Serial Adventures

Serial Adventures is a book series published by Pioneer Books in the USA from 1988 thru till 1991. The series contains 9 softcover books featuring information on classic theater serials, detailing their complete background story, production information, credits to actors and production crew and screen images, written by James Van Hise.

Pioneer Books was a Las Vegas, USA-based publisher active between 1988 and 1995, specializing in reprinting classic comic strips and producing pop culture publications. The company was founded by Hal Schuster, who had previously been involved with New Media/Irjax, a comic book distributor and publisher.

Between 1989 and 1990, Pioneer Books released four sets of the Phantom comic books, totaling 16 issues. These editions reprinted Sunday comic strips written by Lee Falk and illustrated by artists such as Wilson McCoy and Sy Barry.

In addition to the Phantom, Pioneer Books published reprints of other classic comic strips, including Mandrake the Magician, Johnny Hazard, Jungle Jim and Prince Valiant. The company also produced pop culture books and magazines, often authored by James Van Hise, covering topics like comic book history and science fiction media.

Pioneer Books ceased operations in 1995, concluding its contributions to the comic book publishing industry.

An array of serials are featured in the Serial Adventures book series; these books encompass notable comic book characters (with some appearing in multiple editions), including the Phantom, Flash Gordon, Batman, Blackhawk, The Shadow, and The Green Hornet.

Serial Adventures books all contain color softcovers with black and white photographs within featured alongside informative text. Each edition contains approximately 96 pages measuring 8.5” x 11”.

The Phantom 15 part Columbia serial from 1943 was also featured in the series, published in 1988 by Pioneer Books. The serial saw the part of the Phantom played by Tom Tyler, who is seen on both the front and back cover, under the title of ‘Serial Adventures Presents The Serial Adventures of The Phantom’. The front and back covers of this edition can be seen below.