Phantom Comic Book Survey

[JoeMD]

Thanks for this, Kevin. I'll try and up-date this onto the site tonight, but I've a lot of year 8 reports to write and a new kitten that is demanding a lot of my time. ^_^

[Kevin Patrick]

Hi, everyone

I'm writing this post with a special plea to any Phantom "phans" living in India who participate in the ChronicleChamber Forums, in the hopes that you can help me spread the word about my PhD research project, 'The History of The Phantom Comic Book in Australia, India and Sweden' (https://phantomcomicsurvey.wordpress.com/).

A key part of my research project is an international online readers survey, wherein I hope to canvass opinions from readers of The Phantom from Australia, India and Sweden, to discover why 'The Ghost Who Walks' has been so popular in these three remarkably different countries for so long . (If you've not yet taken this anonymous & entirely voluntary survey, you can read about it here:
https://phantomcomicsurvey.wordpress.co ... or-survey/

Now, to date, I've received over 240 completed surveys, which is a great result as far as I'm concerned, and I hope that I will receive even more survey responses in the coming weeks and months. However, responses from Australian & Swedish "phans" have been in the majority, while "phans" from India account for less than 7 per cent of all surveys received so far.

So, what can I do to improve this response rate? Despite emailing the owners of many Phantom/Indrajal Comics-related websites and blogs about my project, I've only received a handful of replies (I am nonetheless very grateful for those Indian "phans" who did answer my emails, and have provided links to my website & online survey). I'm sure there are many more Indian Phantom "phans" online out there, who would enjoy taking part in my survey - but who perhaps haven't heard about my project, yet.

So, this is my special plea to ChronicleChamber Forum participants living in India - how would you suggest I go about promoting my research project and online survey to Indian readers? Should I join India's leading social networking site, Orkut? Or are there other strategies I should adopt in order to reach out to Indian "phans" of the Ghost Who Walks?

Your feedback and suggestions would be most welcome.

- Kevin Patrick

[Vivek]

Facebook is leading now in India, usage of Orkut has declined drastically.

Kevin, I would suggest you to contact http://www.comicconindia.com/ and forward them your survey details. If they feature the survey via an article on their site and FB page, you will likely get lot of hits from Indian readers.

https://www.facebook.com/ComicConIndia

[JoeMD]

Kevin, I've added all your news to the site. Also, I uploaded a copy of the presentation to CCs servers so people could download it without having to sign up to the site. Hope that's OK? I posted a comment on your blog too.

Also, I combined all the Survey threads into one, so please feel free to just post here with any future news.

Cheers.

[Kevin Patrick]

Hi everyone

Vivek - thanks for the tip about the Indian Comic Con. I will definitely follow this up, as it seems like an ideal online forum to reach a wide number of Indian comic-book fans (and, hopefully, some Phantom 'phans', too!)

Joe - Thanks for consolidating all my forum posts about the Phantom Comic Book Survey onto a single thread - I'm sure everyone will appreciate the simplicity of this arrangement! Am more than happy for you to have hosted a PDF copy of my Carlstad Comic Convention presentation on CC servers - always appreciate the added exposure! (And I've responded to your comment on my WordPress blog, too)

Thanks to everyone at ChronicleChamber for their ongoing interest & support in my research project!

- Kevin Patrick

[JoeMD]

Don't suppose you're in Sydney this weekend, Kevin? If so, you should stop by the CC Gathering! It's be great to meet you and talk about your research!

[Kevin Patrick]

Hi everyone

I've been pretty busy with academic deadlines since returning from my research trip to Sweden (home of Fantomen HQ!), but I've made some time to update my research project blog, by writing a post about the influence of The Phantom on India's comic-book industry.

My latest blog post is titled 'The Phantom, Anant Pai and India's Comic-Book Industry', and you can read it here:
https://phantomcomicsurvey.wordpress.co ... -industry/

As always, I look forward to receiving any comments or questions about this post, either here in the ChronicleChamber Forums, or on my Phantom Comic Book Survey blog.

Best wishes

- Kevin Patrick

[Kevin Patrick]

Hi everyone

The Phantom Comic Book Survey achieved a significant milestone earlier this week, when it notched up 500 completed reader surveys! To mark the occasion, I've decided to compile a brief statistical snapshot about Phantom "phans" from Australia, India and Sweden, based on what they've told me about their enthusiasm for 'The Ghost Who Walks'.

You can read my latest blog post here:
http://phantomcomicsurvey.wordpress.com ... -snapshot/

I should stress that this is a just a brief analysis of some top-level findings. "Phans" have gone to great lengths to explain in their survey responses why they enjoy The Phantom so much - or, in some cases, why they no longer read The Phantom (but are still glad that he's around, nonetheless). I've not yet begun to analyse this more in-depth data, but I plan to do so in my PhD thesis. And, if time and opportunity permits, I may be able to share some of these qualitative research findings in scholarly journals, or at academic conferences over the coming months - I'll let everyone know if and when such developments occur.

In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this brief snapshot of Phantom "phans".

And if you haven't already taken a few minutes to complete the Phantom Comic Book Survey (which is completely anonymous and confidential), then you can do so by clicking on this link:
https://www.rationalsurvey.com/s/3088

Best wishes

- Kevin Patrick

[JoeMD]

Very interesting results, Kevin. I've added a news post about this to the site. Thanks again for sharing.

[Kevin Patrick]

Hi everybody

I thought I'd take a brief (and much needed!) break from my PhD thesis to let you know that I've had a research paper, based on my research project, published in an online academic journal.

Titled " 'Phans', not Fans: The Phantom and Australian Comic-Book Fandom", this paper examines the publishing history of The Phantom comic strip and comic magazine in Australia since the 1930s, and the roles played by "phans" in promoting greater public awareness of the character, particularly since the early 1980s. This article has just been published in the latest issue of Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies (UK).

You can download a PDF copy of the article here:
http://www.participations.org/Volume%20 ... atrick.pdf

This issue of Participations also has a special section devoted to comic book audiences, which I recommend to anyone on this forum who has more than a passing interest in comic-book fan culture. You can view the full range of papers here:
http://www.participations.org/Volume%20 ... ntents.htm

I hope you enjoy reading this paper, and as always, I look forward to receiving your comments and feedback, either here in these forums, or over on my blog: https://phantomcomicsurvey.wordpress.com/

Best wishes

- Kevin Patrick