The modern redesigned Comics Kingdom website has been launched with a promise that the website will be an unique visual user experience. At first glance the website is definitely an improvement with more features, better access to the archive stories and perhaps the best feature is the improved ability to read a landscape Phantom strip on a portrait phone. Alex Garcia the Director of Comics at King Features and his team have been working on this new design since mid 2023. Credits to King Features for trying to bring the company and their properties to the new generation - may it continue. The best feature is that for those who have a paid subscription can access the Daily and Sunday strips a week in advance. At the time of writing this article, the date was 29th January 2024 and I can access the 7 March 2024 strip. The other feature that I think is worth the subscription cost is the access to the archived Daily and Sunday stories from March 1943 to current. If you are missing the classic stories by Lee Falk, Sy Barry or Wilson McCoy you have almost 50 years of reading to do. Plans start at $4.99US per month and perhaps if this feature was advertised better, more phans may use it. The other option that may be helpful is that you can get a single comic subscription from as little as $2.99US per month - most spend more daily on their morning coffee. These are my favourite two features, there are other features, positives, negatives and things they need to work on but we will review them in our joint video review of the website which will be out soon. If you would like to join in and submit your own review, please contact us at ChronicleChamber@gmail.com.

It’s an argument we’ve heard before, but an article appearing on FirstPost.com has brought it back into light. The article is titled "The Phantom is racist" by Nisha Susan, tells us how she can no longer read the once entertaining comic strip due to the racist overtones which young minds miss but more mature minds understand. Susan explains that in a nostalgic mood she picked up a hardcover collection of classic The Phantom strips but upon sitting down to enjoy them she found she could not get through a single story because it was “so terrible.” The source of her horror is the racism Susan perceived in the strip’s content. Now, as an unabashed Phantom phan I need to correct some of the errors or misunderstandings in her post. Susan mentions that Bangalla was originally supposed to be part of India before being moved to Africa. While this is true it’s something of a simplification of events. In The Singh Brotherhood from 1936 it’s clearly stated that the Phantom lives on the island of Luntok off the coast of Sumatra. Not long after it is moved to being off the coast of Java. However, after this Lee Falk started to bring in more and more suggestion that Bangalla was actually an African nation until, in 1964 with the story The Reef, this is confirmed when Diana writes a letter to the Phantom with the address "Mr. Kit Walker, Box 7, Morristown, Bengali, Africa". So what’s all of this location-hopping got to do with racism in The Phantom? Well, Susan seems to suggest in her article that Falk went out of his way to make the Phantom lord over a specific group of peoples. This is of course is not the case. It’s very probable that once Falk realised that his original plan of having Jimmy Wells being the Phantom was too obvious he hurriedly tried to find an exotic location for his then unknown hero to come from. While India may have sounded more exotic to Falk in the 1930s and 40s than Africa, it was probable he actually knew more about Africa hence all the African-like imagery seen in the strip and the eventual relocation Of course, the idea of a white man being “lord” to an “ignorant” black people is something that The Phantom can easily be accused of and, honestly, it is not entirely without merit. Early in the strip’s history the native tribes of Bangalla did indeed see the Phantom as the “ruler” of the jungle. However, any fear or respect they had of him did NOT come from the fact that he was white, but rather that they thought (apart from the Bandar, of course) that he was some kind of supernatural entity, a “man who can not die.” Of course story-based arguments for these racist undertones can ring hollow, but one must remember this; the strip was created in 1936. The 1930’s was a very different time in nearly every respect, possibly none more so than racial tolerance. This was the time of the Great Depression and racial violence was a very real thing in Falk’s native America. African-Americans were still being treated as less than equal to Caucasians in almost every corner. Even here in Australia such things were going on with the White Australia Policy lasting until 1973 and the Aboriginal people still being classified as “flora and fauna” until the National Referendum in 1967. The above is not to say that Falk himself took part in any racial violence or agreed with such terrible acts - indeed most of what we know about him would suggest that he was quite a progressive thinker - however it does give the context in which these stories were created. While the earliest depiction of native Africans may be terribly distasteful by today's standards, The Phantom was one of the few comic strips to show black people in any kind of meaningful way. Yes, they may have thought of the Phantom as their “lord” but most were strong, independent characters within their own right; many times they were shown saving the Phantom. The depiction of black characters in The Phantom is arguably much more favourable than in other strips of the time. A good example of this is the character of Ebony While from Will Eisner’s The Spirit, which is considered to be a seminal comics work. Ebony is very much a characterisation of what 1940’s America regarded as “negro.” The huge