For Those Who Have Come In Late: Moonstone Books in 2008 ran a contest for up and coming artists to draw a Phantom cover and the winner as chosen by Mike Bullock and Joe Gentile would get their cover published. The response was of such a high quality that they ended up publishing the top three as voted by the judges. The winners were Vivek Goel (India), Lindsay Walker - formerly Mick Collins (Australia) and Eugenio Mattozzi (Italy). They appeared in the "Ghost Who Walks" series #1, #3 and #4. Interestingly as found out by listening to X-Band: The Phantom Podcast episode #160 with Luca Erbetta he also entered in the competition and came fourth. You can see the covers and Luca's entry that came in fourth below. His entry will look familiar for a lot of Phantom phans as it was the drawing he submitted for the Phanfare / Frew Gallery Trading Card Series 2. This card is number 71. All four artists had success after the Moonstone competition. Vivek Goel (Indian) the winner went onto creating two Moonstone covers for the "Ghost Who Walks" series. Vivek has been on the record that his covers for Moonstone were a 'game changer' that launched his international career and he was very challenged in his second cover which saw him present 27 different thumbnail sketches until both he and Joe was happy - talk about going the extra mile. Vivek is the founder & CEO of Holy Cow comics from India. Lindsay Walker - formerly Mick Collins (Australian) should be no stranger to Chronicle Chamber followers with her being on the first ever X-Band: The Phantom Podcast with Joe Douglas. Lindsay before passing, did four covers for Moonstone, Hermes Press and Frew Publications along with several very popular prints including one that was partial inspiration for the IKon Collectables Phantom on Hero statue. Lindsay also drew and coloured several Moonstone stories both of the Phantom and other characters. You can read more about her here. Eugenio Mattozzi (Italian) is perhaps the most known from a Phantom point of view of the four as he has a long list of 60+ Phantom covers for Moonstone, Hermes Press, Frew Publications and Team Fantomen. A lot of his work is a collaboration with Sal Velluto but he is a very fine and highly credited artist by his own. Sal and Eugenio recently produced a set of quality prints of their collaborated work, you can find out more about them here. Eugenio also is available for commissions with several pieces currently available for purchase. The best place to learn about Luca Erbetta is with his podcast interview with us. He may have come fourth in this competition but as long as he continues to draw Phantom covers for Frew Publications and Team Fantomen at the same high standard as his first 10 he may end up being the most popular among Phantom phans of the four. Attached above are the other covers and prints from the four artists. It is far to say that Moonstone Books, Joe Gentile and Mike Bullock have a lot to be proud of their work on our character. They helped bring The Phantom back from the brink of extinction in the USA and in looking in isolation on this competition they helped play important roles in four talented artists in their careers.

While many of our Phantom phriends are still stuck in isolation we have some phun talking about the latest Phantom comics and news from around the world from USA, Sweden, India and of course Australia. In case you cannot listen to the whole podcast, attached below is a timestamp of the whole podcast: Regal Publishers Comics in English has a date: 3 Minutes Ikon Collectables (Heat Changing Mug & Puzzle): 10 Minutes Legacy of Mandrake the Magician: 17 Minutes Newspaper Stories Reviews Sunday 189 - The Spy Ship: 34 Minutes & 30 Seconds Daily 254 - The Llongo Forest: 41 Minutes & 30 Seconds Fantomen Comic Reviews Fantomen 16/2020: 52 Minutes Frew Publications Comic Reviews Frew 1870: 56 Minutes Frew 1871: 1 Hour & 5 Minutes Kid Phantom #9 (With guest reviewers): 1 Hour & 15 Minutes

