- Announcing The Phantom Poll 2002. Here is your chance to enter three competitions and be in the running to win three great prizes. Simply select your favourite Frew Phantom comic story, Frew Phantom cover, and Egmont Fantomen cover. Entries close 31 January 2003. Click here to enter.
19 December 2002
- 99.94 Editions has produced a new series of five different Phantom prints by Frew cover artist, Antonio Lemos. The artworks are available as either a set (Aus$100) or individually (Aus$25). For previews and further information click here.
30 November 2002
- There's a new Phantom game out for the Game Boy Advance. Check out some previews at microids.com. It looks to be based on the Phantom 2040 style and features a machine-gun-toting Phantom! Thanks to Peder Bjørkmann for this news.
2 November 2002
- Moonstone Books have decided to call it quits with their series of Phantom graphic novels (preview the latest issue here). There will be a total of five books in the series, which means another two are yet to hit the shelves. But there is light at the end of the tunnel! Moonstone have re-negotiated their contract with King Features, and will be producing a series of colour 32-page standard comic-format Phantom comics. These will have 28 pages of story, be self-contained, and retail for about US$3.50. Moonstone have lined up Ben Raab to be the main writer and Lou Manna to be the main penciller. The idea of this new format is to try to improve the financial viability of the Moonstone Phantom books, and maybe attract some new readers. If successful, Moonstone may move into doing 2-part stories in this format.
- Hyde Park Entertainment and Crusader Entertainment have also announced that they have acquired the rights to Mandrake the Magician from King Features Syndicate. The writing team of Josh Oppenheimer and Tom Donnelly will adapt the comic strip for the big screen. The script will be based on an old Mandrake story following the magician from the United States to Europe to South America in a big-canvas adventure story. Thanks to Andreas Eriksson and Hollywood Reporter for this news.
24 October 2002
- Variety has reported that Crusader Entertainment and Hyde Park are planning a new feature film based on The Phantom. Steven De Souza (Die Hard, 48 Hours) is working up the script, which will present a modern-day version of the character. The hope is to present a gritty and high-tech take on the character, in contrast with Paramount's 1996 period piece that starred Billy Zane. Hyde Park CEO Ashok Armitraj, a long-time fan of the comic strip, talked to Variety about the previous film. "I was among the fans who went to see the movie a few years ago and came away disappointed," he said. "We wanted to let enough time pass to try it again and I don't think the other movie will hurt this one's prospects overseas. The major thing is to put him in a contemporary setting with the weapons and gizmos and Matrix-style stuff which wasn't done in the previous film." Crusader Entertainment CEO Howard Baldwin is also a fan of the strip. Let's just hope that Hyde Park & Crusader don't get it totally wrong by presenting us with a Marvel-style Punisher version of The Phantom! More info can be found on Yahoo and Superhero Hype. My thanks to Odd Einar Rindarøy and Rusty Rafferty for alerting me to this news.
6 October 2002
- The autumn production of the University of Western Australia's Undergraduate Dramatic Society is to be the "all-singing, all-dancing, all whoop-assing" tale of The Phantum. If it's like last year's autumn production - a version of the cult TV series Monkey by the same writer and director - it's likely to be very entertaining, in an unsophisticated undergrad sort of way, but not particularly faithful to the details of the original. More information can be found at theatre.asn.au. Thanks to Paul Andinach for this news.
24 September 2002
- The Mandrake Sunday strip will be cancelled at the end of this year, once Shadows on Devil Road reaches a conclusion. Apparently this was Fred Fredericks' decision rather than something that was inflicted upon him. This will leave him with more time to work on the daily strips which will continue. It remains to be seen what King Features will do for their existing newspaper clients, although one possibility is that they will reprint older stories. (thanks to Jeffrey Lindenblatt for this news)
- A rumour flying around on www.darkhorizons.com is that film producer Ashok Amritraj has indicated recently that his company Hyde Park Entertainment has obtained the film rights to make The Phantom 2. We live in hope! (thanks to Izzy Padron for this news)
17 September 2002
- The Seattle Post Intelligencer website now provides access to the current Phantom Sundays in addition to the dailies. They also enable access to a large archive of old strips back to when KFS first started providing the Sundays on-line (ie. April 15, 2001). For example, check out these links: 15 Sep 2002, 14 Apr 2002, 14 Oct 2001, 15 Apr 2001. At the moment, the "drop-down" menu on their site doesn't show the dates for the Sundays, but they are still accessible by changing the dates in the above links (format is YYYYMMDD).