lips, big eyes, small stature (although he was supposed to be a young boy) was basically a comic book version of the blackface comedians who were popular at the time. When criticised on the depiction of Ebony later in life, Eisner had said he tried to represent the character “responsibly”. “At the time humour consisted in our society of bad English and physical difference in identity," said Eisner. What Eisner is suggesting here is that in creating Ebony he was reacting to what the popular idea of an African-American was at the time he created the strip. One must remember that many of the comic strips of the time were outsourced to various production houses. The creation of The Spirit was a direct reaction to the then booming comic book market with Eisner being commissioned by newspaper mogul Everett M. "Busy" Arnold who wanted a comics feature in his Sunday papers. Because of this Eisner had to, in some ways, adhere to the popular tastes of the time regardless of his own feelings towards them. Given this, it is easy to see that Ebony is very much a product of his time, a way to ensure that the majority of readers would understand who and what the character was. Commercial papers didn’t want readers to have to think - indeed they wanted easy consumable entertainment and thought of comics as nothing but - thus even if Eisner did not agree with this depiction of Ebony he probably would have been forced to do it anyway. While we don’t have any proof in the matter, it’s very arguable that Lee Falk perhaps felt the same way in creating the Bandar. He wanted the Phantom to exist in an exotic location and to 1930s America “exotic” meant “savage.” The Phantom was created at the request of King Features Syndicate after Mandrake the Magician was such a success so it is not unreasonable to think Falk was in a similar situation to Eisner. Even with these racist undertones Susan seems to ignore the fact that some very interesting things happened in The Phantom. The opening strips of The Singh Brotherhood does not even show the hero but rather Diana Palmer beating a man in a boxing match. The fact that a female character laid out a male character with a well placed crack to the jaw is a pretty big thing for the 1930’s, a time when a woman’s perceived place was still in the kitchen or as a secretary. The strength of Falk’s female characters and the advancements they made can not be understated, paving the way for many more strong female characters to come. Still later in the strip, once Falk had established Bangalla in a more defined manner, the world received its first African President in Lamanda Luaga. Even the Bandar, whom Susan seems to take most issue with, were, after a short time, presented as very loyal friends to the Phantom rather than his “subjects”. Guran is shown as being the Phantom’s childhood friend in the 1944 story Childhood of The Phantom, having gone to America with him when he was young. The two grew up together and it was Guran who informed the Phantom of his father’s murder. For all intents and purposes the Phantom and Guran are brothers, equal in importance to the people of the jungle. While the strip of course did still have black villains, such as the dreaded General Bababu, the vast majority of villains in The Phantom have always been white. Whenever something goes wrong in the jungle and the Phantom investigates, nine out of ten times the tribes will tell him “white men” were responsible. It is interesting that Susan calls out Friends and How I Met Your Mother for racism and other prejudices but seems to be okay with these. I’m not a fan of those American comedies so I can not really comment on these shows themselves, however, one has to wonder why she is so offended by The Phantom and not these sitcoms. As they are more modern should they not be even more harshly criticised than The Phantom for their prejudices, having come from a more “enlightened” time? Why is one media allowed to get off the hook while another isn’t? Perhaps it is because Susan was more invested in The Phantom due to her childhood memories of the strip, but then if one is invested wouldn’t one try to understand? While Susan’s arguments that The Phantom is racist may have some validity, I do not feel that it is as prevalent or indeed as intentional as she claims. The zeitgeist of 1930’s America was a lot less kind to African-Americans, and black people in general, than today’s (arguably) more informed times. Culture informs the media that is created within it, and that media is often a reflection of the culture. While The Phantom did, in time, challenge some of those ideas of 1930’s America, arguing that The Phantom is racist is the same as arguing that Agatha Christie probably shouldn’t have given her novel And Then There Were None the original title of Ten Little Niggers. Like Falk, Christie likely had no intention of the title being a racial slur as it instead refers to a blackface song - a part of her culture - which she uses as a plot point within the story. In 2016 it is easy to judge these earlier works as being outwardly racist. However, we must remember that all art is a product of its time and culture and things that are considered normal or acceptable 80 years ago are very different from what is seen as such today. So, to the main question; is The Phantom racist? Well, perhaps it was, but only in the way that anyone who is ignorant to any kind of sensitivity can be inconsiderate. The racism that appears in the earliest stories of The Phantom do not come from a place of hate or discrimination, but rather a place of misinformation and cultural ignorance. But without this context, without the historic understanding of where The Phantom came from and what it did in its future to challenge those very ideas, we can not appreciate why it was, and continues to be, such an important entry to comics history.

