Le Fantome was published by Librairie Hachette in France in 1974. The hardcover album style comic book series contains 2 editions dedicated to the Phantom under the series name of ‘Bande Chamois’. A similar format of comic books were released by Librairie Hachette featuring a variety of comic book characters, including Mandrake the Magician, Prince Valliant, Rip Kirby and more.
Librairie Hachette was established by Louis Hachette in France in 1826, originally named ‘Brédif’, as a bookshop and publishing company. Throughout it’s history, the company saw a variety of name changes, ‘L. Hachette et Compagnie’, ‘Librairie Hachette’, ‘Hachette SA’ and is currently known in France as ‘Hachette Livre’.
In 1981, the publishing house was sold to Lagardère Group and in 1992, the publishing assets of Hachette SA were grouped into a subsidiary named Hachette Livre, becoming the flagship imprint of Lagardère Publishing.
In 1996, it merged with the Hatier Group and in 2004, Hachette Livre acquired dictionary publisher Éditions Larousse. Hachette Livre has been owned by the Lagardère Group since 1981 under their publishing division Lagardère Publishing, and is still operating to this day, with it’s headquarters based in Paris, France.
The Le Fantome hardcover album style comic books are published with 42 color pages measuring 22.4cm x 29.6cm, featuring 2 Phantom comic strip stories per edition written by Lee Falk and illustrated by Sy Barry in French text. The front and back covers of both editions can be seen below.
The title as the Phantom is know in France is seen on both front covers, ‘Le Fantome’ with a profile images of the Phantom adjoining the title. The front covers also contain an image of the Phantom illustrated by Sy Barry, which have been taken from an internal comic strip story panel, with the Phantom seen in a purple costume, breaking from his traditional red costume which he’s normally published as in France.
Each edition is also published with a title on the front cover, ‘Le Justicier De La Jungle’ (which translates to ‘The Jungle Vigilante’) and ‘L’Ombre Qui Marche’ (which translates to ‘The Walking Shadow’). An edition number isn’t found anywhere on the comic books.
A sample of internal pages can be seen below.
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