The Don Newton book published by Hermes Press has not disappointed! The collection of Charlton stories, essays, interviews and artwork gathers together the complete works of a man that many regard as one of their favourite Phantom artists. In the video review below, we look over Don Newton's Complete Phantom in detail. Fair to say we love the attention to detail that Dan Herman and the team have put into this volume. Make sure you watch to the end as we have a special competition for our Patreon supporters. We also recommend listening to our podcast interview back in episode #99 with Eileen Herman and Dan as we discussed several topics with them, including this book. You can still order this book via Hermes Press online shop, otherwise check your Local Comic Store - they will either stock the book or can order it in for you. Are you a Patreon Supporter? If not, there is still a chance to join and be in the running for this amazing prize. The draw will be drawn at the end of May and posted for free to the winner. The raffle draw is random, and Patreons will be entered at a rate of one ticket for each dollar pledged monthly. For instance, supporting at $1/month equals one entry, supporting at $25/month equals 25 entries. Thanks to Hermes Press for the incredible donation of a copy of this book for us to raffle to our Patreon supporters. #DonNewton #DanHerman #HermesPress #Charlton #Patreon

Alex Wynnter and Dale Maccanti join Dan who is flying solo to give us an in depth look at the current kickstarter campaign and if you are not yet pledged, why not? If you are interested go to https://tinyurl.com/ThePhantomBoardGame To find out more go to our past detailed review of the Kickstarter which you can find here. If you want to watch the game in action. The team off Chronicle Chamber played an early prototype version at the Sydney Supanova in 2018 which you can watch here. Campaign topics we touch upon are: EU friendly postage How often they check the kickstarter The progress of the kickstarter TPB of the Red Dragon saga Special Features of the game in the TPB The evolution of the game Mechanics and game style of the game The rules of the game The Kid Phantom solo story line to the game (stretch goal) The unnamed villain for the Kid Phantom solo game play Stretch goals The game pieces miniatures and the processes including who posed for Guran Alex's and Dale's favourite parts of the game The initial 'game off' between the Chronicle Chamber crew. For the record Jermayn won. The Treasure of Drakon now on BGG (Board Game Geek) Check out Jamie Johnson's art he shares on social media How you can promote the Kickstarter campaign yourself https://tinyurl.com/ThePhantomBoardGame Hashtag #PhantomBoardGame and #BGG Have you pledged? If you have not, tell us why. #XBand #GlennFord #Frew #KidPhantom #Games #AlexWynnter #DaleMaccanti #FrewGames

Would you like to win a copy of this Italian Magazine Fumo Di China featuring a brilliant cover by Massimo Gamberi and several Phantom related articles inside including one by CC team member Jermayn Parker? If so, it is very easy to enter - leave us a Facebook recommendation on our Chronicle Chamber Facebook page. As announced in the below video and on X Band podcast episode #114, we are going to have some fun with this competition. if your recommendation is detailed and inflates our egos you will gain more than one entry. If it is a simple recommendation, it will gain one entry. The winner will be announced and drawn on a future X Band Comics and News podcast with a video of the winner being drawn out of the hat. Watch the video announcement: If you are unsure on how to leave a Facebook recommendation, below is a screenshot with five easy instructions. Thank you to the editor of Fumo Di China for providing us with a spare copy to donate as a competition. #MassimoGamberi

Even though sometimes it genuinely felt like the universe was trying to stop us recording this podcast, it is that time again. Today, ChronicleChamber looks back over the comics and news that have emerged over the last month or so. The big news this month is of course the Kickstarter campaign for The Phantom: Treasures of Drakon board game that we are so excited about. Unfortunately, the Kickstarter was launched a week after we recorded this so we barely discuss it! But, as we do, we have gone into good detail about everything else that is happening. All the latest Frew issues are reviewed, highlighted by Hero Complex, Kid Phantom #7 and a Phantom's World that we actually enjoyed. We have not one but two special guest reviewers to cover releases from around the globe. We also release not ONE BUT TWO competitions. Ensure you listen and keep an eye out on how to be in the running for these. Enjoy and as always, Happy Phantoming! During the Podcast we discuss Phantoms World #8 which featured the Brazilian RGE story titled "Operation Brasil". We compare the original comic and the new Frew reprint so you can have a look at the two side by side. #XBand #JeffWeigel #GlennLumsden #GlennFord #Frew #LeeFalk #SyBarry #DrPaulMason #Fantomen #KidPhantom #Giantsize #PhantomsWorld #AndrewConstant #DuncanMunro #HeroComplex #SammyJ #Games

The Phantom: Treasures of Drakon is LIVE!! At 4:30 this afternoon Australian time (AEDT), the highly anticipated Kickstarter campaign for The Phantom: Treasures of Drakon board game went live and started collecting pledges. You now only have until the end of April to get involved, pledge to buy a board game, and help get this unique Phantom collectible produced! The newly commissioned Frew Games department of Frew Publications just needs to raise a modest $51000 to fund production. Every buyer adds up and contributes, but we all need to help out if it's going to happen. Game designer Alex Wynnter and writer Dale Maccanti, together with artists Glenn Ford, Jamie Johnson, Paul Mason and Daniel Picciotto, are offering us a wonderful opportunity to immerse ourselves in the world of the Phantom, enter his universe and actually experience his adventures! Inspired by the Pirates of the Red Dragon saga, the game gives anywhere between 1 and 6 players the opportunity to play as The Phantom and his allies or as the Red Dragon Pirates, as they fight for dominance over the pirate island stronghold, Drakon. Play with your phriends! The Chronicle Chamber team can vouch for the entertainment value of playing "Drakon", as we had a crack at the prototype version at Sydney Supanova in 2018. We were absorbed in game play within two turns - it really is a lot of fun! This is a game that you'll be able to pull out after dinner and enjoy with a few quiet milks, or enjoy with the kids. Even those of us who have not touched a board game since the great Monopoly meltdown that one Christmas holidays will be able to learn the game and have a great experience in no time at all. Admittedly, the $99 price tag will possibly surprise some phans. Let's face it, it's not cheap. But you cannot compare this game to the boring $25 Scrabble you might pick up at Kmart, or even the dodgy $39 restickered Monopoly: Fortnite (Yes, that exists). This is not cheap and nasty - it's a high quality game that the whole family can sit down and enjoy together. "It's a really good style for people that don't play many games. They really get into it," explains Alex. "Drakon" is more comparable to European gaming like Settlers of Catan which will set you back $125 to get the base set as well as the expansion pack for 6 players. It's all-inclusive, with everything you need from solo play, cooperative play, or competitive play for up to 6 players. Collectible! Beyond that, there is the collectible appeal. This is a once in a generation opportunity to own a Phantom board game, and the contents of the box are extraordinarily cool. With each element of the game "Phantomised", collectors will have countless cards, playing boards, tokens and of course the Glenn Ford illustrated game board to marvel at. Many will probably want it for the collectible value alone, let alone anything else. (The only solution? Order two!) And then, of course, there are the playing pieces. The team here at Chronicle Chamber are particularly impressed with the miniatures. They're unlike anything we've seen before in the Phantom merch universe. As Dale tells us, "The poses we chose were to make sure they doesn't look like the standard and boring arms crossed. We've seen it 100 times before. All of them are dynamic. They're super hard grey resin which can be painted. So it works on a worldwide scale - if buyers want to, they will be able to paint them whichever colour they choose." Just watching the 60 second video of the minis below is enough to get your mouth watering! At 35mm high (55mm if the stretch goal is reached), these would make an awesome addition to the collection just on their own. And consider... if the minis were priced at $15 each, many collectors would pick them up just as they were... The miniatures are incredibly detailed and painstakingly crafted. Designed and created by the talented Melbourne sculptor Julian Briones, these are a must-have in and of themselves and well worth the price of supporting the campaign. For the hard-core collectors, there is even the opportunity to own one-of-a-kind pieces associated with the game. Prototypes of the minis, as well as original artwork from the cards and game board are up for grabs! Own the artwork! Frew cover artist Jamie Johnson has contributed a great