31 August 2002
- After a two year absence, Mallon Publishing have announced that The Phantom Diary is back again for 2003, with another great selection of rare and varied Phantom covers. This is Number 3 in the spiral-bound series. Readers have a chance to win original comic art by Glenn Ford by entering the Phantom crossword competition. Details in the Diary. Look for the bright new design with the pixelated Phantom on the cover. Specification: 225mm x 165mm, 120 pages, full colour throughout, wire binding. Publication: September 2002. RRP: Aus$19.95 inc GST. The Phantom Diary is now available from newsagents throughout Australia (via NDD), retail outlets (via Bookwise International), specially stores and direct from the publisher. An advertisement appears on page 3 of Frew #1332.
You can buy The Phantom Diary 2003 from the publisher by sending your name and address with a cheque or money order for Aus$19.95 plus postage and handling (Aus$5 within Australia, Aus$8 New Zealand, Aus$10 overseas), to Mallon Publishing, PO Box 375, Clifton Hill, VIC 3068, Australia.
24 August 2002
- Perl Elvestuen is one of Norway's best and well known editorial cartoonist, he is daily published on page 2 in the Norwegian business daily newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. His cartoon from 14 July 2001 is of interest to Phantom Phans. It shows a caricature of Norwegian Secretary of Finance, Mr. Per Christian Foss as the Phantom, riding Hero as the CEO of Norway's largest investment bank, DnB, Mr. Stein Gjerdrem. The issue last year was that Mr. Gjerdrem wanted to sell a large portfolio of shares to foreign investors, which Mr. Foss would not allow. The text reads: "Old Jungle Saying: When national interests are at stake, the Secretary of Finance dons his costume and fights back." My thanks to Jon Berger for this piece of news.
19 August 2002
- Moonstone Books have produced a series of prints based on the cover artwork of their comic books. Included is a print of Joel Naprstek's cover for The Singh Web. All art prints are approximately 11"x17", colour, and printed on heavy bond paper. Prints are shipped rolled in a hard cardboard tube. All prints retail at US$20 and have a $2.50 additional shipping fee (per order not per print). For further information and to place your orders, visit the Moonstone Books website and click on "Shop".
- The Phantom movie has finally been released on DVD in Australia. Sadly it doesn't contain any extra features apart from the theatrical trailer. At least it comes with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and 2.35:1 widescreen format which is a major improvement on the VHS video version.
12 August 2002
- Antonio Lemos is a Phantom cover artist whose work will be very familiar to readers of Frew's Phantom comic. You now have the opportunity to commission your own custom-made original artwork by Antonio. So if you've ever wanted to be immortalized in an artwork of your own design, drawn by one of the best in Australia, visit Art By Antonio and send him an email.
- Issue Nr.15/2002 of Fantomen contains the results of the annual reader poll to select the best Swedish Phantom cover of 2001. The results were quite different to the Norwegian poll (see 5 August below). Although Hans Lindahl's cover for Nr.14 and Sy Barry's Nr.19 both polled strongly, the outright winner was Dag R. Frognes' cover for Nr.15 (was 3rd in Norway). This is a fascinating result since Frognes is actually Norwegian and one might expect him to poll better in his home country. The poll results for the top 10 places are summarised below. A total of 268 votes were received this year. My thanks to Stefan Lundin for this news.
