Writer: Various
Artists: Various
Publisher: Moonstone
You may not be willing to shell out six and a half bucks for The Phantom Annual unless you're a massive Phantom fan. So, let me give you some extra incentive. The book has no advertisements. There are a few house ads at the end of the book, but poorly drawn and placed Wii ads do not appear anywhere in these pages. The stories are all competently crafted, as is the art. The annual is not being used to showcase bad, slapdash art. The paper-stock though of the shiny, cheap sort does not alter the art in a bad way.
The annual is an anthology of Phantom stories spanning his legacy throughout time, but all of them share two threads. The Phantom seeks the pieces of a jade dragon that is said to control great power. The Singh Brotherhood also seeks the dragon and serve as each Phantom's enemy.
The first story by Ron Marz, artist Ruben Procopio and colorist Val Staples takes place in the fifteenth century. By far this is the most fun of the stories. Marz displays the Phantom's bravado and Procopio shows his zest for life in the many smiles on his face as he engages in streamlined styled swashbuckling action. Even the villains are fun. The Singh Brotherhood act more like Ali Baba and His Forty Thieves as if written by Mike Maltese and illustrated by Chuck Jones. In short this first tale is a rousing yarn.
The second story by Tony Bedard and artist Allan Goldman with colorist Patrick J. Williams is a much darker story occurring in the eighteenth century at the end of the Revolutionary War. We learn that domestic troubles have made the Phantom more obsessed, and he uses the quest for the dragon to help him take his mind off of his troubles. Bedard introduces some very subtle characterization in this story. Women of the time did not have many rights, but Bedard through the Phantom's wife's actions shows how they differed from the culture of the period. The Ghost Who Walks tread always into the future. He was and is a man out of time. The more realistic and at times ghoulish art serves the story well, and Goldman's Phantom is an impressive figure.
Chuck Dixon who wrote a surprisingly good Phantom two-parter for the regular Moonstone series, takes the Phantom into unexplored territory. Dixon with Graham Nolan, an unparalleled Phantom artist, saddle up for a spaghetti western. Dixon hits all the right notes when playing with the conventions of the genre, and Nolan keeps the Phantom loose and fun. I just love his grin as he expertly handles a six-shooter.
Rafael Nieves takes the thirties Phantom above the clouds in artists Tony Akins', Ken Wolak's and Val Staples' superb recreation of a Fokker Tri-Motor Cargo Plane. The battle on the plane in the air positively thrills and stands up to the best Phantom action in the character's long, long history. This is followed by an enjoyable melee in a Tibetan monastery filled with hokey goodness hiding the dragon.
In the final story Mike Bullock moves the Phantom up to the current day. Artist Juan Ferreyra provides the reader with a very strong Phantom and a beautiful femme fatale to go with a maniacal Singh who shows chews the scenery in splendid B movie fashion.
This story could have gone very wrong so very easily, but the artists and the writers all prove their mettle in the first Phantom Annual.
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