deal of the artwork for the game, and is excited to see it come to life. "Dale, Glenn and Alex have cooked up an epic adventure that I know 'Phans' are going to love! I have had the privilege of contributing a variety of dynamic art for various aspects of the game. "For the true collectors out there,100% of all my original art will be available to own through the Kickstarter! Sizes (of the pieces) vary, but all art has all been created traditionally using India ink and brush. As a bonus, there will be time lapse footage capturing the creation of each piece. "This will be a must have in any respectable Phantom collection.. one to play, one to display!" Paul Mason is also looking forward to seeing his Kid Phantom in board game form. “It was an honour to have been asked to contribute to the game in the form of illustrating for the Kid Phantom events and elements; Glenn and Frew Publications have been so supportive, and I always admire their initiative and drive to bring all sorts of projects to life in order to appeal to the spectrum of Phantom phans. "The game that Alex and Dale have created with Frew looks like it’s going to be fantastic; from my end it was fun to draw comics in strip form like the classic Phantom artists, and I look forward to seeing it all come together with Jamie and co’s work. A worthy Australian stamp on a classic international comic character. I wish the Kickstarter, Frew and the creators all the best.” Jamie and Paul's artwork, alongside Glenn and Daniel's, is available at the highest tier pledge level that you can make. As you'd expect, it costs more to pledge at this level ($349) and truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity to own original Phantom artwork that features in a board game. How many of us can currently claim that? There are only 45 pieces of original art available, that will be sent out to pledgers at this level on a random basis, so get in fast or you will miss out. Even more rare are the 3 pieces of art created for the associated Phantom's Universe cards, or the handful of minis prototypes that are available at the lower tiers of $249 and $199 respectively. A new trade paperback! And in all that, we haven't even mentioned The Red Dragon saga trade paperback that comes with all higher pledge levels! It brings together full colour versions of the original Norman Worker and Georges Bess 1979 Pirates of the Red Dragon trilogy, Dale and Jason Paulos' two-part 2018 prequel Rise of the Red Dragon, and a never before published two-part sequel The Adventure of the Dragon's Leg by Australian author Julie Ditrich and Brazilian artist Wendell Cavalcanti. With a flat postage rate of $20AUD to anywhere in the world, there really is a lot of bang for your buck! So your job now? Go to the Kickstarter campaign now and make your pledge to purchase a game! Remember - you only have until the end of April to get involved. Tell all your friends and share on all your networks. Make lots of comments on the Kickstarter page, and respond to other people's comments. The more comments the more popular the campaign is. There will be a kicktraq link. Click this 3 times a day. Doing this will help Kickstarter's algorithms promote the campaign up the leaderboard, and put it in front of more people. Remember, until we help Frew Games raise the $51K, no game will be made. So it's in all of our interest to share the info and get more people pledging until we get the game over the line. (Then, we can worry about the stretch goals!) #Games #AlexWynnter #DaleMaccanti #GlennFord #JamieJohnson #DrPaulMason #DanielPicciotto #Frew #NormanWorker #GeorgesBess #JasonPaulos #WendellCavalcanti

On this day 62 years ago, Fantomen issue 7/1957 was released. Who cares? Well, what makes this issue significant is that it was the first Phantom cover that the legendary cover artist Rolf Gohs had published. His career has spanned across seven decades, with an astonishing 911 covers (you read that correctly - nine hundred and eleven covers!!) and countless other Phantom images that have been published across more than ten countries and several continents! Today we are lucky enough to be reading not one but two joint interviews conducted by friend of the ChronicleChamber and longtime Fantomen editor Ulf Granberg. Ulf is a close friend of Rolf's, and interviewed him for the 2017 published book Rolf Gohs : A Cartoon Life (Rolf Gohs - ett tecknarliv). Ulf has also generously facilitated a brief interview with follow up questions asked by the ChronicleChamber team. It was a huge pleasure to be able to communicate with both Ulf and Rolf and we thank both of them for their time. Below, we have included a video review of the book. If it sparks your interest, you can still buy a copy. It will set you back SEK200 + postage (SEK200 regular mail or SEK275 registered mail). Under current exchange rates, SEK475 equals about $70AUD and $50US. Please contact Team ChronicleChamber for Ulf's email address. This first interview is an excerpt from the book Rolf Gohs : A Cartoon Life (Rolf Gohs - ett tecknarliv) and has been translated into English and published here with permission given by both Ulf Granberg and Rolf Gohs. Enjoy as we learn about this legendary man. Ulf Granberg: Rolf, you stopped school in the spring of 1951 because you wanted to draw comics. It was a pretty bold decision to take for a 17-year-old? Rolf Gohs: Yes, that was it, in a way... two years earlier I had sent in some work samples to the Seriemagasinet and received an answer that I had a predisposition for drawing, even though they thought I needed to practice and draw diligently. In the spring of 1951 I drew some work that I showed to Armas Morb. He owned Press & Publicity which released Seriemagasinet . He looked at my pages and said, "Yes, this looks good. We can imagine hiring you when you leave school." I got so excited that I quit school immediately and went back to Press & Publicity a week later saying, "Well, I've now finished school!" Armas Morby was quite taken aback when I turned up so soon, but he kept his promise to hire me. I started on a trial for a month or two, but then I got a permanent job and had a good salary from the beginning. There was already another artist at Press & Publicity called Nils Egerbrandt and the two of us shared rooms in an old 19th century building. In the winter it was very cold in the room and the one who came first in the morning had to put on the fire. UG: You became a studio artist for the first time. What work did you do for them? RG: I had to add text in the speech bubbles, make simple retouching of the art and vignettes to the Kilroy comic. There was no copier at work so I got to draw action scenes for the opening panels free hand. If you wanted to enlarge a picture, we had a device that we called "snabel" - a technical drawing tool. There were interconnected rods with a fixed and a sliding pin. You followed the outline of the original with the fixed pin, and then the movement was transferred via the bars to the sliding pin and an enlarged copy was then obtained which was then tipped. It was good training and eventually I also got to draw covers. UG: Draw covers? You mean painting covers? RG: Yes and no. For example, Seriemagasinet, there was usually no cover image so then we got either Brownie or I, together with Per Gillberg or Arne Linderholm, to select a good picture from any of the panels and sketch it on paper. Then you dote the cover, turn over the page, put it on a light table and paint on the back… so the painted picture is a middle piece or colour guide, This technique has been used in other newspapers and magazines as well such as Superman, Leather Patch, Cowboy and Tomahawk. UG: And then you started work on Kilroy (or Amok as it was called in Italy)? RG: Yes, the Kilroy series stopped in Italy in 1951, but it was popular and the editors wanted the series to continue. I would draw and Arne Linderholm would write script . The first job was to finish the Italian section of No. 6/1952. There was nothing further. Looking back, we were probably bad at finishing this story. I worked regularly with Kilroy until 1952, but it became difficult to keep up to date and on budget with several pages a week and at the end of the year 1952 the ongoing publication ceased. But Kilroy has returned a few times in short adventures since then. I still had a lot to do… more and more covers for Seriemagasinet, short stories and advertisements for upcoming issues, covers for Cowboy and studio jobs at the Tomahawk magazine. UG: From 1954 the cover for Seriemagasinet changed technology and now included painted covers in watercolor. Was it the editors who wanted it that way - or you? RG: Both. You can say in the period 1952-53 it was a failed experiment with very bad paper to save money. After that we wanted the magazine to look more beautiful. It turned out to be better wrapping paper that the color came into its own, in addition we at the editorial office considered that painted covers would make Seriemagasinet look more like a "real" newspaper, such as Living Life or Lecture. It also felt a little more artistic to paint in watercolor than to sit and put paint on the back of a felted image. It was more fun to paint the covers in this way, but it also took more time (one to two days for a cover) and seeing Seriemagasinet was a weekly magazine, others on the editorial staff had to fill in and do simpler retouching jobs to help me out. UG: You must have