The first, original, and best masked hero to ever grace the pages of comic strips and comic books returns with Hermes Press’ new complete reprint of The Phantom. Referred to by comic strip historian Maurice Horn as the “granddaddy of all costumed superheroes,” The Phantom was created in 1936 by Lee Falk with artwork by Ray Moore. The strip hit the funny pages of newspapers well before the Dark Knight or Superman made their first appearances and has been acknowledged as an influence on every “masked man of mystery” since. The Phantom set the standard for action, adventure, intrigue, and romance in adventure comic strips and comic books – it has frequently been copied but never equaled.

Now, Hermes Press will offer the entire run of the comic strip beginning in September, 2009 and which will span over seventy years of The Phantom legend, ending with artist Sy Barry’s run on the strip in 1994.

The Phantom was the first newspaper strip to introduce the idea of a masked crime- fighter to a wide audience. The Phantom, who appears to be immortal, meets his “love for life,” Diana Palmer in the first continuity of the strip and at the end of the storyline she learns his secret identity.

The Phantom offers readers classic action/adventure stories that span locales from the East Indian Seas to New York to Paris. The Phantom’s foes include pirates, femme fatales, and mobsters. The action never stops!

As the daily strip ran in a different continuity from the Sunday version, Hermes Press will issue three volumes of dailies each year and one volume of Sundays collecting five years of the strip, in full color. Hermes Press will be using press proofs as its primary source for these reprints so the strip will look better than when it was originally printed. For the Sunday version of the strip, which will be released next year, “Hermes Press will digitally recolor all of the Sundays so our complete version of The Phantom will be the definitive version of the most important action/adventure strip ever,” observes Publisher Daniel Herman.

As with Hermes Press’ critically acclaimed reprint of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the new definitive reprint of The Phantom will introduce the strip to a whole new generation of readers and give fans of the “Ghost Who Walks,” a chance to reread the series all over again.