| Nr. | Artist | Votes |
| 15 | Frognes |  50 |
| 14 | Lindahl | 36 |
| 19 | Barry | 26 |
| 4 | Lindahl | 23 |
| 11 | Gohs | 23 |
| 23 | Lindahl | 23 |
26 | Spadari | 15 |
| 24 | Gohs | 12 |
| 9 | Gohs | 10 |
| 16 | Sammarini | 9 |
5 August 2002
- Those with a eagle eye would have noticed in today's Phantom Sunday strip that Graham Nolan gave a subtle tip of the hat to writer Claes Reimerthi. If you missed it, check out the first "drop-out" panel showing a newspaper headline -- notice the by-line? King Features have been reluctant to give credit to the current writers of The Phantom strips (dailies - Tony De Paul, Sundays - Claes Reimerthi), and they all work under the pseudonym of Lee Falk. Graham has taken to signing his strips with "Falk & Nolan" as a small hint that someone else is writing the stories. This is the first time he has managed to give a surreptitious credit to the actual writer.
- Issue Nr.15/2002 of Fantomet contains the results of the annual reader poll to select the best Norwegian Phantom cover of 2001. Just as in the Phantom Poll 2001 five months ago, it was a close race between Hans Lindahl's cover for Nr.14 and Sy Barry's Nr.19, but Lindahl won once again. The poll results for the top 10 places are summarised below. A total of 256 votes were received this year.
| Nr. | Artist | Votes |
| 14 | Lindahl | 57 |
| 19 | Barry | 45 |
| 15 | Frognes | 26 |
| 23 | Lindahl | 24 |
| 11 | Gohs | 23 |
| 4 | Lindahl | 21 |
| 26 | Spadari | 19 |
| 8 | Walk | 7 |
| 20 | Boix | 6 |
| 24 | Gohs | 5 |
| 16 | Sammarini | 5 |
22 July 2002
- The lucky winner of the Moonstone giveaway competition is Chris Walker from Western Australia. With a name like that, Chris was bound to be a Phantom Phan! Now while Chris is enjoying his free copy of The Singh Web, I expect that everyone else who entered will be visiting their nearest comic book store to buy their own. Don't delay, show your support for this new American publisher.
- Swedish Phan Magnus Eriksson has recently published some fascinating interviews with various Phantom writers and artists. The name Sy Barry is familiar to us all, but some may be less aware of the contributions of Scandinavian creators Rolf Gohs (cover artist), Stefan Nagy (artist), Knut Westad (artist), Lennart Moberg (writer & artist), and Janne Lundström (writer). The latter four guys were interviewed on the same day at an event held by the Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club. You can read about them in the "Interviews" section of Magnus' website, fantomen.cjb.net (yes - it's all in English!).
10 July 2002
- Jim and Judith Shepherd of Frew Publications have recently returned from their annual trip to the USA. During this visit, Jim has finally managed to find a high quality source for the elusive old Sunday stories The Fire Goddess, The Beachcomber, and The Saboteurs (1940-41). King Features will be scanning those stories from Lee Falk's collection of original colour Sundays and digitally extracting the colour to produce black and white art for Frew's Phantom comic. An onerous task considering there are 50 pages to process! Frew are also negotiating the rights to reprint the current Mandrake Sunday story featuring The Phantom (visit Phantom Classics to read it on-line). And lastly, the recent dabble with reprinting old Frew editions (#1324, #1325, #1326) will not be repeated ... hallelujah! Instead, Jim is intending to fill some gaps in the Frew schedule with old Semic/Egmont stories that have never been printed in Australia.
- Australian Penthouse are offering readers of their August 2002 edition the chance to win a signed portfolio of Masterworks prints (preview them all here). To be in the running to win the set, email penthouse-giveaways@gemkilt.com.au with your favourite Phantom jungle saying, and include your name and postal address. Entries close 30 September 2002 and only one entry per person will be accepted. To order a set of prints contact 99.94 Editions (more info).
4 July 2002
- Moonstone Books have released Volume 2 of The Phantom for the American market. Ben Raab and Fernando Blanco have teamed up once again to produce an action-packed story called The Singh Web. Once again you have a chance to WIN a free copy. To enter, just email guran@deepwoods.org with your answer to the following question:
What are three books (other than The Phantom) recently published by Moonstone? Remember to include your full name, email and postal address. The first randomly drawn entry wins a copy of issue #2. Entries close 5pm on 20 July (Australian Eastern Time).