In the first of a new series of interviews looking at phans who have, arguably, more money than sense we talk to Jermayn Parker about his impressive Phantom collection. A member of the Phantom phan community for many years both here on ChronicleChamber and other on-line communities Jermayn is known as Germ. Constantly attaining new items for his collection CC asked Jermayn to share with us what a closer look at his ever growing horde of Phantom goodies. CC: Hello Jermayn, thanks for sharing your collection with us on CC. To start with can you tell us what it is about The Phantom that drew you to the character and made you decide to collect the various merchandise associated with the character. JP: I always grew up with comics thanks to my step father who always borrowed (for good) Asterixs, Footrot Flats, Phantoms, Tintins, Commandos, Archies and some of the British comics (Beatle I think they were called) but it was not until I was 12 and going to Indonesia for a Church Mission Trip and I was brought into a newsagent and told to buy something to read on the 4 hour flight to Jarakata. I picked up Frew #1120, The Set Up, and was enthralled, it was an amazing story of action, a good storyline with a bit of mystery and I was hooked. I read it about five times during the trip and before even landing in the airport I had decided to myself to buy the next issue in two weeks time when back in Australia – the rest as they say is history. That was back in 1995 but it was not until I started earning more than just pocket money did I focus on merchandise in 2000 which was annoying as I missed out on all the 1996 movie merchandise and it has cost me a mini fortune since. CC: How long have you been collecting for? JP: I have been collecting comics from 1995 and collecting merchandise from early 2000 when I discovered eBay while I should have been studying at TAFE. I started focusing on comics around the world back in 2009. CC. Where do you source your collectibles from? JP: I daily visit eBay and have a bunch of RSS feeds but I also source collectibles from around the world from other phans around the world including Norway, Sweden, Hungary, USA, India, Canada etc. ​I do enjoy going to the local comic store/ book stores and sifting through back issues in Perth but also whenever I go to other cities and towns around Australia. I usually plan a whole day to visit as many as possible and I am lucky enough to have a wife who will come with me. CC: Is there an particular kind of collectible you concentrate on? JP: All of them…. I go through phases where I focus on certain stuff, I am like a little kid in a lolly store where you go from one place to another excited and counting your pennies to buy as much as possible. That is me… I focused a lot on the trading cards and now have almost them all including the famous G0 card and the 3 Chromium Animal card subset which all cost me a fortune. I now am focusing on countries published around the world – I use the www.phantomwiki.org website for my research and have been able to identify about 40 odd different countries around the world. At last count I have 25 different countries including some super rare ones from Israel, Egypt and Angola (in Africa). I also love original artwork and whenever possible buy sketches, sketch cards and commissions. Overall it costs me a lot which means I do a lot of extra work around the house to stay out of trouble with what I spend. CC: If you could choose one item from your collection you are most proud of to have found, what would it be? JP: I am fairly proud of some of the rare comics I have from Israel and Angola. It took me 6 months to track down an Israel seller who had a Phantom comic. It may seem weird but I do not really have a one favourite item, I am proud of them all and with most of them there is always a story behind them which I love telling phellow phans. CC: Are there any items you are yet to track down that you’d love to have in your collection? JP: I would love to get a Fijian and Papua New Guinea comic but they can sell from $400 to a few thousand so I may have to wait for those. If anyone has any they would like to sell, please do contact me! And apart from that and getting the other 15 country comics I yet to have I would love to get artwork from as many current and past Phantom artists. CC: Some Phantom collectibles are very expensive. Do you have a limit to what you spend on any item? JP: With comics from countries I want, there is no limit except what I have in the bank account. For various merchandise I know will be on sale somewhere again someday I usually am more stingy and never pay what the price guide says. CC: Lastly, what advice would you give to other Phantom collectors, be they seasoned collectors or just starting out? JP: First of all never outbid me on eBay! Second, it can be hard to buy and collect everything Phantom related so focus on what you enjoy and what you like the look off. I know people who spend majority of their money and time collecting rings, clothes, artwork, comics around the world, English comics, figurines etc. Also most items will appear again on eBay so unless its super rare and or you have no patience, be patient and wait for it to appear again. I waited an extra year to get one of the Phantom Candles with the ring in the bottom but it meant I saved myself $30 and a bidding war. CC would like to thank Jermayn for giving us a look into his impressive collection. If you’d like to see more of Jermayn’s collection check out his Picasa collection gallery. #TradingCards #PriceGuide #CollectorsCorner

After the sad passing of Paul Ryan, King Features Syndicate has appointed Mike Manley to take over art duties on the Phantom newspaper strip. Manley has now shared the first examples of his work for the strip and…wow! Posting on his Facebook page, Manley shared what appears to be three separate strips. The work, as you can see, is beautiful. It looks as if KFS has found someone who will be very able to carry the torch left by the late Paul Ryan. #MikeManley #PaulRyan #KingFeaturesSyndicate

