As you will have noticed with our social media posts, articles and podcasts we, along with a lot of Australian phans, are excited at the moment with our annual pilgrimage to Sydney in the middle of June coming soon. Unfortunately one of the phans behind this great weekend Richard Fry has suddenly passed away. We wanted to reflect on his legacy with our hero in this article. Richard Fry, Antonio Di Dio and a few others were behind the Lee Falk Memorial Bangalla Explorers Club events that have been held since 30th April 1999. This is when a group of Phantom devotees first gathered at the Waterfront Restaurant situated in the historic Rocks area nestled under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Their initial purpose was to mourn the death of Lee Falk and to celebrate his great creation, which they did in great style. However over the years it also became a fundraising event, with monies raised from donated Phantom items being auctioned off in support of the Westmead Children's Hospital. Well over a hundred thousand dollars has been raised for this very worthy cause over the years, which has always been gratefully received. Indeed, in one of his last ever emails to the LFMBEC mailing list sent only last week, Richard poignantly shared a message of gratitude and support from the Relationships Manager at Westmead. Due to the success of the evening, both socially and philanthropically, it has been held every year since - even sometimes multiple times a year. This years dinner will be number 34. You can find out more about the event at their website www.LFMBEC.org. Richard Fry is the reason why these dinners have been so successful, spending many an extra hour, his own money and much dedication organising phans to get together. Personally, we have been able to get to several of the dinners and enjoyed every single one. These dinners and the LFMBEC club has been so successful that there is even a Scandinavian chapter who also have their own regular get togethers celebrating Lee Falk and the Phantom. Richard was a silent giant to the Phantom's community and will be greatly missed. Every phan who has attended these events have much to be grateful for his input to the legacy of the Phantom overall and especially in Australia. Of course, Richard was much more than just a Phantom phan! He was first and most importantly a husband, father, family member and a very much loved teacher to many a student over his decades in the education department. Some phans have contacted us asking if the annual fundraising dinner will still be going ahead after this turn of events? The short answer is yes. In an email confirmed by Bradley and Joyful Peach, this years dinner #34 will be going ahead and it will double as a tribute and memorial not only to Lee Falk and more recently Jim Shepherd as in previous years, but now also to Richard Fry - a giant in the Phantom community. Please contact us, if you would like Bradley and Joyful Peach's email. As a collective, the team at Chronicle Chamber and the wider Phantom community thanks Richard Fry for his contribution as a phan and these amazing dinners. May he Rest In Peace and our thoughts and prayers go to his family in this time of reflection.