(Hint - check out the Moonstone Books website) - Paramount's The Phantom movie is due for DVD release in Australia (region 4) on 9th August 2002. Further reading is available at EzyDVD, PlanetDVD, and AtlanticDVD. Thanks to Andrew Gibki for this news.
16 June 2002
- Ivan Pedersen from Norway has created a new website called Phantom Classics on which he is building a small collection of classic Phantom stories that websurfers can read. He will also provide some information about these old stories, as well as other things of relevance for Lee Falk's The Phantom strip. The first such addition is a collection of highlights from the first year of the daily strip in 1936.
- The Internet Archive, unveiled on 24 October 2001, is a fantastic new facility featuring the Wayback Machine, which makes it possible to surf pages stored in the Internet Archive's web archive. Using this search engine, we are now able to access archives of Phantom daily strips that were formerly on the Houston Chronicle and King On-line sites. The web archive even has The Phantom Movie site but unfortunately it only grabbed the entry pages since the rest of the site was accessible by members only. My thanks to Rusty Rafferty for uncovering this extremely useful site.
8 June 2002
- Starting with issue #42 of The Missing Years, SPEC Productions will start reprinting old Mandrake Sundays. They will be starting with The Miss Galaxy Beauty Contest story from 1956 where Pioneer Press left off about 10 years ago. The magazine also reprints the following strips: Rip Kirby by Alex Raymond (currently in 1952), Johnny Hazard by Frank Robbins (1954), Terry and the Pirates by George Wunder (1954), and Captain Easy by Leslie Turner (1946). In the near future, they also hope to run some Phantom Sundays from the 1960s. Subscription for six issues of the magazine costs $60 in the USA and $78 for non-USA. All money should be sent to: SPEC Productions, P.O. Box 32, Manitou Springs, CO 80829, USA. For more information, contact Jeffrey Lindenblatt.
- Egmont Norway will soon start their own website with info about their magazine Fantomet. They will post info about the latest issue, as well as some Fantomet Club stuff. Competitions and Fantomet Shop will be some of the things that are planned to go both in the magazine and on the web. The address is simply www.fantomet.no. Thanks to Kjell Steen and Ivan Pedersen for this news.
- I've also discovered a very nice looking website called The Phantom Chronicles. Check it out!
30 May 2002
- Time for a little bit of self-promotion: yesterday The Deep Woods was featured in a web review called Mighty Men - 7 Popular Comic Book Heroes at the popular Indian website rediff.com. The article featured websites on comic book heroes Superman, Spiderman, Zorro, Batman, Tarzan, and Mandrake. I was amazed to see this humble Phantom website feature SECOND in this illustrious list! The power of one of the world's most populous countries was then brought home with a thud: the number of daily visitors to The Deep Woods jumped from an average of about 250 to an incredible 1300, and 160Mb of files were transferred in 24 hours (more than double the peak recorded when the first Moonstone book was released)!
- The third edition of Johnson's Official Phantom Price Guide is soon to be published. It is rumoured that author Nigel Johnson has hiked up the recommended prices for Frew Phantom comics by 20-30%. Not good news for those building their collections! Thanks to Colin Williams and Will Dorrington for this news.
- In the latest issue of Fantomen, editor Michael Jaatinen announced that they will be taking a closer look at Team Fantomen and the stories made by them. He admitted that some of the recent stories hadn't been quite up to the quality people expect from Fantomen (mainly artistically). For example, artist Don Perlin is out after his second story. A direct consequence of this is that there will be some reprints of "classic" Team Fantomen stories in the future, which will give the editors (Jaatinen and Ulf Granberg) time to "stir things up". This can only be good news for future Phantom stories created by the team!
- Some old news that I only just became aware of. At the recent annual comics fair in Gothenburg, Sweden, writer Claes Reimerthi and artist/writer Hans Lindahl were honored with the prestigious Adamson Statuette from the Swedish Academy of Comic Art for "Best Swedish Creators". Each year this award is presented to one foreign creator and one Swedish creator. Lee Falk was awarded the "Best International Creator" award in about 1977. Congratulations to Claes and Hans for receiving the recognition they fully deserve!
