The Phantom Chronicles Volume 2

The Phantom Chronicles #2

by Harlan Ellison, Ruben Procopio

To the outside world, this man, seemingly immortal, has always worn the mask. As the legend grew, it transcended the life of any one mortal. And that legend became The Phantom Just in time for Syfy's Phantom movie and the Seth Rogan Green Hornet movie comes this volume of 15 all-new short stories This book features the first team-up ever of the Phantom and the Green Hornet, and a brand-new story written by Harlan Ellison With an introduction by Phantom creator Lee Falk's daughter, Diane Falk, plus stories from writers including Ellison, Robin Wayne Bailey, Mike Bullock, Joe Gentile, and many more.

Genres: Pulp, Mystery, Anthologies

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 2009

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a second anthology of prose stories featuring Lee Falk's purple-clad superhero who's been fighting piracy and crime since 1536... or since 1936 in the comics. The book contains fifteen stories, most of them pretty good ones. There are a couple of historical stories in which previous Phantoms fight Nazis, for example, but for the most part the stories feature our current 21st Kit Walker. I particularly enjoyed Win Scott Eckert's story which has some nice cameos from other turn-of-the-last-century literary heroes, Mathew Baugh's English Gothic romp, Joe Gentile's Devil origin tale, and also Will Murray's story despite the fact that it suffers from some serious typographical glitches. Falk's daughter wrote a nice introduction to the book. I was a tad confused by a reference on page 100 to Dorothy and the rabbit hole (he should've gone to ask Alice?), and there's a very odd non-sequitur digression about a none-too-bright-but-rather-slutty news reporter named Nancy Palmer on page 190 that doesn't fit. Is she supposed to be related to Diana, Kit's wife? We're never told why she's there. The biggest disappointment for me was the Harlan Ellison story. Ellison's story was to have been a Phantom-meets-The Green Hornet story, which might have been a neat thing, but is instead a somewhat apologetic story about Harlan Ellison and why he decided that he wasn't going to write the story. It's a well written and literary piece but ends the volume on a note of futility and frustration that is pretty much the antithesis of Lee Falk's legacy (or George W. Trendle's for that matter). Still, annoying quirks aside, it's mostly a good bundle of fun from the Skull Cave for fans of The Ghost Who Walks.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new collection of stories about The Ghost Who Walks, Lee Falk's legendary comic strip character. Stories by Ed Gorman, Harlan Ellison, Jeff Mariotte, Robin Wayne Bailey, Will Murray, and others.

Wonderful stuff.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

You gotta love a man in a mask...a rich, erudite and noble man in a mask. Really liked this volume.