The Phantom goes to Dynamite?!

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The Phantom goes to Dynamite?!
Topic Started: Jun 29 2008, 05:00 PM (1,605 Views)
Paul Andreas	Jun 29 2008, 05:00 PM Post #1
Singh Leader Posts: 2,065 Group: Team CC Member #5 Joined: April 4, 2006	http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080628-WWCPhantomDynamite.html Just look at this! I NEED to learn the truth behind this story. Did Moonstone give up on the licence or did King Features take it away from them? This is the worst news I've heard in a long, long time, and it's already ruined my day. Like I said on the Moonstone forum, if it is them who decided that they could not go on with the character; I wish to say thank you so very much for trying so hard and giving us all these great stories in the process. If it is King Features who simply decided to give the licence away to another publisher, I wish to say this won't be forgiven. What, does the place consist of fools since they obviously doesn't get the character at all? I haven't been this pissed off in as long as I can remember, and I am usually not an angry person. EDIT: Fixed the link Edited by Paul Andreas, Jun 29 2008, 08:13 PM.



Paul Andreas	Jun 29 2008, 05:41 PM Post #2
Singh Leader Posts: 2,065 Group: Team CC Member #5 Joined: April 4, 2006	What pisses me off more than anything is how they claim they are going to "take the character back to his roots". I mean, did they even READ any of Falk's stories? The Phantom was INTENDED to operate in New York by Falk, but he never actually revealed this, nor his alter ego of Jimmy Wells, the playboy. I think this shows how little care these people must have for the character. No way are they getting any of my money. Why "reboot" a character who is already perfect, when Moonstone have shown so well that you can update him without changing him? These people just don't get it. I am usual a very calm person, but I have not been this angry and upset in years. My day, if not entire week, is ruined. By moving him to New York, they will turn him into yet another of a thousand (bad) fictional characters already operating there. These people doesn't seem to know anything about history whatsoever, a claim I am happy to cling onto until someone of the Dynamite people actually has the balls to give us some real information on this. I mean, I know I am not exactly encouraging them to participate in these forums with my comments but I don't care. My loyalty lays with Moonstone. Edited by Paul Andreas, Jun 29 2008, 05:51 PM.



JD	Jun 29 2008, 07:03 PM Post #3
Evil Genius Posts: 4,408 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 4, 2006	Paul, I know your upset but try and watch the language, yeah. Now, before you get too revved up I feel I should point out that King Features licenses out the rights to publishers to publish/create Phantom stories. Because own the rights to the character they can give licenses out to however many publishers they want. A publisher does not have exclusive rights to the character, if they did you wouldn't have both Moonstone and Egmont creating original Phantom stories at the same time and, to a lesser extent, Frew wouldn't be producing Phantom books. While the article does kind of insinuate that Moonstone has "lost" the licence to produce Phantom books I wouldn't hold too much in that until we hear word from Moonstone themselves. It is entirely possible that both Moonstone and Dynamite have the right to produce Phantom stories as throughout Phantom history there has been multipule publishers creating/ printing Phantom material simultaneously. As for the rest of it, I agree it sounds silly. As one commenter there said, why take a character out of the very environment that makes him unique? And if you want him in city, why New York? Why not Mawitaan? I think Alex Ross has gotten a big head over the success of Lone Ranger and is now just looking for stuff to "up-date" but it's all be mediocre - just look at Project Superpowers. The look of the costume has already been explained by Falk and again by Moonstone. From reading this article it sounds as if the DE folks haven't done their research and are just looking for something to pull in money. Also, perhaps KF liked what DE did with Lone Ranger and approached them to do a similar thing with the Phantom. Again, this does not mean that Moonstone no longer hold the license. Having said that though I'm kind of nervous about this. I really hope this doesn't mean Moonstone's series will be ending. I'm gonna e-mail Mike and see if he can tell us anything.



