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The Phantom: The Complete Series #4
The Phantom: The Complete Series: The Charlton Years, Volume 1
The late 1960s comic book adventures of The Phantom return in full, glorious color! Hermes Press is collecting, all 74 issues of The Phantom comic books which ran from 1962-1977, and this volume begins the Charlton years. Volume One of The Charlton Years picks up with The Phantom #30, the first Charlton issue, and features all The Phantom stories from issues #30-#40. Volume One of The Chartlon years features cover art by Frank Mclaughlin and Jim Aparo; interior art by Don Perlin, Jim Aparo, and Bill Lignante; and stories by Dick Wood and Jim Aparo. The Charlton comic book version of the grand-daddy of costumed heroes, the Ghost Who Walks, is available again, digitally remastered to look better than the original books. Don't miss it!
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 6, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 21, 2020
3.5 Stars
The Jim Aparo art in this volume is top notch, but the stories aren't quite as good as the previous volumes.
The Aparo art evolves before your eyes here as the early issues are somewhat rough and the later issues are starting to look similar to the polished art Aparo created during his Batman run, of which I am a big fan.
The stories got a little campier, which is odd since by the late 60s stories were going in a more serious direction but The Phantom seemed to do the opposite. Not horrible, just not as good as the Gold Key and King stories. Still a fun read.
The Jim Aparo art in this volume is top notch, but the stories aren't quite as good as the previous volumes.
The Aparo art evolves before your eyes here as the early issues are somewhat rough and the later issues are starting to look similar to the polished art Aparo created during his Batman run, of which I am a big fan.
The stories got a little campier, which is odd since by the late 60s stories were going in a more serious direction but The Phantom seemed to do the opposite. Not horrible, just not as good as the Gold Key and King stories. Still a fun read.
September 11, 2020
Good pulpy stories and artwork. Fun book.
March 20, 2015
I picked this series for pure nostalgia. The phantom was one of my favourite heroes while growing up. When I was really little maybe 3-4 years old, I used to eagerly look forward to Sundays so that my Dad could read the strip in the Sunday newspaper. It used to be great with Phantom bravely righting the wrong and helping the weak. I remembered great adventures in the jungle with lots of fierce animals and bad guys. So when I saw this collection on comixology I picked it up.
After reading the first few stories I was honestly a bit disappointed. The stories were very linear and hardly any fun. There are minimal plot twists and hence become predictable. The art is just okay where quite a few corners have been cut especially in proportions of animals and humans (in one story where pygmies attack a hostile tribe both look of almost same proportions). Maybe its me that my expectations have changed but I remember reading good phantom stories too. There used to be digests which contained long stories that had enough meat. This run of 'The Phantom' by Charlton comics was probably a low phase in the early 70's where the writer and the artist slacked off.
Can be avoided.
After reading the first few stories I was honestly a bit disappointed. The stories were very linear and hardly any fun. There are minimal plot twists and hence become predictable. The art is just okay where quite a few corners have been cut especially in proportions of animals and humans (in one story where pygmies attack a hostile tribe both look of almost same proportions). Maybe its me that my expectations have changed but I remember reading good phantom stories too. There used to be digests which contained long stories that had enough meat. This run of 'The Phantom' by Charlton comics was probably a low phase in the early 70's where the writer and the artist slacked off.
Can be avoided.
April 15, 2012
5 STARS for Jim Aparo's work here.
However, the material is inherently racist and quite shockingly so. It's rather a sad reminder of how backwards we once were. Pretty much, white man = smart and wise; natives = dumb and weak. If that's your cup of tea then you'll be right at home here.
The page reproductions also leave quality to be desired. The colors are mostly good but the line work is muddy, throughout. There's a few sample pages of the original art in black and white with nice clean lines, so you can see just how bad the color pages really look. And there's oddly several uncolored panels here and there on full color pages.
I can't really recommend this book, but it's a decent historical document that shows previous cultural attitudes in the USA. Most comic book publishers veer away from reprinting old material with a taste of rascism, so I have to hand it to Hermes for so clearly and bravely documenting this phenomena.
However, the material is inherently racist and quite shockingly so. It's rather a sad reminder of how backwards we once were. Pretty much, white man = smart and wise; natives = dumb and weak. If that's your cup of tea then you'll be right at home here.
The page reproductions also leave quality to be desired. The colors are mostly good but the line work is muddy, throughout. There's a few sample pages of the original art in black and white with nice clean lines, so you can see just how bad the color pages really look. And there's oddly several uncolored panels here and there on full color pages.
I can't really recommend this book, but it's a decent historical document that shows previous cultural attitudes in the USA. Most comic book publishers veer away from reprinting old material with a taste of rascism, so I have to hand it to Hermes for so clearly and bravely documenting this phenomena.
April 13, 2012
A Phantom fan - old stories but wanted it my collection.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews