Tagged: The Phantom

Fred Fredericks, 1929 – 2015

Legendary comics artist Fred Fredericks died this week.

After attending New York’s School of Visual Arts in the period following the Korean War, Fredericks started drawing historical comics that attracted the attention of comic book editors. Before long, Fred was a regular at Western Publishing (Dell, Gold Key), where he drew such titles as The Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Mighty Mouse, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Mister Ed, Nancy, and Snuffy Smith. After working on several short-lived Civil War newspaper strips, Fredericks created the comics feature Rebel for Scholastic Scope, which ran for 30 years.

mandrake-the-magician-9171843In 1965, the year following the start of Rebel, Fred was selected by writer / playwright Lee Falk to take over the art chores on his daily and Sunday Mandrake The Magician newspaper strip. Fred drew Mandrake until the Sundays ended in 2002, but he continued drawing the daily feature until his retirement in 2013. Fredericks took over the writing chores when Falk died in 1999; he already had been lettering the strip. Overall, his stint on Mandrake ran nearly a half-century.

For 10 years Fred also inked George Olesen’s pencils on Lee Falk’s The Phantom Sundays, until Graham Nolan took over following Olesen’s retirement.

Fredericks returned to comic books in 1987, inking Alex Saviuk’s pencils on Marvel’s adaptation of the animated series Defenders of the Earth – a show that featured Mandrake, The Phantom and Flash Gordon. He went on to work on such Marvel titles as Punisher War Journal, Daredevil, Quasar, G.I. Joe, and Nth Man: the Ultimate Ninja. Around this time Fred also did a fair amount of work for DC Comics, including Who’s Who, Secret Origins, Showcase, and Black Lightning.

After his retirement in 2013, King Features put Mandrake The Magician into reruns, reprinting Fred Frederick’s work.

A personal note.

Around the time the Sunday Mandrake was coming to an end, I received a phone call from Lee Falk asking me if I knew where Fred might land some assignments. I gave him a few ideas, and later told Fred of a few more. As a “reward”, Fred sent me a package of original Mandrake art. Quite frankly, his entertaining me for decades was more than enough, but I was greatly moved by his generosity.

A man of great kindness and skill, Fred Fredericks played an important role in the world of post-WWII American comics, both strips and books. He kept Mandrake The Magician alive when all but a small handful of adventure strips fell by the wayside. Fred Fredericks will be missed by his great many fans worldwide.

(Photo above, left to right: Lee Falk, Lothar, Mandrake, Fred Fredericks)

 

 

 

 

 

The Phantom LIVES!

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This September the good folks at Hermes Press will be publishing a new Phantom comic that will return the Ghost Who Walks to his original greatness. Written by Peter David and drawn by Sal Velutto, this book will be awesome heroic fun!

They’ve asked me to do a variant cover for the first issue and here it is. Jesus Aburto has done an awesome job on the colors. EXACTLY how I imagined it!

via The Phantom LIVES! | Graham’s Thought Balloon.

The Book Cave Presents Panel Fest Episode 28: Pulpfest 2013 Hero Pulp Premiums

PulpFest website designer Chris Kalb hosted the Hero Pulp Premiums and Promotions panel at PulpFest 2013. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 28: PulpFest 2013 Hero Pulp Premiums here.

About Hero Pulp Premiums and Promotions:
How did pulp magazine publishers keep readers coming back month after month? Of course the best way was to publish excellent stories. Regardless of genre, the leading pulps–Adventure, Astounding Stories, Black Mask, Blue Book, Dime Western, Doc Savage, Love Story, The Shadow, The Spider, Sports Stories, Startling Stories, Weird Tales, Wings–attempted to do just that, issue after issue.

Another method that publishers employed to lure dimes on a regular basis from buyers with thin wallets was to create a club and offer premiums. For a few cents or by clipping coupons from a favorite pulp magazine, a devoted fan could become a member in good standing of the Doc Savage Club, one of the Friends of the Phantom, or Adventure Magazine’s Camp-Fire Club. Also available were rings, pins, and other items such as the Spider Pencil, a celluloid mechanical pencil with rubber eraser of The Spider seal, produced in very limited quantity during 1941-42.

On Saturday, July 27th, PulpFest website designer Chris Kalb took us back to a time when a few cents not only bought a pulp magazine filled with thrills, but also an Operator #5 ring, a G-8 Battle Aces Club pin, or a membership in the Green Lama Club. Chris will be presenting Hero Pulp Premiums and Promotions, an event that you cannot afford to miss.