Christian Moller reviews the latest issue from Zauberstern #11 which features the following stories which was first published by DC comics back in 1988: "Händler des Todes, Teil 1" ("Guns, Part 1") by Mark Verheiden and Luke McDonnell "Händler des Todes, Teil 2" ("Guns, Part 2") by Mark Verheiden and Luke McDonnell "Die Weisheit des Alters" ("The Jungle Gang") by Tony DePaul and Paul Ryan "Einstein Junior" ("The College Kid") by Tony DePaul and Paul Ryan This comic is of great value with 100 page of comics in full colour on great quality paper for under 10€. Would you like to see Zauberstern go back to creating their own new covers? Zauberstern continue to publish the DC stories from the late 1980's and early 1990's after publishing them in issue 10. I am really enjoying thee darker stories. Issue #11 will be out in April 2024. All Zauberstern and other German comic reviews will be included in our monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts. You can find out more at our website and or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos. If you would like to join the team and review new comics being released around the world, please contact us.

At $100AU, this is perhaps the best value priced statue for the phan! No matter what your budget is from a school kid surviving on pocket money to the baby boomers on a pension and those in between with kids and a mortgage we can afford a statement piece for your office, skull cave or lounge room. You can buy via the Pop Cultcha website here It is far from a perfect item with me not being a phan of the poor paint job with it either being a problem with the quality or the decision to make the costume look dirty. Plus I am unsure on the need for my Phantom to wear blush and lipstick. However my biggest grip is the Skull Cave at the back of the bust. In theory it sounds like a great idea but the execution has failed. Would have been better to just have the bust with no Skull cave. It looks like a skull inside a skull. Even though I have highlighted the faults, the price makes it very appealable and desirable for any phan to buy and display in their collection. I give it a 3.5 good marks out of five. If you want to join the Chronicle Chamber team with reviews or help report on latest Phantom news from around the world, please contact us.

When Charlton Comics took over the USA The Phantom comic book series launched by Gold Key Comics and continued by King Comics they decided to omit issue #29 altogether and start afresh with issue #30. The last issue published by King Comics was #28. However as you will find out, King Comics had issue 29 and 30 already planned. Thanks to some research from phans and comic devotes we can present what issue #29 may have looked like if King Comics continued with their series. Attached is a video presentation of a fan made comic with the intended cover and the contents of Charlton #35. Thanks to phan Howard Gesbeck he has shared with us the original artwork that is in his collection of the approved covers for issue 29 and 30 which you can see attached. The left images are the line art and the right is the colour overlay. The cover for issue 29 is a replication of a scene from the Sy Barry and Lee Falk story "The Great Webs of Spidera" however research shows that maybe the story originally intended for issue 29 was the Bill Harris and Bill Lignante story "The Ghost Tribe" which was then published in Charlton issue 35. You can see this in the video above. The main piece of evidence for this is that the Mexican comic El Fantasma #63 published in 1972 features the cover design. You can see this comic cover to the right. It is worth noting that this cover art has never been used elsewhere. How the Colmex publishers got their hands on this artwork is perhaps lost to history. You will also notice that they coloured the background blue while the approved artwork (above) had a yellow background. In this Mexican comic, the story published is the Bill Harris and Bill Lignante story "The Ghost Tribe". However it makes me wonder why they would use imagery from the "The Great Webs of Spidera" story for a different story? Could there have been a Bill Lignante recreation of this story in the works? Eagle eyed phans may also remember the cover for King Comics issue 28 which also features artwork from a scene of the same "The Great Webs of Spidera" story. Could "The Ghost Tribe" story have been used for issue 30 instead? Again we may never know but hopefully the information presented here will help solve the question about the missing issue 29 and then at the same time ask even more questions. Thanks must go to a bunch of phans who have helped compiled information and imagery for this article and video. In no particular order, Howard Gesbeck who owns the artwork. Swaroop Chand who hunted down the fan created copy of King 29 for us to video and others like Jon Cookson, Guy Poissant, and David Budds,

