77 Years and 2000 Issues of Frew Publications' The Phantom!
The Man Who Can Not Die, Indeed!
This week, the small Australian publisher Frew Publications, who are based in Sydney, will reach an amazing milestone - issue #20001 in their long running The Phantom comic book. This is a huge achievement in many regards; for small publishers, for Aussie publishing and for comics in general.
Frew began in 1948, established by Sydney businessmen Ron Forsyth, Lawford Richardson, Jack Eisen and Peter Watson. The name of the publisher came from combining the first letter of their last names. The Phantom was the first comic they printed, debuting the same year as the company.
The following year, Frew began to print comics featuring Popeye, The Phantom Ranger, The Shadow (not the American character created by Walter B. Gibson, but an original Australian creation) and Super Yank Comics. However, these began to fall in popularity in the 1960s thanks the influx of American comic titles and the rise of television, and so Frew reduced its output to just The Phantom.
In 1978, Frew printed the first Team Fantomen story in issue #730. A collective name for Swedish Phantom creators at publisher Egmont, Frew had the story translated for Australian readers. While Team Fantomen reprints would go on to make up the bulk of Frew’s output, the second Scandinavian story was not printed in Frew’s Phantom until 1983.
In 1987, Jim Richardson passed away and Ron Forsyth went into semi-retirement. With this, the publisher was sold to Jim Shepherd, who would guide The Phantom into the new millennium.
Shepherd introduced two of Frew’s most celebrated initiatives, the large annual specials and the reprinting of complete, unedited Phantom creator Lee Falk-written newspaper strips. Shepherd also wrote and published the first Australian-created Phantom story, Rumble in the Jungle.
Shepherd passed away in 2013. Initially there was some uncertainty as to what would happen with Frew and The Phantom as it was uncertain if there was anyone interested in buying the publisher. While Shepherd’s widow kept the publisher going while a purchaser was found, bringing in editor Dudley Hogarth in 2014, she announced her retirement in 2015. Thankfully long-time Australian Phantom cover artist Glenn Ford, along with Phantom super-fan Rene White, purchased Frew.
The team of Hogarth, Ford and White became known as “The Frew Crew” by fans. Ushering in an era of experimentation, the Crew explored different cover layouts, produced series separate to the main Phantom series such as the brilliant Kid Phantom and Phantom’s World. They also brought in many more Australian creators to work on the comic, both artists and writers, for original stories. They also began to release both original graphic novels and trade collections of popular Phantom stories.
Thanks to Frew, the character of The Phantom was cemented as part of Australia’s popular culture. Even those Aussies who do not read comics are aware of whom the character is. The Phantom has been a favourite of Prime Ministers, comedians such as Paul Hogan, and Aussie sports stars. For a time, The Phantom outsold comics from both DC and Marvel in Australia.
Frew Publications has produced their The Phantom comic uninterrupted for 77 years, making it one of, if not the, longest running comic in the world. Few comics publishers can claim such an amazing legacy.
Issue #2000 is actually the 2028th edition of Frew’s main Phantom series printed due to unnumbered issues, special “A” issues and a few other anomalies.
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I love the Phantom, great article👍🏾