For a look at some other pulp premiums, please visit Pulpster editor Bill Lampkin’s The Pulp.Net website and do a search for “premiums.” Bill has photographs of rings, membership cards, pins, and other items on his highly informative website.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 28: PulpFest 2013 Hero Pulp Premiums here.

THE PHANTOM UP FOR GRABS!

  • Uncategorized
  • June 24, 2012

Terry Beatty, artist of the Phantom Sunday newspaper strips is offering some of his Phantom artwork for sale in order to raise the funds to replace the computer he uses to digitally pencil, letter and color the strip.

From Terry’s blog:
The process here is that I print the pencils (done in Manga Studio) in blue (a 50% cyan usually), along with the lettering and borders in black, on 11 x 17 bristol board, and then ink the art traditionally by hand with brush and pen. Some of the blue “pencil” lines can show through — but it’s usually rather subtle and doesn’t detract from the art at all.

This is then scanned for color, which is done in Photoshop. In some cases, repeat panels are digital printouts as well — and the logo panel is always printed — the modern equivalent of a “paste-up” — but without the eventual rubber cement stains or faded photostat! Sound effects lettering — and once in a while, some of the more mechanical background lines, are digital as well.

As an incentive to buy now, I’m going to include with each Phantom page purchased, a randomly chosen page of original artwork from my files of comic book pages inked by me. I’ll also toss in a few surprise extras just to sweeten the deal. Prices include shipping in the US — overseas shipping will have to be calculated and added in, as that can add up a little too much. I’m also dropping some of the prices a little from the prices I’ve had on these at comic book shows.

Art here is all from Sunday strips that have seen print, starting with the first page from the current Power House gang story (sorry, all but one “Shadows of Rune Noble” pages are gone — and I’m keeping that one). I do have pages that have not seen print yet — but can’t show them publicly, for the obvious reason.

Check out the pages and prices at http://terrybeatty.blogspot.com/2012/06/original-phantom-art-up-for-grabs.html

The Shadow Returns!

  • News
  • August 17, 2011

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After sixteen years, The Shadow will once again be haunting the comic book shops. The classic character who starred in both pulp magazines and his popular radio show will be returning in the hands of Dynamite Entertainment. Dynamite currently publishes pulp-related properties The Green Hornet, The Phantom and John Carter of Mars. Dynamite’s President and Publisher were quoted in a press release, saying “pursuing The Shadow has been a lifetime quest.”

No creative teams have been announced thus far.

Reviews from the 86th Floor: Barry Reese looks at The Last Phantom

  • News
  • June 13, 2011


THE LAST PHANTOM VOLUME ONE:
GHOSTWALK
Beatty/Ferigato
Dynamite Entertainment
ISBN 1-60690-201-6

Like many hardcore Phantom fans, I was disappointed when Moonstone lost the comics license. They had handled the character very well over the years, managing to both pay respect to his origins while also updating him to the 21st Century. When images began to filter out about the Dynamite version, complete with a new look, a more violent tone and a potentially revised origin, I was not pleased. So now I’ve finally gotten around to reading the first trade… and I have to say, it’s not bad.

In this story, the 22nd Phantom (not the 21st who is seen in most Phantom materials) has decided to retire the family business. He still plans to save the world but he’s doing it through philanthropy, not firearms. But someone close to him has motives that aren’t so pure and they arrange for Kit Walker to die in a plane crash, at the same time as his wife and son are murdered. Kit survives, learning that his family’s legacy of death isn’t one that can easily be broken. The bizarre look featured on the cover and in promotional images is actually a temporary one, used while Kit is recovering his Phantom gear. He does update the suit, using one now that can bend light around it so he appears to be a literal ghost. From the point at which Kit returns to the suit, things are much more traditional, though the violence is still raised a notch over the usual Phantom fare.

The art ranges from great to simply serviceable but for the most part it’s dynamic and tells the story well. The story is good and actually seems like a good way to update The Phantom to a modern audience: it wouldn’t make a bad movie. I hated to see Kit’s wife and son die (it’s so cliche) but it certainly sets the tone and explains the title (though Kit looks young enough that there could be more heirs in his future).

Was this so good that it makes up for losing the Moonstone versions? No… but I do wish we could have somehow had both on the stands. This is a smart updating of the mythos and if it hadn’t been mismarketed to fans at the beginning, I think it would have been embraced more.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

MOONSTONE MONDAY-WHAT’S COMIN’ IN SEPTEMBER!!!

