Issue 1774 - Signature Series, 2017

We are very proud to present our 2017 Girl Phantom Annual Special along with by popular demand, the Replica #25. This is a journey that commenced with Lee Falk’s story, The Female Phantom which originally ran as a newspaper strip from July 20th 1952 until October 12th 1952. The wonderful art of Wilson McCoy has been masterfully coloured by Norway’s renowned Phantom authority, Ivan Pederson. He has used a beautiful and tastefully authentic palette to allow this fine Lee Falk/McCoy classic to spring into a new lease on life. Since this original 1952 story, Julie Walker and her twin brother Kit have been referred to as the children of th 17th Phantom and on another occasion as the children of the 16th Phantom. This only adds to the mystique and promise of this character who has all the training and the skills to be the Phantom in her own right but is invariably brought back to domesticity, by love and worldly feminine stereotyping that was prevalent in the era of her creation. The Female Phantom lit a fire that has been burning and smouldering throughout Phantom folklore ever since. Julie Walker is a much loved and deeply cherished character who has generated her own story within the Phantom across many different publications such as Fantomen, Moonstone, Gold Key, King, Charlton and many reprints by Frew. The immortal line from The Female Phantom when the Phantom sets out to matchmake and resolve Julie’s romantic life, “My sister is in love with you. What are you going to do about that?”, uttered shortly after she saved him and then the missionary. This was the 1950’s after all and the fact that a woman might be depicted as strong and capable in a heroic mold was new and uncharted territory. Of course as the story goes she married, produced 4 children living happily ever after! In the hands of Team Fantomen, her husband died, she studied with Louis Pasteur became a doctor helping the jungle tribes and spent her remaining days at the Skull Cave. Moonstone took a completely new tack with her. She was married to Bradley and lived in America. They had twin daughters together and spent time in London during the period when Jack the Ripper was wreaking havoc. In the Gold Key/King/Charlton series Julie popped up to fill in for her brother complete with pet leopard Fury and horse named Flash. I would like to thank publisher Dan Herman of Hermes Press who very generously shared his archives, allowing Frew to bring you some of these stories in colour for the first time. Once again thanks to Andreas Erikkson who helped us with the Swedish art work. Both covers front by Cannan White, and back by Jason Paulos, elevate and enhance this comic beyond all our expectation.