A look into the Indian Phantom scene:

• 26 SEPTEMBER 2006
  • A French magazine called DaxComics France has dedicated its September issue to the Phantom! It is an excellently published magazine and the issue is beautiful with regard to printing quality, colourful pictures and layout of pages. Even though I don't know French, I'm sure the content is also excellent! (After all, parts of it were translated from my website! With my permission of course.) The issue has info about Lee Falk, the Phantom legend and lore, and a brief intro about different Phantom artists. It also carries info about various publishers of Phantom comics including Egmont India. You should definitely think about checking this issue out! You can get more info at their official website.


• 8 APRIL 2006
  • Mr Walker's Last Mile has been downloaded 400 times by now. Thanks to all the people enjoying the game!


• 27 AUGUST 2005
  • Mr Walker's Last Mile has been downloaded 300 times by now. Thanks to all the people enjoying the game!


• 8 JANUARY 2005
  • The number of downloads of Mr Walker's Last Mile crossed the 200 mark today! If you haven't gotten the game yet, get it right now! If you have already played the game, please fill out this game survey form.


• 23 JUNE 2004
  • The King Features website has again ceased to provide the b/w Mandrake dailies. The last one accessible is of the date 12 June 2004. The coloured ones, of course, continue. By the way, the b/w archives are, thankfully, still available. So, collect them while you can!


• 30 MAY 2004
  • Recently, on the Phantom Phorum at Bryan's site, an Indian phan announced that Egmont India has released yet another version of comic books (with the same old stories!!) -- one story per book but brand new covers. So, you may want to keep a look out for those.


• 11 MAY 2004
  • The number of downloads of Mr Walker's Last Mile crossed the 100 mark a few days back! If you haven't gotten the game yet, get it right now!
  • On tonight's episode of Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi, a hit TV serial in India, two of the main characters of the show discussed the Phantom! Here is an excerpt of the dialogue that took place between the young business partners-cum-friends (please note that the first line was in Hindi but I've transalted it into English):
    

    Armaan Suri (suggesting that he's like the Phantom): 'The Phantom never kills his enemies but he does leave his lasting mark on them!'
    
    Raj Malhotra: 'Phantom Suri -- the ghost who talks!!'
    

    The mention of the Phantom in such a popular show is yet another indicator of how popular the character is in India... if only comic book publishers, like Egmont India, could exploit this fact and turn this popularity into sales!


• 5 MAY 2004
  • It turns out that the King Features website has decided to continue providing the b/w Mandrake dailies in addition to the coloured ones (thanks to Emile Schwarz for this info). Of course, it's hard to say if this is a permanent thing.


• 26 APRIL 2004
  • From 1 March 2004, the King Features website has started providing the daily Mandrake comic strip in a bigger coloured format.

    By the way, because of the recent changes made in the KFS website's system, a large archive of Phantom comic strips has been lost (The Mandrake archive is unaffected at the moment). The oldest Phantom daily that you could access used to be of the date, 11 Oct 1999, but now the oldest available is 1 Jan 2003. Similarly, the oldest accessible Phantom Sunday was 15 Apr 2001 and is now 5 Jan 2003. It is my advice to those who wish to collect archives that they keep saving the strips to their hard disks at regular intervals, lest KFS loses some more of the earlier strips.



• 27 FEBRUARY 2004
  • Good news for all Phantom phans out there! After a long wait, a new Phantom game has finally been released today! It is an Interactive Fiction or Text Adventure game called Mr Walker's Last Mile, developed by Arpita Mirani and Aman King (yeah, that's me!). You can get it right here.


• 9 JUNE 2003
  • Important news, especially for Phans in Delhi:
    Just yesterday, a dear friend of mine (who I can't thank enough) took me to a place where every Sunday a book market is set up. Here you can find second-hand and out-of-print books, most of which aren't even in a bad condition. In this market, I found the Egmont India Phantom comic issues that I was missing as well as some Indrajal and Diamond comics! They are priced between Rs. 5 to Rs. 20. I definitely suggest that you visit the market place one Sunday if you can.
    The Sunday book market is held in Darya ganj, Delhi and can be easily located on Sundays.
  • I now know that what I had written about Egmont Imagination's Phantom comic #19 (see news item for 14 FEB 2002) was actually implemented starting from issue #14.


• 10 MAY 2002
  • Egmont Imagination's Phantom comic #21 released in May. This is supposed to be the last issue that is sent to Egmont India's current subscribers. It is also probably the last Phantom issue to appear in the current format.


• 11 APRIL 2002
  • www.FabMart.com, an Indian online store, has added "Defenders of the Earth" to the list of movies that they sell. Check it out! The VCD is priced only at Rs. 149! Click here for the details.

    Please note that FabMart does not ship internationally.



• 3 APRIL 2002
  • Egmont Imagination's Phantom comic #20 released around late March. The print and page quality of this issue is not as good as the ones before. This may be because the printing of this issue has been handled by some printing company in New Delhi, and not the one in Manipal, where it was done before.

    This issue carries a one-page article by well-known Phan, Ed Rhoades on the Phantom's Skull Rings.



