Results for 2025 best Fantomen story (as voted by you)

Following a 50-year tradition, the readers of the Fantomen magazine have voted on what they think is their best adventure for 2025. In total, over 200 phans voted, which is slightly higher than in 2024. It could be higher, and it would be nice to see more readers participate, as these results do play a part in the scheduling and planning by the editorial staff. There are also prizes to be won!

The results have been published in Fantomen 12/2025, and as always, the discussion from what the fans voted on is always worth dissecting and looking into.

The top three stories published in Fantomen in 2025 as voted by the fans are:

1. "Den siste vikingen" ("The Last Viking") by Norman Worker and Hans Lindahl

2. "Fantomens barndom" ("The Phantoms Childhood") by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy

3. "Kalla fiskar, heta stålar" ("Cold Fish, Hot Money") by Pidde Andersson and Janusz Ordon

All but four stories received a vote. This shows that the majority of the stories were hits and that they are catering to a wide audience of readers. It also shows that some Lee Falk stories are not instant classics, as some naturally think. It may sound sacrilegious, but Lee Falk did create some dud stories.

Perhaps the most obvious observation is that 3 out of the top 5 are all reprint stories. What does this say about the quality of the newly created stories? On the surface that is a worthy question, but let's dig a bit further. "The Last Viking" by Norman Worker and Hans Lindahl received twice as many votes, but it also was voted best story in 1996 when first published, so it has always been a popular story. It is also about Vikings, and as we see with stories featuring the Phantom visiting Australia, it will be popular among a nation heavily influenced by their forefathers.

Seeing "Kalla fiskar, heta stålar" ("Cold Fish, Hot Money") by Pidde Andersson and Janusz Ordon in the top three best stories of 2025 should not surprise many. It was included in Fantomen 18-19/2025, which was sold out in many shops around Sweden and also featured "The Last Viking", which was voted first. For many casual readers, it could likely be the only stories they read in 2025.

I do wonder if the multiple-part stories would get more votes if they were included as one story instead of multiple. If you combine the votes for "The Bat of Berlin, Part 1 & 2" Pidde Andersson and Janusz Ordon, it would be equal to the fourth best story for 2025.

The highest-voted newspaper story was "Fantomens barndom" ("The Phantoms Childhood") by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy, and the highest new (not published before in Sweden) newspaper story was "Return to the Temple of the Gods" by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel, which likely would not be as popular in Australia as in Sweden with the "supernatural" references. It goes to show that stories will have different appeal across different types of readers.

The complete list of the 40 stories is listed below, and a number of things caught the team's attention, which we will highlight.