PAUL RYAN: ON THE DAILY PHANTOM BEAT

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Starting Monday, January 31, King Features’ The Phantom daily newspaper comic strip will be handled by veteran comic book artist Paul Ryan. Ryan replaces long time Phantom artist George Olesen who had decided to retire from the art chores. Olesen has been working on the Phantom daily and Sunday strips on and off since 1962 (comics vet Graham Nolan also assisted on the strip as well as handling Sunday installments). According to Ryan, he has signed a two-year contract with King Features.

“I got an email from Jay Kennedy, of King Features Syndicate, in early December,” Ryan told Newsarama. “Long time Phantom artist George Olesen was retiring and Jay was looking for a replacement artist for the strip. He was looking at several artists and asked if I would send examples of my recent work. I had been working on the Phantom comic book for Egmont for three years so I had plenty of samples of Phantom art to choose from.

“It helped that I got recommendations from Scandinavia and Australia, both big markets for the Phantom.”

Ryan said he’s been a Phantom fan “practically all my life. I first discovered him in our local newspaper. Wilson McCoy was working on it then.

“I liked the “Old Baldy” storyline, the “Queen Samaris” tale and so many more. I loved the Jungle Olympics and the Isle of Eden. I thought the Monkey Mail was kind of cool.

“In terms of art, I am trying to keep it clean and simple,” he continued. “Some newspapers print the strip very small. This limits how much detail you can include in each panel. In drawing the Skull Cave for the comic book, I have the latitude to illustrate an immense cavern with interconnecting tunnels, stallactites, stallagmites, ascending and descending pathways. Not going to be able to do much of that with the strip unfortunately.”

The Phantom daily comic strip debuted on February 17, 1936. The Phantom was created by Lee Falk (also of The Mandrake fame). The modern Phantom is the 21st of a dynasty of The Ghost Who Walks who have swashbuckled their way to fight piracy and injustice for 400 years.

As mentioned, Ryan is no stranger to the comic book community. He’s done work for Marvel and DC, having penciled and inked the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, The Flash, Iron Man, Squadron Supreme, amongst others. He holds the distinction of being the only person to work on both the Spider-Man and Superman wedding issues. He also had a brief stint on CrossGen’s Ruse.

In 2001, Ryan illustrated his first Fantomen comic for Egmont Publishing, a company in Stockholm, Sweden that publishes The Phantom for the European market. “The editor/publisher is a very talented man named Ulf Granberg. Ulf probably knows more about The Phantom than any one else on the planet.

“The Fantomen comic is published every two weeks. It is a very large comic containing 32 pages of new Phantom story and assorted reprints. It is also distributed in Sweden and Denmark. Frew Publication in Australia reprints the stories as well.”

Just like The Phantom, Ryan hopes to leave a legacy to the comic book community as well as to the next generation. “I would like to be remembered as someone who met his deadlines and never took shortcuts or shortchanged the readers,” he said.

“Between the Fantomen comic book and the daily strip, there will be precious little time to do anything else.

“Parting words... if your paper doesn't carry The Phantom... change newspapers or demand your daily dose of Deep Woods action. Oh, and try to get them to print him larger.

“My first Phantom strip debuts in newspapers, Monday, January 31. The writer is Tony DePaul.”

Newsarama Note: The Phantom daily strip can be seen at King Features Phantom page. The free online version lags two weeks behind the newspaper version.

[Kolimar]

Paul's style suits the Phantom. Good choice.

[Kavalier]

But no mention of his greatest work: D.P.7!!

[Bakema NL]

The Phantom.....I have a few comics, but not much featuring the character. I ordered the Sundays collected Graham Nolan book, but it has not arrived yet. And I saw Moonstone publishing a series, issue 3 was my first and I liked it, this series is on my pull list. The newspaper strip is something I never read, it is not in any paper over here. If they collect them I'll be buying.

[DocBrass]

looks good. I've been trying to follow this for the past few months. (that and Prince Valiant)

the last few stories were sorta weak, especially the last one. The Phantom was returning a bengal tiger to its homeland and rescued it and kept it in his hotel room??? and it was hard to follow the how/why.

but the art was nice. did Oelsen do the tones? it looks like the Phantom was the only daily that had grey wash tones. I thought it really stood out. I liked the underwater scenes on the new story line

looking forward to see where Ryan takes us.

[GeorgeG]

I'm going to shoot an e-mail to my local paper. I want to read this in print.

[Andreas]

A few corrections to the article:

Egmont currently publishes Phantom magazines in Sweden, Norway and Finland (not Denmark), and their Phantom stories are later reprinted by Frew in Australia.