painted over two hundred covers between the years off 1952 and 1958, however they varied a lot - for example from a western series to head hunters. Who decided what the cover would be? And what support did you have to work with? RG: Oh! Did I really do that many? The cover picture usually began as a discussion between the editor and myself. Sometimes I concluded that the head hunters sounded exciting and that it would be fun to paint such a cover. Other times, the editor decided what I would do. During this period every piece I drew was 100% my own and not copies or drawings from the magazine's content. It was my own in that case. Seeing there was no main comic character with Kilroy being cancelled, the covers became more varied with Western covers, sometimes detective and sometimes something else. UG: Okay. During this period you also did four own stories for the magazine and I thought we would talk about them now. The first published was titled Nations in the Serie julnummer magazine in 1955 and was about the World Space conquerors. How did it come about? RG: The series was based on a movie with the same name. I wanted to draw something by myself and something that was so far from Kilroy as possible. The Sci Fi genre with space elements like aliens, advance technology etc have always fascinated me. I watched many Sci Fi movies when I designed this story. UG: And the next story was? RG: The Bomb in the Serial Magazine's Summer edition in 1956. The story was about Nico, a guy in a city in Mexico who had to deliver a package to an address before a certain time. The package contained a bomb, but Nico did not know about it and when he was close to delivering the package, the bomb exploded. The plot is based on a film by Alfred Hitchcock from 1936 called Sabotage. I hadn't seen this movie, but I had read an article about Hitchcock and this movie, and his storytelling technique made a strong impression on me. I tried to apply it when drawing for example, heavily cropped faces in close-up, dramatic back-lit background elements like a black cat running across the road. UG: One year later, you created Death's Bird published in the Series Magazine 24/1958. It must have been one of your last jobs for the Center Publisher. Also, were you freelancing by then, and did you start painting covers for Åhlén & Åkerlunds Fantomen then in 1957? RG: I did not like it since Center Publisher had moved to Bondegatan at Söder from Mäster Samuelsgatan inside the town, so I stopped working on contract for them and became a freelancer instead. It may have been in early 1957 but I'm not 100% sure. It gave me the opportunity to work for other publishers such as Åhlén & Åkerlund and produce covers for Fantomen. I also did freelance some work for Lemeco, a company that made board games, I painted the packaging for Perry Mason, for the Cartwright Brothers and for Lusen too. I also painted some covers for Series Magazine after Death Bird. UG: Dödens Fågel the editor wrote a message inviting readers to write in and tell them what they thought about the series. Did you get any reactions? I can't find any comment at all in the magazine's reader column. RG: No, I have no memory of getting any response and if there were any reader letters, then the editor did not tell me. UG: Do you remember your first cover for the Phantom, Rolf? RG: I don't remember... but it was probably the Phantom in a normal hero's position. That was usually what the publisher wanted. UG: No, it wasn't the Phantom, but three young boys exploring a shipwreck. It had Weird Summer on the cover of no. 13/1957. [CC editors note: According to Phantomwiki, Rolf's first published cover for Fantomen was 7/1957. We understand 13/1957 was the first image Rolf actually drew for Fantomen magazine, but that the image drawn for 7/1957 was used and published first.] RG: Ah yes! Now I remember- it was a summer sequel short story by Karl-Aage Schwartzkopf, and I also drew the illustrations to go with the story in the magazine. There was quite a lot of work with the pictures; this was my first job for the Phantom and I made an extra effort. I thought that to regularly drew and paint the covers of the magazine would hold a great status for me. At the same time I was also working on Death Bird. Today I do not understand how I managed my time with everything I was working on. UG: The following year, the covers for the Center Publisher ended and you mainly worked on the Phantom and Living Life for Åhlén & Åkerlund. Were there any differences working on the different publications? RG: Not really when it comes to the Phantom, the editors were based on Sveavägen [Ed: A major street in Stockholm, Sweden] and when they wanted a cover I went to them and we talked about it. Back then Ebbe Zetterstad was the editor of the Phantom magazine (1958-1961). I also did other work based there for the magazine, including spot illustrations and adverts, and even had a desk to work from. Living Life was different and more controlled. I would receive a sketch, not on the subject, but a layout sketch where the logo and headings were marked so that I could see what space I had for the image. I did not get sketches for my Phantom covers until you [Ulf] started as an editor in the seventies. At first I was not so fond of them, but soon I saw why and I enjoyed it towards the end. Both Phantom and Living Life were weekly newspaper like the Seriemagasinet and I got a contract with a guaranteed monthly income equivalent to the covers and a few short stories illustrations, but often it became more and then I got more money. However a year later, the Phantom magazine went to a monthly release so I did more covers for Living Life to supplement my income. It ended in 1961. By this time the Phantom magazine changed to Semic Press and I did other covers for them including TV Series, Western Series, Flipper, James Bond, Saint, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Buffalo etc. I do not remember every cover I did however. UG: You have many artistic strings on your lyre Rolf. You have also worked on Daily Strip stories and also photography? RG: Yes. I kept on photographing whenever I could. I bought a narrow motion camera in 1957 and made a movie called Statyette which won first prize in a Nordic narrow film competition in 1959. I took care of Pelle Svanslös for the Expressen newspaper. Pelle Svanslös started in the mid-sixties as a comic book by Semic and as a weekly series in the Annuals. Börje Nilsson drew the weekly strip, but when Expressen wanted a Daily series as well, I assisted Börje. I did this very often and it was hard but fun. This was in the late 1960's from memory. UG: Even though you have painted over 1500 covers including The Phantom, Seriemagasinet, Living Life and many other comic books, many would say you're mainly known for your stories of Sacho and Stefan. Others have written and analyzed much about Mystiska 2:an in different contexts, so I thought we'd just talk about how Mystiska 2:an came about. Where did you get the inspiration, and did you have any explicit purpose with the series? RG: Hmm inspiration... It comes from many different places. For example I once saw a movie called The Window in the late 40s. It was about a guy who witnessed a murder from a window but no one believed him ... I saw and recognised myself in him. The film was dark, filled with mystery and it left a deep impression on me. UG: I remember the first comic of your Mystiska 2:an comic series. Soon after, I had started working at Semic and quickly collected the rest. One of my favorite adventures was Stenhästens Eye, which is included in this book. Can you please tell me how it came about? RG: I used to go to Italy in the summers during the 1950s, and often to Naples, In a local park there was this horse's head and there were always kids who would climb over it and the horse's eye were holes. I imagined that if you put a long stick in one of the holes it could point to a treasure. The story plot grow around that initial idea. UG: Cool! It sounds like that story almost wrote itself. If you think back on all of your Mystiska 2:an adventures, which story or stories are you most satisfied with? RG: Hmm... Enigmatic Letter (in Fantomen 23/1979) had a plot I am still proud of... The Doll Who Could Not Sleep in 1974 was my first published comic story, While I was still looking for my style during this story I am still proud of it. In the Glass Pyramids from 1975 was an adventure with Science Fiction elements, which sticks with me today. This second interview are some questions Team CC asked via Ulf Granberg, who recently visited Rolf Gohs on one of his regular visits with the great man. ChronicleChamber: Did you read comics as a child / young man? Did you read The Phantom? Rolf Gohs: Yes - I did read comics, not The Phantom, but more Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant. CC: Why did you only draw covers? Did you ever want to draw more Phantom stories? RG: I have drawn my own series Mystiska 2:an which I have talked about in the above interview and in the book. I did however draw two Phantom stories (The Great Bank Robbery 1966 and The Earthquake 1970, neither ever published in English) but I never wanted to draw more than that. CC: What was your working relationship with Ulf, Semic / Egmont & Team Fantomen like? RG: I knew everyone at Semic back in those days when the staff consisted of less then 20 people. I had close contact with Ulf and