- My thanks to Andreas Eriksson for the latter two news items.
25 May 2002
- The results of the reader poll to select the best Phantom story of 2001 in Sweden's Fantomen comic are also now in. The poll results for the top 5 places are summarised below. The runaway winner was Claes Reimerthi and César Spadari's The Prodigal Son (2nd in Norway and 2nd [of the new stories] in the Deep Woods Poll). Four of Reimerthi's six stories in 2001 featured in the top 5 stories - a fitting testament of the outstanding quality of his scripts in recent times. A total of 172 votes were received this year - exactly the same number as in Norway! My thanks to Andreas Eriksson for sending the results.
| Nr. | Story Title | Writer & Artist | Votes |
| 9 | The Prodigal Son | Reimerthi & Spadari | 48 |
| 14 | The Spy | Lindahl | 13 |
| 17 | The Terrorists | De Paul & Leppänen | 13 |
| 4 | Island of Vengeance | Reimerthi & Lindahl | 10 |
| 15 | Night of the Pirates | Reimerthi & Boix | 8 |
| 20 | The Ghost House | Reimerthi & Boix | 8 |
| 25 | The Invisible Phantom | Raab & Ryan | 8 |
19 May 2002
- The June 2002 edition of Australian Penthouse includes a feature article called Comic Kings by Owen Thompson, about the various Australian writers and artists who are making careers out of the comic book industry. Where's the Phantom connection, I hear you ask. Well the article includes comments from Dave DeVries and Glenn Lumsden (creators of the 1995 Phantom miniseries by Marvel), and there's a full page image of their limited edition Masterworks print of The Phantom. So now you have an excuse to buy this men's magazine "for the articles"!
- Issue Nr.10/2002 of Fantomet contains the results of the annual reader poll to select the best Phantom story of 2001. The poll results for the top 5 places are summarised below. The clear winner was Ben Raab and Paul Ryan's The Invisible Phantom, as was the case in the Phantom Poll 2001. Stories by artist César Spadari finished second, third and fourth, giving a strong indication of his increased popularity amongst Fantomet readers. A total of 172 votes were received this year.
| Nr. | Story Title | Writer & Artist | Votes |
| 25 | The Invisible Phantom | Raab & Ryan | 27 |
| 9 | The Prodigal Son | Reimerthi & Spadari | 24 |
| 26 | Convent Island | Bishop & Spadari | 13 |
| 6 | The Highwayman | De Paul & Spadari | 11 |
| 19 | The Wharf Rats | Falk & Barry | 10 |
| 23 | The Jungle Rally | Lindahl | 10 |
11 May 2002
- The winner of the Frew Cover Art competition (see 29 March entry below) has been announced in the latest issue of the Frew Phantom Comic due on sale 17 May. The winner is ... Brian Cook of Ridgewood WA. The answers to the questions were:
- Jimmy Wells, Melville Horton, The Phantom (all in The Singh Brotherhood)
- Connie (The Devil Road)
- Diana (The Diamond Hunters), The Sand Hermit (The Slave Traders), Suzie (The Governor and Suzie)
- Heloise, Queen of Koqania, The Hanta Witch (The Heirs)
- The Rattle
- The Impostor
2 May 2002
- News just in from Fred Fredericks ... beginning on 19 May in the Sunday Mandrake strip, The Phantom will be teaming up with Mandrake and Lothar in an adventure that involves the old Devil Road (1947/48 dailies, D31). This will not be a cameo appearance - The Phantom will be appearing all through the story - a real crossover and, Fred hopes, a treat for Phantom fans. My thanks to Jostein Hansen and Ed Rhoades for early warning of this news.
- Pete Klaus and Ed Rhoades from Friends of The Phantom have made yet another cameo appearance in a Phantom story. This time they have the honour of appearing in the Phantom Sunday strip on 28 April ... Lee Falk's 91st birthday. If you'd like to see their previous cameo, check out the Phantom News entry from 12 December 2000. Ed informs me that their characters eventually get knocked out on 2 June. A small archive of The Phantom Sundays can be read on Karl-Johan Lien's website.