MOONSTONE SEPT ’11 RELEASES
Moonstone Pulp Fiction Magazine #1
Story: CJ Henderson, Mike Bullock
Art: misc
Cover: Doug Klauba
96pgs, grayscale, 8” x 11.5”, $7.99
A “Return of the Originals” MEGA event!
New comic and prose stories, of classic pulp characters like The Spider, The Black Bat, The Phantom Detective, Secret Agent X, G8, and so many more!
*Plus a special new crime fiction prose story of the Green Hornet only available here!
———————————————————————-
Airboy/G8 Limited Edition HC
Story: Chuck Dixon
Art: Ken Hooper
Cover: Tom Grindberg
50pgs, grayscale, 7” x 10”, HC $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-936814-11-4
Join us for this very special “Return of the Originals” event!
A once in a lifetime aerial extravaganza!
Two high-flying ace legends meet for the very first time in a brand new all out adventure by action-master Chuck Dixon!
——————————————————-
Savage Beauty- limited Edition HC
Story: Mike Bullock
Art: Jose Massaroli
Colors: Bob Pedroza
Cover: Paul Gulacy
70pgs, color, 7” x 10”, $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-936814-09-1
Collecting issue #1 and the never-before-published issues #2 and #3!
Ripped from today’s world news comes a re-imagining of the classic jungle girl genre debuting a new hero for the modern age!
Join the Rae sisters, recent UCLA grads, as they travel across modern-day Africa finding their place and making a difference. Guided by the mysterious Mr. Eden, they assume the identity of a mythical goddess and reveal their Savage Beauty.
     Mike (The Phantom) Bullock presents a fresh new spin on the genre, featuring real-world conflicts in Africa and beyond.
———————————————————
Buckaroo BANZAI #2
Story: Earl Mac Rauch/Paul D. Storrie
Art: David Daza
Colors: Patrick Williams
Covers: Malcolm McClinton, Kyle Henry
32pgs, color, $3.99
Rated: PG-13
The man, the marvel, the human achievement, is back!
From the cult movie starring Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, and Jeff Goldblum!
The creators/film makers are telling NEW stories!
Your favorite neurosurgeon/rock star/adventurer returns, along with his Hong Kong Cavaliers, in: TEARS of a CLONE!…where a Death’s Head tank squad lurks in suburbia, talking bouncer-robots attack, expensive love wants to erupt, and Lectroids run with scissors, and then… shotguns! The world may never be the same.
(————————————————————————-
The Spider: Satan’s Seven Swordsmen GN
Story: Norvell W. Page
Art: Gary Carbon
80pgs, 7” x 10”, grayscale, $9.95
ISBN: 978-1-936814-10-7
A Wide-Vision Graphic Novel!
The Spider—cloaked, fanged nightmare in black— delivers swift justice with a pair of .45 automatics! Set against a world at war, this epic adventure is laced with great over-the-top action foreshadowing James Bond!
The Spider battles the sinister Dr. Fuji and his deadly ring of assassins spearheading a large-scale terror attack on  America! 
——————————————————-
The Spider #3/4
Story: Martin Powell, Gary Phillips
Art: Hannibal King, Jay Piscopo
Cover: Dan Brereton
56pgs, grayscale, $5.99
The never-offered issue #3 and #4 together in one brand new book!
The Spider faces a monstrous flesh-eating evil that attacks invisibly from the
filthy shadows, leaving doomed New York City in a panic-stricken state of
hysteria and gruesome sudden death. None are immune to the plague of the
Creeping Hell, not even Nita Van Sloan, the Spider’s beloved.
PLUS: more Operator5
DOC SAVAGE: Python Isle – Unabridged Audiobook
Written by Will Murray, based on a concept by Lester Dent Narrated by Michael McConnohie Produced and Directed by Roger Rittner Cover Art by Joe DeVito
8 CD’s, $25.98
ISBN: 9781610814010
The greatest pulp fiction hero of the 1930s returns in the first of a new series of audiobooks! Doc Savage, the legendary Man of Bronze, captivated adventure readers of the 1930s and 1940s in his own pulp magazine and in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in the million-selling paperback series for Bantam Books. In 1990, Will Murray, heir apparent to Doc Savage originator Lester Dent, revived the famous Street & Smith superhero in a new series of exploits based on Dent’s unfinished works. Writing as Kenneth Robeson, Murray brought Doc Savage back with “Python Isle”, a dramatic account of a long-lost pioneer flyer who returns to civilization with an exotic woman who speaks a lost tongue. From his towering skyscraper headquarters in New York, through a dangerous Zeppelin journey to Cape Town, climaxing on a serpent-haunted island in the forbidden reaches of the Indian Ocean, Doc and his iron comrades race to untangle a weird puzzle so deep the only clues can be found in the Bible!
——————————————————-
RES: Honey West #5
Story: Elaine Lee
Art: Ronn Sutton
Colors: Ken Wolak
Covers: Marat Mychaels
32pgs, color, $3.99
The ALL NEW adventures of the first female private eye continue!
Join Vertigo’s (“Vamps”) writer Elaine Lee for the conclusion of “Murder on Mars” as Honey goes undercover on the set of the sci-fi film Amazons of Mars to investigate the mysterious death of Zu Zu Varga, queen of the B-movies. It looks like murder, but who had motive? Was it the scheming ingénue, the down-on-his luck director, the jealous agent, or the ageing teen heartthrob? Robots, aliens and murder in 1960s CA!
————————————————————
RES: KOLCHAK: the Night Stalker Files #3
Story: Chris Mills
Art: Jaime Martinez
Cover: Woodrow Hinton III
32pgs, grayscale, $3.50
New format! Cheaper price!
Deep in the heart of the wild Everglades, a bloodthirsty swamp beast is on
the hunt for human prey. But, when reporter Carl Kolchak sets out with a
U.S. Marshall to find the creature, he learns – the hard way – that not all
monsters are what they seem to be.
————————————————––
RES: Airboy Presents: AIR VIXENS#1
Written by Mike Bullock
Art: Ben Hansen
Colors by: Bob Pedroza
Cover A : Ben Hansen
Cover B, C :Franchesco!
32pgs,grayscale, $3.50
More story pages than ever before!…new format, cheaper price!
From the pages of Air Fighters comes the first issue of Air Vixens starring Black Angel, Bald Eagle and Valkyrie.
     When Der Furher sent Valkyrie to smuggle secret weapons and intelligence across Europe in a zeppelin, he didn’t expect Black Angel and Bald Eagle to crash the party, and neither did they.
     Tune in for the first issue featuring the high flying femme fatales of the Air Fighters in this oversized, bombastic first issue!

