One of Archie’s earliest superheroes, Bob Phantom, will return in November in a new one-shot by writer James III of Netflix’s comedy sketch show Astronomy Club and artist Richard Ortiz, who worked on Archie’s The Fox.
Bob Phantom debuted in 1939 in the pages of Blue Ribbon Comics #2. The character was created by Harry Shorten and Irv Novick. By day he was theater critic/gossip columnist Walt Whitney, who was very critical of the local police. He was one of the first superheroes published by MLJ, the precursor to Archie Comics.
“With Bob Phantom, I wanted to explore what it means to write news today when everyone gets their news from the headlines on their Twitter feed without reading the articles, and you can’t tell what’s legitimate and what’s fake. (To use loaded terminology.) This might make you question your validity as a journalist and your worth as a person in society,” James III said. “I was heavily inspired by crime stories with news elements like Road to Perdition and Nightcrawler. What brings a person to snap pictures first and provide assistance later or not at all?”
Here’s the solicitation text:
By day, he’s Walter Whitney, a fledgling theater columnist with a wild imagination, but by night he’s Bob Phantom, the “Scourge of the Underworld” — or is he? Using his power to become immaterial, Walt beats up criminals and then breaks the news of his exploits in his newspaper column . . . but New York City is not as it once was, and with less crime that means less news. So, if there’s no crime left to fight, there’s only one thing to do: create enemies. Is Bob Phantom really the Scourge of the Underworld, or its leader?
Script: James III
Art: Richard Ortiz, Matt Herms, Jack Morelli
Cover: Tim Seeley, Matt Herms
Variant Cover: Jamal Igle
On Sale Date: 11/16
32-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S.
And here’s a look at Igle’s variant cover and development art:
The one-shot arrives in stores Nov. 16.