The Phantom will have a strong influence at the 2024 Stockholm International Comics Festival with several Phantom related guests, a Phantom panel and more. The event will be held at the Kulturhuset at Sergels Torg in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday 25/5 and Sunday 26/5 between 11am and 5pm. Egmont the publisher of the Fantomen magazine will be at the event with a booth. Jacob Habinc will be at the booth who not only edits and helps put the magazine together but has also written six short and full length Phantom stories. The Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bangalla Explorers Club (LFMBEC) will also have a booth with them selling their books "Från lila vålnad till blågul hjälte" ("From Purple Ghost to Blue-Yellow Hero") originally published in 2010 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Fantomen plus the "Lee Falk – Storyteller" book originally published in 2011 to celebrate Lee Falk's 100th birthday. The Scandinavian Chapter will also be hosting a Phantom quiz at their booth where you can test your knowledge. I will be at the booth for some of the weekend and would love to hear from you. The authors of the "Masks of the Phantom" in Fantomen 10-11/2024 (and published in Norway & Ireland) in Arild Waerness and Knut Robert Knutsen, will be guests of a panel starting at 11:15am on Saturday in the foyer on floor 3. Regarding other Phantom related guests, we can confirm Robert Aman will be attending as he sells his new book. While he wont be selling his other two Phantom books for sale in "The Phantom Comics and the New Left: A Socialist Superhero" and "När Fantomen blev svensk" ("When the Phantom Became a Swede") go and say hi and get him to sign your own copy. If you see any other Phantom related guests attending with booths, please let us know.

Don Perlin may not be known to some Phantom phans but he was a comic giant in the comic industry who sadly passed this week in May 2024. His comic work started in 1951 pencilling on Will Eisner's "The Spirit". All together he worked in the field for over 50 years. Don was most famous for his work with Marvel Comics, who worked on the big named comics like 'The Amazing Spiderman,' 'Ironman,' 'The Incredible Hulk,' and 'Thor' as well as many other titled like 'Ghost Rider,' 'Werewolf by Night,' 'The Defenders,' 'Captain America,' 'The Sub-Mariner,' 'Transformers,' 'Man-Thing,' 'Conan the Barbarian' and was co-creator of 'Moon Knight.' Along with that he also worked for DC, Charlton and Egmont creating two Team Fantomen stories "The Bengali Triangle" (published in Fantomen 13/2002) and "Lethal Cargo" (published in Fantomen 22/2001 and Frew #1305). Interestingly, "The Bengali Triangle" has not yet been published by Frew. Obviously as a Phantom news site we are going to focus mainly on his Phantom work. Along with the two Team Fantomen comics, he drew a trading card in the Gallery Series 2 plus a comic cover for Moonstone comic cover issue #21 (right). This cover was an exclusive variant cover. The Exclusive edition was produced in cooperation with Comic Collector Live and was limited to only 300 copies. We are told that 10% of the proceeds for each issue sold, plus 30 copies of the issue and the original cover artwork were also donated to a charity. A great cause and shows plenty about Don Perlin. One of the interesting things I found looking into his legacy is the possibility of Don working on other Phantom stories during his time for Charlton. Some Charlton Phantom stories still have unknown artists credited as the artist. Could Don Perlin be one of them? We thank Don Perlin for his work on our hero, plus the wider comics industry and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends left behind.