• 10 MARCH 2002
  • Starting Feb. 2002, Egmont Imagination India Ltd. discontinued accepting further subscriptions for its comic books and also cancelled its existing subscriptions. They propose to release their comics in a different format to be made available only through bookstores. The following is an excerpt from a letter, dated 19 Feb. 2002, that Egmont Imagination (I) sent to all its subscribers:

    Dear friend,

    ... Egmont Imagination India Ltd. (EIIL) is today a leading provider of books, comics, toys and various other entertainment products in India.

    Within our various product lines, we have decided to rationalize our comic portfolio with the introduction of comics in book format, which will then be available in book stores across the country.

    With this in effect we have decided to discontinue our subscription from February, 2002 for our comic range in its currect format.

    We apologize for the inconvenience caused, but we will continue bringing the magic of comics in a different format of books.

    ... Trust you will enjoy our books as much as you've liked our comics.

    Best wishes,

    Keshavan Mudaliar
    Incharge - Customer Service

    
    I'll try to put up info on the new format of the books proposed once I find them in the bookstores.



• 14 FEBRUARY 2002
  • Egmont Imagination's Phantom comic #19 released around late January and early February. This issue is priced at Rs. 20 only, ten rupees less than earlier issues. The pages have also been reduced from 50 to just 30 by no longer featuring a Mandrake story in the issue. The reason for this is probably that Mandrake stories aren't as popular as the Phantom ones and also that Rs. 30 is quite expensive for Indian comic readers.

    I do not have issues #14 to #18 with me at the moment and therefore have not provided info about them on my site yet. I hope I can get my hands on those issues soon.



• 31 JANUARY 2002
  • www.king-online.com has finally closed down the unrestricted access to its database of Phantom and Spiderman comic strips (Daily and Sunday). This shuts off another major source of comic strips for Phantom phans, especially the Sunday strips.


• 4 JANUARY 2002
  • Indian Express Egmont Pub. Ltd. has undergone a transformation. It has now been renamed to Egmont Imagination (India) Ltd.. The contact address of the publishers has also changed. Check out the Indian Comics section.
  • Around the first week of Nov 2001, a special Phantom collectible set, containing a no. of Phantom stories in separate volumes, was released online at the webstore Fabmart. I hope to provide more info on this soon.


• 4 AUGUST 2001
  • I.E. Egmont's Phantom comic #13 released in early August. I haven't received #12 from the publishers yet. I will update the site with info about #12 as soon as I get my hands on a copy.


• 29 JUNE 2001
  • I recently stumbled upon the official website of Diamond Comics, India. This is the publication house that until recently published full-coloured English Phantom and Mandrake comics in India. Diamond Comics have now stopped further publication of Phantom and Mandrake comics. This means that although until now Diamond Comics' Phantom comics were hard to find, they may become almost impossible to find now!


• 15 MAY 2001
  • I.E. Egmont's Phantom comic #11 released in April.


• 1 APRIL 2001
  • I.E. Egmont's Phantom comic #10 released during late March and early April.
  • Bay Area (formerly San Jose Mercury) has from today discontinued The Phantom and Mandrake daily comic strips from their comics website. That's a real pity as the site was an excellent online source to read those comic strips (among others like Spiderman)! Hopefully we may be able to convince them to reconsider. So please contact them and let them know of your disappointment.


• 19 MARCH 2001
  • I.E. Egmont's Phantom comic #9 released in March.


• 4 MARCH 2001
  • On 26 February 2001, on the Indian TV show called 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', a contestant was asked the following question:

    Which of these comic book heroes is a magician?
    

    A. Mandrake	B. Phantom
    C. Tintin	D. Flash Gordan

    The correct answer was -- A. Mandrake.
    This is the second question related to Lee Falk and his characters that was asked in this extremely popular show. The first was asked on 20 Feb. It seems Lee Falk has found a fan among the question-setting team of Kaun Banega Crorepati. Hope to see more of such questions asked.


• 25 FEBRUARY 2001
  • On 20 February 2001, on an Indian TV show called 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (an Indian take-off of the show 'Who wants to be a Millionaire?'), a contestant was asked the following question:

    Which comic character is known as 'Ghost Who Walks'?
    

    A. Mandrake	B. Flash Gordan
    C. Phantom	D. Spider-man

    The correct answer was obviously -- C. Phantom.
    This question surely tells something of the Phantom's popularity in India.


• 3 FEBRUARY 2001
  • I.E. Egmont's Phantom comic #8 released between late January and early February. Besides the usual Phantom and Mandrake stories, this issue has a special treat: an article about Lee Falk written by a friend of mine (and also of a lot of other Phans too, I'm sure) , Editor of the Phantom Fanzine, 'Friends of The Phantom'.


• 17 JANUARY 2001
  • I.E. Egmont's Phantom comic #7 released mid January.


• 18 DECEMBER 2000
  • I.E. Egmont's Phantom comic #6 released mid December.


• 24 OCTOBER 2000
  • I.E. Egmont's Phantom comic #2 (Book No.4) hits book stores around mid August, #3 (Book No. 5) between late August and early Sept., #4 in between late Sept. and early Oct. 2000 and #5 in late October 2000.
  • I.E. Egmont released "The Phantom Adventure Kit" in July 2000.
  • Indian Express Egmont Pub. Ltd. released its first Phantom Comic in India in the month of June 2000.