Welcome to the Phantacea Comic Book Page 
"Feeling Theocidal -- Thrygragon, Year of the Dome 4376", Book One of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' trilogy, "The War of the Apocalyptics", the first entry in the Launch 1980 story sequence, the three mini-novels making up "The 1000 Days of Disbelief", Book Two of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories', and "Goddess Gambit", Book Three of the trilogy and the second entry in the Launch 1980 story sequence, should be available at neighbourhood bookstores and public libraries all over the world.
Please be aware that "Janna Fangfingers", the third and final mini-novel comprising 1000-Daze, rather cleverly doubles as a prequel to the Launch 1980 sequences. Be aware also that e-versions of Feel Theo, Hellion, Contagion and Fangers are available on the Kindle format exclusively from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and some of amazon's other European affiliates until the end of March 2012.
If you don't see the novels or mini-novels displayed at your local book stops, kindly direct purchasing agents and/or booksellers to www.phantacea.com in order to help them rectify such a sad situation.
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A number of Phantacea Publications, specifically "Feeling Theocidal", "The War of the Apocalyptics" the three mini-novels constituting "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" (namely "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors" and "Janna Fangfingers"), and "Goddess Gambit", can be ordered from amazon.com and its affiliates, including amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk,
as well as from Barnes & Noble.
Until the end of March 2012, e-versions of "Feeling Theocidal", "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors" and "Janna Fangfingers" can be ordered on the Kindle format exclusively from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and four of amazon's additional European affiliates.
Libraries, bookstores and bookseller collectives can place bulk
orders through Ingram Books, Ingram International, Coutts Information (and Library) Services, Baker & Taylor, and a large network of other distributors worldwide.
Or, if you prefer to order directly from the publisher, email or send your order(s) via surface mail. No matter where you live or what currency you prefer to use, I'll figure out a way to fill your order(s) myself.
As an introductory offer, I will absorb shipping costs and government taxes on "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors" and "Janna Fangfingers" only. Just be aware that I can only accept certified cheques or money orders.
For all the other PHANTACEA Mythos print publications, I'll have to charge an additional 12% to cover Canadian and provincial taxes as well as Canada Post rates for shipping. I do use bubble mailers, though.
BookFinder.com lists both mosaic novels: "Feeling Theocidal" and "The War of the Apocalyptics". Also listed therein are most of the other PHANTACEA Mythos print publications.
Another interesting option for the curious is Chegg, which has a rent-a-book program. Thus far its search engine shows no results for phantacea (any style or permutation thereof) but it does recognize Jim McPherson (a variety of them) and the titles of the novels.
As for the Whole Earth (other than the Hidden Continent of Sedon's Head, at least as far as I can say), well, this page contains a list of a few other websites where you can probably order the novels in a variety of currencies and with credit cards.
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PHANTACEA One was published
in September 1977. Drawn entirely by Dave Sim, 
it contains 'The
Launching of the Cosmic Express' and features the first appearance
of many of the characters found in the ongoing Web Serials
to this date being featured over on pH-Webworld.
![[<em>PHANTACEA ONE</em> Back Cover]](graphicimages/pH1/fecilit1.jpg)
Some of these are depicted on the back
cover but, at the time, a number of superhero fans, Sim included,
were quite taken by one character, -- Baron Justice II!
Despite his prominence in this issue, even as plain,
ordinary, leg-crippled T.J. Maxwell, he rarely showed up in subsequent
issues and is equally absent in the Web Serials.
This does not mean he will not come into his own eventually. Just
that his time has not yet come, -- though it still might!
Note: A larger version of the backcover for pH-1,
together with some comments about the characters depicted, is here.
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PHANTACEA Two was published
in June 1978. Drawn by a number of artists including Sim, it contains
the first appearance of, among others, Professor Kinesis as Doc Defiance,
Big Max (T.J.'s father) as the Indescribable Mr. NoName, Devil Wind
and the Ubiquitous Uncle Universe.![[MR. NONAME BATTLING DOLPH DULLES, FROM PH-2]](graphicimages/pH2/nonam13.jpg)
Defiance and NoName appeared in both the 'Centauri
Island' and 'Helios
on the Moon' Web Serials. Universe also
appeared in MOON. Devil Wind, Great Byron and his fellow Byronic
Nucleoids appear in 'Feeling
Theocidal', which can now be pre-ordered.
