The Phantom is Alive! Long Live the Phantom! Mythos Brazil is back publishing the Phantom.
Brazil has such a rich publishing history with the Phantom, and was one of the handful countries that published Phantom comics prior to 1940. In fact at one stage, there were even people who believed that Brazil had published the world's first Phantom comic!
Of the South American publishing houses, RGE from Editora Globo has the richest Phantom publishing history, creating their own stories even before Fratelli Spada and Team Fantomen.
This is a positive turnaround in the Phantom's fortunes. In 2018, Fantomet (Egmont Norway) was cancelled, following the 2017 departure of Kızılmaske (Turkey Büyülü Çizgi Roman). It is always sad when publishers stop publishing the Phantom, so it is very exciting now that the Brazilian publisher is having another go.
At the start of the year in February, Mythos release a cryptic note "He Will Come Back!" with an image of the Phantom. Truth be told, no one at Chronicle Chamber caught this vital clue. Now the plans are released.
Four issues will be released for the year, each 100 pages including the cover. They will be in black and white, and 16cm x 21cm in size. From what we have been able to find out, these issues will cost around 100 Brazilian Real each ($35-40 AU & $25-30 US). The stories in the four issues will be a mix of Daily and Sunday stories from Wilson McCoy and Sy Barry.
The most exciting news of this announcement however is that they have promised something else including they will NOT just publish classical stories. Does this mean if the sales are positive, they will be releasing new stories? Will they be Moonstone or Team Fantomen, or their own stories? Perhaps even Frew's new tales? Only time will tell.
Unusually, Mythos have already announced the contents of the entire run. The stories featured in the four issues will be:
Issue One: The Ismani Cannibals, The Scarlet Sorceress, Tale of Devil, The 'Copter Pirates, Diana and the Robbers Bank and The Horned Star Demons
Issue Two: The Rattle, A Lesson for Prince Orq, The Frameup, The Monster of Green Valley and The Plant God of the Massau (part 1)
Issue Three: The Plant God of the Massau (part 2), The Honeymooners, The Limper, Little Girl, The Swamp Dragon and The Three Bandits
Issue Four: Phantom Head Peak, Exodus of the Little People, The Eastern Dark at Janorra and Tiger, Tiger
Mythos has their own publishing history with the Phantom, publishing 8 comics between 2007 and 2016. The 2007 series featured (new at that time) Newspaper stories by Tony DePaul, Paul Ryan & Graham Nolan as well as classical stories by Lee Falk and Sy Barry. In 2016 they also republished Dynamite stories, including The Last Phantom and King's Watch.
We promise we won't miss the next announcements from Mythos and will do our best to obtain copies of the comics to include them in our Comics and News reviews podcasts.
Thanks to Norwegian phan Glenn Folkvord for the heads up on this exciting news piece.