For those who came in late In the daily story "The Mysterious Ambassador" (Frew #1101 - 1995 & Fantomen 6/1996) Bengali was reformed into a republic, the people wanted Lamanda Luaga as their president but General Bababu tried to take the power. The Phantom however stopped Bababu. Ever since then Luaga has been the president. At least according to the Daily and Sunday strips. But there is another side to that coin which is Team Fantomen. Team Fantomen started their own production of Phantom stories in the 1960's, this was done because the comic book Fantomen were running out of newspaper stories to use. Most of the early Team Fantomen stories were fillers that used the lore created by Lee Falk. After a few decades the Scandinavian stories started to expand the Phantom lore with backstories to important elements of the lore like the rings and how the Phantom met Devil which were previously untouched by Lee Falk. Editors Note: We looked into greater detail about the the Phantom lore created by Team Fantomen here. Storyline of Team Fantomens’ Presidents In the 1990's they wanted a new take on the ghost who walks, a darker type of stories, where the Phantom could not help President Luaga when needed. That story arc began with a few political mistakes by President Luaga and soon he lost an election as told in stories "Election in Bengali, Part 1: The Challenger" (Frew #1079 - 1994 & Fantomen 4/1994) and "Election in Bengali, Part 2: The Loser" (Frew #1080 - 1994 & Fantomen 5/1994) . Here is where the stories divides and is the biggest discrepancy in the two “universes”. Since then the Team Fantomen stories have depicted another president of Bengalla while the newspaper stories stick with Luaga as President. Luaga's character changed during this time to become a more “the end justifies the means” type of person, this includes using smear tactics against Lubanga during the election. There even was the famous fight between best friends Luaga and the Phantom in the story "Hunted" (Frew #1084 - 1994 & Fantomen 9/1994) as shown in the image below. This story ended with Luaga alone in the jungle with the Phantom walking out on him. Every phan was worried the friendship between the two was ruined for ever! Lubanga held the President position over Bengalla until late 1996 and apart from a few sightings of Luaga, the battle was mainly between Lubanga and the Phantom. The President was always one step ahead and matched the Phantom in their battles physically and mentally. One such epic fight was in the story "Duel on Destiny Top pt 1 and pt 2" (Frew 118& 1119 - 1995 & Fantomen 13&14/1995) After two years of ongoing stories, in late 1996 the Rodian government sets him up and he is forced to resign. He then tries to flee the country and in one last epic showdown with the Phantom in story we are led to believe he has died during their last battle. This epic story was titled "Death of Lubanga, Part 1: The Peace Prize Winner" & "Death of Lubanga, Part 2: The Last Battle" (Frew 1162 - 1997 & 24&25/1996). Luaga takes the presidency again at the end of the story "Death of Lubanga, Part 2: The Last Battle" (Frew 1162 - 1997 & 24&25/1996) and acts as president until 2005 where it turns out that he had secretly held Lubanga prisoner in a secret facility even after he saved Luaga's son without a trial in story "The Redeemer, Part 2: The Farm" (Frew 1429 - 2005 & Fantomen 20/2005). Luaga then resigns and the vice president Morombe takes over the duties as acting President. Sadly Morombe was killed two years later in the story "Return of the Commander, Part 1" (Frew #1470 - 2007 & Fantomen 4/2007) and there is a new election, one that Sandal Singh wins in story "The New President" (Frew #1491 - 2007 & Fantomen 22&23/2007). What follows is an eventful 8 years of many adventures between Sandal Singh and the Phantom. In many of these stories, the line of good and evil is crossed by Sandal and as a reader you are not completely sure which side she sits on. We also get a new story arc which features Sandal having a child with the biological father being up for debate. Even now we are unsure which looks like to continue as that story arc continues in the new 22nd Phantom saga where Kit believes the child is his half brother. This all comes about because in the story "Fateful Meeting" (Frew #1605 - 2011 & Fantomen 16&17/2011) the Phantom and Sandal Singh spend the night together in the jungle. If anything happens is purely up for speculation by the reader which is probably done by design. Sandal Singh again is victim of a political scandal and after an attack on Sandal Singh and the presidential palace while pregnant with the son, she is presumed dead by the public in "Singh War, Part 2: Rodiagate" (Frew #1759 - 2016 & Fantomen 24/2015). Since then we do not really know what happened to the presidency, at least not until Fantomen 24/2019 which came out on 14 November around shops in Sweden and features Lamanda Luaga returning as President! (please note, this story as off November 2020, has not been published by Frew) #TeamFantomen #LeeFalk #PhantomHistory #Egmont #Fantomet #Fantomen

Ikon Collectables from Australia has announced a new Phantom 10" bust for pre order with release set for December 2023. On the Ikon Collectables pre order page there is no price given but on the Mighty Ape pre order website it is listed for $100AU plus delivery ($$65US, 60EURO, 750 sek/nok & 5,500 INR). What is interesting with this bust is that it includes a skull cave diorama at the back of the bust. The website describes it as: Visible from the back, underneath the neck and shoulders of the bust and is a sweet surprise The Phantom’s fabled Skull Cave residence. Complete with stalactites and stalagmites to provide a realistic impression of the dark and damp jungle cave he calls home. This bust is 10" tall which is the same height as the Iron Studio's Phantom & Devil statue (our review here). 10" is the reason why the bust is a much more affordable price than some other statues. What do you think of this? Will you buy / pre order? Is 10" small enough or big enough for you? Do you like the skull cave diorama at the back of the bust?

