The Phantom is back in Papua New Guinea

The Phantom has had an interesting relationship with the fine folks of Papua New Guinea. The country is located north of Australia, sharing a land border with Indonesia on the New Guinea Island, with hundreds of other offshore islands. According to tradition, during World War II, The Phantom was first introduced to the locals, and he was an instant hit, as a purple jungle-dwelling hero likely appealed to them more than other heroes living in areas that did not relate to them.

Even though the character has been popular in Papua New Guinea, the country only had one comic book series publishing the Phantom in 1978 by Wantok Publications, released soon after it became an independent Commonwealth realm. This series was printed in Tok Pisin, the creole language of Papua New Guinea.

Two known newspapers have also published the character in the 1970s: the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier published Daily Adventures in English, and the Wantok newspaper published Daily Adventures in the Tok Pisin language.

While it has been decades since a newspaper and comic publisher has published the Phantom regularly, Frew has distributed their comics regularly since. All this has now changed with news that, timed beautifully with the 90th birthday, the character is back in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier.

On the Phantom's 90th birthday (17th February 2026), their physical Tuesday copy of the newspaper included a special 40-page Phantom comic, which included the "Rotten Apples" story first published by Frew in 2021, written by Duncan Munro, with art by Jeff Weigel.

This continues with every Tuesday a physical comic is included in the physical newspaper. The first comic was a special 40 pages, and since then, each comic is 16 pages. As you will see with the images attached below, they are releasing Frew-created stories in a serial part format.

Attached is the online digital banner that has been seen on Facebook, promoting the start of their comic book series and a few examples of the promotional banners on the physical and digital newspapers.

On top of the physical comics being released as a supplement with the physical newspaper, since 2025, the newspaper has been publishing the daily adventures once a week. They started printing "The Muckmen of Zumaridi River" daily adventure by Tony DePaul and Mike Manley. Below is an example from the Tuesday, 31 March 2026 page.

A huge shout-out to Marko Davidovic, who has helped with his research skills for this article. If we have missed any Phantom-related news, please email us at Chroniclechamber@gmail.com.