Le Masque Du Fantôme (which translates to The Ghost Mask) is a comic book series published by Delcourt in France in 2011. The action/adventure series contains 2 comic books with a parody of the Phantom seen in the comic strip story-line, aimed at a teenage market. Le Masque Du Fantôme comic books fall under the Shampooing collection series in Delcourt’s publishing schedule.
Story-Line Plot
For more than six decades, the ‘Ghost of the Everglades’ comic book series has been on bookstore shelves and has many fans around the world. One of them, a billionaire who is convinced that he himself is this famous vigilante. When a lover of a comic strip thinks that he is the hero, he gets into strange adventures in both fantasies and realities.
Dressed in a mask and costume of the Ghost of the Everglades, this 60-year-old man tries to restore the truth and save a widow and an orphan. A sad looking sixty-something man who runs around the city at night through the alleys to pursue thugs.
After yet another rescue of a young teenager, the heroes life takes a strange turn. The boy goes to Sacha, a comic book artist. Just arrived, the phone rings in the apartment. The author picks up. He is ordered to go to a red car at the bottom of his home. There, he meets Patricia and the old man who thinks he is the masked vigilante…
Le Masque Du Fantôme is written and designed by Fabien Grolleau in French text, with the comic books containing approximately 200 black and white pages each, measuring 12.7cm x 18cm. The front covers of both editions can be seen below.
Each edition is numbered and contains the title of the story published within. Delcourt provide the following description of each respective Le Masque Du Fantôme comic book:
Le Masque Du Fantome #1 – The Castle of Shadows – 6th of April 2011
For 60 years, a comic book has been around the world: ‘The Ghost of the Everglades’, the ancestor of all superheroes. For 60 years, the biggest and richest of his fans has followed his adventures religiously… Probably a little too much! Indeed, the unfortunate ended up taking himself for his hero. Wearing tights and a mask, he goes out at night to live improbable adventures.
Le Masque Du Fantome #2 – The City of Masks – 18th of August 2011
‘The Ghost of the Everglades’ strikes again. Or rather his oldest fan who takes himself for his hero. Sacha, a comic book author hired by the old man’s family to make him come to his senses, finds himself on board at his side. Here they are lost in a no man’s land, picked up by funny bums delighted to have finally found their king and thus be able to participate in the great Carnival that is getting ready in town!
A sample of internal pages can be seen below.
Le Masque Du Fantôme was republished by Vide Cocagne in France in April 2021. The hardcover album style comic book combined the above 2 editions into the one publication. The comic book contains 400 pages measuring 15.4cm x 3.3cm x 21.8cm. Red coloring is added to this version throughout the comic strip, with the parody of the Phantom seen in a red costume, as he’s published in France.
A sample of internal pages can be seen below.
The Phantom 