The Phantom : KGB NOIR - THE HAMMER

I've been catching up on my Phantom reading and after having Hannibal King sketch on my black cover of the first issue of KGB NOIR #1 I realized I would have to frame it because it is just that good.  See...

 

So, I had to buy the trade to keep the kick ass story inside as a readable entity, because if there is one thing I like to do with The Phantom, it is re-read the stories.  KGB NOIR: THE HAMMER is an utterly unique bash up that would appeal to a slightly different audience if they decided to take a look.  So, here is a look Tomb Pals--you might want to check this out.  

The Phantom is a character that I love with a mixture of nostalgia from reading it in the paper for years as a young little DZ that hadn't started sneaking Warren magazines like 1984 into his room.  When used right, as Moonstone did most times, there are lots of possibilities for him.  A rich history, a unique element of family and high adventure, social consciousnesses and a dude in purple that punches guys and leaves them with a skull mark in their evil mugs all collide for big fun.  There are lots of great arcs and tales of The Phantom, and I'd still call KGB NOIR unique-which is a difficult thing to do. 
This is ALL ACTION PHANTOM!  I mean it. See those caps? My keyboard isn't locked. But there is THAT MUCH ACTION!! It demands CAPS!!
Watch as The Phantom lays the SMASHDOWN here...click to enlarge and make it SMASHING!!!

There isn't exactly a plot, outside of an arms deal for some WMDs that a Russian sexy sexy lady wants to use to bring down the US.  The Phantom busts heads in big action setpieces.  Seriously, that is it.  But do you always need more from your comics? I don't...   The fists fly with a quickness and the dialog is straight up superspy fun as The Ghost Who Walks gets very very corporeal and beats up all of the remaining cold warriors in the world in 6 quick and razor sharp one inch punches of sequential sweetness.  Boris gets a Batteringinov to say the very very least.
The writing is slick and quick and I enjoyed the "Serial Thrills in 2010" style presented in the original issues.  I would be waiting on the next issue eagerly, and this collection lets you skip the anticipation and just dig right in.  The dialog is a combination of insanely over the top HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH  and just knowing when to NOT have The Phantom say anything.  There isn't a whole lot of addition to the legend of The Phantom, just one big adventure that plays like a crazy violent animated summer blockbuster with exploding helicopters and an explosively curvy Russian Bombshell ready to blow up the world.  I dig it!  Imagine if Lee Falk had asked Sergio Grieco (Agent 007 series, Password: Kill Agent Gordon) to direct a Eurospy flick with an unlimited budget-that is what we got here. That brings us to the art by Fernando Peniche, who does a great job in the start of each issue by giving a quick "For those who came in late" splash to drop the reader in to the fun.

On first look I found the art to be a really cool throwback to the Indy action comics of the 80s and 90s. The Phantom is JACKED UP, the women are KUUUUURVY and thugs have necks the size of thighs and thighs the size of ancient oaks.  And they wear business suits that make them look like a 1920s gorilla thug ready to battle an atomic robot.  Or Dolph Lundgren.  Yeah, Giant Lundgrens!  But then I really started to dig what Peniche was bringing to the table.  The art is as fast as the story and equally hyped up to bring excitement out in every page.  It isn't often as I read something I think about how much I want to buy a page out of a book, but all of these catch up pages, with the above, being some of the most fun pure action comics I've seen in a while.  I hope that Peniche is buried in work right now.  While The Phantom is probably off the table, I'd love to see him find an action series that is worthy of what he brings to the table. 

Do you like action in your comics?  Do you prefer that your costumed characters don't stop for lunch? Do you dislike the constant "clever" use of repeated panels?  Do you want to see The Phantom kick, punch, leap, crash and foil evil with repeated punches to the buzzcut sporting gorillas of a day gone by?  THIS is your series.
Get it.
The original series, still available from Moonstone, will set you back a few extra dollars, but contains back up stories including DEATH ANGEL (I really want more of this!), The Spider, Domino Lady, Buckaroo Banzai, Captain Action and Kolchak The Night Stalker. While some of them are quite good, this main feature stands tall on it's own.  Only ONE copy instock at Amazon.  Do you want to miss out on this??
 

Pugilistic and Ballistic - Books That Blow Your Face Off #5

 
"You are a man of mercy, then?"
The Phantom mounted his horse and turned the mighty animal away from her, never showing his face.
"I don't deal in mercy," he said. "Only justice."
--From A Man Of His Word by Joe McKinney

This installment of Pugilistic and Ballistic takes us to a different kind of hero, a man of wisdom, wit and a kick ass purple suit.  That's right...THE PHANTOM!  I've been a fan of this character for a very very long time and still enjoy seeing him pop up in a syndicated strip as well as in comics from Moonstone Publications. Sure, that time has gone by now, but they could not go out on a better note than a ton of trades that I'm already chomping at the bit to get (including a complete edition of the excellent The Phantom : Ghost Who Walks series as well as a giant compendium of the fun GENERATIONS tales)...and this second collection of prose tales.

