The Phantom Official Fan Club Australia was established in 1991 in Victoria, Australia. It was founded by Neville Kent, Aaron Littlejohn and Anthony Poloso and ran for 8 years, ending in 1998.
The Phantom Official Fan Club Australia was authorized by King Features Syndicate with all paraphernalia the club issued being Trade Marked. The introductory pack received upon becoming a member even contained a welcome message from Lee Falk.
The Phantom Official Fan Club Australia introductory pack came in the form of a white gloss manila folder, with the clubs logo on the front and included a pair of highly reflective foil souvenir stickers. Two designs of the folder were used by the club.
Over the 8 years The Phantom Official Fan Club Australia was running, 15 newsletters were released, titled ‘Member Newsletter’. Newsletter number 1, published on January 10th 1992, coincided with Frew Publications releasing their 1000th edition Phantom comic (which contained a replica of Frew number 1 from 1948).
The newsletters contained information such as general news occurring in the Phantom world, letters to the editor, merchandise available for purchase, etc. Back issue newsletters were available for purchase as seen in the letter below.
Various flyers to purchase Phantom merchandise were mailed to members with newsletters, available for purchase from ‘Famous Faces Gifts Shop’, who ran 3 stores throughout Melbourne, Victoria, Australia at the time. A small sample of these flyers can be seen below.
The Famous Faces Gifts Shop’s locations can be seen on the below business card. Headquarters to the club are reported as being based out of the Brunswick East store.
Being part of The Phantom Official Fan Club Australia also meant that you received a yearly membership card with your name and rank on it, as long as membership was paid on a yearly basis. These cards sometimes arrived late, with a courteous message sent with newsletters notifying members of same.
Several membership sign-up forms were designed over the years, see below a small sample of these. As The Phantom Official Fan Club Australia was running at the time as the 1996 Phantom movie was being shown in cinemas, membership forms were often available at cinema’s, (see first image below).
Correspondence was sent to members in either A4 or DL sized envelopes.
Thank you Christopher Smith for assisting with images and information.
The Phantom 