Le Tombeau du Maradjah (which translates to The Tomb of the Maharajah) was published by Société Moderne d’Éditions Nouvelles in France in 1945. The one-shot comic book publishes a comic strip adventure featuring the Phantom (or Le Fantôme as he’s known in France), published immediately after the liberation of France at the end of World War II.
Société Moderne d’Éditions Nouvelles was a French publishing house that operated during a highly volatile and transformative window for European comics, active from the final years of World War II through the late 1940s. Arising around 1943 during the German occupation and finding its footing in the immediate post-Liberation era of 1945, the firm specialized in the récit complet (complete story) format. This format consisted of thin, landscape-oriented comic books (format à l’italienne) typically running between 8 to 12 pages. These brief, self-contained booklets were born strictly out of necessity; the severe, strictly rationed paper shortages in post-war France prevented publishers from producing thick, ongoing weekly anthologies. To survive, the company relied on official publishing authorizations, such as the Autorisation N° 1059 granted for their 1945 releases, to legally acquire paper stocks and distribute their titles to a public hungry for entertainment.
The publisher’s catalog was heavily defined by action, historical drama, and pulp adventure, frequently blending imported American comic strips with homegrown French talent. Beyond these high-profile American imports, the company launched dedicated anthology lines such as Collection Les Aventures Héroïques and Les Belles Aventures (Série 0). These collections provided vital work for prominent European illustrators and writers of the era, most notably Roger Melliès, who illustrated titles like Viva-Villa!, L’amnésique du rapide 33, and Les Templiers Maudits, as well as artists like P. Billon and J. Artho.
By the late 1940s, Société Moderne d’Éditions Nouvelles folded or was absorbed into the shifting tide of the French publishing market, with their final recorded independent distributions wrapping up around July 1948. Their exit coincided with a period of massive consolidation in the French comic industry, as larger powerhouses like Cino Del Duca’s Éditions Mondiales and Société Parisienne d’Édition (SPE) began dominating the newsstands, often absorbing the printing plates, stock, and distribution networks of smaller wartime outfits. Because their comics were printed on cheap, fragile, and highly acidic wartime paper, the vast majority of their output was destroyed or discarded. Today, the company is viewed by comic historians not as a long-lived corporate giant, but as a fascinating, ephemeral bridge that helped resurrect the Franco-Belgian comic market from the ashes of World War II.
Le Tombeau du Maradjah comic book contains 12 black and white pages measuring 32cm x 24cm printed in landscape format. The comic contains the final portion of the Phantom story “The Prisoner of the Himalayas” daily strip adventure, originally written by Lee Falk and illustrated by Ray Moore. The front cover can be seen below.
The front cover contains a montage of action shots illustrated by Ray Moore taken from comic strip panels found within the comic book. The Phantom is featured in a red costume as he’s published in France.
Paper shortages in post-WWII France were severe, and American comic strips (which had been banned under the German occupation) were scrambling back into the market. Because of these shortages, publishers often released thin, landscape-format (récit complet) one-shot comics rather than ongoing thick magazines.
Interestingly, in post-World War II France, “Autorisation N° 1059” was a mandatory state-issued publication permit. It served as official proof that the publisher, Société Moderne d’Éditions Nouvelles, had legal clearance from the provisional French government to print and distribute this specific comic book. Le Tombeau du Maradjah contains this text on the outside back cover in the footer, seen below.
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