Paul Andreas	Jun 29 2008, 07:13 PM Post #4
Singh Leader Posts: 2,065 Group: Team CC Member #5 Joined: April 4, 2006	Sorry about the cursing, mate, I got a bit carried away. Please understand how depressing this is for me and how upset I am, waking up to these extremely sad news after having an otherwise great weekend. I can not for the life of me imagine that there will be two companies publishing the Phantom in the US at the same time... I think KF is just interested in giving the licence to the people who pay the most for it or something. No matter how good Tony De Paul and Paul Ryan does at the strip at the moment, KF just proved that they do not care about respecting the character at all. I shouldn't be surprised, as they were an essential part in making Defenders of the Earth and so on, but I thought they were better than this. Way better. I must say I admire your calmness, Dougy. I feel like I want to rip my head off or something.



Paul Andreas	Jun 29 2008, 08:16 PM Post #5
Singh Leader Posts: 2,065 Group: Team CC Member #5 Joined: April 4, 2006	Quote: “We are talking to someone who is on a similar level with Alex Ross – someone like a [Lone Ranger writer] Brett Matthews who can reinvent the character, who can not only take out the essence of the character while making him contemporary as well.” Isn't this exactly what Mike and Ben has been doing all along? I must say, this quote deserves a prize for bad research: Quote: Those familiar with the character and Falk’s original take on it will recall that The Phantom was originally meant to be in the city, but the creator later moved him to the jungle – according to some sources, due to legal pressure that resulted from his perceived similarity to Batman. But with Dynamite, he’s heading back to town.



JD	Jun 29 2008, 09:09 PM Post #6
Evil Genius Posts: 4,408 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 4, 2006	Quote: I can not for the life of me imagine that there will be two companies publishing the Phantom in the US at the same time... Well, there are two companies currently producing Zorro stories - Moonstone and (ironically) DE so it's not impossible. Quote: I must say I admire your calmness, Dougy. I feel like I want to rip my head off or something. I can understand your anger but I've learnt that in comics you never count anything out unless there has been official word. Until Moonstone themselves say they have lost the license to publish the Phantom I hold out hope. I'd say if they are no longer doing Phantom stories it would have been KF who took it away from them as I'm pretty sure The Phantom was Moonstone's best selling titles and phans were enjoying what they have been doing as is obvious by the reaction to this news so I can't see them simply giving it up. However, I've e-mailed Mike as I said I would so now we just have to wait and see if we here anything. Hopefully that wait won't be too long...



puggdogg	Jun 30 2008, 02:42 AM Post #7
Mick Collins Posts: 1,036 Group: Team CC Member #79 Joined: January 29, 2007	I think Moonstone will continue with The Phantom. As Dougy said King Features will sell a licence to anyone willing to publish their property. But I think we should all wait and see. Who knows? it may be a good interpretation. Still too early to tell.



Paul Andreas	Jun 30 2008, 05:30 AM Post #8
Singh Leader Posts: 2,065 Group: Team CC Member #5 Joined: April 4, 2006	Dougy Jun 29 2008, 09:09 PM Quote: I can not for the life of me imagine that there will be two companies publishing the Phantom in the US at the same time... Well, there are two companies currently producing Zorro stories - Moonstone and (ironically) DE so it's not impossible. Yes, but Moonstone are only publishing Zorro in the prose format (I think)... It would seem very strange to me to have two companies putting out Phantom comic books in the same country. Off course, I pray this is actually the case, but I remain pessimistic about the whole thing... It amazes me that King F can have such a (seemingly) strict way of controlling Moonstone's stories, carefully watching that the Phantom does not do anything "un-Phantom" (like driving too fast!) and then they go away giving away the licence to somebody who obviously just doesn't have any kind of clue. I think this quote sums up their approach quite nicely: Quote: He will come to the concrete jungle of New York City....One of the things we felt with the Phantom is, you can only have so many adventures in the jungle. It’s about time we put him back in civilization, and we pit him against the animals of New York City. First and foremost, they can't have any imagination at all if they feel there can only be "so many jungle adventures". Look at what Mike Bullock's been doing all along; making modern jungle adventures based on problems people actually face in Africa (like kids being trained as soldiers). Second, "put him back in civilization". Have they read any Phantom stories at all? He is a globetrotter in every sense of the word, seemingly spends a great deal of time in cities like Mawitaan in Bengalla, and fights crime wherever he finds it. Until they prove otherwise, I think their approach seems careless and disrespectful, and it angers me to no end that Moonstone may not be allowed to do more work with the character. Edited by Paul Andreas, Jun 30 2008, 06:07 AM.



