Moonstone Books
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- For other uses, see Moonstone.
Moonstone Books is a comic book publisher based in Chicago. The company began publishing creator-owned comics in 1995, and since 2001 has also published comic books based on a number of licensed properties, including Buckaroo Banzai, Bulldog Drummond, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Mr. Moto, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, The Phantom (their most successful title), and several titles based in White Wolf's World of Darkness.
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[edit] The Phantom
See also: List of Phantom publications from Moonstone Books
Moonstone's most successfull title is The Phantom, which is based on Lee Falk's superhero comic strip. Moonstone is the first US publisher to produce new Phantom stories for the comic book format since Marvel Comics cancelled their Phantom 2040 comic in 1995.
Moonstone started publishing Phantom graphic novels in 2002. Only five books, written by Tom DeFalco, Ben Raab and Ron Goulart, were published, but in 2003, Moonstone started a regular comic book series with the character, written by Ben Raab, Rafael Nieves, and Chuck Dixon, and drawn by the likes of Pat Quinn, Jerry DeCaire, Nick Derington, Rich Burchett and EricJ. After 11 issues, Mike Bullock, of Lions, Tigers and Bears fame, took over the book, with Carlos Magno as the regular artist in 2006, leaving the series to finally come out on a more regular schedule.
Moonstone have also made and is in the process of making several special projects with the character. In 2006, a retcon of the Phantom's origin called "Legacy" was published, written by Ben Raab and drawn by Pat Quinn, which aimed to look like one of the Phantom's chronicle books. 2006 also marked the year when Moonstone invented the wide-vision format, introducing it to the world with the Phantom story "Law of the Jungle".Moonstone have also announced a Phantom Annual, and two prose collections featuring Phantom short stories.
The Phantom is Moonstone's best selling title.
[edit] Kolchak the Night Stalker
Moonstone's "Kolchak" run have been a commercial success for the company. The scripts for the stories are often based on unfilmed scripts for the old TV-show Kolchak The Night Stalker.
[edit] Buckaroo Banzai
Since 2006, Moonstone have been publishing comics with Buckaroo Banzai, the main character from the 1984 cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, which continues plotlines left unexplored in the movie.
[edit] Participants
Moonstone's editor-in-chief is Joe Gentile, who frequently writes his own stories for their comics. Frequent writers and artists for their books are Mike Bullock, Chuck Dixon, Ben Raab, Rafael Nieves, Peter David, Graham Nolan, EricJ, Tom Mandrake, Vatche Mavlian, Doug Klauba, Mike W. Barr, Tom DeFalco, Max Allan Collins, and Ron Goulart.
[edit] Wide vision
Moonstone have recently invented an all new comic book format, called "Wide-Vision", which aims to look like widescreen films. The format made its premiere in July 2006 with a 72-page The Phantom story called "Law of the Jungle", written by Joe Gentile and with painted artwork by Paul Guinan. Other wide-vision stories with the Phantom and Kolchak would follow.
[edit] Prose anthologies
Moonstone recently published a Stoker Award-nominated prose anthology with Kolchak, which became a big seller. Due to the success of the Kolchak collection, Moonstone have recently announced two new prose anthologies with The Phantom, one with The Spider, one with The Avenger and one with Doc Savage.
[edit] External links
- official site
- Moonstone's official discussion forum
- An article on "The Phantom" written by editor-in-chief Joe Gentile.
- An interview with the entire creative team behind "The Phantom"
- An article about the Phantom written by author Mike Bullock
- Audio-recording of Moonstone's San Diego Comic Con Phantom panel