ECR Publishing have announced their second round of Phantom issues reprinting the Sy Barry Daily newspaper stories. The stories are "The Mysterious Ambassador" and "The Mystery of the Island of Dogs". The first of the series was published in December 2023 featuring three stories in a hardcover and separate three softcover magazine format. You can watch our review of them here. This new release will feature two stories again in a hardcover and separate softcover magazine which are all now on sale. If interested you can order at their website (Hardcover and separate softcover format), or via email or WhatsApp: + 49(0)9383-2573. The above two covers are for the magazine format while the cover below is for the hardcover collection. You can buy the magazine set of two and the hardcover each for €29.80. The exchange rates are $50Au, $30US, 350sek/nok and 2,700INR. Included below are two variants of the hardcover book. The design is slightly different and for for €34.90 you can buy this limited edition variant book including an extra poster and a new not shown anywhere back cover. If you would like to order this, you will need to email the editor directly at their email, It is not available via stores. The reason why there are only two stories published is because the stories are longer but the phans still get the same page count - 100+ pages. The next round of release is planned for October 2024 which will again be 100+ pages with three stories - one hardcover and three softcover magazines. Some phans may be confused by the numbering system. The first issue started at 82, 83 and 84. This new set is 85 and 86 - the next will be 87, 88 and 89. These numbers do not represent the issue numbers but instead the Daily Phantom stories. Daily story number 85 is "The Mysterious Ambassador" and the daily story number 86 is "The Mystery of the Island of Dogs" All cover art of this series are by Andy. We believe the name Andy is a psydeum, his art style may be different to what many phans are used to. However I like the style and look forward to seeing his future covers.

Arki Design the company behind the two releases of the Phantom beer from Finland by Pyynikin Brewing Company and Maku Brewing now are expanding the license of the Phantom in Finland. Arki Design and Egmont Kustannus have released a new website promoting a new Mustanaamio club with new products to soon be sold. You can view the website at https://www.mustanaamiokerho.fi We are unsure exactly if it will be a club or just a website with a shop but we are excited and think this is a great expansion on top of the new Finland book series currently being published. The shop currently is not open for orders but the URL is https://www.tagrepublic.fi/collections/mustanaamio. At this stage the website promotes the following items to be sold: Shirts, Beer Coasters, Keyrings, Hat and maybe the most unique item - a car freshener. Now your car can smell like the jungle, or banana! Wonder what else they may release? To recap here are the images of the two beer releases by Pyynikin Brewing Company and Maku Brewing. If anyone from Finland wants to reach out and review the beer and new items for us, please contact us at ChronicleChamber@gmail.com.

For those who have come in late, Ed Rhoades passed away in 2012, who left a lasting imprint on the Phantom world. In an online auction starting May 6th 2024, some of his Phantom art and other Phantom related items from the estate will be on sale. You can bid at Hakes.com. Ed Rhoades, Pete Klaus and some others created a fan group called the Friends of the Phantom (FotP) group in the 1990's. One of the lasting legacies they left was regular newsletters interviewing Phantom creators, researching and cataloging Phantom collectibles and researching Phantom history. In a lot of ways, they laid the ground work for what we at Chronicle Chamber do. Back in 2019, Billy Higgins sold some of the art from the estate, however for various reasons only one round of art was ever sold. Now after five years, more art will now be sold via Hakes. Attached is a gallery of 27 pieces from the estate that will be up for auction.

Reports are that French publisher Editions Dante who are currently republishing Moonstone Phantom stories are looking to expand their Phantom license by creating their own stories. Details are thin at the moment but we have seen the attached cover art by French artist Tony D'Agos. We can only assume he will be one of the creators involved. As of this stage there are no further details on the writer(s) or artist(s) involved but as they come in we will report and update you phans via our website and or social media platforms. We believe there is still some water to go under the bridge before we see regular comics or TPBs released by Editions Dante featuring new stories. However, newly created stories released by another publisher is exciting and welcoming news. In other news, volume three of their Moonstone TPB volumes has been delayed from the March 2024 date to a new date of June 2024. You can read about the contents and other details in this article. If there are any French reader phans that would like to review them for us, please contact us via ChronicleChamber@gmail.com.