More Phantom comics being published and new stories being created is a great thing, and going by their social media posts on 10th and 11th of February 2024, it looks like the Irish comic publisher Lightning Strike are back - maybe lightning does indeed strike twice! Between 2016 and 2019 Lightning Strike published 6 comics consisting of 19 stories with a mixture of short and full-length stories. Many of these stories were very well received, including the introduction of a great character called Scarlet who we need to see more of. "Masks of the Phantom", created by Arild Wærness and Mike Collins, was commissioned and published by Lightning Strike and has been already re-published in Norway in 2019. The social posts over the last few days tell as that it will be published again in 2024, this time by Fantomen. Eoin McAuley has used his teaser posts to announce that their catalogue of stories are looking to be reprinted by other publishers around the world. He has also strongly hinted that they will also be producing new Phantom content. Unfortunately, many phans never got their hands on the original comics for numerous reasons which caused angst with those phans affected. Hopefully the news of Fantomen republishing the "Masks of the Phantom" will ease some nerves on this announcement. We hope Frew and/or some of the Indian and German publishers will also follow suite with this or other stories. The way we read the posts, it looks like they will commission and create their own Lightning Strike stories, much like the Team Fantomen and Frew Crew stories. The significant point of difference seems to be that they will not be printing or publishing the stories themselves, instead selling them as a complete and ready-to-go package to "partner publishers", who will then publish and distribute. Who those partner publishers turn out to be remains a mystery - but Egmont and Frew would seem to be a logical starting point. We would also love to see Lightning Strike compile a TPB collection of all their stories and also publish some other stories in a regular comic. A regular comic being published in English in Europe is a must to help grow and create more phans. However, it appears that Lightning Strike have moved this way to improve their distribution after a disastrous end to their initial KFS Phantom license, and we certainly wish them all the best in their new venture. We would love to get Eoin McAuley on a future podcast when they produce more stories and hopefully comics are also available to buy and read.

Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews Fantomen 1/2024 & 2-3/2024 which feature the following stories: "Slavjägarna från Singh" ("The Singh Raiders") by Andreas Eriksson and Ivan Rodriguez "Barracudas skatt" ("The Treasure of the Barracuda") by Norman Worker and Jaime Vallvé "Vålnadens nya kläder" ("The Ghosts New Clothes") by Jacob Habinc and Rafael Ruiz "De tusen tigrarna" ("The Thousand Tigers") by Lennart Hartler, Magnus Magnusson and Jaime Vallvé Review of Fantomen 1/2024 First up, the cover with art by Henrik Sahlstrom. Nice to see that he has not totally stopped creating Fantomen covers with him drawing no regular covers in 2023. First of we are getting some information about what is going to happen in Fantomen during 2024. Highlights include new creators debuting, a continuation of the 22nd Phantom saga planned for end of year, otherwise about the same as last year, which is good news! [Editors note: We will be having another podcast chat with the Fantomen editors in February.] The main story is "Slavjägarna från Singh" ("The Singh Raiders") by Andreas Eriksson and Ivan Rodriguez which was earlier published in Frew 1952 from 2023 which features the 17th Phantom, Julie, Singh pirates and lots of action. I had a blast reading this one. A great choice to include. As an extra supplement with the comic is a publishing schedule poster for 2024 by phav Henrik Sahlström. As for the last few years, the poster is double sided with one side including the dates of issues being published in 2024 and the other side without the dates. This is better for framing or presenting after the year has ended. The side comic is half an Thorgal story featuring an adventure from his youth. Review of Fantomen 2-3/2024 A new cover artist by Henry Johannes. It is great to see new artists drawing the Phantom. First story is "Barracudas skatt" ("The Treasure of the Barracuda") by Norman Worker and Jaime Vallvé. This is a classic Team Fantomen story spanning a whooping 46 pages, takes place both in the past and the present, with descendants walking in their forefathers footsteps on both sides of right and wrong. Next up is "Vålnadens nya kläder" ("The Ghosts New Clothes") by Jacob Habinc and Rafael Ruiz. This is a very short story with a more American superhero graphic style than we are accustomed to. More funny than regular stories which seem to be the norm in these shorter ones. Good to see Rafael Ruiz back drawing the Phantom who has not drawn the Phantom in a story since 2019. The final Phantom story is "De tusen tigrarna" ("The Thousand Tigers") by Lennart Hartler, Magnus Magnusson and Jaime Vallvé which is a classic Team Fantomen story, a real must read to get the backstory about why there are tigers in Bangalla Africa. The comic also includes the opening for the vote for best Phantom story in Fantomen last year started with this issue. You can read more about the vote in this article. Closing the magazine is the second part of the Thorgal's youth album started in issue 1/2024. Until next time, Happy Phantoming! All Fantomen reviews will be included in our monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts. You can find out more at our website and or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos. Thanks also goes to Jörgen Karlsson for his help creating the Fantomen review intro which will now be featured for all reviews by Mikael Lyck.

