The Phantom Sundays Archive: Full Size Half Pages 1939-1942

The Phantom: The Complete Sundays #1

by Lee Falk, Ray Moore (Artist), Daniel Herman (Editor)

Imagine waking up in 1939 and reading the first Phantom Sunday strip in the newspaper. Now, for the first time, these rare Phantom Sundays are being collected in their full size in an archival reprint of the first six Phantom stories! The stories for these Sundays was created by Lee Falk with artwork by Ray Moore in a half page format, so this reprint is faithful to the originals and reproduces every detail of these Sundays as seen in Sunday sections of newspapers. These Sunday pages have the same look and feel of the originals only now they're collected in a high quality art book format that will last forever. The print run of this book is limited to 1000 copies.

Genres: Comics, Superheroes, Comic Strips

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 29, 2012

About the author

Lee Falk, born Leon Harrison Gross (April 28, 1911 - March 13, 1999), was an American writer, theater director and producer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strips The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician. At the height of their popularity, these strips attracted over 100 million readers every day. Falk also wrote short stories, and he contributed to a series of pulp novels about The Phantom

Reviews

[Dan]

I'd never read any Phantom comics before, which is weird because he's often recognized as the first costumed super hero, predating Superman even. I'm going to read some '70s ones next and hope they tone down the blatant racism a bit.

[ISMOTU]

The first volume of Sunday strips of the Phantom's adventures contains seven storylines: "The League of Lost Men" where a band of criminals wreak havoc in the Deep Woods, "The Precious Cargo of Colonel Winn" where the Phantom is ensnared in a spy plot with a ridiculous code at its centre, "The Fire Goddess" has a redheaded woman embodying a more sinister version of the Phantom's shtick, "The Beachcomber" shows the Phantom clearing the name of a wrongfully accused hobo, "The Saboteurs" is a short adventure where the Ghost Who Walks protects a vague military apparatus, "The Return of the Sky Band" marks a sequel to a classic early Phantom story, and "The Imposter" where a fugitive murderer steals the Phantom's costume and sends the Deep Woods into chaos.

Ray Moore's art is fairly typical of adventure comic strips from the era as are the cringe-worthy moments of casual sexism and colonialism.

[John Grace]

The art hasn't aged well, but the stories are fun. Some of these tales were used in both the 40s serial and the 1996 movie.

[Joe]

Victory through graphical superiority