with editors of other comic book titles. CC: Can you please tell us more about how you get the job for Fantomen / Semic? RG: Rolf Janson, the publisher of Serieförlaget (predecessor of Semic) asked me back in 1956 if I was interested in doing illustrations for the company. I started by illustrating short stories, but soon I was asked to do cover paintings as well. CC: Are you still drawing / painting? RG: No. CC: So does that mean you're not accepting commissions / requests for artwork? RG: No sorry. CC: What is your reaction to the fact that, even in 2019, your work is so popular among phans from all around the world, and still used for products like the Australian 2019 Mallon Diary? RG: I'm proud and flattered. CC: As a cover artist for the Scandinavian Phantom comics, your covers have not been reprinted as much in English-speaking countries unlike the actual stories by Team Fantomen. Would you have liked to seen your covers published more internationally and reach a wider audience? RG: At this stage in my life it doesn't matter to me. CC: When you are drawing / painting a cover, what are the important elements to you that make the cover appealing to the market? RG: A close cooperation with the editor, to discuss an effective exciting (and selling) composition. Clean, simple and strong at the same time. CC: Do you have a favourite cover(s) from your 900+ published Phantom drawings? RG: I do have my top 8 Phantom covers listed on page 105 in the book [and included below - click on each to view in full detail]. Fantomen 19/1975 Loaded with symbolism, clean and a powerful cover for a historical adventure with fantasy elements. Was voted as the best cover for 1975 by the readers. Provides a sense of power and excitement which attracts reading and selling the comic. Fantomen 15/1973 An effective cover and very similar to 19/1975 (above) but in the modern costume. The good mark in the background gives a feeling of hope and has been used several times for publications around the world. Fantomen 15/2004 One of the many covers I have drawn with Devil. The way Devil is drawn signals threatening danger, with Devil's eyes and his exposed fangs. The night and moon emphasise mystery and danger. Fantomen 21/2003 The Phantom works well with moonlight and night. Of all the moons I have drawn, this one I am most happy with. It looks realistic, with the Phantom jumping with Hero over a ravine and seemingly floating mid-jump. Fantomen 24/1993 I like this cover as it shows The Phantom as an (almost) ordinary mortal man with the frantic enemies still chasing him as he is retreating. Fantomen 11/2003 A fateful cover where one of the Valley of Wamballa last unicorns is anxious about danger with the evening sky and a fire in the background adding to the disaster of them being killed. The Phantom watching over it all in the foreground. Fantomen 4/2000 A dramatic Phantom battle scene of real events in the 16th century superstition, witch burning and religious fanaticism. The colors emphasise the torment and the anxiety of the women in the fire. Fantomen 10/1995 The cover radiates evil via the idol. The Phantom is depicted trying to fight the forces being a key instigator between evil and good. I like how the cover depicts an uncertain outcome. We give a HUGE thanks to Ulf Granberg for his help in giving a tribute to Rolf Gohs as well as the man himself for his time in answering some of our questions. Please note Rolf is not accepting commissions or requests from phans at this time, #RolfGohs #UlfGranberg #Fantomen #TeamFantomen #Semic

In the conclusion of this extensive interview with the renowned Italian Phantom artist Felmang, we ask about his favourite stories, his penchant for drawing beautiful women, and creating new stories for Frew. If you haven't read Part 1 yet, do yourself a favour and check it out first! ChronicleChamber: What are some of The Phantom stories that you're most proud of? Felmang: The Lee Falk reprints including Queen Samaris (Fantomen 25/1993 & Frew #1070, #1712), The Mermaids of Melo Straits (Fantomen 26/1995 & Frew #1139, #1795), The Tiger Girl (Fantomen 1/2000 & Frew #1252, #1789) as well as the Kingdom of Amazons (Fantomen 10/1991 & Frew #993, #1651) and The Parrot (Thief on Board) (Fantomen 6/1992 & Frew #1110). CC: Many phans love those! Was it your idea to redo these stories with your twist? Did you refer to the original stories at all, or work from the script for these? What was your process? Felmang: The Semic art director Ulf Granberg, the most competent man in his role I have ever met and worked with, had the idea to do Lee Falk remakes, we started with Queen Samaris XII. He rewrote the scripts and furnished me a modern version of them. I drew these remake episodes, along with the help of my inker, and the results were excellent. Even Lee Falk was very satisfied of these remake stories, and wrote some beautiful notes in support (see below). CC: You are renowned for your beautiful imagery, especially when it comes to drawing the female form. It seems that you particularly enjoy drawing female characters? Felmang: I love all beauty and in my comic strip I try to include my professionalism but also the beauty including: beautiful landscape, animals, jungle, and why not, gorgeous women? Please consider too that I am Christian and the woman is a creature of God. I think, it is right to respect the woman and portray her as beautiful is possible. Unfortunately not all the Phantom artists are able to depict beautiful women as Sy Barry and Wilson McCoy did. I have seen some Phantom artists who do not have the ability to draw beautiful women including Diana - it is a real pity. I enjoy putting female characters in my stories, and this is an added value to the comic. A Phantom episode without a woman is (for me) like a day without sun. Sometimes I try to add a little bit of sensuality to the female beauty also and believe me, this is not always easy to achieve. I believe adding romance to my stories also adds appeal to the female readers who love these situations. CC: Do you use models or photographic sources for your art? Felmang: Yes, I have used models throughout the years. I started using models and photographic sources from 1970 onwards. Below are a few examples including one of my Thai friends who became Glowing Lotus for The Triads saga back in the 1990's (Fantomen 19/1994 - Fantomen 23/1994. & Frew #1096 - #1100). CC: Have you ever had any of your work censored? Felmang: Just the once I am aware of. I submitted an image (right) to be used for Frew's 2017 Girl Phantom Annual. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown to me, it was censored and not included. I am led to believe it was originally going to the back cover. CC: Interesting. So, tell us about your ideal style of the Phantom. Felmang: The Phantom must be handsome, smiling and not look like a sack of potatoes in action or an a ugly Phantom without a neck. In my opinion he is not a superhero, he is not Hulk, and his mask must be well done to have the right expression on his face. In my opinion, not all the artists are able to draw The Phantom in the right way. I agree with Joe Giella (assistant of Sy Barry for many years) who said that The Phantom is a very difficult strip to illustrate. CC: Do you collect art yourself? Phantom or other art? Felmang: I am a collector of original art, mainly comic covers, painted or not, and also original movie posters. This is my favourite hobby, I'm doing it with great passion - or is it an illness? For me collecting comic art was a natural step after collecting comics. This phenomena is very different in Europe (especially in France). In my collection I have many Phantom covers and also complete Phantom episodes drawn by other artists. CC: Hahaha, yes it's an illness that we also suffer from! Tell us about the importance of covers. Felmang: The cover is a very important product. It is not just an enlarged picture of a panel inside or a good illustration full of many and many detailed elements. When I have done a cover, I always try to do it in a “pulp style”. Covers are able to capture the attention of our eyes in the kiosks and in the comic book shop. A good cover really helps the magazines to sell more copies. CC: Australian phans were delighted when Frew announced that you would be drawing complete Phantom stories for Frew, and your issues have been very well received by readers. Can you tell us how that happened? Felmang: It starts all the way back in May 1994 when Jim Shepherd and his wife Judith visited Rome and met me on their travels. The same Jim put me in contact with various American and Australian phans. After this visit I received a phone call from Glenn Ford who was looking for illustrations for Phantom cards. I also had a visit from Rene White in 2000, who came to Rome and visited me in my studio with his daughter. Rene is a great Phantom fan and a great collector of comics. He has large collection of original Phantom artwork including Sunday pages, penciled pages, pin-up in colours, etc. Thanks to The Phantom, I'm in contact with many phans in Europe, Australia, Brasil, India and United States too, this is a real pleasure for me. When Glenn and Rene got together and the new Frew Crew was born, I was working on the most famous Italian comic-character Tex. They approached me to draw stories for them. I knew that while Frew was not a multinational comic, but knowing the two new owners as honest people, I accepted