Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews the 2023 Fantomen softcover album featuring the following stories:
"Den maskerade cowboyen" ("The Phantom Cowboy") by Lee Falk, Sy Barry, George Olesen, and Keith Williams
"Spökbyn" ("The Massacre") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry
"Wagon Master" by Ulf Granberg, Janne Lundström, and Özcan Eralp
"Indianhataren" ("The Indian Hater") by Janne Lundström, and Özcan Eralp
"Terror i öknen" ("Terror in the Desert") by Janne Lundström, and Özcan Eralp
"I laglöst land" ("Badlands") by Özcan Eralp
This is an amazing cover by Luca Erbetta.
This years softcover book has a western theme, quite a lot like the 2018 annual (Frew #1802). Let us go through the stories.
"Den maskerade cowboyen" ("The Phantom Cowboy") by Lee Falk, Sy Barry, George Olesen, and Keith Williams
This is the last Sy Barry drawn story, I think it is really good story as unfortnately some of the other stories from this period are not as strong. In this story we see Annie marrying the 16th Phantom.
"Spökbyn" ("The Massacre") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry
This is a very short story with some supernatural elements, it is ok.
"Wagon Master" by Ulf Granberg, Janne Lundström, and Özcan Eralp
"Indianhataren" ("The Indian Hater") by Janne Lundström, and Özcan Eralp
These two stories are quite connected through the use of the character Jonah Blackbird, i think it is a bit of a shame that there is no explanation why Jonah went from trying to find a new home for him and all the freed slaves to then becoming a soldier in the US military. Apart from this loophole I really enjoy these two stories.
"Terror i öknen" ("Terror in the Desert") by Janne Lundström, and Özcan Eralp
"I laglöst land" ("Badlands") by Özcan Eralp
In these stories, we get to see 17th Phantom meeting with Mary and how they got married. We see Mary again in the Frew 75th anniversary in the "Singh Raiders" story.
My final thoughts on this book as a whole is that in my opinion this is the best softcover book out of all of them. In my opinion, the theme is much stronger than any of the other ones. I hope the following books will keep strong themes as well.
Until next time, Happy Phantoming!
All Fantomen reviews will be included in our monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts. You can find out more at our website and or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos. Thanks also goes to Jörgen Karlsson for his help creating the Fantomen review intro which will now be featured for all reviews by Mikael Lyck.