The Echo Newspaper is a local Thursday Newspaper sold in Dublin with over 30,000 readers and from April 18, 2024 they have been featuring a weekly comic page supplied and eventually will be worked on by the students from the new Tallaght Academy of Sequential Art. The comic page at the moment are not created by students but this will happen later in the year when their classes start. The first weekly newspaper comics page feature strips Flash Gordon by Dan Schkade, translated into Gaeilge by Gary Moloney with lettering by Rob Jones. The Phantom's Origin as retold by Cormac Hughes that is a remake of the first Phantom Sunday page and was first introduction in a 2017 Lightning Strike Comic. The last comic to feature in the comics page is Popeye The Sailor Man by Randy Milholland. From April 25, 2024, the Phantom newspaper story that is featured in the newspaper is the last completed Sunday Phantom newspaper story "Return to the Temple of the Gods" by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel. We assume the stories will continue from here and will run a few years behind. I feel this venture benefits everyone involved with the newspaper getting some great comics in their paper and we all know the benefit of that - it fits nicely with the puzzles included. The Phantom, Flash Gordon and Popeye also get great exposure to 30,000+ new readers and the students will get real life experience working on comics and a newspaper. While a newspaper picking up the Phantom is good news, in my opinion King Features should look at providing a cheaper service and encouraging other newspapers and sequential art colleges to work together with their licensed products. Surely everyone comes out of this a winner. Lightning Strike publisher Eoin McAuley is one of the men behind the new Tallaght Academy of Sequential Art school located in Dublin, Ireland. This news is on the back of Frew and Fantomen reprinting their stories and Lightning Strike creating new Phantom stories which Frew will be publishing. I must admit the positioning of the strips on the comics newspaper page has me a little confused. I can see the point of cramming the three Sunday stories on one page to get your value for the one page but the orphan panels on the last line can be a bit jarring at first. For the record I do love the inclusion of retelling of the Phantom origin story on April 18 2024. It is a great starting point for potentially 30,000 new readers. Below you can see the comics page plus an article about the new feature.

Phantom creator Matt Kyme was a guest on a local Melbourne, Australia radio station - Plenty Valley FM on Friday 26 April 2024. During the two hour segment Matt and host Greg talked lots of Phantom. Thanks to Plenty Valley FM we are able to provide a recording for all phans to relisten. Some of the subjects touched upon was about Matt Kyme and his love with the character as a phan and his journey to live a dream as a creator. During the show he also mentions the LFMBEC charity dinner, Chronicle Chamber and much more. It is great to see a creator promoting the Phantom in mainstream media.

Christian Moller reviews the latest issue from Zauberstern #12 which features the following stories which was first published by DC comics back in 1988 plus a Daily newspaper story: "Piraten" ("Pirates") by Mark Verheiden and Luke McDonnell "Hass, Teil 1" ("Hate, Part 1") by Mark Verheiden and Luke McDonnell "Eine Löwin für das Phantom" ("The Phantom Lion") by Tony DePaul and Paul Ryan This comic is of great value with 100 page of comics in full colour on great quality paper for 10€. This magazine also see's Zauberstern go back to creating their own new covers. Do you prefer them creating their own unique covers? This cover was created by Stefan Sombetzki who is a German cover artist and this is his very first Phantom cover. It is great to see local talent showcasing their skills with the Phantom and Zaubertserni supporting them. The magazine is glued and not stapled which is the first time it has happened in their series - everything else is the same high quality. It also features a nice pin-up in the back inside cover. Zauberstern continue to publish the DC stories from the late 1980's and early 1990's after publishing them from issue 10. Issue #13 will be out in June 2024. All Zauberstern and other German comic 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. If you would like to join the team and review new comics being released around the world, please contact us.