Graham Nolan has been doing the Sundays since 2000, but has never assisted on the dailies.

George Olesen was assisted on the daily strip by comic book veteran Keith Williams who did inks, computer lettering and greytone. Paul Ryan will be doing the entire daily himself (just like Graham Nolan does on the Sundays).

Oh, and it's spelled Olesen, not Oelsen

Frew in Australia collects the newspaper strip stories and might be worth checking out for you if you like Ryan's work. More info on all things Phantom can be found on the Deep Woods, including a great interview with Paul Ryan

[Jeffbot]

I was wondering where I'd see Paul Ryan's artwork again. I loved his Fantastic Four. After he took over a few DC titles (Man of Tomorrow, Flash), he kind of disappeared. I'll be glad to read The Phantom when it come out!

[fedres]

Paul Ryan was the first pro to give me a sketch unsolicited, and it started me on my way to a substantial comic art collection. His courtesy at that con in the early 1990s kept me reading his comics for a long time! And I still have the Reed Richards sketch he did for me with Reed's arm stretching around the back of the backing board and coming back to the front-awesome!

[Samy Merchi]

How would one go about building a Phantom collection? I mean, it's all fine and nice for exposure-wise that it's in newspapers, but it's not really feasible to collect the newspaper format.

Are there any TPBs? Is there an ongoing comic available through Previews?

[grphxkindaguy]

Originally posted by Samy Merchi
How would one go about building a Phantom collection? I mean, it's all fine and nice for exposure-wise that it's in newspapers, but it's not really feasible to collect the newspaper format.

Are there any TPBs? Is there an ongoing comic available through Previews?

I am a recent convert to all things PHANTOM myself.

Here are some Phantom stuff, in regular (American) comic format:

1) DC did a short-lived PHANTOM series in the 90's, written by Mark Verheiden (sp?) and artwork by Luke McDonnel. I forget how many issues it was, either 13 or 18? Great stuff. Check out eBay, that's where I bought my run!

2) DC did a 4-issue PHANTOM mini-series, I think in the late 80's. Art by Orlando IIRC? Check eBay as well.

3) Moonstone comics: this is a new company. They did a bunch of Phantom one-shots (by various creators), and now released a bi-monthly(?) book as well. They have a website somewhere, go ahead and google it!!!

[Guran]

Originally posted by Samy Merchi
How would one go about building a Phantom collection? I mean, it's all fine and nice for exposure-wise that it's in newspapers, but it's not really feasible to collect the newspaper format.

Are there any TPBs? Is there an ongoing comic available through Previews?

Check out my Phantom FAQ for plenty of relevant information and advice. You should also consider subscribing to Daily Ink if you haven't already done so.

Thanks for the plug Andreas!

[Queen of Swords]

[quote]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by Samy Merchi
How would one go about building a Phantom collection? I mean, it's all fine and nice for exposure-wise that it's in newspapers, but it's not really feasible to collect the newspaper format.

Are there any TPBs? Is there an ongoing comic available through Previews? [/b]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by grphxkindaguy
I am a recent convert to all things PHANTOM myself.

Here are some Phantom stuff, in regular (American) comic format:

1) DC did a short-lived PHANTOM series in the 90's, written by Mark Verheiden (sp?) and artwork by Luke McDonnel. I forget how many issues it was, either 13 or 18? Great stuff. Check out eBay, that's where I bought my run!

2) DC did a 4-issue PHANTOM mini-series, I think in the late 80's. Art by Orlando IIRC? Check eBay as well.

3) Moonstone comics: this is a new company. They did a bunch of Phantom one-shots (by various creators), and now released a bi-monthly(?) book as well. They have a website somewhere, go ahead and google it!!!

I got into the Phantom during DC Comics' run: the 4 part mini-series in 1988 and the short-lived ongoing series which came out in 1989-1990 (which lasted only 13 issues).

After that, Marvel Comics grabbed the rights to do the Phantom in 1995 and produced two mini-series: "Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks" (a 3 part mini-series) and "Phantom 2040" (a 4 part mini-series) which was a TV show tie-in based on the animated cartoon series that was on at that time (a future Phantom in the year 2040).

In 1996, there was the Phantom movie from Paramount Pictures that starred Billy Zane as the hero with Kristy Swanson (the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the 1992 movie) as Diana Palmer, Treat Williams as bad guy Xander Drax, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Sala. It was unfortunate that this movie flopped at the box office and wasn't well received by the public or critics, and even die hard Phantom fans found it disapointing. The movie could have been better.

