Make no bones about it - at the end of 2017 there were some serious questions being raised about whether or not Hermes Press would be able to reprint the complete run of Avon novels.
While anecdotally many phans were saying how much they were loving the Hermes Press reprints of the 1970's pulp Phantom novels from Avon Books, sales of the first four books were not sufficient to guarantee that it was going to be viable for Hermes to follow through and release all 15.
Thankfully it would appear that the thinly veiled threats from publisher Dan Herman, and subsequent reporting of same by outlets such as ChronicleChamber, have helped turn things around.
In a YouTube video released today which promotes the publication of novels 5 and 6 (which you can watch below), Dan tells us:
"Thanks to Phantom phans out there getting behind this book series, we're going to be able to print all 15 of them. Previously I had implied, not so subtly, that we needed the support of the Phantom community to continue printing these books because the numbers had gone down with regards to the orders we were getting. Well, thank you Phantom phans, because you have come through again. The numbers of these books is adequate, the sales of these books is adequate, so we will print the entire fifteen, the complete fifteen, Phantom Avon novels."
It surely goes without saying that this is sensational news for Phantom phans and collectors. While the concern for some longtime collectors has been that the original Avons may drop in value with the release of these modern reprints, prices achieved for these via eBay or Facebook community sales would seem to suggest that the value of the originals has maintained or even increased since the availability of the modern version.