Art of Play Games have announced that the official video game trailer for the new Phantom video game will be released 1 July 2024 with several other big announcements. Some may be asking what the difference between the July trailer release and the one released December 2023 (included below) . As explained by Ash Nicholls the director of Art of Play Games, the July trailer will be longer and have way more gameplay involved. Along with the 1 July 2024 trailer release, the website will be updated with more screenshots of the 15 levels and in game footage will be added along with some merchandise to purchase. Other teases & updates are: The design team has wrapped the visuals for the game. The Art of Play Games team will be having another meeting with King Features Syndicate in May 2024 to show them 9 out of the 15 completed levels of the game. Other Phantom related artists will be involved with the game in VERY LIMITED Edition set of Artist Exclusive Boxed Editions including Sy Barry. The best place to keep an eye on their Phantom video game updates is their website. You can subscribe to be notified of all their updates via an email subscription or via their social platforms - Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and Discord. Keep an eye on our website, YouTube channel and social media platforms for the April 2024 Australian Supanova panel discussion with Ash Nicolls and the voice actor for the Phantom game. In the meantime, attached is our latest X-Band: The Phantom Podcast episode chat with Ash Nicholls.

This exciting news from Italy has escaped our attention until recently but Italian publisher Editoriale Cosmo is back publishing the Phantom after their last publication back in 2019. This time they are focusing on the Sy Barry stories starting from 1961 to 1963 in a format very familiar to their previous publications. From 2017-2019 Editoriale Cosmo published three volumes of reprints of Sunday newspaper stories. These hardcover, full colour volumes included the first 21 Phantom Sunday stories written by Lee Falk and drawn by Ray Moore and Wilson McCoy. The new hardcover collection is 192 pages in black and white and includes the following Daily newspaper stories: "The Slave Market of Mucar" "The Epidemic" "The Wharf Rats" "The Mysterious Ambassador" "The Mystery of the Island of Dogs" The book can be bought from their website here for €42 ($70Au, $45US, 600kr/nok and 4,500INR) You can still purchase their other collection books at their website. If you spot any Phantom related news that we have missed, please get in contact with us. You can email us at ChronicleChamber@gmail.com and or via our Social Media platforms. If you are able to review any of these hardcover collection books for our platform, please also contact us.

Details have now emerged of the first two Fantomet books from Denmark. The first book has amazing art by Luca Erbetta and the second book has a cover by new comer Raúl Lara, from Spain. These books will be produced in hardcover format and will have 128 pages. At this stage the website has no price or pre order option. The first book will be released in June 2024. The second book will be available circa October (subject to change). We can confirm with the publishers that international orders will be fulfilled. The first books contents as suggested by Mikael Lyck in his report back in October 2023 are the same as the "Hård mot de hårda" ('Rough on Roughnecks') Swedish softcover album originally published in 2021. "The Slave Market of Mucar" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Queen Samaris XII" by Lee Falk and Bill Lignante "The Golden Sands of Keela-Wee" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "The Lions of Kukhan" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Jungle Olympics" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry You can find more information on the first book here. At this stage, details on the contents on the second book are not available. You can find more information on the second book here. For those interested in the cover artist Raúl Lara from Spain, you can follow his work on Facebook here. The publishers of this new book is E-voke, a small company founded in 2018 run by a husband and wife couple. Their mission is to "evoke" an interest to comic books in Denmark.

During the Uppsala Comix Convention Fantomen editor Andreas Eriksson announced the 2024 Fantomen Hardcover Collection to be released in August 2024. The book will be about Lady Kate Sommerset who featured in Phantom stories with the 16th, 17th, 18th Phantom's and Julie, the twin sister of the 17th Phantom. At this stage there is no cover with the announcement but you can pre order the book at the Adli Biris website here. The price is 663kr ($100AU, $60US, €60 & 5,000INR). Thanks to Jacob Habinc, who has confirmed that the cover will feature another slip case like the “Heart of Darkness” and “The Secret Chronicle” collections and will be illustrated by phan phavourite Henrik Sahlström. If you would like to see what these hardcover collection books are like, we have reviewed the 2022 'Mörkrets hjärta' book and the 2023 'Den hemliga krönikan' book. Each book are limited to 1,000 copies only and have been 430+ pages. They are must collectible pieces, even if you do not read Swedish. There have been 12 completed stories featuring Lady Kate Sommerset but another 8 stories featuring her son, the half brother of the 18th Phantom. No word at this stage if this hardcover collection book will feature the stories of the son - Christopher Sommerset. These stories have been written by the dynamic duo David Bishop and Cesar Spadari. David struck gold with his stories about the powerful, alluring anti villain Kate Sommerset, with three of the stories being voted by both Norway and Fantomen readers as their favourites in 2003, 2004 and 2014. We would recommend listening to our podcast with David Bishop in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #117. Thank you to Kristian Hellesund for the heads up on this news. If you find any other Phantom related news we may have missed, please contact us at ChronicleChamber@gmail.com or our social media platforms.

