Where Phantoms Tread

Murder Mystery! Detective series! Crime-drama and who-done-it? Homicide Detective Lyle Odell is Mohawk City, New York’s finest homicide detective. He also is the old city’s only homicide detective. He chain-smokes cigarettes, and his diet consists of pizza, black coffee, and too much Irish whiskey. Odell is disheveled, eccentric, and absentminded. Often, he is teetering and tottering on his drunkenness while being haunted by his enemies and by the horror of homicide. Despite his flaws, Odell is a super-genius. Beyond brilliant. Odell is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes that does not miss a trick. His enemies dismiss him as a has-been—an alcoholic shadow of his former self. That is their second mistake. Their first mistake is committing what seems to be the perfect crime in Odell’s city. A city where Odell treads along with the phantoms. In gritty Mohawk City in upstate New York, there has been yet another death. A wealthy and beautiful young socialite from one of the richest families in Mohawk City turns up dead on a weekday night in a hotel room in the fanciest hotel in the old city. It seems as if she is the victim of her hard partying-lifestyle and her promiscuous and risky past and present. Outwardly, her sad passing is a cut and dry case of mixing drugs and alcohol . . . a terrible tragedy. Adding to the tragedy and the intrigue, the young woman works in Washington D.C. for the popular federal senator from New York. A senator who is a rising star in politics with his goals set upon the White House. Yet, is it a cut and dry? Or is there more to it? Homicide Detective Lyle Odell knows all too well the horrors of Mohawk City, and he knows how and why it earned the nickname of “Sin City.” The phantoms of crime, evil, and death haunt him and even gallons of whiskey cannot end their constant invasion into his heart, soul, and mind. As the case unfolds, Odell digs in and finds there is nothing cut and dry about this case. At all. As the good detective unravels the mystery and the case deepens in evil and in tragedy, he dives in where phantoms tread to solve much more than just the young woman’s tragic death. Plucked out of the pages of the novel O'Malley by his creator, Homicide Detective Lyle Odell proved to be a hugely popular character with readers. In O’Malley, the good detective helps the principal character solve the mysteries of his past and the brutal homicide of a fellow police officer. The character proved to so popular with readers that Paul John Hausleben wrote a novel starring Homicide Detective Lyle Odell. Here in his first solo adventure, the eccentric, systematic, alcoholic gumshoe detective proves why his creator earns the title of “The Master Storyteller” as the author weaves a masterpiece of murder mystery and crime-drama and creates another amazing character to add to a line-up of unforgettable characters in his many pages of written lore. Grab your copy today!

The incredible story of Phantom Girl

Probably the best known of all Phantom comics in the U.S.A., this series of 73 colour comics was published between Nov 1962 and Jan 1977, under three different publishers. The series began under the Gold Key label, published by K.K.Publications as a quarterly 12c comic. With issue #11 in 1965, the series changed to a bi-monthly. In 1966, the release schedule returned to a quarterly basis, and only lasted two more issues before the first change of publisher occurred. In total, there were 17 Phantom comics with the Gold Key label. All sported beautiful painted covers by George Wilson. Three of these covers are reported to have been painted by another unknown artist (#5, #12, #13). Most of the stories were adaptations of original Lee Falk newspaper strip stories, with new artwork by Bill Lignante. King Features Syndicate became the new publisher of The Phantom comics, releasing their first issue in September 1966 under the King Comics label. They continued the numbering sequence from the Gold Key series, labelling this issue #18. It was published as a 12c bi-monthly until issue #23 in mid-1967 when it changed to a monthly schedule. Issue #28 was the last to be published under the King Comics label (cover price 15c), only 6 issues into the monthly schedule. Of the 11 Phantom comics published by King, all but one of the stories were illustrated by Bill Lignante. The first two issues contained adaptations of older Lee Falk stories, and thereafter, the stories were original. Issue #25 contained a story entitled The Cold Fire Worshippers which was reprinted from the Italian comics series American Adventures published by Fratelli Spada, and drawn by Senio Pratesi. The cover artwork on the first three of these comics were by Bill Lignante, while all others appear to have been lifted directly from panels of Sy Barry's newspaper strips. The reigns of The Phantom comic were picked up again over a year later (February 1969), by Charlton Press using the Charlton Comics label. They continued with the same numbering sequence but skipped #29 and began with #30. This first issue featured uncredited artwork, but the covers and all but two of the stories in the next year of bi-monthly issues were by Jim Aparo. Issue #33 was the first to contain a story by Pat Boyette, and Bill Lignante was brought back to illustrate his last Phantom story which appeared in #35. From issue #39 onwards (August 1970), the cover and story artwork was exclusively by Pat Boyette. With only a handful of exceptions, each issue then contained three 7-page stories. The art and stories during this period can best be described as woeful. Despite a considerable volume of negative feedback from readers, Charlton persisted with Pat Boyette until #59 in December 1973. The declining sales must have struck a nerve with Charlton (who'd changed their name to Charlton Publications after #56), and the comic was revived six months later in #60 as The New Phantom. In their search for new artists and writers, Charlton first relied on stories from the Italian publisher Fratelli Spada, before introducing us to the work of Don Sherwood and ... more notably ... Don Newton. In total, Don Newton contributed six beautifully illustrated 22-page stories (#67, #68, #70, #71, #73, #74) complete with painted cover artwork, plus the cover for #69. Sales improved, but not enough to save the flagging title. The last issue of The Phantom comic was #74, in January 1977. A complete index of the individual stories in each issue of Charlton Comics is available HERE. An analysis of the circulation data and the cover price builds an interesting picture of how this series eventually failed. Cover price for the series commenced at 12c, and was raised to 15c from #34, 20c from #46, 25c from #60, and finally 30c from #70 -- this was common for all American comics at the time. At the same time, the number of comics being printed was gradually falling, but at a lesser rate than the number that were being sold. This graph shows what happened. By 1976, the paid circulation was less than 40%, compared with a peak of 65% in 1965. Not even the brilliant efforts of Don Newton were enough to save the title ... the damage had already been done. Simply put, the editors at Charlton were too slow to make the necessary corrections. The Phantom was subsequently absent from American newsstands, at least in comic book form, for the next 10 years. Issue Publisher Date #1 - #17 Gold Key Comics Nov 1962 - Jul 1966 #18 - #28 King Comics Sep 1966 - Dec 1967 #30 - #74 Charlton Comics Feb 1969 - Jan 1977