- And while we're on the subject of reading The Phantom on-line, Norwegian Phan Ivan Pedersen has recently commenced a project to scan and colour some classic Phantom strips. He hopes to post a few new strips every week - for how long this continues will depend on the feedback he receives. The results can be viewed on Ivan's Fantomet-Web.
25 April 2002
- Joel Naprstek has kindly sent in some of his preliminary thumbnails and colour studies for his Moonstone Phantom covers: The Singh Web (book 2) thumbnails A1-A2, A5, A6, A7 & colour study S7 (final); and The Treasures of Bangalla (book 3) thumbnails A1, A2, A7 (final).
4 April 2002
- The two randomly drawn winners of the Moonstone giveaway competition are Warren Shardlow and Craig Van Leeuwen. They will each receive a free copy of Moonstone's first Phantom book, The Ghost Killer. Congratulations! My thanks to all those who entered. Better luck next time.
- Egmont Imagination India have decided to rationalise their publication of The Phantom from a comic into a book format, which will be available only in book stores throughout India. The current series of Phantom comics will probably cease after issue #20. It is unclear at this stage, exactly what the new book format will look like. Please visit Aman King's website for more information.
29 March 2002
- Frew Publications have launched a new competition in which you can win Antonio Lemos' original cover art used for Frew #1317. The prize also includes Antonio's original colour guide overlay and a printer's colour proof. To enter, you need to correctly answer six questions that appear in Frew #1318 and #1319:
- Name, in order, the first three men to either propose or suggest marriage to Diana.
- Name the first person to receive the original Good Mark from The Phantom.
- Name, in order, the first three characters to see The Phantom's face.
- What was the name and full title of the wife of the 8th Phantom?
- In what story did "The Little People" make their first appearance?
- In what story did a character known as "Trader Joe" make his first appearance?
- Lastly, a reminder that your chance to WIN a free copy of Moonstone's first Phantom book, The Ghost Killer runs out at 5pm on 31 March (Australian Eastern Daylight-savings Time). To enter, just email guran@deepwoods.org with your name and mailing address. The first two randomly drawn entries win a copy of issue #1.
21 March 2002
- Graphic artist Doug Sturk has created a couple of Phantom wallpaper designs using the 3d graphics program called Poser. You can download them from his SturkWurk website (version 1 and version 2) and they will soon be available on my Wallpaper page.
14 March 2002
- After an absence of almost seven years, The Phantom made his return to American comic stores with the first volume by Moonstone Books in February 2002. Now here's your chance to WIN a free copy of Moonstone's first Phantom book, The Ghost Killer. To enter, just email guran@deepwoods.org with your name and mailing address. The first two randomly drawn entries win a copy of issue #1. Entries close 5pm on 31 March (Australian Eastern Daylight-savings Time).
3 February 2002
- The winners and results of The Phantom Poll 2001 are announced today.
- Phantom Sundays can still be accessed at King On-Line but with a two week delay. This Link provides a shortcut to the Phantom strip (dailies and Sundays), which changes daily. There is no archive available so you will need to make sure you download the Sunday strips every Sunday.
- Frantz Kantor's portrait of the 20th Phantom is previewed on this page (see news from 31 January).
31 January 2002
- It appears that the surreptitious source for Phantom dailies & Sundays has finally been closed at the King On-Line site. Access to this directory is now password protected. It was good while it lasted! The daily strip can still be downloaded from Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, or King Features Syndicate. I am not aware of any newspapers that subscribe to the Phantom Sundays for access from their websites. I strongly urge all Phantom Phans to start campaigning the above newspaper websites to add The Phantom Sundays to their line-up.
- 99.94 Editions have finally released the 7th print in their Phantom Generations limited edition print series. It's been a long wait since the last one, in April 2000! This latest print is by Frantz Kantor, and depicts the 20th Phantom pitched in an aerial dogfight with German Messerschmitt Bf109s over the skies of 1940s New York. A fantasy scene not based on any particular Phantom story, but it still makes for a very striking piece of art. A preview of the print will be posted on this website within the next few days.
