Gold Key/King/Charlton

Published in USA, this series of Phantom comic books were initially released by Gold Key in 1962 (issue numbers 1 to 17), but taken over by King Comics in 1966 (issue numbers 18 to 28), who was also taken over by Charlton Comics in 1969 (issue numbers 30 to 74). This series is the longest running American comic book series dedicated to The Phantom, with the last issue ending at number 74, on January 1977.

The series was printed in full color, with the Gold Key and King Comics editions containing approximately 36 pages, whilst the Charlton Comics editions contained 22 pages, all in soft cover.

Although the series ended at number 74, only 73 issues were released, as number 29 was never printed on a comic cover. When Charlton Comics took over from King Comics, they released the newly branded comic from number 30 and totally ignored the fact that the next issue number should have of been number 29. All editions in this series were printed and released to the public, number 29 was simply skipped.

You will also note that the comic number has been omitted from the front cover of the Gold Key editions (all 17 issues). The comic number can be found inside the comic.

Gold Key Covers (1-17)

King Comics Covers (18-28)

Charlton Comics Covers (30-74)

Supplementary Reading Program

King Comics also produced 2 editions outside the above series that they labeled as a “Supplementary Reading Program” and are numbered R-06 (“The Adventures of Girl Phantom”, printed in 1973) and R-15 (“The Dying Ground”, printed in 1977).