The Phantom: The Complete Series: The Gold Key Years, Volume 1

The Phantom: The Complete Series #1

by Bill Harris, Bill Lignante (Illustrator)

The 1960s comic book adventures of The Phantom return in full, glorious color! This series of collections, which consists of eight volumes, spans 15 years and starts by assembling all 17 Gold Key The Phantom comic books into two volumes. Featuring cover art by famed painter George Wilson with interior artwork by Bill Lignante and stories by Bill Harris, the Gold Key comic book version of the grand-daddy of costumed heroes, the Ghost Who Walks, is now available, digitally remastered!
The Phantom The Complete Series: The Gold Key Years Volume One reprints issues #1-8.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Superheroes, Adventure

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 20, 2011

Reviews

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book via Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. I had no problems reading it on my 1st Gen Kindle Fire. Featured the 1st eight issues from Gold Key, around 1963-64. Brought back some great memories of the Ghost Who Walks. I was surprised to find many parts from this collection that made their way into the Billy Zane Phantom movie from several years ago. Very corny, but I liked it (and the Shadow as well).

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never cared much for The Phantom newspaper strips, but I really never cared for newspaper strips in general unless it was comedic. I do like the mythology of the character, the setting, etc.

One thing that struck me in reading this volume was the similarities between Phantom Stories and Tarzan stories. I suppose when you analyze things closer that shouldn't be a surprise since the characters have similar origins and backgrounds, but I hadn't really thought much about it until reading these early Phantom comics.

Hermes Press reprinted the entire run of Phantom comics starting in 1962 and continuing to I think 1977. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that the Phantom comics changed publishers 3 times over those years, so that makes the feat even more impressive. I'm a bit of a completist about comic runs, at least to a point, so I jumped at the chance to be able to read a complete run, especially considering how diverse the publishing schedule.

In regards to the content, its pretty much what you'd expect, and I don't mean that in a bad way. There's plenty of jungle action and the art is typical Gold Key, in that it's not stellar but is good.

So if you enjoy The Phantom character, you should pick this book up. If you've ever read the Gold Key Tarzan comics and enjoyed them, you should give this book a try even if you're not especially a fan of the Phantom as the comics are similar, in a good way.

[Tamam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whole bunch of Phantom comics, my childhood favorite. Loved reading these.

There are a lot of differences between the long stories of Phantom we used to read that were printed in India under Diamond Comics and the ones here. These stories are very short ones. Enjoyable nonetheless.

[Peter Drummond · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first exposure to the Phantom character was when I was a little kid watching Defenders of the Earth, and the memory of the ghost who walks stuck with me through the Phantom 2040 animated series and the movie, but I never really read any of the comics, so when I saw this pop up as a digital purchase on Comixology while I was home sick, I snatched it up.

From the introduction to the legend, the story of the Walker line intrigued me. I really like the idea of heroic lineage, and while these Walkers don't have the animal man like powers presented by Stan Lee in the Defenders cartoon, it more than makes up for it with gorgeous artwork that holds up even now - though more than once the dialogue doesn't.

Given its age it's hard for me not to force myself to rate the work by Bronze age standards. This is definitely a glimpse into a primordial age of comics, especially with its done-in-one high adventure that more comics should aspire to be. Still it feels a little dated and depthless compared to more modern comics and I struggle to keep my review to the parameters of the time and audience for which it was written…

But it's a struggle.

I want the ghost who walks to be more, and that leaves me torn. This material was clearly pulpy and of its time, and the art is tremendous, but I can't help feeling this old warhorse doesn't hold up as well as its pulpy relatives do in a modern context, especially Conan.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very attractive volume that collects the first eight Gold Key issues of The Phantom from the early '60s. Some of the art suffers a bit from being enlarged and reproduced on slick, glossy paper, but the covers are really terrific. The Phantom was first and foremost a newspaper strip hero, but translates to this format pretty well overall. It's a very good collection of nostalgia.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

great old stories that were a blast from the past.

Volume 1

Hermes Press could have added the letters page though for each edition ( a total of the first eight comics) not enough thought was put into this sadly.

[Milton Louie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a Phantom fan. Nostalgia of some Gold Key comics in hardback.