The Ghost Who Walks is back!

Remember the masked man from the Deep Woods who lived in a tree-house, had offices in the Skull Cave, and sought out evil-doers? Well, Euro Books has re-launched Lee Falk's 'Phantom' in India.

Over the past 3 decades, the Phantom has been re-introduced by publishers several times. In terms of format, first, it was the Rs. 2 comic book (remember those good old days when comics would only cost that?); then, it came as a A5-size digest of stories, and then, it disappeared from the scene for a long time. You could only find a dusty copy or two in some corner of the book store, and of course the vendors at train stations always had a few.

With the recent import of superheroes, like X-Men, Spiderman etc. from the likes of Gotham and DC Comics, its hardly surprising that kids today have little respect for mere humans. I'm hoping this latest avatar of Phantom comics changes that a bit. Each of these hard-cover magazine-sized digests has 2 full-length stories. Priced at Rs. 199, the digests come with special sections like 'Legends', which give the reader a peep into some of the Phantom's secrets (the one I bought presented Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur, as one of the Skull Cave's treasures) and articles on various objects associated with the Phantom. The stories, too, seem to be stuff that's not been released earlier in the market. I, for one, had never read 'The Ghost who Died Twice' or 'The Assassination of President Lincoln' earlier. As of now, there are a total of 15 such digests available in the market.

While there seems to have been an effort to modernize the product, I'm sorry to say that there's still a long way to go if it has to keep up with the quality that today's readers have come to expect. The paper and printing quality can easily be better, as can the quality of lamination on the cover. I'm guessing this is a test phase, and if the market laps it up, hopefully there'll be several more titles in the offing.