Geaghs	Jun 30 2008, 01:44 PM Post #9
Singh Leader Posts: 1,152 Group: Moderator Member #196 Joined: December 5, 2007	All I can say is wow. I go offline for a weekend and the whole world gets turned upside down. My first feeling is of disappointment but hopefully Moonstone will be able to keep publishing as well. As for Dynamite, I will more hold back with a wait and see attitude, I will definitely check out what they release but I will reserve my judgment until then. Does anybody think that Moonstone may have bee caught unawares with this development seeing the silence that is currently emanating from them?
	"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - C.M. Schulz "And all my friends are f*** ups, but there fun to have around" - You Sound Like Louis Burdett, The Whitlams


Andreas	Jun 30 2008, 03:50 PM Post #10
Evil Doer Posts: 422 Group: Team CC Member #23 Joined: April 9, 2006	Quote: A Moonstone Books representative at the company's booth at the show said they were unaware of any change in the company's current Phantom publishing proram, which has included an ongoing comic series, trade paperback collections of the Sunday newspaper strips, and a prose anthology. From: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12818.html If the abvove is the case, I can imagine it must have been quite a shock fror Moonstone's staff. And very, very unprofessionally handled by KFS. It does give a little hope for a continued Moonstone series, or at least that what has been announced will still come out and give Moonstone a chance to wrap things up. But if KFS has just gone behind Moonstone's back to find another licensee it's just awful. I hope we get more definite news soon.



JD	Jun 30 2008, 04:06 PM Post #11
Evil Genius Posts: 4,408 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 4, 2006	Quote: I think Moonstone will continue with The Phantom. As Dougy said King Features will sell a licence to anyone willing to publish their property. But I think we should all wait and see. Who knows? it may be a good interpretation. Still too early to tell. Yes, it is possible that two companies could be producing stories of the same character in the same country. I'm only saying possible though, I'm not saying this is what is happening. But really we need some kind of word from Moonstone before we can really be sure. I do agree with Paul that they seem to have no or very little understanding of the character. It sounds like they think he's more or a Tarzan type than a globe trotting hero who just happens to be set up in the jungle. The following quote really puzzles me; Quote: Those familiar with the character and Falk’s original take on it will recall that The Phantom was originally meant to be in the city, but the creator later moved him to the jungle – according to some sources, due to legal pressure that resulted from his perceived similarity to Batman. As we know the Falk originally planned for Jimmy Wells to be the Phantom but felt that was too obvious so he changed the Phantom's identity to Kit Walker. I have never, ever heard of anything about Falk being pressured into changing things because of similarities to Batman. I mean, The Singh Brotherhood was published on Fed 17th, 1936 but Batman didn't appear until 1939! I mean...WHAT? These people really have no idea. So, no, I can't honestly say I have much faith in the project but I will say that, if it happens, I'll be ordering at least the first issue and going from there. It's the Phantom and I am curious to see what they do BUT I'll only be giving it that one chance unless DE shows us they actually CARE about the character. Quote: It amazes me that King F can have such a (seemingly) strict way of controlling Moonstone's stories, carefully watching that the Phantom does not do anything "un-Phantom" (like driving too fast!) and then they go away giving away the licence to somebody who obviously just doesn't have any kind of clue. Yes, if KF did indeed take the license away from Moonstone it would be very interesting to find out why this was exactly. Their books seemed to be selling well and had been received positively by both fans and critics so it doesn't seem to make sense that KF would just pull the rights like that. Quote: Does anybody think that Moonstone may have bee caught unawares with this development seeing the silence that is currently emanating from them? You might be right there, Geaghs. Mike in particular has been so open with info in the past but as you say Moonstone have been very quiet on this issue. Let's hope we hear something soon. I have also e-mailed Dynamite extending an invitation to them to join the forums and/or send us a statement about their plans or the series so if we are lucky we may hear something from them.