In the Swedish comic magazine Bild & Buddla 3/2000 not only did it feature a great Phantom themed cover by artist Patrik Norrman and several articles about the Phantom by Göran Semb and Ulf Granberg it also featured several test pages. Cesar Spadari, Joan Boix, Carlos Cruz, Hans Lindahl, Kari Leppänen and Heiner Bade are all iconic creators with Team Fantomen and are a who's who of modern Phantom artists. If you would like to learn more about these artists we suggest going to their Phantom Wiki pages or the following links on our own website: Cesar Spadari (Phantom Wiki) (CC link) Carlos Cruz (Phantom Wiki) (CC Link) Hans Lindahl (Phantom Wiki) Joan Boix (Phantom Wiki) Kari Leppänen (Phantom Wiki) (CC link) Heiner Bade (Phantom Wiki) (CC link) In looking at the above images, the most obvious change is that Carlos Cruz and Cesar Spadari did not produced a page of story art unlike the others. The other interesting note is just how different the style from Hans Lindahl and Kari Leppänen looks from their recent Phantom stories. The sample pages from Carlos Cruz and Joan Boix looks the same as their artwork we have seen in their past and current day stories. With Heiner Bade's test page, we are able to match his test page with a page that was originally published in a Team Fantomen story by Jaime Vallve. I am sure a lot of phans will enjoy going through the two pages and seeing how each artist visually saw each panel and how they differ from each other. It would be interesting to see if the other sample test pages by Hans Lindahl, Joan Boix and Kari Leppänen also match other Team Fantomen stories. Can anyone match them? If you can, please contact us. Thanks to Pidde Andersson for the information of the test pages and bringing it to our attention. If anyone has a copy of the Bild & Buddla 3/2000 magazine, please contact us.

12 October 2020 many Phantom phans awoke to read the news that long time Team Fantomen artist César Spadari had sadly passed away. César Aurelio Spadari was born in 1938 and originated from Argentina. Since 1987 he had drawn the Phantom for the Team Fantomen comic book with 93 stories and a handful of covers in the 30 plus years that followed. Many of these stories had been published around the world in Australia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Hungary, Brazil, Estonia among others. Many modern Phantom phans would have grown up and admired his work through out the 1990s and 2000s. He was one of the few Phantom artists whose work looked as great in a colour Team Fantomen comic as in the black and white Frew comic. To demonstrate his popularity among phans, he won best cover twice in 1992 and 2000 (both for Fantomet and Fantomen) and won the best adventure seven times. These polls were all voted by the reading public. Below is a list of the stories. Fantomen (Sweden) 2001: "The Prodigal Son" 2003: "My Darling Pirate" 2004: "Son of the Pirate Queen" 2014: "Death of a Pirate Queen" Fantomet (Norway) 1992: "The Wolf is Coming" 2002: "In A Strange Land, Part 2" 2003: "My Darling Pirate" 2004: "Son of the Pirate Queen" 2014: "Death of a Pirate Queen" In talking to his colleagues from Team Fantomen and other artists, they always had nice words to say about Cesar and his art style. Not much is known about Cesar but if you listen to past X-Band: The Phantom Podcast's, Antonio Lemos and David Bishop had more to say about their relationships with the artist that may shed more light on him for those interested. We have included a gallery of some of his covers along with some interior pages in both colour and black and white. Thank you César Spadari for your work on our hero and our thoughts are with his family and loved ones who are mourning his lost at this difficult period of time. A huge thank you to his previous assistant Percy Ochoa for the news and informing us.

You can see from the advertised images and the packaging that the sculpt of this "toby" style mug looks great, but how does it look in real life and is it practical? Plenty of phans are asking - can you drink out of the mug? Check out the attached unboxing and review. In practice, it won't matter whether you're left and or right handed, the mug functions better than what you might think - and it certainly does hold a good quantity of your preferred beverage! It's a great sculpt and compares favourably to previous 'Toby Mug' designs. The size of the mug, the nose, mask, cheek structure and jawline are all strong and well defined. Whether you already own previous 'Toby Mugs' or not, this really is a must-add for your collection. The packaging features the new style guide from Amelia Vidal and it works well. It's a really nicely priced collectible, available at many local comic stores in Australia, or you can order online at the PopCultcha website for $29.99AU ($20US & EURO, 210 sek/nok & 1650INR) Have you brought one of these mugs for yourself? What are your thoughts? Have you drunk out of it?

