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Writer's pictureDan Fraser

The Best of Frew for 2021 as Voted by You!

Chronicle Chamber's annual poll on Frew's phans' phavourites results revealed here!


We now know what you loved about Frew Publications last year, as you the phans voted on your best Frew issues, stories and covers, produced and published under the extraordinary circumstances of a COVID affected 2021.

After another huge response from the phans, the Best of Frew 2021 results are below, and are discussed in detail in our X-Band: The Phantom Podcast Episode #209 - Our Best of 2021.

Once again we were blown away by the entries - over 260 responses this year. Thanks so much to all of you who took the time to reflect on the year that was and nominate your favourite Frew covers, stories and issues from the year that was 2021.

Before the individual results, a standing ovation for the team at Frew! For the first time since this survey has been running, every single cover, story and issue received at least one vote from the public!

  • ALL 30 covers received votes (i.e. in someone's top 3)

  • ALL 57 stories received votes (i.e. in someone's top 5)

  • ALL 32 issues received votes (i.e. in someone's top 3)

Obviously Frew are going from strength to strength in the way that they cater for a very wide audience, and perhaps even broadening the market.


Since the advent of the new Frew Crew they certainly have tried a range of approaches - an increase in locally created content; a range of products (regular issues, specials, TPB's, Giantsize) being available; stories from a wide range of genres, including finding that balance of old and new stories.


It would appear to be working as everything they produced this year certainly catered to someone's taste, so long may it continue!

 

Phan votes for Best FREW Cover of 2021

According to the popular vote, where people nominated their Top 3 covers of the year:


Points of note:

  • Daniel Picciotto takes out first place for a second year in a row. Daniel has produced only three covers for Frew, and they are clearly well received by the phans, with two top spots in succession, as well as a 5th place last year. This particular image has been around for a couple of years now (first seen during The Treasures of Drakon board game Kickstarter campaign), and it's wonderful to see it now being acclaimed as the Cover of the Year.

  • Young Australian artist Alex Trpcevski has well and truly burst onto the scenes, with his dynamic, vibrant and action-packed covers filling places 2, 3 and 4. He is also the only artist with multiple covers in the top 10 this year.

  • For a second year in a row, 9 of the top 11 positions were taken by Australian artists.

 

Phan votes for Best FREW Story of 2021

According to the popular vote, where people nominated their Top 5 stories of the year:

Points of note:

  • For the third year in a row, the team of Duncan Munro and Jeff Weigel has been chosen as "Best Story". This makes all three parts of their 'Prince Rex' series to have been adjudged phan phavourite, an extraordinary result for Duncan in particular, these being his first three published stories.

  • Dale Maccanti and Jason Paulos' Rise of the Red Dragon proves to be incredibly popular with phans, achieving 2nd position in 2021 only three years after coming out on top in our 2018 poll, when it was first published.

  • Life's Blood could be considered the surprise packet here, with Dean Rankine and Jeremy Macpherson's fun little four-page filler in the Christmas Special sliding up into 6th place.

  • 7 of the top 10 phavourite stories are original commissions by Frew.

 

Phan votes for Best FREW Issue of 2021

According to the popular vote, where people nominated their Top 3 issues of the year:

Points of note:

  • Featuring the top cover and second-placed story it's no surprise that the Treasures of Drakon trade paperback would be the leader in the 'Best Issue' category too.

  • For the first time since this annual poll began, the Annual does not feature in the top 3.

  • The effect of Alex Trpcevski's popularity would seem evident, with issues featuring his cover art finishing in positions 3, 4 and 5.

 

​Overall

Without question Trade Paperback 4 has to be declared the overall "winner" of 2021, placing top two in every category. The formula of collecting a popular serial from the past (Pirates of the Red Dragon), together with a prequel (Rise of the Red Dragon) and a brand new sequel (The Adventure of the Dragon's Leg) seems to be a winner with FREW's readers and it would surprise if they did not return to this productive well many times in the future.

Thanks to all voters, and a huge "Well done!" to everyone who finished rear the top of any category - with Frew pumping out an amazing 32 books and 57 stories last year creating a highly competitive field, to emerge as a popular favourite is no mean feat.

Most of all: well done, congratulations and THANK YOU to Glenn Ford, Rene White and Dudley Hogarth - the core of the Frew Crew and the men who make all of this possible.

 

Prize Winners!

After all that of course we need to say a special congratulations to the five winners of our lucky prize draw, selected at random from all respondents. We conducted the draw during X-Band: The Phantom Podcast Episode #209 - Our Best of 2021 podcast.


Check it out in the video below.

Dale Maccanti and Michelle Forrester are our lucky winners of the Frew Crew badges - well done.

The next three voters drawn at random are winners of a set of ChronicleChamber merch (keyring, pin, sticker) - congratulations to Wade King, Chad Kyme and Zac Savage.

Make sure you all keep an eye on your mail for the next few days as the prizes make their way to you!


So what are your thoughts? Did the right issue, cover and story win? Any surprising placings for you? Please let us know via the comments below or on any of our social media platforms!

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