Staff Picks (August14): The Phantom #1

Publisher: Hermes Press

The comic strips and pulps of the 20s and 30s paved the way for many of the comic book heroes we read to this day. The Phantom went from swearing an oath on his father’s skull to his skintight outfit with blank domino mask and became the first true masked avenger.

While in recent years others have attempted to bring The Phantom to comic books, in all instances those projects failed to give us the true “Ghost Who Walks.” When you read The Phantom you should hear drums beating in the background and the growl of a devil dog.

Hermes Press, with years of producing successful collections of the classic Phantom daily and Sunday newspaper strips, has now ventured into producing all-new adventures of the first costumed avenger, The Phantom, written by comic veteran Peter David and illustrated by Egmont’s Phantom artist Sal Velluto, who deliver to us the real Phantom.

In this new series, The Phantom’s adventures take place in the post WW II-era against the Singh Brotherhood, a villainous group dating back to the very first Phantom adventure. Working in an era free from the current world’s social-political bias, it’s the story that commands your attention as the Phantom takes on the Singh Brotherhood in the City of Gold -- and you thought only loin clothed jungle men had sole visitation right to that city.

The Phantom returns, the real one, in a 6-issue mini-series with fantastic artwork by Sal Velluto and a script by Peter David that once again shows us he knows how to write iconic characters, all wrapped in covers by Sal as well as Spider-Man strip artist Alex Saviuk and former Phantom artist Graham Nolan.

~ Steve Leaf