Our apologies but we had the Singh Pirates attack our YouTube Channel and we lost the last 20 odd of our videos. What this means is that unfortunately every comment and URL link of those videos is now lost. Rest assured, you have not been silenced by us, just inconvenienced by those pesky Singh Pirates. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we have spent a lot of the last two days re uploading the videos and synching them to our website again. No videos have been lost - just comments. We hope you go back and re comment and rest assured, The Phantom has skull marked the culprits. Happy Phantoming!

The Souled Store is a large popular pop culture store located in India who has now added a few Phantom design shirts to their range. They are primary an online e-commerce business but now have 12 physical stores across 5 cities in India. View & Buy Their Shirts Via Their Website View & Buy Their Shirts Via Amazon.in (here & here) Sizes range from Small to XXL. The hoodie is currently sold out with limited numbers of the shirt still available at ₹734 INR ($15AU, $10US, 8.50EU and 100 sek/nok). The Souled Store is a regular at Comic Con India and has a great cult following among the pop culture fans. Again like most recent new merchandise releases, the clothes feature artwork from both Sy Barry and Amelia Vidal from the 2020 Style Guide. This seems to be a specific ploy by King Features and I agree it is a good idea to hopefully appeal to the staunch Barry phans as well as hopefully the new phan. This news comes out recently after Brisco Apparel Company has also released a large number of Phantom themed clothing (find out about them here). Obviously King Features is getting companies world wide to buy the licence which can only be seen as a good thing. What is next? Thanks goes to Swaroop Chand who let us know about the new release by The Souled Store. If you purchase these shirts and would like to video review them for us, please contact us. If you find anything Phantom related, please let us know.

Review by our youngest ever reviewers. A huge thanks to Olivia (11), Jacob (9) and Louis (5). They have done a great job and let us hope we see more reviews from them and other younger Phantom phans. They are the future of the Phantom. Our final score and thoughts on the new Iron Studio Statue is 8/10. The box looks fantastic with two awesome images of the Phantom on either side of the box with his wolf Devil. The statue comes in three pieces which ensures it is packed safely and is really well done. The foot pegs are magnetic and mostly go together well. Unfortunately Devil's foot doesn't sit flush and the base and the fake plant gets in the way when you're putting Devil on the base and probably would have been better without it. There's also a grey-ish tinge to the Phantom's face and overall statue. Whether or not that was by design, the overall statue looks dusty in appearance. Bonus points given for the design of the belt, the rings and the Good Mark clearly visible on the gun handles. Jacob's highlights are the detail of the statue including the guns and rings. Louis' highlight is Devil, he looks cool. Lastly this statue is expensive. We would've preferred the cost to be below $300 but overall a great licenced statue worth of being in any Phantom phans collection. Have you brought the statue? What are your thoughts?

