Celebrating Fantomen's 75th Anniversary in issue 18-19/2025

Jermayn Parker
Aug 16
3 min read

Updated: Aug 17

October 1950 saw the first Fantomen comic from Sweden released; 2025 sees the magazine celebrating its 75th anniversary. We talked to editors Jacob Habinc and Andreas Eriksson about the anniversary in our last podcast with them. The anniversary comic is out for sale in shops on 20 August 2025, and what a way to celebrate with a bumper comic featuring 124 pages, including a new story of the Phantom visiting Sweden.

The cover for this striking cover is by Henrik Sahlström and features the Poseidon statue in Gothenburg. The contents for the magazine are:

"Kalla fiskar, heta stålar" ("Cold Fish, Hot Cash") by Pidde Andersson and Janusz Ordon
"Djungelsnö" ("Jungle Snow") by Claes Reimerthi, Felmang, Benny and Ferri, after an idea by Cici Rüetschi and Jörgen Bäckström.
"Parasiten" ("The Parasite") by Janne Lundström and Jaime Vallvé
"Den siste vikingen" ("The Last Viking") by Norman Worker and Hans Lindahl
"Om Fantomen var från Göteborg" ("If the Phantom was from Gothenburg") by Johan Wanloo

Along with this issue, it also includes a competition that is open to everyone around the Phantom world. More on that soon.

Two of the five stories are brand new, never printed elsewhere before. The main new story features the Phantom and Diana having a holiday in Gothenburg, Sweden. While Diana attends a UN meeting, the Phantom tries to enjoy some downtime by eating at famous Gothenburg restaurants and seeing the sights. However, as always, the Phantom finds trouble and ends up battling bad guys who use seafood (which Gothenburg is also famous for) as a means to smuggle steriods.

Some of the famous sights the Phantom visits while in Gothenburg are Hisingen, and he also passes Haga Nygata, Park Lane and the Kometen restaurant. Have we missed any? Let us know.

"Om Fantomen var från Göteborg" ("If the Phantom was from Gothenburg") by Johan Wanloo is on the back cover and is a humorous take on Gothenburg and the Phantom. I have been told that Gothenburg is known for the residents' humor based around puns, so much so that a Swedish nickname for puns is a "Gothenburg joke". So this story by Johan is naturally full of puns and features local Gothenburg references. If it were to be translated to another language, the jokes would likely be lost in translation.

The Parasite has not yet been published by Frew but was first published by Fantomen in 1974. The Parasite is in black and white, with all the other stories are printed in colour. Jungle Snow and The Last Viking are in the original colours and not recoloured.

"Jungle Snow" was first created specifically for the 75th anniversary of Kemikontoret (Association of Swedish Chemical Industries) in 1992 which saw the comic first printed in a standalone separate comic for the celebration. The idea and plot were written by Cici Rüetschi and Jörgen Bäckström of Kemikontoret, and the script was then written by Claes Reimerthi.

This story features famous people featured in the story - a gold star to anyone who spots and identifies them all. In this 75th anniversary comic, it includes hints and clues on every page about who they are. If anyone can identify them all, please let us know so we can share the list.

The annual Gothenburg Book Fair in 2025 is held from Thursday, 25th to Sunday, 28 September 2025, which will see this comic still in many shops, which will tie in beautifully and may see the comic get media attention. This comic has already received some positive media attention with an article in the Gothenburg Post newspaper. Hopefully, the comic and celebration will see some more attention to celebrate the huge milestone.