and finished my Tex stories, and started with the Phantom and the rest is history. CC: One of the stories you have worked on with Frew is the origin of the Phantom Ranger (along with the associated Pholio poster). Did you have a background with the character beforehand? And also how do you see the Phantom Ranger with his similarities with the Phantom? Are you enjoying working on this character? Felmang: When Glenn proposed to me to draw Phantom Ranger, I had not heard of him before. I studied this character thanks to some very old magazines Glenn sent me, . As with the Phantom, he has a mask and is 400 years old. He leaves a small silver arrow at the stage of his actions. The problem was that he was immortal and the reasons of this was not very clear for me. I studied Kina carefully and decided to reboot him, give him a fantastic, but logic explanation about his immortality. When I was in the pencil stage of the first episode of the Ranger my old friend (and ex assistant/student) Max Fish, asked if there was the possibility to ink this story. I said yes, and he did excellent work. I am enjoying writing and drawing the Phantom Ranger, and the results seems good. Episode 5 of the Phantom Ranger will end his first cycle of adventures and hopefully they will be reprinted in a trade paperback. Hopefully from there on the episodes will be short standalone stories and not connected. CC: With many of your Frew Phantom stories, you are also the writer. Do you prefer having full artistic freedom and drawing your own stories? How is it different from receiving scripts from a writer? Felmang: I have worked with many of the best Phantom scriptwriters from all over the world and enjoyed their work, including writers like Scott Goodall, Norman Worker, Tony DePaul, Ulf Granberg, Claes Reimerthi, Donne Avenell, Janne Lundstrom and David Bishop. They all wrote phantastic Phantom adventures. I am able to draw everything they write about, and have no problem following a script of any writer. However I do prefer to have full freedom and write scripts for myself. In this way I can draw and write what is better for my taste. I don't love stories of war or politics, or stories connected with all the problems of everyday life. We all have problems and if I want to relax reading a comic book, I don't want to read about other people's problems and other troubles. I prefer heroic-fantasy stories where all seems coherently impossible. In fewer words focusing on the adventure! In my episodes I try to do drawings as clearly as possible so as not to bore the reader, and it should also be possible to understand the story without reading the balloons. For this reason I try to do the dialogues as interesting as possible with sentences, words, names and many references to stimulate the curiosity of the young readers who can go to the Internet to learn more about these references. For example in the episode The Fez Man from the The Phantom & Saba Saga (Phantom's World #5, 6 & 7) I injected names such as Rommel, Alan Freed, The Platter's vocals, the song My Dream, as well as Prassitele, Rodin, the moon eclipse etc. Unfortunately, sometimes these Easter Eggs get lost in translation, which is a real pity. CC: Where do you get your inspiration from? Felmang: From everywhere. A couple of years ago on Youtube I saw an old Italian movie from 1952: The Queen of Saba. The actress was a very young and beautiful Eleonora Ruffo, only 16 or 17 years old at the time (pictured below). The director Francisci was in charge of similar very popular movies in the late 50's early 60's. His movie Hercules (Le Fatiche di Ercole) was a great success and was immediately imitated by many other directors and producers in all the world, a real phenomena. I liked this movie with that beautiful actress and born in me was the idea for a Phantom saga - you saw it in Phantom's World #5, 6 and 7. Saba and the Phantom are not from the same era, and doing the story I imagined a sort of temporal paradox, mixed with a mirage, a nightmare, a spell and a dream. I tried to put in this saga all the ingredients of adventure and human weakness. CC: Can you tell us about any future Phantom project stories you are working on? Felmang: Regarding the Phantom, at the end of the last summer, I wrote a new long and very detailed plot for a new saga inspired by The Lost World of Sir A. Conan Doyle. I have completed layouts of various pages and inked a dozen pages showing the various characters as examples and proposed it all to the Frew Crew. As soon as Frew decides to produce this new project and give me the OK, I will start with it. You can see here some sample pages (work in progress). [Editors Note: Felmang was nice enough to share an advanced look of the art; see below a gallery of some of the pages. Click to view the pages in all their glory.] I have several other Phantom stories I hope you will be able to see in a Frew comic soon including another classic Lee Falk remake like I did for Queen Samaris, Lady Luck etc, some more Fratelli Spada stories from the late 1960's, and hopefully also some new stories. While I wait for my next Frew or other Phantom project, I will continue other work. CC: Wow, we have always enjoyed your art. We appreciate you taking the time in answering our questions. Finally, do you accept commissions? Felmang: From time to time I do get asked by phans for commissions. I always accept even if sometimes I don't have the spare time to do it! I do prefer to however sell my originals to the phans. I don't charge an arm and a leg, however I do only sell complete Phantom stories and not single pages. Very soon I am aiming to put up for sale some short Phantom stories in Death from the Sky (Phantoms World #5) and The Revenge of Lubanga (Fantomen 6/2000 & Frew #1257) at a very friendly price. In case some readers of ChronicleChamber are interested, they can contact me at : phelmangzone@yahoo.it CC: Where can phans check out your other art? Felmang: Sometimes I do painted covers for the Italian magazines Lanciostory and Skorpio, and it is possible to also see these covers and many more on the Roy Mann Gallery at Comic Art Fans. CC: Thank you Felmang for your time and your great work and the legacy you have created for us to enjoy over your huge career. Felmang: It was my pleasure, I had fun going back over it with you and please keep up the great work. #UlfGranberg #Felmang #Frew #TeamFantomen #LeeFalk #Fantomen #Semic #SyBarry #WilsonMcCoy #JoeGiella #JimShepherd #JudithShepherd #GlennFord #ReneWhite #ScottGoodall #NormanWorker #TonyDePaul #ClaesReimerthi #DonneAvenell #JanneLundstrom #DavidBishop #Spada

The Phantom is Alive! Long Live the Phantom! Mythos Brazil is back publishing the Phantom. Brazil has such a rich publishing history with the Phantom, and was one of the handful countries that published Phantom comics prior to 1940. In fact at one stage, there were even people who believed that Brazil had published the world's first Phantom comic! Of the South American publishing houses, RGE from Editora Globo has the richest Phantom publishing history, creating their own stories even before Fratelli Spada and Team Fantomen. This is a positive turnaround in the Phantom's fortunes. In 2018, Fantomet (Egmont Norway) was cancelled, following the 2017 departure of Kızılmaske (Turkey Büyülü Çizgi Roman). It is always sad when publishers stop publishing the Phantom, so it is very exciting now that the Brazilian publisher is having another go. At the start of the year in February, Mythos release a cryptic note "He Will Come Back!" with an image of the Phantom. Truth be told, no one at Chronicle Chamber caught this vital clue. Now the plans are released. Four issues will be released for the year, each 100 pages including the cover. They will be in black and white, and 16cm x 21cm in size. From what we have been able to find out, these issues will cost around 100 Brazilian Real each ($35-40 AU & $25-30 US). The stories in the four issues will be a mix of Daily and Sunday stories from Wilson McCoy and Sy Barry. The most exciting news of this announcement however is that they have promised something else including they will NOT just publish classical stories. Does this mean if the sales are positive, they will be releasing new stories? Will they be Moonstone or Team Fantomen, or their own stories? Perhaps even Frew's new tales? Only time will tell. Unusually, Mythos have already announced the contents of the entire run. The stories featured in the four issues will be: Issue One: The Ismani Cannibals, The Scarlet Sorceress, Tale of Devil, The 'Copter Pirates, Diana and the Robbers Bank and The Horned Star Demons Issue Two: The Rattle, A Lesson for Prince Orq, The Frameup, The Monster of Green Valley and The Plant God of the Massau (part 1) Issue Three: The Plant God of the Massau (part 2), The Honeymooners, The Limper, Little Girl, The Swamp Dragon and The Three Bandits Issue Four: Phantom Head Peak, Exodus of the Little People, The Eastern Dark at Janorra and Tiger, Tiger Mythos has their own publishing history with the Phantom, publishing 8 comics between 2007 and 2016. The 2007 series featured (new at that time) Newspaper stories by Tony DePaul, Paul Ryan & Graham Nolan as well as classical stories by Lee Falk and Sy Barry. In 2016 they also republished Dynamite stories, including The Last Phantom and King's Watch. We promise we won't miss the next announcements from Mythos and will do our best to obtain copies of the comics to include them in our Comics and News reviews podcasts. Thanks to Norwegian phan Glenn Folkvord for the heads up on this exciting news piece. #WilsonMcCoy #SyBarry #Mythos #Fantasma #LeeFalk #TonyDePaul #PaulRyan #GrahamNolan #RGE #DynamiteEntertainment