Indrajal Comics began publishing self-titled monthly issues in March 1964. Each of the first 10 issues had 16 pages of Phantom comics. The stories had to be edited to fit this short format. The remaining 12 pages were dedicated to other content, similar to Gold Key's style. In the next 19 issues it became 20-24 pages. As the series continued, different characters would share the spotlight. Characters such as Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, Bahadur, Kerry Drake, Rip Kirby, Garth, Mike Nomad and Buz Sawyer appeared - as well as Disney characters Robin Hood and Mickey Mouse along with Goofy, but the majority of the series spotlighted The Phantom. So much so that the series is often erroneously referred to as "The Phantom" instead of the correct "Indrajal Comics". In due course the publication became fortnightly and then weekly by 1981. The numbering of books which was simply sequential in the beginning then changed to have the typical volume and a number. Indrajal Comics #444 was labeled as Vol.20 and No.1. The front cover design changed with distinct banner containing the title "Indrajal Comics" with a small circle showing the face of the main charracter. A total of 803 Indrajal Comics were published, excluding #123 and #124 which were not printed due to industrial strike action. More than half of these issues contained Phantom stories. The publishing stopped in 1990. The cover artwork for the first 50 or so issues of Indrajal Comics was done by B.Govind, with the back cover featuring a pin-up poster. His artwork became very popular and even said to have matched the artwork on the covers of international phantom publications such as Gold key or Frew. To avoid confusion among Indian readers, there were some minor changes done to the name of the Phantom's location and some characters in stories published in Indrajal Comics. The term " Bengali" or "Bengalla" or "Bengal" was changed to "Denkali" and in some issues "Dangalla" as well. This was since there is a state called "Bengal" in India and this may lead the readers to wonder about the "Pygmy" people that don't exist in Bengal. The name of the "Singh Brotherhood" was changed to "Singa Brotherhood" and the killer of the father of the current (21st) Phantom was changed from "Rama" to "Ramalu" although the latter too is one of the common names in India. Apart from English, Indrajal Comics published the stories in at least a dozen other Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Kannada. Contents: Issue #60 The Phantom And The Cold Fire Worshippers Issue #59 The Phantom And The Sleeping Giant Issue #58 The Sixth Man Issue #57 The Terror Tiger Issue #56 The Phantom And Delilah Issue #55 The Villain's Challenge December 1, 1967 Issue #54 The Great Riddle Issue #53 Thugs In The City Park Issue #52 The White Goddess Issue #51 The Phantom And The River Pirates Issue #50 Mandrake And The Black Wizard Issue #49 The Secrets Of The Phantom Issue #48 The Magic Mountain Issue #47 The Adventures Of The Girl Phantom Issue #46 Mandrake And The Doomsday Issue #45 The Phantom And The Deadly Web

Who or what is that shadowy figure playing the piano in the school music room after dark? Several students and Deputy Barney set out to solve this musical mystery with surprising results. Phantom of the Music Room features six songs with clever texts set to musical classics by Chopin, Dvorák, Sousa and others. For grades 3 and up. App. 30 minutes.

Murder mystery with a hardboiled detective character.