This allegorical tale provides a contemporary spin on the biblical story of The Woman at the Well. The reader is taken on a journey with Samaris, who experiences the turmoil of losing her father, losing her family and losing the respect of her neighbors. She experiences more loss through five divorces and various forms of abuse, while losing her identity. She is lost and there is no one to point her in the right direction. The very area she lives in seems to be cursed, and every relationship seems to end in more turmoil. Samaris finally meets a stranger who helps her to take the first step in the right direction. Each chapter includes an inspirational message from the author encouraging the believer to take hold of Gods promises. You will experience the magnificent flow of praise and worship throughout the book as you read the lyrics to songs sung by the late Evangelist Sheree Williams, and others written by the author.

A 300 year old queen defies a witch's spell to capture the phantom.

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2020 More and more people are noticing links between urban geography and the spaces within the layout of panels on the comics page. Benjamin Fraser explores the representation of the city in a range of comics from across the globe. Comics address the city as an idea, a historical fact, a social construction, a material-built environment, a shared space forged from the collective imagination, or as a social arena navigated according to personal desire. Accordingly, Fraser brings insights from urban theory to bear on specific comics. The works selected comprise a variety of international, alternative, and independent small-press comics artists, from engravings and early comics to single-panel work, graphic novels, manga, and trading cards, by artists such as Will Eisner, Tsutomu Nihei, Hariton Pushwagner, Julie Doucet, Frans Masereel, and Chris Ware. In the first monograph on this subject, Fraser touches on many themes of modern urban life: activism, alienation, consumerism, flânerie, gentrification, the mystery story, science fiction, sexual orientation, and working-class labor. He leads readers to images of such cities as Barcelona, Buenos Aires, London, Lyon, Madrid, Montevideo, Montreal, New York, Oslo, Paris, São Paolo, and Tokyo. Through close readings, each chapter introduces readers to specific comics artists and works and investigates a range of topics related to the medium’s spatial form, stylistic variation, and cultural prominence. Mainly, Fraser mixes interest in urbanism and architecture with the creative strategies that comics artists employ to bring their urban images to life.

Probably the best known of all Phantom comics in the U.S.A., this series of 73 colour comics was published between Nov 1962 and Jan 1977, under three different publishers. The series began under the Gold Key label, published by K.K.Publications as a quarterly 12c comic. With issue #11 in 1965, the series changed to a bi-monthly. In 1966, the release schedule returned to a quarterly basis, and only lasted two more issues before the first change of publisher occurred. In total, there were 17 Phantom comics with the Gold Key label. All sported beautiful painted covers by George Wilson. Three of these covers are reported to have been painted by another unknown artist (#5, #12, #13). Most of the stories were adaptations of original Lee Falk newspaper strip stories, with new artwork by Bill Lignante. King Features Syndicate became the new publisher of The Phantom comics, releasing their first issue in September 1966 under the King Comics label. They continued the numbering sequence from the Gold Key series, labelling this issue #18. It was published as a 12c bi-monthly until issue #23 in mid-1967 when it changed to a monthly schedule. Issue #28 was the last to be published under the King Comics label (cover price 15c), only 6 issues into the monthly schedule. Of the 11 Phantom comics published by King, all but one of the stories were illustrated by Bill Lignante. The first two issues contained adaptations of older Lee Falk stories, and thereafter, the stories were original. Issue #25 contained a story entitled The Cold Fire Worshippers which was reprinted from the Italian comics series American Adventures published by Fratelli Spada, and drawn by Senio Pratesi. The cover artwork on the first three of these comics were by Bill Lignante, while all others appear to have been lifted directly from panels of Sy Barry's newspaper strips. The reigns of The Phantom comic were picked up again over a year later (February 1969), by Charlton Press using the Charlton Comics label. They continued with the same numbering sequence but skipped #29 and began with #30. This first issue featured uncredited artwork, but the covers and all but two of the stories in the next year of bi-monthly issues were by Jim Aparo. Issue #33 was the first to contain a story by Pat Boyette, and Bill Lignante was brought back to illustrate his last Phantom story which appeared in #35. From issue #39 onwards (August 1970), the cover and story artwork was exclusively by Pat Boyette. With only a handful of exceptions, each issue then contained three 7-page stories. The art and stories during this period can best be described as woeful. Despite a considerable volume of negative feedback from readers, Charlton persisted with Pat Boyette until #59 in December 1973. The declining sales must have struck a nerve with Charlton (who'd changed their name to Charlton Publications after #56), and the comic was revived six months later in #60 as The New Phantom. In their search for new artists and writers, Charlton first relied on stories from the Italian publisher Fratelli Spada, before introducing us to the work of Don Sherwood and ... more notably ... Don Newton. In total, Don Newton contributed six beautifully illustrated 22-page stories (#67, #68, #70, #71, #73, #74) complete with painted cover artwork, plus the cover for #69. Sales improved, but not enough to save the flagging title. The last issue of The Phantom comic was #74, in January 1977. A complete index of the individual stories in each issue of Charlton Comics is available HERE. An analysis of the circulation data and the cover price builds an interesting picture of how this series eventually failed. Cover price for the series commenced at 12c, and was raised to 15c from #34, 20c from #46, 25c from #60, and finally 30c from #70 -- this was common for all American comics at the time. At the same time, the number of comics being printed was gradually falling, but at a lesser rate than the number that were being sold. This graph shows what happened. By 1976, the paid circulation was less than 40%, compared with a peak of 65% in 1965. Not even the brilliant efforts of Don Newton were enough to save the title ... the damage had already been done. Simply put, the editors at Charlton were too slow to make the necessary corrections. The Phantom was subsequently absent from American newsstands, at least in comic book form, for the next 10 years. Issue Publisher Date #1 - #17 Gold Key Comics Nov 1962 - Jul 1966 #18 - #28 King Comics Sep 1966 - Dec 1967 #30 - #74 Charlton Comics Feb 1969 - Jan 1977