It has been three years since the Australian publisher Frew Publications printed the last of the 22nd Phantom series in their comic. So far Frew have printed 7 stories from the series. Fantomen is ahead and have printed four more stories which is likely what Frew readers will get in 2023. We chatted with the Fantomen editors in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast Episode #243 and there are no new parts planned or being worked on at this stage. If you would like to see more, leave a comment. For Those Who Have Come In Late or just forgotten we will go over what has happened in the past 7 stories. Mikael Lyck who has also joined us will then tease what we can expect in the next four parts without giving anything away. Story 1 - The Empty Throne: We are presented with an empty skull throne. The 21st Phantom is missing with Hero and Devil and the twins are not talking to each other. Guran is worried and Bangalla is wrecked and laid in ruins. Story 2 - Baptism of Fire: Hero is found and the twins start to work together including behaving more like the Phantom. Related the Jungle Patrol are off investigating missing archaeologists Story 3 - The Man in the Shadows: It gets worse. Old Man Mozz has lost his vision & Colonel Worubu is kidnapped. Heloise and Kit work together to both be the Phantom at the same time. Heloise fights Lubanga who has more lives than a cat. Story 4 - Shadows over Singhtown: Introduced to Sandal Singh, leader of Singhtown, the old Sanloi city. We also see Diana for the first time in this saga who is battling her own battles in the UN. We learn why the Phantom and Diana are separated as she learns off Nadir who may be the Phantom’s son. Story 5 - in the Shadow of the Enemy: Kit visits Singhtown to follow up a lead on his Dad. Heloise visits Morristown after a visit from Old Man Mozz. We also see Sarah Cartwright and Luaga who are battling against gangs to keep their doctors' practice functioning. Story 6 - Gauntlet with Death: Kit falls into a Singh trap and meets Sandal and has to go through an epic Lee Falk style fighting test which he meets that would make the 21st Phantom happy. Eagle eyed phans will recognise some elements from “Ragons Game”. Diana makes her way into Bangalla and meets with Sarah and Luaga after quitting / being stood down from the UN. Story 7 - A Family Affair: Kit rescues Sandal from a Singh revolution with help from Jasmine (could there be a romantic angle here?) and Heloise with help from Sarah, Diana and Luaga get out from Bababu’s grasp. Diana is now reunited with her kids after a long period. We also see that the Vultures are somehow involved? We will properly review each new story in our comics and news podcasts but Mikael, can you please tease for us what can we expect? We will continue to see internal struggles between evil forces over who will rule Bangalla. Moz also gets a vision of worse things to come. At the end of story 8 which is out in Frew #1940 we see two big shocks including a death. The twins also go to the states. While Diana stays in and fights in Bangalla, then they switch places. There is a new bad guy introduced that I really enjoy in the last two parts. The one thing I really do not like is that it ends very unconcluded and screams for more parts. Will we see them? Maybe but it will require us phans to communicate with Fantomen and Frew that we want to see more. Who is excited?

Christian Moller reviews the Zauberstern #5 featuring the following stories: "Die Rückkehr des dunklen Ostens, Teil 1" ("Return of The Eastern Dark Part 1") by Mike Bullock and Silvestre Szilagyi "Die Rückkehr des dunklen Ostens, Teil 2" ("Return of The Eastern Dark Part 2") by Mike Bullock and Silvestre Szilagyi "Internationale Gewässer" ("International Waters") by Mike Bullock and Fernando Peniche "Götterdämmerung, Teil 1" ("Godfall, Part 1") by Mike Bullock and Silvestre Szilagyi Zauberstern seems to have ditched the newspaper trend and in this issue includes stories from Moonstone, Frew and Team Fantomen. 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.

Regal Publishers has been releasing some great products for the phantom phans in India. Their quality production and presentation have been praised by many. After releasing two normal issues (with two stories each) in #26 and #27 in November, Regal published the next two issues in the new softcover format. Issue #28 was released as a Christmas special while #29 was released to celebrate the 88th anniversary of the Phantom. It is notable that both of these two softcover issues have four stories in them, much like the #25 released earlier. Regal seems to be loving this softcover format as they have been putting out more and more issues with it. Issue #28, which was released as a Christmas Special, features a very nice Christmas themed cover by Ankit Mitra. We also discussed about various publications of the Phantom around the world with Christmas themed covers back in December to coincide with the release of this issue. This softcover issue features four stories: "The Ingenues" by Tony De Paul and Jeff Weigel "The Lookout" by Lee Falk, George Olesen, and Fred Fredericks "Dinosaur" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "The Isle of Death" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry It is notable that "The Ingenues", being the latest (at time of printing) completed Phantom Sunday story. It has been published by Regal even before Frew or Fantomen. Same thing they did before with the previous Sunday story "The Visitor". The last two stories being Sy Barry illustrated stories were colored by local colorists Anand Kumar and Simi Muhamma, respectively. It is a good looking 100 page issue and features some nice stories. It also comes with a Christmas Card based on the cover artwork. Issue #29 was released in 17 February of this year to coincide with the 88th anniversary of the Phantom. It features a cover by Simi Muhamma. The comic is also 100 pages long and it features four stories: "The Kidnappers" by Lee Falk, Elizabeth Falk, George Olesen, and Fred Fredericks "Dig" by Lee Falk, George Olesen, and Fred Fredericks "The Dolphins" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Revenge in Rhodia" by Tony DePaul and Terry Beatty The story "The Kidnappers" is notably the last Phantom Sunday story written by Lee Falk and was finished by Elizabeth Falk. "The Dolphins" story was drawn by Sy Barry with colours by Simi Muhamma. It is an another nice issue from Regal. It also comes with a free card based on the cover. Even though these comics are published and presented well, I have a few criticisms. The paper being used seems to be less thicker then the glossy one used before. While that doesn't harm the quality much it still is very much noticeable. The colouring work in issue #28 by Anand Kumar was better than the one by Simi Muhamma. But in issue #29 the work by Simi has improved. Since they did the softcover format, they should have included the title on the spine and not leave it blank. The sole reason for that is if displayed on a shelf, both the books are not identifiable, as there is no writing on the spine. Other than those minor criticisms, Regal has yet again provided some nice products and we hope that they continue doing so in the years to come. All Regal 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.