ACE! Australian Comics Exhibition in partnership with the Australian Consulate-General in Chengdu, China are exhibiting 20 local Australian creators in China. This is the 4th international instalment of ACE! Australian Comics Exhibition. Their aim is to promote local artists, giving them the opportunity to reach international audiences and introduce their original styles and approaches to the medium. With a focus on highlighting the diversity and multiculturalism of Australian identity, we have selected exceptionally talented individuals who explore a range of themes using various forms of expression. Among the 20 creators, several are well known to the wider public and two have drawn the Phantom for Frew in Paul Mason and Marceki Baez. In chatting with Paul, we can confirm that some of his Phantom work (Masked Marvel sequel, Phantom in Vietnam and Fury part 1) were submitted. As at the time of writing this article, there are no known Phantom published comics from China meaning that there is a big chance that some people will see the Phantom for their first time. Exhibition Opening: January 27, Fang Suo Commune, Chengdu Open to the public with free entry until February 29. The exhibition will take place in Fangsuo Commune, Chengdu’s leading bookstore and cultural space. The exhibition launch program will feature workshops for art students and younger artists, providing an engaging and innovative experience for people in Chengdu.

For some Phantom phans, Jose Delbo may not be an artist you are aware of but please read on to learn about his career including his Phantom credits. Sadly this past week he passed and as a past Phantom artist we wanted to pay our tribute to him and thank him for his work. Jose Delbo (José María Del Bo) was born December 9, 1933 and passed February 5, 2024. He moved to USA in the 1960's and straight away received work in the comics field for comic books (Charlton Comics, Dell Publishing, Gold Key, DC Comics and Marvel) and also newspaper adventure strips like The Phantom and Superman. Before his move to the USA, he drew for many South American comic books like Pancho Negro, Batallas Inolvidables, Misterix and Rayo Rojo. His first Phantom credit was penciling the 1969 Charlton story "The Secret of the Golden Ransom", written by Pat Fortunato and inked by Sal Trapani (who was Dick Giordano's brother in law). It is worth noting that this knowledge about Jose Delbo was only a recent discovery - you can read about that, at this article. From 1979 to around 1982, he then assisted Sy Barry on the Daily and or Sunday newspaper's before he took over on the Superman syndicated newspaper strip from May 3, 1982, through to its last episode on February 9, 1985. Since his death, some phans have looked at the possible Phantom stories that Jose Delbo could have assisted on in more detail. According to one story retold by a former colleague, Jose told some that he assisted on some panels of the wedding. While the known information of his work with Sy Barry has him only assisting from 1979 onwards, that does fit in with the flash back scenes of the wedding during the story of Kit jnr and Heloise being born. However, Rich Buckler has also claimed he worked on these stories. We are talking about artwork drawn nearly 45 years ago, so anyone's memories would be tested and it is of course possible, all three parties of Sy, Rick and Jose worked on the same story that was presented in both the Daily and Sunday newspapers. Thank you to Jeremy MacPherson, Quim Thrussel and Andreas Eriksson for bringing this news to our attention and for further information presented in this article. If you ever spot Phantom related news before us, please let us know via our email - ChronicleChamber@gmail.com.

