The Phantom The Complete Newspaper Dailies Volume 6

I was suprised that in Volume 5 that only one adventure in six took place in The Phantom's jungle and four took place in the USA. This volume begins in the middle of 1944 and ends in 1946 bringing us the first post World War Two adventures and a return to Phantom's jungle and other exotic locales like a near bye India type country in the first story and in the last story a location at sea in the Melo Straits. No adventures take place in the USA and no war spies are to be found in any of the adventures.Both myself and Hermes Press got trashed in my last review because I dared to give it a five star review even though they used some truncated strips that many newspapers started using during the WW2 paper shortage.In this volume publisher Daniel Herman has a full editorial explaining the difficulties in obtaining the best quality proofs for reproduction. To this I add my own plea for understanding. These strips are 60 to 70 years old and the reproduction looks incredible. I think Hermes Press is doing us a great service in bringing these collections together.Lee Falk is at his peak bringing us 5 action packed adventure tales in this volume. Wilson McCoy who took over the daily art chores during the last collection continues on with his simple but very polished style. The orginal artist Ray Moore comes back to help out on the final story of this volume. Here are my thoughts on the indivual stories.#1 THE MAHARAJAH'S DAUGHTER is the longest and best story of the volume. This story arc ran over eight months. It starts out as a simple case of Maharajah being abducted as a ploy to get his daughter to wed a less then honest business man. From there the story takes many twists and turns. Diane Palmer shows up half way through this story. Miss Palmer(the Phantom's love interest) is in all five stories. This story is also noted for intruducing us to Hero the Phantom's faithful white horse who joined him many advetures.#2 THE BLUE GANG is a story about two old duffs betting a million dollars on the existence of the Phantom. One of men making the wager turns out to be the leader of the Blue Gang. This is a lighter, more homourous story.#3 LAGO THE LAKE GOD is an often told tale about an outsider pretending to be a God in order to bilk the natitives out of their riches.#4 THE WILD GIRL is a story about a young circus girl and her pet lion who travel to the jungle and set themselves up as petty robbers to survive. The Wild Girl is scantily clad in a leopard skin like Sheena. She is not really evil and there is quite a bit of humour in the story.#5 MERMAIDS OF MELO STRAITS features more scantlty clad women, this time drawn by Ray Moore who returns for this arc. While Moore might have more realistic style, I find that I am now partial to the more polished cartoon style of Wilson McCoy, but this story is fun and reminds of the two earlier runs with the woman Air Pirates.The reproduction remains crisp with dark blacks and shiny heavy paper stock. Bring on the next volume.Highly Recommended

Lee Falk's the Phantom rides again in this collection of the further newspaper dailies featuring the work of artist Wilson McCoy. These strips explore the Phantom's adventures fighting pirates at sea, in the air, and on the land. The Phantom is a hero for the ages and the decades. The Phantom loves being the Phantom, he is not conflicted about his legacy, he ENJOYS it!From Sultans to Soldiers, all have heard of and revere the Phantom. Follow along with the Phantom and his adventures.

Another super collection in the this newspaper series, still featuring the superb writing of Lee Falk, and great art by newcomer Wilson McCoy (although the last storyline features art by both Ray Moore and Wilson McCoy). McCoy had his own flair for this strip, but the characters are still drawn very similar to Ray Moore's early work, which many find preferable. However, the tight, fast-paced stories and fluid art, keep one rivted to the strip. A must have.

Great book

glad they could put this together in such a complete and beautiful edition.

smooth transaction. splendid

good

Extremely happy with my purchase

A must in your Phantom collection.