Christian Moller reviews the latest issue from Zauberstern #6 which features the following stories: "Götterdämmerung, Teil 2" ("Godfall, Part 2") by Mike Bullock and Silvestre Szilagyi "Götterdämmerung, Teil 3" ("Godfall, Part 3") by Mike Bullock and Silvestre Szilagyi "Götterdämmerung, Teil 4" ("Godfall, Part 4") by Mike Bullock and Silvestre Szilagyi "Götterdämmerung, Teil 5" ("Godfall, Part 5") by Mike Bullock and Silvestre Szilagyi These stories are reprints originally from Moonstone from 2010. The cover art by Art Thibert who drew the original cover for Moonstone. The main poster art is by Henrik Salhstrom. There are other featured pin ups through out the comic. These stories featured in this comic are my favourite stories that have been featured in the Zaubertsern comics so far. This comic is of great value with 88 page of comics in full colour on great quality paper. 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.

Phans are finding these figurines are a bit harder to source than other Boss Fight Studio products however do yourself a favour and ensure you add them to your collection. As you will find out with the attached review, the quality is top notch and worth the extra effort. I brought my boxes from BigBadToyStore.com, however you can also buy boxes from Boss Fight Studio and singular boxes from Minotaur in Melbourne. The Website links are: Big Bad Toy Store Boss Fight Studio Minotaur From what we understand, there is a licence reason why these are not more readily available in many other stores like the articulated figurines. All reviews will be included on our YouTube channel. If you would like to suggest other older items for possible Retro Reviews, please contact us with your ideas.

Shakti Comics has been publishing some great comic books for Indian Phans. They are known for their continuous experimental improvements with their comics. The comics may not come out as frequently as Regal's however that is mainly due to reasons like them publishing the comics in three different languages (English, Hindi and Bengali). Production delays do not help either. Shakti Comics released their Phantom comics #7 back in February of this year. Continuing from #6 they have been releasing them in a slightly larger format than before. This larger format makes the comics more easier to read and the presentation better. #7 features two different covers, both by Abhishek Biswas. The first, being the regular cover is featured on the three language versions. The second is the black and white cover printed in English version. The price for the variant cover is slightly more than the normal one. The black and white cover is the one I personally prefer. The story in this comic is the Daily story "Then Came Towns Ellerbee" by Tony DePaul and Mike Manley. The story has been presented quite well on slightly thicker paper than the one used by Regal. A recap on the previous stories in the Mexican saga is also explained. With the recap, two pictures of Tony DePaul and Mike Manley are also featured. With the last two issues, the phans who preceded the comics in both variants have been receiving cardboard standees of the phantom and related characters as freebies. Issue #6 came with standees of The Phantom and Diana, #7 came with standees of The Phantom and Guran. The standees look great and have been loved by other phans who got them. Shakti, with their new format seems to have improved their product, but they still haven't gotten a fixed format as of yet. The new format makes the comics look like a standard comics magazine and poses the question of the need for high priced variant covers. There is also the constant delays in getting a product out which has been frustrating for many phans. I hope Shakti focuses on these problems and find a fixed format for their comics. They should also mind their constant delays and try to deliver products in due time. In the end we hope they continue delivering good products and wish the best on their next ventures. All Shatki 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.