Since then, I haven't seen any other Phantom comic books until Moonstone grabbed the rights to do the character, which so far has been a series of one-shot specials (I think 5 have been released) and now the ongoing series that started last year (which doesn't seem to be bi-monthly at all, maybe tri-monthly or quarterly?).

I hope to get the recent release of the book Phantom: The Graham Nolan Sundays Vol. 1 as I have no access on getting any Phantom newspaper strips from my local newspapers.

[EricJ]

Moonstone puts out Phantom comics here in the US, as well as a whole slew of other cool stuff like "Kolchak the Night Stalker" and "The Cisco Kid", as well as "Buckaroo Banzai" in the future. This summer they'll also be putting out a little book by me and one Paul Storrie called "Revisionary".

They put out a lot of Noir and mystery titles, and they were one of the first in a long time to do westerns, IMO leading the pack for the recent revival of the genre. They make good comics, and if you're a Phantom fan, you should track down their Phantom books. Moonstone's Phantom is written by Ben (Green Lantern, Green Arrow) Raab, and, I believe most of them have been penciled by Pat Quinn.

Anyway, they're good fun, have a look, and check out Moonstone's website if you're not familiar with the comics that they publish becausse they're doing some really good stuff, especially if you're a fan of westerns, noir, mysteries, and the like. Here's a link: http://moonstonebooks.com

Thank you, and now back to your regularly scheduled postings.

[Samy Merchi]

I'm not really interested in reading short runs, single-arcs or whatnot. I don't want to get emotionally invested in a comic for it to only end in 3 or 10 issues. I'd like to read longer arcs of story developments in the dozens of issues.

Where should I start, if anywhere? Anything conveniently available in the US?

[Jay Odjick]

Subject says it all. I always thought Paul was a real SOLID artist, and read his run on FF as well as Flash. Substance over style, and a fine artist overall.
I look forward to seeing his stuff (every day!) in the strip.
Good stuff!

Jay
WWW.DARKWINGPRODUCTIONS.CA

[Guran]

Originally posted by Samy Merchi
I'm not really interested in reading short runs, single-arcs or whatnot. I don't want to get emotionally invested in a comic for it to only end in 3 or 10 issues. I'd like to read longer arcs of story developments in the dozens of issues.

Where should I start, if anywhere? Anything conveniently available in the US?

Samy - your location says Finland. Why don't you go for the Mustanaamio comics?

[Samy Merchi]

Originally posted by Guran
Samy - your location says Finland. Why don't you go for the Mustanaamio comics?

I prefer original language where possible.

[grphxkindaguy]

Originally posted by Kavalier
But no mention of his greatest work: D.P.7!!

THANK YOU!!!

I thought I was the only one that remembered that book. That was the only decent New Universe title...

Paul Ryan also did Quasar and Fantastic Five IIRC? Except for an issue of Batman drawn by him, I don't think I ever read any DC work by him...

I look forward to one day reading the collected Phantom strips by Ryan, since NONE of the New York papers carry the strip.

[Andreas]

Originally posted by Samy Merchi
I prefer original language where possible.

As said before, Frew in Australia collects the newspaper strips in their Phantom comic magazine. You can get tips on how to get them from The Deep Woods or comic book stories, like Adelaide Comics. If you're just interested in one "test issue" you might even try to get someone from Australia in the Phantom Phorum to help you out.

Regarding the work Paul Ryan does for Egmont's comic magazines; these stories are originally published in Swedish, Norweigan and Finnish; and then in English by Frew. The Swedish version is the original you could say and the other verions are translated from Swedish (although the Finnish and Norweigan editions are published at the same time as the Swedish).

In Finland you can buy both the Fantomen magazine (in Swedish) and the Mustanaamio magazine (in Finnish). The current issue in stores now, with art by Paul Ryan, looks like this:

[samediarchon]

Originally posted by Kavalier
But no mention of his greatest work: D.P.7!!

Agreed! Plus I enjoyed his run on Fantastic Four.

Joe

[samediarchon]

Originally posted by grphxkindaguy
THANK YOU!!!

I thought I was the only one that remembered that book. That was the only decent New Universe title...

But...but...but...

You didn't like John Romita Jr.'s art on Star Brand, or John Byrne's starting with issue 11? How about Peter David's Justice?

Joe

[Guran]

Issue #121 of Comic Book Marketplace (May 2005), features an interview with Phantom artist Paul Ryan, in which he discusses his current involvement with the Team Fantomen. The magazine is also largely dedicated to the Phantom and includes a detailed overview of Phantom comics from the US. Comic Book Marketplace is produced by Gemstone Publishing, PO Box 469, West Plains, Missouri, USA 65775-0469, ph. 417-256-2224. The magazine can be purchased from specialist comic stores.