If you’re a long time Phantom phan, you may remember The Phantom’s Vault from the mid to late 90’s, the speciality store that exclusively sold Phantom merchandise. Well, not the Vault is back with a brand new site and a heap of new merch! E-mailing many phans this morning, Phantom’s Vault director, Rene White, announced the opening of the new website and mentioning that phans can keep track of what is available on the site by registering your e-mail address on the site. There is already an impressive range of merchandise available, from back issues to prints to toys and figures and everything in between. If back issues are your thing, you can e-mail your want list to the Vault and they’ll let you know what issues they have available, in what condition and for how much with no obligation. To purchase goods from the story you need to set up an account but once that is done you’re good to go. The Vault accepts multiple payment methods and will also ship overseas. So if you’re after some cool Phantom merch, head on over to The Phantom’s Vault and discover what you can fill your own Treasure Room with. #PhantomsVault #ReneWhite

In a rather interesting turn of events it seems that Australia may not be getting the upcoming Hermes Press Phantom mini series. The reason for this? Frew Publications. It seems that when the series was originally announced Frew made some kind of complaint to King Features, the licence holders of the Phantom character, that Frew has exclusive rights to publish/sell Phantom comics in Australia thus Hermes should not be allowed to sell their comic in Australian stores. This has resulted in orders for issue #1 of the series, which is due out next month, to Australian stores to be cancelled. ChronicleChamber contacted Kings Comics, one of Australia’s most prominent comic stores, about this and they confirmed that their orders have indeed been cancelled. “When we initially ordered the new Phantom mini from Hermes Press there were no restrictions placed on the series,” said a Kings Comics representative. “Two weeks later we find out there are now international restrictions in place for the entire mini-series.” The fact that Kings Comics’ orders have been cancelled is not insignificant. The store has been awarded the Spirit of Comics Retailer Award by the Eisner Awards, one of only two Australian stores to have been bestowed the honour. The fact that the cancellations reach to such a well respected store and not just the smaller comic stores that dot the country (which does sometimes happen) illustrates how serious this is. It also begs the question as to why Frew didn’t seem to be concerned about Moonstone or Dynamite Entertainment’s Phantom series. We will of course keep you posted on how this evolves. Several stores and retailers have said they will try all they can to get the series regardless of the restrictions as they know the demand for it is high. If anyone does manage to get around the international restrictions you’ll hear about it here first. Otherwise, Australian phans may have to look on-line to buy their issues. #HermesPress #Frew #KingFeaturesSyndicate

ICv2 has reported that company Silly Kid Games has secured an agreement with King Features Syndicate to release a Phantom deckbuilding card game. Not much information has been released about the game as of yet, but looking at the promo art (below) it seems that it will most likely feature a futuristic Phantom. This is also suggested by the game’s description as given on thephantomcomics.com. The multi-player deck building game will explore the world of the crime-fighting hero who materializes from the shadows to rid the world of cruelty and injustice. Silly Kid Games has already achieved much success with their The Warriors game so hopefully their Phantom game will be just as successful. Once more information is revealed we will of course let you know. #KingFeaturesSyndicate #TradingCards

A little while ago we told you about Bradley Peach‘s Phantom collection that is to be exhibited at the Albury Museum early next year. Well, Bradley has just given ChronicleChamber the details on what to expect throughout the exhibit. Spread over two days are a wealth of Phantom-related activities from guided tours of Bradley’s collection to cartooning workshops. Enter the Phantom: Saturday 8 February – Sunday 16 March LibraryMuseum This enthralling exhibition explores the phenomenon of The Phantom, an American comic-strip character, popular throughout the world for the past 77 years. Through a fascinating array of objects from private collectors, including posters, ceramics, rings, weapons, figurines, comics, a skull throne and the submarine from The Phantom: Slam Evil 1996 movie, visitors will engage with the supporting cast and constantly changing storyline and messages that has kept the Phantom legend alive over the decades. Phantom Fun Day: Saturday 15 February Join us for a feast of Phantom program 11.00am – 11.45am: Super Hero Family Storytime in Kidspace. Dress up as your favourite super hero and enjoy storytime and Phantom photo opportunities. 11.00am – 12 noon: Cartooning workshop for ages 8 to adult. 1.00pm: Sharing your Collection and Stories – Join Collectors of Phantom and similar memorabilia and share their stories. 2.00pm: Exhibition opening & talk and tour: Join exhibition co-curators and a special Phantom guest to officially open Enter the Phantom. Exhibition tours: Includes an opportunity to be photographed in the Submarine and on the throne Saturday 1 March, 2.00pm Saturday 15 March, 2.00pm It sounds like it is going to be an amazing time indeed! #BradleyPeach #1996movie

