As the days grow shorter and the weather gets a little chillier here in the States, the holiday season is upon us and another year steadily comes to a close. My gracious, has a whole year almost blazed by again? 2007 - so much has happened, especially in the way of Phantasm. I think for posterity, a yearly recounting of events is called for lest we forget what went down.

The year opened on a sad note for phans everywhere as John Klyza (aka 'Dusk') made the unfortunate announcement that he was stepping down as head Phantasm webmaster, a title he had valiantly held for more than nine years. Vanished did his informative website and hundreds-strong message forum. I contacted him shortly after his announcement and expressed my gloom over his decision. He couldn't expound, but told me that he might not been as gone from Phantasm as he thought and that something big was around the corner. I had no idea what he was talking about.

To catch some of the stragglers and left-overs from John's forum, Italian phan Tiziano Caliendo opened Sphere Wars: The Phandom Menace message forum in mid-February which would later be known by the domain name of SphereWars.org. To also attempt in some small way to fill the void left in online phandom, yours truly opened The Phantasm Archives with not much of anything in the way of content. We officially went online March 6, 2007.

Of course as timing would have it, the day after Phantasm Archives went online - the official website for Phantasm received a striking upgrade in design and content. In it's eleven year history, this marked the first time the frequented home of the series had tried out a different look. The best part of Phantasm.com's overhaul was the addition of an official blog ran by none-other-than phan-regular John Klyza! It was especially heartening to see John return to his post. The blog was titled 'Phantasm Secrets', a nod to his previous website.

In mid-April, Anchor Bay Entertainment unleashed upon American consumers two new Phantasmic DVDs. The original Phantasm saw special edition release alongside Phantasm III which was making it's R1 DVD debut. As a phan, I revel in seeing our series once again on video stores shelves from Best Buy to Circuit City. Reviews for the set were positive and phans satisfied.

Still basking in the glow of April's DVD releases, a Phantasm Reunion Event was held at the Burbank, CA Fangoria Convention on May 19. Don Coscarelli signed autographs and answered audience questions alongside Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester, Gloria Lynn-Henry and Bill Thornbury.
 
In late June, the same crazy bloke (me) who made The Phantasm Archives brought online another phan-site called Phantasm5.com. Two weeks later after it's inception, the year's most significant news item happened. On July 6, a tribute video from Don Coscarelli honoring the ill-fated Alamo Drafthouse showed up at AintItCool.com. The video began with a 20-second clip depicting a scene from Phantasm V acted out by Angus Scrimm and Michael Baldwin. This was the first new official footage from the series in nearly a decade. What did it all mean? It meant that movement on Phantasm V was not just a rumor. There in-fact now existed a finished script, a table reading with the entire cast and test footage created from which these 20-seconds were released. The film still isn't a definite "GO" yet - but this all was fantastic news in the right direction.

I'd risk losing my self-pretentious public image if I didn't mention that in mid-August, another message forum for phans was brought online as official accompaniment to The Phantasm Archives and Phantasm5.com. This new forum was dubbed 'Phantasm-Community' and received more than 2,000 posts in its first month of existence. An unparalleled honor was bestowed upon the forum later in September when performer Reggie Bannister and his effects-savy wife Gigi signed up for accounts on 'Community'.

At the very end of August, Tall man Angus Scrimm and Reggie Bannister headlined a Phantasm Reunion for the Monster Mania 9 Convention in Cherry Hill, NJ. The convention is worth noting because it marks the rare appearance of Phantasm alumni on the east coast and because Reggie Bannister sat down with the Archives for an interview after Saturday's events. Personally, this was a momentous occasion for me because it was the first time I'd ever met in-person anyone from the series. I was able to meet, speak to and even spend a little time with Reggie/Gigi Bannister and Angus Scrimm. As so many before me have found out, they're all three some of the warmest and most inclusive people you could ever hope to meet.

In summary, January through now saw old sites close, new sites open, DVDs released, conventions go down and major progress made on a new Phantasm film. And here we all are twelve months later, another year older and with any luck, wiser too. I've left out many things in this look back over the past year to keep this from becoming overly-long. When I look at where it began and where it's going to end, I'm simply amazed. It fills me with hope and anticipation to see what the next twelve months hold for Phantasm, it's phans and filmmakers. Here's to hoping I'll be here at the end of 2008 saying much of the same things but with a whole different agenda to talk about. (raises glass)
Here's to 2008.