingdom is the King Features Syndicate website which shows the daily and or Sunday newspaper strip for that day.
The Phantom Trial is a phan created website which shows a month of Sunday strips or a week of daily strips at a time which can be handy to read.
A third option is the digital newspaper Seattle PI (Post Intelligencer) which has a larger free archive unlike other sources.
The main comic publishers of the Phantom which are
Frew Publications from Australia publishing from 1948 to current with over 1800 issues
Fantomen from Egmont publishing from 1950 to current with over 1700 issues.
Hermes Press currently publish reprint stories in hardcover format with the Sunday and Daily newspaper stories from 1936 to present.
Regal Publishers from India are publishing in colour and in english.
Kockás from Hungary.
Comics Revue from USA.
Many newspapers still publish the Phantom. This may not be a complete list, so if you know of any others, please let us know.
Sunday stories:
The Canberra Times, Canberra Australia
The Sunday Times, Perth Australia
The Sunday Mail, Australia
Sudha Weekly, India
The Asian Age, India
Deccan Chronicle, India
Jamaica Star, Jamaica
Sunday Nation, Kenya
El Sol de Tampico, Mexico
The Philippine Star, The Philippines
Daytona Beach News-Journal, USA
Herald Standard, USA
Reading Eagle, USA
Daily stories:
The Advertiser, Australia
The Cairns Post, Australia
The Chronicle, Australia
The Courier-Mail, Australia
The Daily Telegraph, Australia
Herald Sun, Australia
Townsville Bulletin, Australia
Shepparton News, Australia
"La reunión", El PaÃs, Colombia
"La reunión", El Comercio, Ecuador
The New Indian Express (Chennai edition), India
Anandabazar Patrika, India
The Daily Gleaner, Jamaica
"La reunión", El Informador, Mexico
"Återföreningen", Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden
Boston Herald, USA
The Citizens' Voice, USA
Delaware County Daily Times, USA
The Macomb Daily, USA
Houston Chronicle, USA
The News Item, USA
Reading Eagle, USA
Royal Oak Tribune, USA
Frew replica issue one and two are the hardest to identify. Replica issue three has a small R in the cufflink of Mister Hog. From replica issue four onwards the words "Replica Issue" generally next to the M on the Phantom title logo.
The following has been sourced from Deepwoods.org. If you want more information, we recommend looking there.
Replica Issue One
The most obvious difference between the original and replica is the colour of the Phantom's costume; it is very light purple in the original and a dark purple in the replica.
The most reliable method is to turn the front cover and look at the inside title page. The original had a line of text at the bottom of the page which says "Printed by ROTARY COLORPRINT CO. PTY. LTD., 15 Hamilton St., Sydney, for the publishers, FREW PUBLICATIONS, 39 Martin Place, Sydney". This line is not present on the replica edition.
Replica Issue Two
The most immediately obvious difference between the original and replica is the colour of the Phantom's costume; it is very light purple in the original and a dark purple in the replica.
The most certain method of identification owes to the fact that the cover image for the replica was enlarged by 3.8%. Therefore, a careful measurement of the height of the red region on the letter "P" of the title "Phantom" from the lowest point to the top (parallel to the spine) should give 116mm for the replica compared with 112mm for the original. Furthermore, the binding on the spine of the replica was positioned very close to the edge of the "P" so that only 1mm of the background is observable between the "P" and the spine. In comparison, the original cover shows 6mm of background to the left of the "P".
Again, This information has been sourced from Deepwoods.org. If you want more information, we recommend looking there.
Some shops and eBay sellers have started selling the Replica Issues Frew have released from 2014 as single Frew issues. The easiest way to tell a replica from original is that Frew issues below #200 did not have staples.
Phantom phan Peter Steven has put together a great insurance fact sheet for all Australian phans.
A lot of phans unitentionally have started a collection that is worth insuring. It starts out as just buying the regular comic, then a hobby and then you get to the point that your hobby has become an collection and maybe even an investment.
When you get to this point, read the insightful fact sheet from Peter and get your collection insured.
Unfortunately with Lee Falk not keeping records it is not a simple answer with several stories having contradicting wives from both the newspaper and Team Fantomen stories. For example, Lee Falk had both the first and second Phantoms marrying Christopher Columbus' granddaughter Marabella.
The best solution is viewing each Phantom on the Phantom Wiki website and they will list all information on each Phantom, plus their adventuries and who they married.
The Past Phantoms 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th • 15th • 16th • 17th • 18th • 19th • 20th • The Female Phantom The Future Phantoms 22nd • 23rd • 24th • 26th • 27th • 31st
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