An entire generation of Phantom phans have grown up on the art of Roy Felmang. Many of us have devoured every beautifully crafted panel, figure and story drawn by the Italian Master who, despite his many pen-names, we most simply know as Felmang. He is credited as the story artist on seven Fratelli Spada stories (published 1967-1970), one hundred Team Fantomen stories (1987-2014) and most recently has started writing and illustrating original stories for Frew Publications in Australia (2016-present). Add Comics Revue into the mix, and he's also had over fifty covers published by those companies worldwide. Today, ChronicleChamber is lucky enough to sit down with Felmang and find out a little more about this legendary artist. He has a great sense of fun and modesty, and it really is a pleasure getting to know him. Such was the generosity of his time and answers, this will be a two-part post, with Part 2 to follow later this week. ChronicleChamber: Can you tell us a little about yourself? Roy Felmang: First of all dear friend, I want say thank you to all the phans who followed and appreciated my modest job. I have always tried to do it with great passion and professionalism. I'm Roy Felmang, I was born in a town aka Caput Mundi years ago, (not many) I don't remember when, but it was Sunday... for this reason I'm a little bit lazy! I was and still am mainly a collector of comics, particularly our favourite hero The Phantom. In my collection I have all the comics published in my country since the beginning until today, as well as many others from Scandinavian countries since the late 80's, USA comics from the 50's to the 70's, and many examples from everywhere (India, Brasil, Turkey, England, Hungary, France, Germany, etc). I am now living in the Deep Woods with Guran renting me a hut in his Bandar village. I'm working here to have better inspiration (I confess, time by time, when nobody see me, I go into the chronicle room to swipe something). Haha! CC: Were you trained in art at school, or largely self-taught? What is your background in art? Felmang: I NEVER studied art. At university I studied to work in the industry field, but I did not love that kind of job. I became a comic artist (self-taught) due to my great passion for the comic field; as I said, I was an avid reader of comics. I learned to read from comic books, and until I was 15/16 I read and collected many weekly comics as Il Piccolo Sceriffo, Sciuscià, Nat del Santa Cruz, Pantera Bionda, Cpt Miki, but, first of all, the magazine Intrepido! At one point of my life , I discovered another passion - the girls around me who were more interesting than comics. After four or five years, my nostalgia for the comics was so strong that I decided that was possible to follow both: girls and comics. I restarted reading and collecting comics, and bought all that I lost in the previous 4 or 5 years. CC: Somehow we're not surprised to hear that! So among all those magazines, was The Phantom something you had access to and could read? Felmang: Oh yes - I met The Phantom for the first time when I was five. I was in my bed with a flu and a teenage boy, living in my same building gifted me a pile of his comics, among these I found Little Toma and Queen Pera the Perfect, two great Phantom adventures. Because I loved to draw, I copied part of the covers of these comics. I found those early poor drawings many years later, inside a book of my fathers (below). My real passion for The Phantom started when Fratelli Spada published the Phantom in chronological order since the beginning, I loved Raymond Moore more than Wilson McCoy. CC: Amazing! So could you describe for us how an avid collector and self-taught comic artist managed to go from simply reading Fratelli Spada to drawing stories and covers for them? Felmang: Soon after my twentieth birthday, I was waiting for a girlfriend near a news stand (or kiosk) and was having a look at the comic books. I saw a comic book of Mandrake and purchased it. The title was Un mondo perduto (below, left), but the fantastic thing was when I realised that the book was printed in my town, near were I was living. I started to think of the work I would love to do and could it be a comic artist? A few days after, I went to Fratelli Spada and introduced myself, as a comic artist with zero experience. A kind and beautiful girl, named Daniela (the niece of the owner G.Spada) received me, and gave me a recent printed comic book of The Phantom: Le mani sull'Isola (The Isle of the Dogs, above right) saying: “This is a recent story produced in the States by King Features Syndicate. The artwork, very beautiful and modern, is done by the artist Sy Barry. Because the quantity of syndicate material is not sufficient to cover our weekly production, we need artists able to imitate this style. Please prepare some comic pages with this style and bring them to me.” Arriving at home I tried drawing in the Sy Barry style, but I wasn't able to achieve a good result. The Phantom head was like an egg and very difficult to do, the brush of Sy was not easy to imitate... it was a real disaster. All this seems like it happened yesterday! I was trying to draw the Phantom while I was listening to a tune performed by my favourite instrumental group, the Shadows. At the end, after a lot of so so drawings, I made a decision that I would not bring my average art sample pages to Spada. Some months later I had another opportunity. I read an advert in the best selling daily journal of my town that the publishing house Cofedit was searching for comic artists! The next day I lined up with a big crowd, all of us hoping to get the gig. At the end of the morning, the director of the publisher, a Mr Luigi Cocheo, picked two artists: myself and a man called Morrone who never I met again. I drew a couple of episodes of the character named Fantax. The body of this masked hero reminded me of the Phantom. Afterwards I wrote and drew stories for a western character, for the prestigious magazine Colt 45 with covers by well known American illustrators Frank McCarthy and Carl Hantman. After my military service, I went again to the Fratelli Spada publishers. This time I got a gig to draw comics, including some Phantom episodes and various covers for the Italian and the French market. I also worked for many Italian and European publishers including pocket books like Kriminal, Silman, Belfagor, Johnny Beat, Makabar, Nanette, Sylvie, Loana, Sabata and more. (Below: Felmang holding one of the Nanette comics with his work) In my career I have worked for over 50 publishing houses, from the big publishers to the smaller publishers, and I count myself lucky to have worked with such amazing people over the years. For another publisher, I drew over 500 one-shot episodes (12 to 15 pages each) for the very popular Italian weekly magazines of Intrepido, Monello, Lanciostory, Skorpio, Albi dell'Intrepido, Blitz, and Thrilling. Each issue sold between 250, 000 and 900, 000 copies a week. CC: Wow! 900, 000 copies is unheard of in today's world! Felmang: The people of today do not spend their free time on comics, instead mainly computers and iPhones. CC: A curiosity for many Phantom phans has been your pen name: Felmang. Where did that name come from? Felmang: It is an acronym formed by part of one of my names and family names - it was a winning idea. Felmang is a one and only name - completely unique! Recently I discovered on the internet a Mexican girl named M. Felmang, no relation of course. CC: So then later in life you moved into drawing for Semic (which was later acquired by Egmont). How did you come to be working for the Scandinavian publisher? Felmang: Back in the early 1980's, I wrote and drew a short mini-series of eight episodes called Moon & Luan (right) which was sold to an Italian publisher. It was my intention to sell the same series abroad, so I started to visit various Comic & Book Fairs in the hope to find prospective interested publishers. It was at one of these fairs (I can not even remember the country, it could have been Frankfurt, London or maybe even Bologna) that I met Ulf Granberg, who looked carefully at my story. It so happened that among these pages there was a photocopy of a Phantom page I had done years before, taken from one of my past Spada stories. To conclude, Ulf didn't buy Moon & Luan, but he asked me if I would be interested to draw the Phantom for Semic - I moved faster than lightning and the Phantom to say: Yes! My first episode, The Curse of Carpatia was published in Fantomen 23/1987. Many phans showed great enthusiasm for my artwork and Ulf called me to tell me all this. It filled me with great satisfaction and I was very proud to receive compliments, this encouraged me to do always keep working hard to improve my drawing. After a few episodes, the Semic editor Ulf asked me if I could produce more stories. I had to contact another artist from the Fratelli Spada era to help me, my good friend Germano Ferri. Thanks to Ferri and some other great friends and artists I was able to create many good Phantom episodes. I am told that to many phans, a lot of my work was considered the best they had seen. CC: In your time working for