The Swedish comic book series X9 commenced in 1969 under Semic Press, launching as an anthology magazine built around international adventure, crime, and spy comics. In its early years, the lineup featured strips like Secret Agent X-9, Jungle Jim, and The Phantom before Semic rebranded the title to Agent X9 in 1971. That same year, Semic introduced Modesty Blaise, which quickly became the magazine’s signature anchor strip. The publication grew so popular across Scandinavia that Semic Press eventually commissioned exclusive, original Secret Agent X-9 stories directly from King Features Syndicate during the 1980s when translated newspaper strip material began running out.

Semic Press published over 300 issues of the title between 1969 and 1997. Semic’s run formally ended in May 1997, when the Danish publishing giant Egmont acquired Semic Press. However, the series itself never ceased publication; Egmont immediately took over production without missing a beat and continues to publish Agent X9 to this day, bringing the total number of published editions to well over 500 issues.

When Semic Press launched X9 in 1969, the Phantom was included as one of the magazine’s primary backup features alongside the lead strip, Secret Agent X-9. During this initial run, the X9 series published reprinted Phantom adventures sourced from international publishers such as King Comics, Gold Key, and Italy’s Fratelli Spada. However, when Semic Press rebranded the publication to Agent X9 in 1971, the Phantom was dropped from the regular lineup as the publisher retooled the title’s roster to focus on crime, spy, and mystery strips like Modesty Blaise.

In total, the Phantom has appeared in 26 editions of the X9 series across five specific years within 24 issues from 1969 to 1971:

• 1969 – all 7 issues
• 1970 – all 14 issues
• 1971 – the first 3 issues
• 1994 – only in issue #10
• 2024 – only in issue #12

The Phantom was the main feature on the front covers of two editions in 1970, edition numbers 6 and 12, which reused cover art originally printed on the front covers of Fantomen comic books in Sweden. Both illustrations are by Rolf Gohs, with the front and back covers of these two editions displayed below.

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