Norwegian artist Arild Midthun who is famous for his artwork for humor magazines KOnk (1980-1983) and the Norsk Mad Magazine (1981-1985 & 2001) has his original artwork currently in a gallery exhibition. The exhibition opened Saturday 3rd February 2024 at the Midthun Gallery & Framemakeri and you can find out more at their website. Among his huge array of work has been two popular covers featuring a Phantom theme on the cover for issue 1 from 1983 and issue 9 from 1984. What may interest some phans is that these Phantom themed pieces are currently on sale and can be purchased. The price for the pieces are NOK 12,000 ($1,750AU, $1,200US, €1,050 and 95,000INR) and NOK 14,000 ($2,000AU, $1,350US, €1,230 and 110,500INR). If those prices do not scare you, you can contact Arild Midthun at his email address ka.midthun@online.no. Thank you goes to Kristian Hellesund for bringing this to our attention.

After the success of the initial ElastoWit Phantom release it looks like we may soon see another release of a Phantom play set. Owner Serhii March has confirmed with us that they are looking for ideas on what to include for the next release. Do you have ideas? Would you like to see popular characters like Diana, Guran, A Jungle Patrol, Redbeard the Pirate, Kabai Singh or even other animals like Hero, Hzz etc? What about backgrounds and sets like Eden, the Skull Cave, The Phantom's Head and more. If you have ideas, please email elastowit@gmail.com or you can leave your ideas on our social media platforms. For those who have come in late, ElastoWit is a small Ukraine company who create and sell thematic rubberised plastic figure collections in 54mm and 60/65mm sizes. Think the "army men" or "cowboys and Indian" sets a lot of us would have played with as children. ElastoWit have nearly 50 different designs ranging from popular pop culture icons like Robocop, Planet of Apes, Ned Kelly, The Island of Dr Moreau and many more. It must be noted that these kits are NOT licensed by King Features Syndicate. If you would like to find out more, go to their Facebook page,

Christian Moller reviews the latest issue's from ECR (Edition Comic Rundschau) #82, #83 & #84 which features the following stories: "Der Sklavenmarkt von MUCAR" ("The Slave Market of Mucar") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Die Epidemie" ("The Epidemic") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Hafenratten" ("The Wharf Rats") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry This set costs 30 euros ($30US, $50Au, 350 sek/nok & 2,700 INR) and you can order your copies via their email address - ecr-vlg@gmx.net. In this review I look at the German hardcover collection of the three stories and the three singular issues which is also in German. For those English speakers, ECR (Edition Comic Rundschau) are also releasing a hardcover collection in English. Again email ECR if you are interested in either. We can also confirm that they ship overseas including to Australia. Some have asked about the numbering and the reason why it starts at issue #82 is because Sy Barry started drawing his first story at the 82nd Daily story "The Slave Market of Mucar". I guess this gives them the option of printing Ray Moore and Wilson McCoy stories and keeping them in numerical order if they wish. Importantly, the stories are printed on thick paper stock and the quality of the print is clear. All ECR and other German comic reviews will be included in our monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts. You can find out more at our website and or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos. If you would like to join the team and review new comics being released around the world, please contact us.

Spanish publisher Dolmen Editorial have been printing the The Phantom - El Hombre Enmascarado hardcover comic albums featuring Daily and Sunday newspaper stories by Sy Barry and Lee Falk. They have printed 12 hardcover albums featuring both Sunday and Daily stories and now they are exploring the idea to produce some themed merchandise and are even giving us phans the choice. You can vote here for what you would like to buy Attached is a collection of the different starting ideas they have which include Gym Bags, Pen, Mugs, Hoodies, Lanyards and Key Rings. Below is a sample of some products examples along with an option for your own suggestion. Which ones do you like and will vote for?