Semic/Egmont, which of the Fantomen artists did you particularly like? Felmang: I was part of "Team Fantomen", an excellent group of artists who produced Phantom episodes to a high level. My favourite artists of this group were Cesar Spadari and Carlos Cruz. CC: We have heard that you had an art studio / school and some of your students helped with the inks and colours for Egmont and other stories. Is this correct? Can you tell us about this? Felmang: This is not exactly right. I was always approached by young inspiring artists to work under me. However, from the early 1970's onward, I was receiving more requests of work by publishers and to keep the quantity and quality of work I was able to do, I allowed the occasional young artist and close friends from the industry to work with me and from that I accidentally created an art studio. At one point, I even closed the studio, because my twins arrived and my spare time was very much reduced. I even considered at the same time doing another job. This is just the first half of our chat with Felmang. Make sure you check back with ChronicleChamber in the next day or two for the second installment, in which we ask him about his favourite stories, his penchant for drawing beautiful women, and creating new stories for Frew. #UlfGranberg #Felmang #GermanoFerri #Frew #TeamFantomen #Egmont #Spada #ComicsRevue #RayMoore #WilsonMcCoy #SyBarry #KingFeaturesSyndicate #CesarSpadari #CarlosCruz #Semic

While we all wait on tenterhooks for the launch of The Phantom: Treasures of Drakon board game in Australia, another Phantom game is also being planned for a Kickstarter campaign launch - but this one is entirely card based and comes out of Scandinavia! Mikael Lyck, a Phantom phan from Sweden (and from recently, a ChronicleChamber contributor) has taken it upon himself to design and produce a Phantom card game. We must stress that this is in the stages of development. Mikael is currently in talks with Bulls, the Scandinavian rights agents of King Features. However, he has generously shared many of his plans with the ChronicleChamber team and we can report sincerely: he has a fully-formed game ready to go with two expansion packs, just waiting for the tick of approval from the right people. Of course, it must be stated here that as the game is in the development stage, none of the art is final and the final version may well differ from the prototypes discussed and shown here. Mikael has been generous enough to share his draft of the instruction sheet, as well as over 200 pages of card designs. The designs look fantastic, and we have our fingers crossed and our breath held while we hope that this card game may make it into full-scale production. In Mikael's own words: "I have been a Phantom phan for most of my life and I have loved games just as long. When I introduced my kids to an old Phantom board game created in the 1980s I was not overjoyed by the game mechanics. After everyone had gone to sleep I was turning in my bed thinking about how I would do a Phantom game. After a few hours of twisting and turning I went down and started writing rules. Some hours later my kids walked in and wondered why I was awake so early, I had been writing the whole night... "After some shut-eye I was back at it again, this time writing effects on coloring paper and cutting them out. My son was willing to try it. I had him play it over and over again, removing some features, changing others but still the concept was the same: to be The Phantom and trying to save and train Devil." If that theme sounds familiar - it should! Mikael has based his game on Team Fantomen's 1979 publication The Story of Devil, written by Donne Avenell and drawn by Georges Bess. The two expansion packs he has developed since this initial game design are inspired by other story-lines: Diana in the Jungle Patrol (1973) by Magnus Knutsson and Jaime Vallvé; and The 21st Phantom: Year One storyline (2004) by Claes Reimerthi and artists (Paul Ryan, Alex Saviuk, Hans Lindahl, Kari Leppänen and Bob McLeod). As for the game-play, Mikael explains it like this: "The Phantom Card Game is an adventure game. You play alone or cooperate with a friend. You are in the world of The Phantom and can seek help from allies, using weapons and actions to support you. Players experience exciting adventures by using cunning to overcome problems and defeat enemies. Each round, players face a new problem that needs to be taken care of, but with limited resources and plays it is important to make good decisions to overcome short term obstacles, achieve the long term goal and at the same time evolve your supply of actions, items and allies. Any enemies that are not dealt with will injure you, making it hard to come back to full speed." This is a game that has been over 18 months in the making, and Mikael has now test-played it with many more people than just his eager son. "In test games, most are really enjoying it. What people seem to like is that it is full of choices that matter. The challenge is knowing which card to play, when to risk, when to take care of a problem and when to be able to advance your game. "I have taught non-gamers how to play in under 10 minutes. I am also planning on doing a video guide that should teach a player everything needed to be able to start playing." As with all things Phantom, not all buyers will be phans keen on playing the game: some may well just be collectors keen to add a new item to their Major Treasure Room. If this sounds like someone you know, they will be delighted too. As we mentioned above, there are literally hundreds of cards planned and with two expansion packs already being considered this could become a significant addition to the Phantom shelf. The starting box with a deck for playing solo as the Phantom in The Story of Devil and includes reward cards and 15 tokens. The second "companion" box is needed to play two players. It includes a deck for playing as Diana in Diana in the Jungle Patrol and also features reward cards and another 15 tokens. The third set is an add-on, an "adventure" box based on The 21st Phantom, which of course is the start of Team Fantomen' s The Phantom Year One saga. This expansion pack includes an adventure and rewards that can be played together with one or both of the other boxes. "In future I hope to continue bringing out packs that will expand the players' decks and give them new challenges. But I am giving a lot of consideration to continuing on the Year One track with stories like Molok, look at some other phan phavorite stories, or maybe go right from the start with The Singh Brotherhood or phans might even prefer to play newly published stories?" In terms of when and how this game might be available to purchase? There is a bit of water to go under the bridge. Mikael is currently working with potential producers and Bulls (King Features) to make his dream a reality. In all likelihood, he will look to launch The Phantom Card Game on Kickstarter, with thoughts of add-ons including special sleeves, playmats and collector boxes. Mikael is keen for any and all feedback on the game as it develops, and is actively consulting phans on his Facebook page, even putting up polls so you can have your say on card design and the like. We strongly encourage you to like and follow The Phantom Card Game on Facebook where you can help contribute to the final look of the game. You can keep track of all developments by popping in on his Card Game website https://gamesbylyck.com, and by following Mikael's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PhanCardGame/. The ChronicleChamber team is certainly keeping a close eye on these pages, and will let you know as significant progress unfolds, and certainly when it is available for sale. In the future as development and the kickstarter campaign starts, we will be having Mikael on for a podcast chat to help promote the campaign. #Games #TradingCards #KingFeaturesSyndicate #TeamFantomen #DonneAvenell #GeorgesBess #MagnusKnutsson #JaimeVallve #ClaesReimerthi #PaulRyan #Bulls #AlexSaviuk #HansLindahl #BobMcLeod

In a very special X-Band: The Phantom Podcast, the ChronicleChamber team are once again privileged to be joined by living legend Sy Barry. Recorded in early February, we're releasing it today to coincide with the great man's 91st birthday! As any self-respecting phan knows, Sy Barry drew The Phantom Daily and Sunday newspaper strips for 33 years from 1961 to 1994. It's been two years since we last spoke to the great man for a podcast, back in December 2016, episode #53. Sy is as vibrant and generous with his time as ever. We embark on a wide-ranging conversation covering his career in the comics industry, with a particular focus on his time with The Phantom. It's fascinating listening as Sy recounts stories of the artists and creators he worked with over time, including memories of the legendary Stan Lee. He also reflects on many of the assistants he had during his career on the strip. A number of Patreon questions are answered, Sy lets us know what he really thinks of the phans that come to see him at Comic Conventions, and we make a sneaky suggestion for a piece of merch that Sy embraces pretty quickly! It is genuinely disappointing that the video recording of this chat failed, but thanks to Sy's son David, we do have some video to share with you soon - keep an eye on our YouTube channel! We know you'll enjoy this chat with the man who has provided us all with so very much happy Phantoming over the years. #SyBarry #LeeFalk #WilsonMcCoy #KingFeaturesSyndicate #EdRhoades #Marvel #Podcast #GeorgeOlesen #KeithWilliams #DonHeck #CarmineInfantino #JoeGiella #AndréLeBlanc #PeteKlaus #HermesPress #StanLee

