The Fantomet comic book series was published in Norway from July 1964 thru till December 2018. The Phantom is known under the name of Fantomet in both Norway and Denmark and is published in a blue costume with red trunks. A total of 1217 editions were published in the series, with the comic book number of each edition resetting on the first issue released each year.

Fantomet comic book number 1 published by Nordic Press in 1964 can be seen below with cover art by Rolf Gohs. It contains 44 black and white pages measuring 17cm x 26cm. It contains a Phantom comic strip story originally created in Sweden for their Fantomen comic book series titled ‘The Doubles’, written and illustrated by Bertil Wilhelmsson. It also contains a Texas Jim comic strip story.

The Fantomet comic book series had a rocky start in it’s earlier years, especially between 1964 through to 1969, with a total of 8 comic books released irregularly and not keeping within a publishing schedule. Between 1970 through to 2007, between 25 to 27 comic books were published per year. Between 2008 through to 2014, between 13 to 22 comic books were published per year before declining to just 13 comic books per year between 2015 through to 2018. The series came to an end in December 2018.

Nordic Press released 8 Fantomet comic books between 1964 through till 1965, before publishing rights were passed on to Romanforlaget in 1966 with edition number 1. They would continue published Fantomet comic books thru till 1972, before publishing rights were passed on to Nordisk Forlag in 1973 with edition number 1. Semic AS commenced publishing Fantomet comic books in 1976 with edition number 25, before we see the Egmont Serieforlaget name commence in 1998 with edition number 1. Egmont Kids Media Nordic AS would commence in 2013 with edition number 3-4 thru until the last edition to be released in 2018 with edition number 12.

Fantomet comic books remained the same size through the series, measuring 17cm x 26cm. They contained varying page lengths per edition depending on the content found within. Phantom comic strips weren’t solely published in the series, with each comic book typically contain a mix of comic book characters, including Mandrake the Magician, Indiana Jones, Texas Jim, The Spirit, Jim Hawk, Flash Gordon, Sirkus, and many more.

Fantomet comic books were initially published in black and white, with the first full color edition released by Semic in 1991, edition number 6 containing 68 pages.

The Fantomet heading found on the comic book front covers also saw several font changes. We see more of a script style heading from edition number 1 published in 1964 thru until Fantomet edition number 2 published in 1966 (as seen below left) by Nordic Press. The style changes with Fantomet edition number 1 in 1963 (as seen below center), possibly due to Romanforlaget now publishing the comic book series. Fantomet comic book number 11 published in 1969 (as seen below right) by Romanforlaget would see a third change, which would remain in place until the final edition is published by Egmont Kids Media Nordic AS in December 2018.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Fantomet comic book edition 1 being released in 1964, Semic/Nordisk Forlag AS published ‘Fantomet Jubileumsspesial’ in 1994, which reprinted the first edition published in the Fantomet series. Not part of the Fantomet comic book series, this special edition comic contains 44 black and white pages measuring 17cm x 26cm.

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