ComicMix Quick Picks – what day is it? March 32nd?

What it’s been like here recently…

sifting-through-ideas-1600105

Just way too much stuff to go through, and we’ve been very busy with the print announcement and rushing to get things ready for the Previews catalog, and I have dozens of tabs open to blog about and consolidate. Wheeee!

So this will be more of a high-speed link dump from the last few days. Onward:

  • The cast and crew of Battlestar Galactica at the United Nations – "We are all Cylons. We are all Colonials." Alex Epstein’s take on the last episode of BSG: Seriously? That’s What You Got? My favorite comment on the finale, from Sabrina: "There can be no more spoilers for BSG, because they spoiled it themselves."
     
  • Don’t forget tonight’s Family Guy/Star Trek The Next Generation crossover.
     
  • Non-comics link of the day: John Mellencamp on The State of the Music Business:
    Over the last few years, we have all witnessed the decline of the music business, highlighted by finger-pointing and blame directed against record companies, artists, internet file sharing and any other theories for which a case could be made. We’ve read and heard about the "good old days" and how things used to be. People remember when music existed as an art that motivated social movements. Artists and their music flourished in back alleys, taverns and barns until, in some cases, a popular groundswell propelled it far and wide. These days, that possibility no longer seems to exist. After 35 years as an artist in the recording business, I feel somehow compelled, not inspired, to stand up for our fellow artists and tell that side of the story as I perceive it. Had the industry not been decimated by a lack of vision caused by corporate bean counters obsessed with the bottom line, musicians would have been able to stick with creating music rather than trying to market it as well.
    Hmm– maybe it is a comics link after all.

    14576phantom-md-3224377

  • ‘The Phantom’ will be on SciFi or SyFy or whatever they’re calling it. Impress me: get Billy Zane to do cameos.
     
  • Speaking of SciFi’s name change: SciFi Founder Hates Syfy, Issac Asimov would have hated it, and yo9 for the win.


  • Dharma wants you… since the 70’s apparently.
     

Anything else? Consider this an open thread. (Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.)

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