posted February 21, 2003 04:02 PM               

Considering DC went out of their way to stop Bill Black from using the Fox PL, I'd say they oughta go ahead and reprint her stories. To get around the copyright hassles, Bill Black did some intriguing (and bizarre) re-workings and re-formatrting of the Fox art so he could publish them as "new" artwork. It was strange, as a few of the same stories were ALSO reprinted in the Verotik book. The Verotik book had the stories in their original page format (although probably a bit smaller-- as are ALMOST EVERY Golden Age reprint) but the coloring had some SEVERE problems that had me shaking my head. (I just published my 1st COLOR comic last August-- and I can tell you, I had far fewer technical p[roblems than Verotik has had between the PHANTOM LADY and BLUE BOLT books I've seen from them!)

All that said... MY favorite PL is Dee Tyler-- the one from ACTION COMICS WEEKLY! (What a CUITE!!!) And of course, she's wearing the green & yellow outfit. Or, as I sometimes like to say, "THAT's a nice outfit you're almost wearing!"

posted February 21, 2003 04:05 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dr. Van Thorp:
Do you think that DC would publish Fox Comics material?

---

If Bill Black is to be believed, no. In his response to my email, he said, "If DC reprints any of the Fox/Ajax stories that AC has published, they are in breech of the law. Looks like another legal hassle in the offing! And, no, DC does not have the right to reprint Fox/Ajax stories. I have reprinted almost all of them already." But Black also says DC doesn't even own Phantom Lady in the first place: "DC never 'bought' PHANTOM LADY. They stole the use of her since she was not a property of Quality when they bought the Quality characters."

posted February 22, 2003 02:00 AM               

AC has reprinted a pile of the Fox PL stories. I'm not a huge buyer of ACs, though I have a number of them. My main "THING" is that, deep down, I keep wishing either Black would do an ARCHIVE-type book, or that I was in a position to do so for or with him. (Any millionaires wanna finance a publishing venture?? heehee)

Just for reference, here's the PL stories that I have as reprints:

POLICE COMICS #1 -- "Phantom Lady" (no title in the story) -- MILLENNIUM EDITION / 2000

PL #13 -- "The Beauty And The Brain!" -- GOLDEN AGE GREATS #2 / 1994

PL #14 -- "Scoundrels And Scandals!" -- GAG #2 / '94
PL #14 -- "Condemned Venus!" -- PHANTOM LADY (Verotik) / '94
PL #14 -- "A Shroud For The Bride!" -- PL / '94

ALL-TOP COMICS #8 -- "Satan's Cargo!" -- GAG #2 / '94

PL #15 -- "Army Of The Walking Dead!" -- GAG #2 / '94
PL #15 -- "The Red Rain!" -- GAG #2 / '94 and PL / '94

ALL-TOP COMICS #9 -- "The Killer Clown!" -- GOOD GIRL ART COMICS #17 / '94 and PL / '94

PL #16 -- "The Monster In The Pool!" -- PL / '94

PL #17 -- "The Stinging Whip!" -- PL / '94

ALL-TOP COMICS #12 -- "The Subway Slayer!" -- PL / '94

ALL-TOP COMICS #15 -- "The Substitute Cinderella!" -- GOOD GIRL ART QUARTERLY #10 / '92

FOX PHANTOM LADY INDEX -- "Wild Eyes" -- GOOD GIRL ART QUARTERLY #8 / '92

posted February 22, 2003 02:10 AM               

ACTION COMICS WEEKLY: PHANTOM LADY (Ed: Mark Waid) / 1988 (no months listed)

636 Daddy's Girl (1) 7pp + Dick Giordano cover

637 Luck Be A Lady (2) 7pp

638 Toast Of The Capitol (3) 7pp

639 Belle Of The Ball (4) 7pp + Kevin Nowlan cover

640 Lady Of The House (5) 7pp

641 Lady Lost (6) 7pp / 42 pp total

posted February 23, 2003 11:57 AM            

If they are in public domain, then he couldn't stop DC from including them in a Phantom Lady Archives.

posted February 27, 2003 02:18 AM               

Just reading the latest ALTER-EGO today, which spotlights Jerry Iger. This reminded me of what the confusion may be stemming from. Iger's shop "packaged" comics for publishers, among them Quality Comics. Some of Quality's books and characters they created themselves, but PHANTOM LADY was done for them by Iger, and may have been OWNED by Iger, not Quality. (Guesswork on my part, but it seems a possibility.)

At some point, Quality stopped using Iger, and Iger later continued producing new PL stories for Fox, and later still, Ajax. At some point DC seems to have bought out Quality. This may have included the art to their stories, and possibly, the rights to reprint it. But PL had been published by 2 other publishers since then, and DC apparently does not have or have access to any of the later stories. On the other hand, Bill Black has not, to my knowledge, ever reprinted any of the Quality PL stories. It would seem that even though you have a character who appeared in 2 (or 3) distinct runs at different companies, it could be considered that there are, therefore, 2 "different" PLs.

It may seem that Bill Black can't stop DC from reprinting PL, but DC seems to feel THEY can stop Black from doing new PL stories-- which is why AC has been producing NIGHTVEIL stories for at least 20 YEARS now!

posted February 27, 2003 10:49 PM               

I suppose that PL was more of Headlight character than a highlight, now that I think about it.

Well printed editions of any of Matt Baker's series or stories would be welcomed by me.