The Phantom

As much as Dynamite might be known for picking up a few unusual licenses, the upcoming Kings Quest series is not actually a comic book adaptation of the classic Sierra adventure game about wandering around, picking up everything you can, and then banging them together to see what happens. Instead, believe it or not, it's actually something better. Coming in May, Kings Quest is Ben Acker, Heath Corson and Dan McDaid's sequel to Jeff Parker and Marc Laming's Kings Watch that finds the classic King Features adventure characters --- Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Jungle Jim and a time-tossed Prince Valiant --- reuniting to take on an entire army. In space.

Cartoonist Lee Falk debuted costumed hero The Phantom in his own newspaper strip on this day in 1936, two full years before Superman debuted in Action Comics #1. He isn't considered the first superhero, but Falk's pulp creation would establish quite a few tropes that would become hallmarks of the genre for decades to come. And like Superman, The Phantom has endured, with comic stories and re-imaginings continuing to this day.

There are a few things you need to know about Agent Coulson, but the thing you need to know most of all is that you don't touch his car. Lola's a special lady car, and a man and his car shall not soon be parted... that's how that saying goes, right? Probably. Anyway, Lola. She's a car. Now she'll be a toy. This October, Funko is releasing Coulson's signature ride as another of its Pop vehicles. The line has included the TMNT Party Van, Deadpool and his Chimichanga Truck and Marty and the DeLorean, so obviously Lola is the clear front-runner for the best-looking of the bunch. The new Funko fun doesn't stop there however, as there's also going to be the world's first ever Billy Zane Pop. Technically, it's just a Pop of the Phantom, Lee Falk's legendary hero of the jungle, but this is probably as close to relevance as Billy Zane will get in the 21st century. One can only hope the rest of the Defenders of the Earth will eventually make the cut as well. I mean, Funko's going through properties at an incredible pace to keep up with demand, so it only makes sense that one day soon we'll be seeing a Mandrake the Magician Pop.

This week at Comixology, Dynamite has a big sale on their "Greatest Hits," and as you might expect from the title, there's a lot of really good stuff in there. So good, in fact, that you probably don't need me to tell you about it --- being able to grab twelve issues of American Flagg for nine bucks, for example, is probably something that you already know is a good idea. But if you're on the hunt for a buried treasure and you've got a spare picture of Abraham Lincoln burning a hole in your pocket, then you need to do yourself a favor and pick up Jeff Parker and Marc Laming's Kings Watch, one of the best (and most underrated) crossovers of the past few years.

Costume design is one of the great strengths of the superhero genre, a way to establish distinctive visual shorthand for a character and reveal key details about concept, purpose, and personality. But which is the best superhero costume of all time? This month, we’re asking you to decide, by voting up your favorites and voting down the rest. When we have your votes, we’ll compile a list of the greatest super-costumes of all time. For our seventh day of polls, we're looking at the designs of some of the most celebrated pulp heroes ever to grace the comics page. They don't have to have originated in comics, or to have originated in the pulp era, and they don't have to wear a domino mask or a red scarf or a gun belt. But it does look pretty cool when they do. Or does it?

This week marks the release of Prince Valiant #1, and with it, the final building block in the foundation of Dynamite's increasingly weird "King" universe. Built around the King Features characters that are best known as newspaper strips --- and in the case of The Phantom, a Billy Zane movie that invited viewers to 'slam evil!' --- the line got its start in the Kings Watch crossover in 2013. While Flash Gordon has stuck around and been pretty fantastic, it's only in the last month that the rest of the characters have rolled out into their own books to flesh out the world. Now, with everything in place, the King line has pulpy sci-fi, mystic adventure, superhero action and swords and sorcery from the days of King Arthur all jockeying for position and trying to come together as a cohesive unit. And to be honest, it's actually pretty awesome to see.

Today, Dynamite announced that they were bringing The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician and Flash Gordon back to comic books with the team of Jeff Parker and Marc Laming. The big return is set to take place in an all-new series called King's Watch, in which the Ghost Who Walks, the Savior of the Universe and... uh... Mandrake find themselves battling against forces that threaten the entire world.

An inter-planetary swashbuckler and a telepathic magician are headed to Dynamite Entertainment and that, for many fans, is how it should be. As part of a deal with King Features, Dynamite's bringing Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician into its broader line of adventure comics, uniting franchises that haven't shared a common publisher in decades...

LTL Prints has just launched a comics wall art series, featuring panels from classic comics like "Flash Gordon" and "The Phantom" -- at up to 7 tall. Made of "self-adhesive fabric paper," the prints can be removed and reapplied from surfaces up to 100 times, and the site allows you to select the size, ranging from a laptop width of less than a foot to around 7 feet ta

TWILIGHT CRUSADE: Teaser EditionStory: Paul D. Storrie, Gary Phillips, etc.Art: Silvestre Szilagyi, Sergio Mulko, etc.Cover: Michael Stribling16pgs, color, $0.99 Welcome to Heaven vs Hell here on Earth! The war for Heaven that started a long, long time ago, where Satan was cast out ...