The Cold Fire Worshippers was originally a Fratelli Spada publication and it appeared in L’Uomo Mascherato #152 in October of 1965. Giovanni Fiorentini is the writer and the art was produced by Senio Pratesi. The sumptuous cover inset left, with our hero clad in Ferrari red, swinging from a vine whilst bowling over bad guy was the work of artist Mario Caria. This story might have been a perfect candidate for one of our Phantom’s World comics except that it has already been published in English several times, by King Comics back in Issue #25 1967, Alan Class & Co in Creepy Worlds #89 and in 2012 was included in the hardcover book The King Years by Hermes Press. The cover art inset below for the King Comics version of this story was produced from a panel done by renowned Phantom artist Sy Barry. King Comics came about because King Features Syndicate decided to publish their own licensed characters. They did this from August 1966 through to December 1967. So how and why did Frew come to slot this story into the 2017 schedule? One dark and restless night whilst trolling for gems on eBay my colleague Glenn Ford actually came upon the original black and white art for The Cold Fire Worshippers. It didn’t take too much arm twisting to convince the partner Rene of its significant worthiness. The deal was done and the art is now part of the collection.
It’s a rare and quirky little story quite typical of that Italian period. The gorgeous original front cover by Glenn Lumsden supported by Jason Paulos on the back, elevates this comic to the level of instantly collectible. Since The Cold Fire Worshippers is only short it allows us the opportunity to bring you yet another episode of our newly minted Australian creation Phantom by Gaslight Episode #2. In which Julie Walker gets face to fist with Jack the Ripper himself no-less, and Kit is off having a gas with another famous archetypal villain! Whose name, I won’t reveal because Chris and Jason do it so well! No spoilers allowed! It’s never a dull moment as this all action sibling rivalry spills out onto the cobblestone.
We now offer this as a physical paper comic or as a digital comic.
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