They are also featured characters in 'The
War of the Apocalyptics', the first chapter of which is included
in FEEL THEO. ![[IMAGE OF DOC DEFIANCE, FROM PH-2]](graphicimages/pH2/docdef1.jpg)
Ian Bateson, in his first work as a comic book artist, brought you
the debut of Demon Land and the Damnation Brigade while Gordon Parker
took you to New Weirworld, where Uncle Universe hung his Saturn-like
Ring. In the same issue's fourth story, Sean Newton introduced one of
the most popular characters ever to appear in PHANTACEA:
Nergal
Vetala!
Together with her tormented, then unnamed soldier (Dmetri Diomad,
the son of Demonites
Zeross and his aunt, Roxanne
nee Heliopolis Kinesis, a love-loving Afrite and one of the myriad Summoning
Children), the Vampire Queen of Hadd figured prominently throughout
'The
Trigregos Gambit' and -- dare I say it? -- haunted the outskirts
of 'The
Moloch Manoeuvres' almost from Sentence One.
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PHANTACEA Three was published in December
1978.  ![[BACKCOVER FOR PHANTACEA 3]](graphicimages/pH3/ph3bcov3.jpg) It
featured two fliptop covers, one on the front and one on the back, though
I left which is which up to the reader to decide.
The one with the price and logo on it (only some of which is shown
here) is by Richard Sandoval and opens onto the initial chapter of 'Helios
on the Moon'. The bright blue one is by Ian Bateson and presents
the Damnation Brigade in the opening chapters of 'The
War of the Apocalyptics'. Other contributing artists include Peter
Lynde, Carl Muecke and, in their first work for PHANTACEA,
Tim Hammell and Verne Andrusiek (nowadays Andru), who succeeded Newton as the primary artist for the Gambit
storyline.
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 PHANTACEA
Four came out in mid-1979. Fully fifty-six pages long and having
a number of artists including Sim, Bateson, Andrusiek, Reginald Klassen,
and the late Gene Day,
it carried on all three storylines: 'The
War of the Apocalyptics' (since novelized), 'The
Trigregos Gambit' , and 'Helios
on the Moon'.
The wraparound cover was by Ian Bateson, who did the cover for the War-Pox novel in 2009. The sample of it presented
here features Radiant Rider, one of the Damnation Brigade, facing off
against the Byronic Nucleoids.
The blue-skinned fellow is Vayu Maelstrom, Devil Wind, while the smoke-cloaked
woman in the lower lefthand corner is Sedona Spellbinder. The monsters
with the maces are all Chimaera Glimmenmare, Byron's ever-changing Stallion,
some of whose half-progeny (Chrysaor Attis's Peg the Pegasus-psychopomp and Hinny
the Hippy) play important roles in "Feeling
Theocidal".
Sedona shows up in "The Death's Head Hellion" (and not just in her usual role as Byron's mouthpiece). Both she and Chimaera feature, howsoever briefly, in "Contagion Collectors". Unmoving Byron forms his biggest Nucleus ever in "Janna Fangfingers" and of course all four tend to dominate "The War of the Apocalyptics" whenever they appear.
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 PHANTACEA
Five came out in Spring 1980. It featured a number of artists including
Bateson, Andrusiek, Hammell, George Freeman and Vince Marchesano, reputedly the latter
ably assisted by such friends as Sim and various Day brothers.
 This
issue finished off 'The
War of the Apocalyptics', -- as well as a great many of its
characters. (Though, admittedly, most of them were cannon fodder, as
such like are affectionately known as in the business.)
Verne Andrusiek (nowadays Andru) designed and drew most of the front cover,
his first for PHANTACEA, while Ian Bateson
redrew parts of it, did the colour work and did much the same for the
back cover off material initially provided by Freeman and Andrusiek.
The Damnation Brigade looked to be in rough shape at the end but a
bunch of them were back in action the next issue. D-Brig, what's left
of them, are the featured characters in 'Year
One - After Limbo' and their younger selves also appear in
1938's 'Heliodyssey'
sequences.
