Le Fantôme Contre Le Baron Pirate (which translates to ‘The Phantom versus The Pirate Baron’) is a comic book published by CELEG in France in 1965. Only 1 Phantom comic book was ever produced by CELEG.
The ‘Comic Strip Club’ was established in France on the 29th of March, 1962. The Club was chaired by Francis Lacassin, with vice-presidents Alain Resnais and Évelyne Sullerot leading the team. The Club was ahead of it time, being the first in Europe, with it’s aim to highlight the importance of comics as a media.
On the 5th of November 1964, the Comic Strip Club was renamed to ‘Centre d’Études des Littératures d’Expression Graphique’ (commonly abbreviated to CELEG), which translates to the ‘Center for the Study of Graphic Expression Literature’.
CELEG became well known within the comic industry in Europe with the organization of the first international comic strip festival held in Bordighera, Italy in February, 1965. Lee Falk was in attendance by invite from Alain Resnais.
In 1967, CELEG ceased to exist due to financial problems, with various comic book publications in the pipe-line never seeing fruition.
The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician creator, Lee Falk was a member of CELEG.
Le Fantôme Contre Le Baron Pirate was published and distributed to CELEG members only, with each copy either numbered from 1 thru to 175, or alphabetically from A thru to Z, a total of only 201 copies produced. Publications produced by CELEG were never offered to the general public.
The comic book contains 36 black and white pages, with color only found on the cover, measuring 30cm x 22cm in landscape format. Comic strips found within the book are only printed on one side of each page, with the second side left blank.
Two 1938 Daily Phantom classic comic strip stories are published, both written by Lee Falk and illustrated by Ray Moore, ‘Adventure in Algiers’ and ‘The Shark’s Nest’.
The Phantom 