The current Daily Newspaper story written by Tony DePaul and drawn by Bret Blevins is titled "The Chain" and references a previous 1953 Sunday newspaper story with the same title. We understand that some phans may have not read this story yet so here is our attempt to update you so you can enjoy or dislike what Tony and Bret are doing having read the original story. Throughout this video we will show the whole story so you can read and follow on the adventure Tony and Bret are taking us. The story has appeared in 16 countries in either comic or newspaper format including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Scandinavian countries, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, UK, the Philippines and of course USA. The plot goes as: When the current Phantom loses patience with some warring tribes and is on the verge of giving up, an old warrior is forced to tell him the story of the Chain that hangs on the Skull Throne. Many years before, so the story goes, the future wife of his father (so his future mother) was traveling to Bengali on board a steam ship, when she came across some unwelcome attention from a violent and oppressive Misty Mountain prince named Prince Hakon. She had no interest in the prince, telling him that she loved another and was on her way to be married. He became enraged and upon arrival in Bengali, he had her kidnapped and taken to his highland palace. She refused to marry him, so he kept her locked in a cell until she changed her mind. Upon hearing of the kidnapping, the Phantom rides to the highland kingdom and attempts a rescue, however, due to his rage he rushes things and is captured by the palace guards. Instead of imprisoning or executing the Phantom, the Prince instead puts him to work pushing a mill in plain view of his fiance's cell. With each turn of the mill, the Phantom notices that the chain catches a little, scraping against stone, weakening the links. Month after month the Phantom labors, knowing that with each turn, he comes closer to freedom. This story is much loved by many a phan with a touching love story and a great moral learnt that even the Phantom needs to learn or re learn at times and maybe this i what resonates with many readers. Majority of phans love this story however what is surprising to many is that the chain on the throne has only been seen once in a newspaper adventure. Since this adventure in the newspapers it was seen once on a cover and once in the Avon novel. Then it was never seen again in any form of mediums until 1996 with the movie, then a cover in 2007 and then a story in 2008. Since then it has appeared a few more times. What happened to the chain? Did Diana re arrange her husbands house and got rid of the chain as it did not match her vision? I know my wife "moved" and has "missplaced" several of my items and clothes when we got married. Tony DePaul has on the record said about the chain that he will deconstruct this story and strike it from the lore. The obvious question is, why? Tony DePaul see's his role as improving on the newspaper strip and ensuring it lasts longer than him, us and you. A good attitude to have. Without speaking for Tony, I can see he has problems with the way the Phantom is portrayed in this story. In the first week of the new story, the Phantom in the original Lee Falk story is portrayed as a stranger, an ignoramus, a selfish overgrown toddler with an ego that wouldn't quit, a manbaby, a jerk, a buffoon and someone with a dumb plan - in fact both the 20th and 21st Phantom have dumb plans. On top of all of that, there is Woru who tells the story - maybe he was an earlier prototype version of Old Man Mozz. However if there was an important message to be given, why not use a Chronicle? The Chronicle Chamber was created by then and shown in past stories. The potential main problem is the way the original writer (most likely Lee Falk) portrayed the Africans in this story. They behave almost as childish as the Phantom with the Phantom needing to behave as a Lord over them. We see him banging their heads together because they continued to fight. Yes, this was 70 years ago and there are many Phantom stories that may look average in today's world but Lee Falk was always a fighter for human rights and this story does not fit with his prior actions. I have a theory that Lee Falk did not write this story. Through out the 1940's when away for war, he used Alfred Bester as a ghost writer. With the Avon novels in the 1970's, 7 at least were written by someone else. There is history that ghost writers have wrote for him prior and I suspect this is another case - it reads unlike Lee Falk. The only thing that I think most remember about this story is that the chain symbolised perseverance and that there is always a way out of dire circumstances. Maybe that is our rose tinted glasses putting their filters up. Maybe we better take them off and give it another read? Could Tony, leave the moral of the story and remove the poor portrayal of the Phantom? Only time will tell...

As was first announced in the X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #265 by Lou Manna on our fundraiser sketch session Hermes has officially announced the colouring in book for a summer (July-August) 2024 release. Pre Order Here The Phantom Coloring Book costs $19.99US (Roughly $30AU, $20Eu, 210 sek/nok & 1700INR). It will consist of 80 pages of artwork setup for colouring in. It will be in paperback format and sized 7" x 11". Some phans may recognise the art used for the front cover which was originally a commission by phan Jaime Diaz. Hermes Press must have enjoyed the piece that much, they required permission to use it for their publication. The note in the announcement about the artwork by Samantha Lomuscio has confused some as it talks about paying tribute to past and current artists Ray Moore to Sy Barry and beyond. Samantha Lomuscio is the credited artist of all 80 line art images in the book. Hermes Press commissioned her with the brief that she use references from various credited Phantom artists such as Ray Moore and Sy Barry, who produced KFS official materials, as well as the work of independent artists. The artwork will be designed to best allow colouring-in by children and adults alike. Samantha has also worked on the popular Hermes colouring in book for their title "Dark Shadows". As per usual, we will review the book when it comes out on our platform. If you ever want to join the team helping us review latest products, comics and other related Phantom products on our platform, please contact us.