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 PHANTACEA
Six also came out in 1980. Drawn entirely by Verne Andru, it ended
'The
Trigregos Gambit' and a lot more characters, -- including
more than a few cannons.
 Verne's
cover, his second, albeit the first one he did in its entirety, was
another wraparound. In the bottom righthand corner of the back cover
is a depiction of Aristotle
Zeross,
Ringleader.
In addition to being the main protagonist in GAMBIT, he was
the titular character in both Rings '55: 'The
Last of the Supranormals' and Rings '60:
'Aspects
of an Amoebaman', both of which were serialized
on the Web in the late Nineties.
We last saw Rings in 'Year
One' when he was being lowered into a tub of Cathonic
Fluid.
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 Unfortunately PHANTACEA Seven was only
partially drawn, by Ian Bateson, before the money ran dry.
Thus, since it never came out, the only way you could discover what
ultimately happened in 'Helios
on the Moon', and to most of PHANTACEA
Phase One's then still-surviving characters, was to follow
the web-serial. Fortunately, although the Moon serialization
ended in the Year 2000 out here in Cyberia, its synopsis is still online.
NOTE: Double-click on image and a new window will open with an enlarged version of this graphic
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  In
1987, responding to a boom in sales for independently published comic
books, an attempt to relaunch the PHANTACEA
series of comic books was begun.
Entitled PHANTACEA Phase
One, it was scripted to run fifteen issues. Idea was to present
complete stories in one issue, as well as an additional 4 or 5 bonus
pages that would tell an all-new story, namely 'The
Genesis of PHANTACEA'. The full
cover of the first issue, as well as some comments on the characters
depicted, is reproduced on the next page.
A few other covers were prepared for this project, including the ones
reproduced here. The one to the upper left is by Ian Bateson and depicts a
significant event, the encounter between Devil Wind and Demon Land,
that occurred on Damnation Island on the 30th of November 1980.
(NOTE: Ian based the cover he did in 2009 for the novel "The War of the Apocayptics" on this very image. It's near top of this page. As for the artwork he prepared for Phase One #2 that's here and here.)
 The one to the upper right is by Ian Fry. It depicts Anti-Patriach Cain, Slayer of Abel, raising the Golden Calf on the outskirts of Power
Point Sumeria  some six hundred years before the Great Flood of Genesis,
what's referred to as the Genesea
in PHANTACEA.
Unfortunately, yet again, only one issue of PHANTACEA
Phase One was published before boom became bust. Fortunately,
yet again also, I've held onto a surprising amount of the original artwork and scanned in what I don't have to fill the gaps such that I could issue PHANTACEA Revisited compendiums at some point in the future should demand warrant.
I even have some idea what the covers might look like. The Damnation Brigade (to left) is by Ian Bateson circa 1988 whereas the Rhadmanthys Revealed cover art (to right) is by Verne Andrusiek from sometime in the early to mid 1980s.
(NOTE: In 2008 Verne by now long Andru did the cover for "Feeling Theocidal", which is also here, and the cover for "Goddess Gambit" in 2012.)
NOTE: Double-click on images and a new window will open with enlarged version of these graphics
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  In
1990 I incorporated the intended back-up features for PHANTACEA
Phase One into an oversized Graphic Novel entilted 'Forever
& 40 Days - The Genesis of PHANTACEA'. 'pH&40'
is still available whereas pristine copies
of the orginal series of PHANTACEA,
the Comic Books, are virtually impossible to come by.
If you scour the back issue section in your local comic
store you might get lucky in terms of getting hold of the originals.
Better yet, with the exceptions
of pH-5 and pH-6,
you could order them directly from me.
Perhaps best of all, if you've the wherewithal in terms of email and
a cheque book, you can order
scans of all the comics, including pH-5
and pH-6.
Additional information on the history of PHANTACEA,
including material on the various web serials and Jim McPherson's
novels featuring PHANTACEA characters, can
be found on the 25
Years Plus Webpage; quick-read overviews containing condensed versions of some of the same or similar information can be found here and here.
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![[COVER FOR THE LAUNCHING OF THE COSMIC EXPRESS]](graphicimages/pH1/phase11.jpg)