Geaghs	Jun 30 2008, 04:22 PM Post #12
Singh Leader Posts: 1,152 Group: Moderator Member #196 Joined: December 5, 2007	Quote: You might be right there, Geaghs. Mike in particular has been so open with info in the past but as you say Moonstone have been very quiet on this issue. Let's hope we hear something soon. I was thinking about this a little more this afternoon and I think the silence could be down to one of 3 things. 1. Moonstone still have a licence to print the Phantom but they are discussing an appropriate response to Dynamites announcement; 2. Moonstone have had the licence taken of them from KFS and are looking at their options (legal or otherwise) hence an announcement can not be made at this moment; or 3. Moonstone just assumed the licence would be renewed and it never happened therefore the need to look into the wording of their contracts before moving forward with an appropriate response. I work in an industry (airline) where similar things like this can happen (you need a licence to fly routes) so I can understand a silence to start with but the quicker the response the better for everyone involved (in this case, the fans, the employees and so on) Edited by Geaghs, Jun 30 2008, 04:25 PM.
	"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - C.M. Schulz "And all my friends are f*** ups, but there fun to have around" - You Sound Like Louis Burdett, The Whitlams


JD	Jun 30 2008, 05:25 PM Post #13
Evil Genius Posts: 4,408 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 4, 2006	If the license has been taken from Moonstone I hope they at least get to publish up to #30 which I believe Mike said he has plotted out to.



Geaghs	Jun 30 2008, 08:53 PM Post #14
Singh Leader Posts: 1,152 Group: Moderator Member #196 Joined: December 5, 2007	I hope we get to see everything that has been planned, The 2nd Annual, Issue 25, The backing story to Captain Action, because it will be terrible if we don't get to see them after expecting them for so long. The other question is how will this affect Moonstone's plans for Mandrake.
	"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - C.M. Schulz "And all my friends are f*** ups, but there fun to have around" - You Sound Like Louis Burdett, The Whitlams


Paul Andreas	Jul 1 2008, 12:36 AM Post #15
Singh Leader Posts: 2,065 Group: Team CC Member #5 Joined: April 4, 2006	Andreas Jun 30 2008, 03:50 PM If the abvove is the case, I can imagine it must have been quite a shock fror Moonstone's staff. And very, very unprofessionally handled by KFS. It does give a little hope for a continued Moonstone series, or at least that what has been announced will still come out and give Moonstone a chance to wrap things up. But if KFS has just gone behind Moonstone's back to find another licensee it's just awful. I hope we get more definite news soon. If this is the case, then they're behaving exactly opposite of the values represented by the character they're owning. Quote: I have also e-mailed Dynamite extending an invitation to them to join the forums and/or send us a statement about their plans or the series so if we are lucky we may hear something from them. I'm not sure if this would be the right moment for them to join in on any fan activity, considering the almost exclusively negative reaction to these news. Although I am not quite as angry as I was yesterday, I am still extremely sad and frustrated. If these people end up making good Phantom stories, I'll be the first to acknowledge it, but at this point, I will say again that it seems like they know little else about the character than that he lives in the jungle and wears purple tights. Damn, I wish none of this was happening. Good things never last in comics. Edited by Paul Andreas, Jul 1 2008, 12:39 AM.



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