Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were a reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

Anyone who read the Moonstone run of The Phantom knows who Mike Bullock is. He was writer and/or group editor for most of the comics. He also wrote stories for Moonstone’s comic-formatted prose anthology of the same name. So this one comes with the fewest surprises. He knows the Phantom well, although he focuses not on the current Phantom but the Thirteenth. Maybe he just likes writing about Jeanette, the sister of a pirate, which is an odd choice for the Phantom’s bride, but stranger things have happened in the multiverse.

I Of The Storm

by Mike Bullock

Since this is Bullock’s story I hope that co-editor for this volume, Joe Gentile, was the editor on the story. If so, he missed one time when the Phantom’s wrecked ship wasn’t italicized and I’m betting “earth-shattering” should have a hyphen the way it was written in the sentence it appears in. Then again I’m not an editor but this is one of two complaints I have against the story. The other is that the tale starts out with an excerpt from Phantom #13 stating that he included the words or a pirate to give future generations an idea as to the mindset of the pirates they’ve sworn to battle. However, while one section sounds like it was actually written in the third person the rest of the tale is told in the words of the Phantom himself.

After being attacked by a ghostly pirate ship, the Phantom and his bride are the only survivors of the crashed ship and find themselves on an uncharted island (are there any of those left nowadays with all those satellites up there?) that was being used by a group of pirates to test new ways to keep their gunpowder dry. While the old man left behind makes friendly with our heroes, the bad guys are coming. What follows is how the Phantom uses his jungle skills in this unfamiliar jungle to beat them up and steal their ship.

It’s fun to watch the Phantom freak out the pirates and take them down. Bullock does a good job describing the action we’re allowed to see, and you can see the scene in their head. If he is a fan of Jeanette Lafitte, he makes us one as well not by stuffing it our faces “look how cool and awesome Jeanette is don’t you think she’s cool I think she’s cool and you should love her as much as I do LOVE HER DAMMIT LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (see also one of my problems with Wolverine) but by just making her a good character you like watching in action. She’s a perfect mate for a Ghost Who Walks.

Outside of the minor gripes I mentioned earlier there is nothing wrong with this story and it’s one of the best of this anthology.

Next Time: “Night Visitor To Bangalla”, by Robin Wayne Bailey

By the way, we’re at the half-way point of this book.

Related articles

• Chapter By Chapter #2: The Phantom Chronicles V2 – The Phantom of Cobtree Manor
• Chapter By Chapter: Phantom Chronicles V2 – “A Grim Certitude”
• Chapter By Chapter: The Phantom Chronicles V2 – “The Sky Warriors”
• Chapter By Chapter: The Phantom Chronicles V2 – “The Leopard’s Eye”