Continuing the resurgence of Phantom comic publishing around the world, after a quarter of a century our favourite character has returned to the nation of Hungary. This follows the return to Spain (via Dolmen Editorial in 2018) and Brazil (via Mythos earlier this year).
In the late 1980's, Swedish publisher Semic tried to expand their titles in various nations around Europe like Russia, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Most of these forays into other nations only lasted 4-8 issues, but for whatever reason Hungary was by far the most successful with 25 comics released from 1988 until 1992 on a bi-monthly basis.
Now after 27 years, a magazine called Kockás is back publishing the Phantom. The Kockás magazine will be publishing bi-monthly in a magazine format featuring 116 pages of American and European comics. Alongside the Phantom some well known characters like Scorpia, Cat Claw, Modesty Blaise, Rip Kirby and Lucky Luke and many others will also feature.
The first issue featuring the Phantom was published 15 October 2019 and sports a black and white cover featuring Modesty Blaise. The first story is a Team Fantomen story Revenge of the Drummer by Norman Worker and art by Knut Westad. This is a sequel story to the 1963 Daily newspaper Sy Barry / Lee Falk classic The Drummer of Timpenni. We have been told that future issues will also feature classic Newspaper stories.
Below are two examples of the Phantom being featured in the first magazine, with a huge half-page splash and the first page of the Newspaper story.
We can also announce that the Phantom will be making an appearance on the front cover of the first magazine for 2020, as you can see in the advertisement below. Kockás does offer subscriptions which you can organise through their website here.