Many phans and creators were shocked when we revealed yesterday that Frew Publications had blocked the sale of Hermes Press’ new Phantom mini-series in Australia. However, the folks at Phantom’s Vault have come to the rescue, making the series exclusively available through their store to Australian phans. An official press release has been released by Rene White of Phantom’s Vault, which you can read below. Due to licensing restrictions, the new Hermes Press 6-issue Phantom comic series will not be distributed into Australia and New Zealand by Diamond Comic Distributors. Hermes have a licence for North America only. Diamond erroneously listed the comic as being available to order throughout the world and have now been instructed to cancel all foreign orders. The Phantom’s Vault has organised, with a North American comic shop chain, to import a sizeable quantity of the entire series. We have also been able to successfully negotiate an exciting range of variant covers, commissioned by the US chain. These will be exclusive to the Phantom’s Vault. Hermes Press have retained a small number of these variants to sell, as a pack, at the San Diego Comic Con next July. This will be the only other occasion when and where these will be available. We will also be wholesaling to comic shops…no-one will miss out! Check out the range and our prices here. We’ll also be listing all participating stores and offering previews, posters and other promotional material, as it is made available to us. The first issue, including all variants, goes to print this Friday (Oct 3) and we anticipate arrival into our warehouse 10 days later! You can pre-order the first issue, as well as many of the variant covers, from the Phantom’s Vault store. #HermesPress #PhantomsVault #ReneWhite

Even with the move to Wix, ChronicleChamber still costs a lot to run. Hosting fees, domain fees, podcast-making fees...It all adds up. As before, we'd like to call on any Phans who enjoy what we present here on the site and the X-Band podcast who feel they may be able to spare $1 (or more, we won't argue) to help support the site. All money raised via the Patreon goes directly back into the website. We don't spend it on comics or collectables, we spend it on making ChronicleChamber better for you fine folks. The Patreon has several donation tiers, and you can earn cool stuff depending on how much you donate. Donate enough and you'll get to be a special guest on a future episode of X-Band! Also, all Patreon members will have access to exclusive content. So far we've shared the very hard to find Phantom 2040 video game soundtrack. Next, our Patreons will be receiving scans of long out-of-print editorials and newsletters focusing on The Phantom, previews of which you can see below. At the moment we're aiming to rise enough to cover the on-going cost of running the site. Once we meet that goal we'll start working towards working on even more content for ChronicleChamber itself. So if you feel you can spare as little as $1 a month to help support what we do here on the site, head on over to our Patreon and help us make ChronicleChamber the best Phantom site possible! #Patreon

Thanks to the fantastic folks to have helped support ChronicleChamber via our Patreon we have reached our first goal of achieving enough donations to keep the site running each year! While this is indeed wonderful, we're not about to stop there, oh no! We've noticed that phans can't seem to get enough of X-Band: The Phantom Podcast so we've decided that we want to do more episodes each month. However, more episodes means more hosting space which, of course, means more expenses. So, we've added a new goal of hitting $45 per month to cover the cost of extra hosting. Once we hit that we'll be able to bring you twice as many episodes of X-Band per month! So, if you would like to help make this goal a reality be sure to sign up to our Patreon ASAP! Remember, Patrons also receive special Patreon-only content, the next of which will be coming very soon! Finally, we'd like to give a special "thank you" to everyone who has donated to us so we have created a special thank you page for our Patrons which you can see HERE.

Wow, you guys are awesome! Not long after meeting our previous Patreon goal our current one has been passed! We now officially have double the hosting for X-Band: The Phantom Podcast so we can bring you twice as much entertainment! This also means that we're now able to work on bringing you the next step in our plans to make ChronicleChamber the best Phantom website out there. What this plan is exactly, well...you'll just have to wait and see. That is, of course, unless you're already supporting us over at Patron. Our wonderful Patrons will be getting a sneak peek at what's coming next as a little thank you for helping us to do what we love. So thank you again to everyone who has supported us so far. We're almost at our next goal to make the above plans a reality, so if you haven't already head on over to our Patreon page and show us your support. Remember, you can donate as little as $1 and cancel at any time. #Patreon