I love a good adventure story, and as with all of these Chronicles books (which also include The Avenger, The Spider and an upcoming and anticipated Green Hornet volume)-the stories range from solid to outstanding, taking characters in familiar directions while adding a bit of spin and pulp fiction flavor. The prose anthologies mesh the best of the old and new takes on some favorites of mine, so I'm a sucker for them.
So, that brings us to this particular volume.  I decided to order the hardcover edition of Phantom Chronicles 2 this time around, because I'm always kicking myself that I have to be frugal with these. Amazon had a sizable discount off the $37.99 price-so went ahead.

The book looks fantastic, sporting a cover by Mark Romanoski and really wonderful images by Stephen Bryant for each story, with an additional bookend set of images of The Green Hornet and The Phantom Ruben Procopio and Jeff Butler. Man, I want an original by Procopio someday...and the Butler piece shows why he is just right for the Moonstone line of books.  And it is purple with a slipcover. I don't own near enough purple books.

The stories are an interesting bunch and there are several highlights.  There isn't a bad apple in the bunch and it is obvious that great care was taken to keep The Phantom the character we know and love without taking away the authors individual stamp.  For reviews sake I'll just pick three that stood out in particular...

The Phantom of Cobtree Manor is Matthew Baugh's working The Phantom in to what feels like a 60s Gothic horror film that mixes exploding glass, the ghost of Captain Clegg and a woman that may or may not be mad.  If Mario Bava needed to do a Phantom film, I think it may have played out quite a lot like this.  What is nice is that both Walker and The Phantom share the stage, both of which bring humor and heroics to the table.  Great fun.

A Grim Certitude by Nathan Meyer feels really unique and the writing really sucked me in with a very unexpected style.  Sort of familiar...  The Phantom is on a rescue mission where time is of the essence and a nuns life hangs in the balance.  The majority of the story takes place in thirty seconds and Meyer handles it really well.  I loved this one.  This column has already covered a few Mack Bolan books and I was pleasantly surprised to see Meyer as one of the people that has written a bunch of Gold Eagle adventures. I'm predisposed to this style, and it was nice to find a Phantom tale written at Automag pace.

Encounters On A Jungle Night by Aaron M. Shaps was also a great surprise and is placed early in the book to good effect. Following a very classic styled tale by Tom Defalco, this is a Phantom tale told from the perspective of a Nazi soldier at a weird place called Outpost Zero.  Mad Science! Monsters! Dismemberment! The Phantom! More Dismemberment! Totally nuts and it doesn't feel like any other Phantom tale I can think of.  I can't pay higher praise to the author than the fact that it felt new and fresh without forgetting exactly who The Phantom is.

I can't help mentioning a few others...especially No Ghosts Need Apply and I Of The Storm which both knocked my socks off...but frankly, there was never a boring minute and I enjoyed it all.   If I have one pet peeve it shows up in the fun to read by typesetting challenged The Devil's Kettle by Will Murray.  Good story, but it looks as if an uncorrected version was run. Hyphenated words bump lines down, Paragraph breaks are skipped and there is a little gum up in the story that makes me think the wrong file got placed in the final product.

This gave me an interesting insight as a reader however...in the last 5 years I've read to my children every night, and that has actually slowed my reading pace down a lot, but I enjoy it more and have found telling stories to others has matured my reading.  But, typos and line glitches are now catastrophic!  I don't know if this has happened to any of you, but it was the first time this has happened for me.

The extras included in the hardcover are a brief history of The Phantom that is a nice overview and is a bit bittersweet as it ends with Moonstone's accomplishments with the character and does not look forward from there.  Also, a strong story by Saurav Mohapatra and CJ Henderson entitled The Plague ends on a nice note and feels very much in the spirit of a Lee Falk story, just told with a slightly different point of view.   The Phantom has a rich history of publication, and I believe that Mohapatra is the first Indian author to make an imprint with the good ring of protection!  Awesome.

I'm not going to skip over one of the most intriguing parts of the book, and one that should easily earn your dollars for the softcover at the least...Harlan Ellison contributes an essay / story fragment called The Soul of Solomon which is a must read for both fans and creators that enjoy and handle iconic characters. The essay details the process, and unraveling, of a tale that would join The Phantom and The Green Hornet that involves suicide and all kinds of weird and cool plot twisting.  But Ellison comes to a seemingly simple yet incredibly well defined reason to not finish his story.  Icons stand. Bending them because you can, and not because you should, is the key to making a story work.  Someone needs to license this and create a textbook with this as Chapter 1.  Marvel should hang it on the door to the office (never mind that Dynamite Entertainments editorial staff should have Ellison come in and read it to Alex Ross)...if you ever wanted to tale that cool story you thought up, read this first.  It won me over, because as I started it I kept thinking that Ellison was being smarmy and self absorbed, and then I wacked myself in the head when I got it.

The Phantom Chronicles 2 keeps The Man Who Could Not Die relevant and respectful, and I could not have enjoyed it more.  Maybe, someday...a volume 3 can emerge from the Eastern Dark!