Today I review all the different Fantomen logos from issue #1 to the latest adaption of the logo in 2019. It is a fascinating look throughout history with over 1600 issues and nearly 70 years worth. As an added bonus, I also goes through the next part of the 22nd Phantom Saga and I make the bold statement that this years parts are even better than the first part. No word yet when this will hit the newsagent stores in Australia but part one and two have now been published by Egmont Fantomen in issues 5/2019 and 6&7/2019. My review of these stories will be in the next X Band Comics and News podcast episode. #22ndPhantom #ClaesReimerthi #JanuszOrdon #Egmont

Reader Daniel Best has recently been in touch with ChronicleChamber regarding The Phantom art produced by American artist Norm Breyfogle (best known for his DC work) and Joe Rubinstein (inker of The Official Guide to the Marvel Universe). Daniel is concerned with the artwork produced for a The Phantom style guide commissioned by King Features Syndicate in 2004. Daniel got in touch with ChronicleChamber after we posted a few of those images on our social media platforms (you can see them here). He has a fresh perspective to add to the story. We have also contacted Joe for comment, but at this stage we have not had any reply. The purpose of writing to you is to hopefully clear up any confusion surrounding the existence of the Phantom images drawn by the late Norm Breyfogle. It was original reported that only three images existed and not 17 as you will soon find out about. It’s difficult to summarise Norm’s lengthy career into a short article. Suffice to say that he broke into the comic book industry in the late 1980s and, during a career that lasted over thirty years, he worked for Marvel, DC and a host of smaller publishers. Norm is best known for his ground-breaking work on both Batman and Detective Comics, where he developed a style that was unlike anything that had been seen previously. I’ve written more words about Norm than pretty much anyone. He was a very close friend, and full disclosure, I was one of four people named in Norm’s Will and have 'been given the privilege of protecting his Estate and Legacy. This means helping to clear out any misrepresentations. I became aware of Norm's Phantom images when the pieces of the art that were submitted to King Features were originally made available to be purchased around 2006. At that time they were claimed to have been penciled by Norm and inked by Joe Rubinstein. I initially became suspicious as the signature on the art wasn’t Norm's; it was written ‘Breyfogle’ instead of the signature he had placed on his artwork throughout his career. I contacted Norm who verified the existence of the Phantom images. He initially thought that King Features had finally returned the art. Joe the inker was contacted who confirmed the pieces that were sold were his inks over the top of photocopies using a lightbox. Unfortunately none of the images feature Norm’s original pencils. According to previous discussions with Joe Rubinstein, the story goes that he had been approached in 2004 to contribute to a Phantom style guide. Joe needed a reliable penciller to draw the images. Enter Norm Breyfogle. Norm was asked by Joe if he would pencil the images for the Phantom style guide. It seems there is some confusion as to whether the work was for a style guide or something else. [Editors Note: Paul Ryan's first Daily story appeared in January 2005. Perhaps the art was a submission for the newspaper Daily strip role that Paul ended up with?] Norm penciled seventeen preliminary images. These pieces of art are A5 size; he would do two preliminaries per A4 piece of paper. From there Norm chose the best twelve images and did full blown, A4 size, full pencil illustrations. These twelve images were cherry picked by Joe who inked them and sent them off to King Features. [Ed: We have only included 16, as the 17th Phantom drawing was not included in the email] King Features not only passed on the duo, they chose not to return the artwork to either Norm or Joe. When Norm asked why, he was told by King Features that they always kept such submissions and that was that. Norm shrugged his shoulders and went back to work. As I have said, I had been friends with Norm for years, loved his work and love the Phantom so I of course asked him about the potential of him doing the Phantom. Norm wished he had a chance to draw even a single issue. “I'd love to do it if I could, sure,” he told me in an email in 2006. “I'd love to draw the jungle scenes with all the animals and the rest." Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Norm passed away in late September 2018. For some reason three of his images have been resold a few times. Norm wasn’t overly happy about the situation, but he let it go. What he did do was to sell me all of the penciled preliminaries and his own photocopies of the twelve pieces of art that he sent to Joe to be inked. Up until now the full suite of the 17 images have not been shared publicly before. [Ed: To ensure there are no copying of the images for fake artwork to be sold, we have added a watermark to the images in the gallery below] I have Norm’s Phantom art in my possession. I have all 17 of the original preliminaries and I have Norm’s personal photocopies of the twelve full pencils. Joe and myself have individually contacted several publishers and had lengthy conversations about using them. Sadly, no deals was never able to be finalised. The offer is still open. So, there you have it. The art that has been sold by several parties does not feature any original Breyfogle pencils. They were not signed by Norm. They do, however, feature Joe’s inks. Thank you Daniel Best for your input and helping to clear up any misunderstanding. #NormBreyfogle #JosefRubinstein #KingFeaturesSyndicate #PaulRyan

News has filtered in the last week that Aftenposten, one of the major Norwegian newspapers, has cancelled The Phantom strip. After the current story ends, so does their relationship with the character. What makes this heartfelt is their long history with the character, and their connection to perhaps the greatest ever Phantom history story of all time. The full page in the newspaper explaining that it is all about to end The story goes that Aftenposten used to smuggle in the Phantom strips from Sweden during the WWII Nazi occupation of Norway, and that this inspired Norwegian readers and Resistance fighters. They took it as a sign that Nazi propaganda about the Americans being defeated was false. This legend has morphed into the great story (that is of course unable to be verified today) that The Phantom was used as a password for the Resistance and underground fighters. Whether it's legend or not, it's a great story that Lee Falk was very happy with and retold countless times! Fantomet phan Kristian Hellesund has pointed out that this is not the first time that Aftenposten has cancelled or threatened to cancel the strip, with drama in both 2011 and also 2015. Each time the readers and locals have stressed The Phantom's importance to the newspaper and they have gone back on their decision to cancel the strip. Only time will tell if this happens again. Aftenposten has also cancelled many other King Features strips in the past; like a lot of other newspapers, their comic section is growing smaller over time. It must be said that newspapers and magazines will only cancel a publication or a strip if it is too costly and they do not make money from the product. Sadly this only happens if phans step away from the magazine and stop buying. It is no consolation prize in any way, but the newspaper has made mention that The Phantom will continue in a fashion, with "classic" stories appearing on their website. There is no further news yet regarding the promised extra Egmont book / trade paperback being released or even announced. Thank you to Kristian Hellesund, Ola Ragnar Fridheim and a few others who told us about this cancellation that has added to the bad news our Norwegian brothers have had to endure with the Phantom slowly being removed from their country's popular culture. #Egmont #Fantomet #KingFeaturesSyndicate

There is lots to love about Frew's 70th Anniversary Trade Paperback, released in Australia in the second half of 2018, but one thing we reckon all phans would have enjoyed is ferreting out all the Easter Eggs in the Pidde Anderson / Shane Foley story Jungle Love. Pidde's script was a fun, light-hearted sequel to Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy's 1950 story The Movie Stars. Artist Shane Foley has clearly gone with the theme and his artwork reflects that tone as well. The creative team are both also clearly long-term phans of the Falk era! In the video below, Jermayn highlights over 30 Easter Eggs that they planted in Jungle Love. We have discussed the story, as well as the rest of the TPB in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #104, which you can listen to here. Huge thanks to Shane Foley who helped us identify some of the Easter Eggs we originally missed, and for having the insight to add them to the story in the first place. #PiddeAndersson #ShaneFoley #Frew #LeeFalk #WilsonMcCoy