While I was doing some research on the Lambiek Comiclopedia, the world's largest overview of comic artists I discovered that Argentine artist Carlos Pedrazzini actually died in December 2023. I was shocked when I read this. For Those Who Came in Late, Carlos Pedrazzini drew one of the Phantom comic stories I wrote for the Swedish comic magazine Fantomen. This story was first published in Fantomen 20/2022, titled "Dödliga dinosaurier" ("Deadly Dinosaurs") - The review can be found here. This story has yet to be published by Frew. My last email exchange with Carlos was in January 2023, and at this point everything seemed to be fine, he even asked for more jobs. But when our editor Jacob Habinc wrote to him in mid-2023 to commission him a new story, Carlos reportedly replied that he had retired. We now know that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Carlos started his career in the 1970's and has worked on many successful comic series for the South American and Italian markets over the past fifty years, too many for me to list them all. In Europe, he was best known for his work on the Italian historical series "Dago". For the Fantomen magazine Carlos Pedrazzini drew the secrect agent series "Mildh & Fromm" written by Fantomen writer Göran Semb (X-Band: The Phantom Podcast interview with Göran Semb), and four The Phantom comics from scripts written by Mikael Sol, Andreas Eriksson, Jörgen Karlsson and myself. I would have liked him to continue drawing for his audience for many more years, or at least to enjoy his retirement. Now he is hopefully sitting on a cloud up in the sky, playing cards with old friends and colleagues who have gone before him. Or sitting up there at his drawing board. Carlos Pedrazzini born 8th September 1944 and passed 10th December 2023. For a full biography of Carlos on Lambiek. Have a nice trip Carlos!

Lion-Muthu Comics published two successful hardcover books featuring The Phantom in 2022 and 2023 (our review here and here) in the Indian language Tamil. Now their sister publication Prakash Publishers, are releasing a new format of comics featuring the Phantom in a more semi regular format. With the new series, the publication utilises a new format with one story per issue, which is also a callback to the original Muthu Comics. This series featured 15 issues during the years1977 to 1980. The Phantom first appeared in 'V Comics' in the #13th issue of their new modern series which came out during January 2024. The story in the comic is the Daily story 'The Ghost Wall' by Tony DePaul, George Olsen & Keith Williams, in full colour. The comic uses a cover from the Turkish artist Ertuğrul Edirne which originally appeared in the Kizilmaske series published in 2015. These covers are also used by Wick Publications. The next issue of 'V Comics' (numbered #17), has been announced by Prakash Publishers to come out in April 2024. As advertised, this issue will contain the classic daily story 'Phantom Wedding' by Lee Falk and Sy Barry in full colour. The story was previously published in Muthu Comics #98 back in 1979. The issue also features a cover by Sy Barry from the limited print from the 1970s. Unlike the hardcover books, these two issues are available for sale on the Lion-Muthu comics website. They are priced ₹100 ($1.20 USD, $1.84 AUD, €1.12 euros, 12.92 kr), which seems to be a very good price for a full color issue. Issue 13 Buy Now Link Issue 17 Buy Now Link We will be getting both of these issues for a video review which will be uploaded on the website, YouTube and the next monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcast. Until then happy Phantoming!