19 January 2002
- Here's something for the kids! Sydney's Sunday Telegraph and Frew Phantom Comics will be running a Phantom colouring competition on Sunday 27th January 2002. The colouring form will appear in the Funday Telegraph section (ie. the comics section) of The Sunday Telegraph. Entrants have the chance to win 1 of 50 copies of the 2002 Annual Special. The Sunday Telegraph is one of only six newspapers that publish colour Phantom Sundays in Australia (although you need a microscope to read it!).
- Juha Tynninen has started preparing an index of all Phantom publications from Finland. The results of Juha's labours can be found on his website. It is still a work in progress and when completed, the site will contain cover scans for every Phantom publication in Finland. Unfortunately the site is currently only in Finnish, but that will be corrected in the future.
- After a five month wait, issue #2 of Fantasma Pocket has been published by Opera Graphica Editora of Brazil. This edition contains the story Buried Treasure (D183) from the 1994/95 daily strips. See the news items from 23 August and 7 June 2001 for details of other Fantasma comics from the same publisher. My thanks to Dédy Edson for providing the news.
- Finally, a reminder that entries to The Phantom Poll 2001 will close in less than two weeks from now (31 January). So far entries have been received from about 50 people, and with three different prizes to be one, the chances of winning are much better then you'd expect from most competitions. If you haven't already done so, get your entries in before you miss out. I should also add that those who would like to vote but not be in the running for prizes are welcome to do so -- simply make a note of this in the comments box of the entry forms.
11 January 2002
- Fantomet Nr.25/2001 has finally arrived in the mail so I've belatedly posted the preview. The latest issue of Fantomet can be previewed on the New@Egmont page.
- Yet another Australian business has "borrowed" from The Phantom as you will see from the design of the website for Phantom Cycles. Judging by the logo, it looks to be a definite recognition of The Phantom. Thanks to Warren Shardlow for this news.
- A new Phantom Message Board has been started by Phantom phan, Al B. Harper. Yet another place for you to discuss all things Phantom. Meanwhile, the Lee Falk Fanclub at Yahoo has been deleted by the owner. There's still The Skull Cave Club and Phantom Phan's Club.
6 January 2002
- I've just learned that way back in March 2001, Indian Express Egmont Publications was rechristened Egmont Imagination (India). The new company is now wholly owned by Egmont International, since they bought out the 50% stake of Indian Express Newspapers. For further details, refer to this news report. A video from the opening ceremony of the Egmont Imagination (India) office can be viewed here (look for the article entitled Egmont India Conquers an Old Textile Mill).
- Further news from Egmont Imagination (India) is that they recently published eight special editions of The Phantom, not two as was first thought. Apart from the two issues described below (1 January 2002), the other six issues contain the following stories:
- The Test and Barbary Pirates,
- Ku Klux Klan and Return of the Ghost,
- Tiger Girl and Lord of the Jungle,
- The Ghost Who Died Twice and The Chief of the Stork People,
- Devil's Story and Death in Central Park,
- The Monument and Island of Death,
1 January 2002
- Egmont Imagination (India) Ltd (formerly Indian Express Egmont Publications) has recently published two new special editions of The Phantom. The unnumbered specials are larger than the regular series (214mm x 276mm) and are printed on high gloss paper with card stock covers. The printing is very clear and the colours bright. Each book contains two Phantom stories: Zombie Maker and Witchdoctor's Secret in the first book, and Aron and Hoogan's Revenge in the second. The books also contain a few pages on topics such as western rock music, bunge jumping, Sahara and Kalahari deserts, and the history of pirates. My thanks to Ed Rhoades for this news.
- Almost 60 years after her role as Diana in the 1943 Phantom serial, the professional career of Jeanne Bates is far from over. Her latest outing is a part in David Lynch's current movie, Mulholland Drive. The reviews of the film have been generally very good (read Roger Ebert's review). Film buffs in the Phantom Community might like to watch out for Jeanne in this movie. My thanks to Bob Griffin for this news.
- King Features recently began providing Spanish versions of The Phantom daily strip via their King On-Line subscribers-only site. At present, I am not aware of any newspapers that subscribe to these Phantom dailies for access from their websites. An archive of Spanish dailies can be accessed using this link.