Hello Phans, As mentioned on X-Band ep #56 bringing back a Phantom message board has been talked about a little with people wishing to see its return so as to have a more dedicated place to discuss our purple hero. The CC Team have sat down and discussed how we could make this work. After much deliberation we've decided it could be done, however we will need your help. As many of you know we started the Patreon a while back to help cover the costs of running the site. The addition of a message board would add to these costs due to the software needed and the extra hosting required. As such we've decided that if a message board was to happen it would be tied closely to the Patreon. Basically, we would open up the message board only to those who donate via Patreon. A lot of thought has gone into this and there are a few reasons we’ve decided to go this route; 1. The aforementioned cost. Running a website isn’t cheap and adding a message board adds to those costs. We need to be able to cover them, simple as that. 2. As well as monetary costs, it also takes time to run a message board. Not only does it take time to set it up, it also takes time to moderate and upkeep. As such, we only want people who are serious about using it joining in. Social media has killed off message boards in a big way, but we completely understand why some still want them. Indeed, we agree with those people. But there is no use putting all the work in if everyone simply returns to Facebook et al after a few weeks/months. We feel that if people are prepared to pay - albeit a minimal amount - to use the boards they are more likely to stick around. To gain access to the message board we would ask you to donate at least $1 per month to the Patreon. If we go forward this will be added to the $1 and higher reward tiers. You will also gain access to all other bonus material exclusive to Patrons and exclusive news that will be posted to the message board before anywhere else, including the main website and Facebook! However, we also need enough people to actually use the message board to make it worthwhile. No point having it if only three people are on there. As such, we would like you, the phans, to let us know if you are interested. If you think this is something you’d like to get behind please visit THIS post of Facebook and give it a like. If you are not on Facebook, simply e-mail us your interest. However, please only like if you are prepared to pay the $1 tier and will actively use the message board. If we get 50 likes/ emails we’ll go forward with the plan. I hope all of this sounds fair to everyone. The intention here is not to make money but to find the best way to provide the services Phantom phans want while still covering the monetary costs that are involved with running the site. Cheers, - Joe #Patreon #Podcast #XBand

In February 2017, the exhibit "Wilson McCoys Fantomen" opened at the Borås Konstmuseum in Borås, Sweden. It is the world´s first large-scale exhibition at a big art museum dedicated to Wilson McCoy, who drew the Phantom from 1942 until 1961. Two large galleries and a 15 meters corridore at the museum pay tribute to Wilson's life and unmistakable style of drawing and shows its similarities in estethical strategies with upcoming pop art. The exhibit features original comic artwork and beautiful enlargements of the strip highlighting McCoy's artistry and attention to detail. The exhibit includes many never-before-seen personal photos of Wilson McCoy and his family, who often modelled for Wilson's drawings. His wife Dorothy also did the lettering for the comic strips, and their travels are featured in a display. The exhibit also examines Wilson McCoy's influence on well-known and respected Swedish Artists such as Jan Håfström and Jan Stenmark . There's even a Skull Cave with Phantom comic books for the kids! The exhibit was created and developed by Swedish culture journalist, filmer and artist Martin Thomas Dahlström, which he expanded out of his previous Wilson McCoy exhibition. The Wilson McCoy's Fantomen exhibit will be on display until May 21, 2017. #WilsonMcCoy #GodfatherofPop #MartinGoldbeckLöwe

In a rather shocking turn of events, Tony DePaul, the man who has been behind the Sunday and Daily The Phantom strips for the last 17 years, is stepping down. As detailed in a lengthy post on his blog, DePaul is leaving the strip after negotiations with Hearst/King Features Syndicate broke down regarding his contract going forward, and how he would be paid if any characters or story elements he created during his 17 year run where to appear in any possible future The Phantom movies. Basically, DePaul was told that if he wanted to continue writing The Phantom strip he would have to give up the rights to any character/story he created, both retrospectively and going forward. As you can imagine, this did not sit well with the celebrated writer.Yet another horrible tale of creators being given the proverbial bird by money men, something that happens all too often in both comics and Hollywood. Having created some of the most celebrated stories in the last two decades, Phans are sure to miss DePaul. The final strips of his last story are set to see print during the American Autumn (September 22 - December 21). #TonyDePaul #KingFeaturesSyndicate