Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews the Fantomen 2022 Christmas Album which features the following stories: "Shangri-La" by Pidde Andersson and Angelo Todaro "En afton i Morristown" ("An Evening in Morristown") by Jimmy Wallin "Spökpiraterna" ("The Ghost Pirates") by Tony DePaul, George Olesen, and Keith Williams Contents of the Facsimile of the 1972 Christmas Album: Fantomen Christmas Album 1972 cover by Rolf Gohs "Alexanders diamantbägare" ("Alexander's Diamond Cup") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Goola-Goola-häxan" ("The Tale of the Gooley-Gooley Witch") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry Until next time, Happy Phantoming! All Fantomen reviews will be included in our monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts. You can find out more at our website and or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos.

Charlton Comics was around from the 1940's until the 1970's and published hundreds of comics including 40 odd Phantom comics and close to 100 different Phantom stories. At the time it was the longest run of USA based stand alone Phantom comics in the USA not surpassed until the 2000's by Moonstone Books. TwoMorrows Publishing by Jon B. Cooke has written a 272 page book on the history of the publishing company. The book goes through the whole history and throughout highlights the great creators that worked for them and produced Phantom stories. Some examples are Don Newton, Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano, Dick Wood, Joe Gill and Pat Boyette. Of course the book focuses on the publishers other work but for many of our readers, we are just focusing on the Phantom. If you are a fan of the Charlton books or a completist, I believe this book will be a good addition to your collection. You can buy here from Amazon here from US$43.95 (40Eu, $65AU, 450 sek/nok and 3,500INR). On the TwoMorrows Publishing website you can view a sample which can also be downloaded below. This may help you decide if you want to buy the book or not. The blurb for the book is: An all-new definitive history of Connecticut’s notorious all-in-one comic book company! Often disparaged as a second-rate funny-book outfit, Charlton produced a vast array of titles that span from the 1940s Golden Age to the Bronze Age of the ’70s in many genres, from Hot Rods to Haunted Love. The imprint experienced explosive bursts of creativity, most memorably the “Action Hero Line” edited by Dick Giordano in the 1960s, which featured the renowned talents of Steve Ditko and a stellar team of creators, as well as the unforgettable ’70s “Bullseye” era that spawned E-Man and Doomsday +1, all helmed by veteran masters and talented newcomers—and serving as a training ground for an entire generation of comics creators thriving in an environment of complete creative freedom. From its beginnings with a handshake deal consummated in county jail, to the company’s accomplishments beyond comics, woven into this prose narrative are interviews with dozens of talented participants, including Giordano, DENNIS O’Neil, Alex Toth, Sanho Kim, Tom Sutton, Pat Boyette, Nick Cuti, John Byrne, Mike Zeck, Joe Staton, Sam Glanzman, Neal Adams, Joe Gill, and even some Derby residents who recall working in the sprawling company plant. Though it gave up the ghost over three decades ago, Charlton’s influence continues today with its Action Heroes serving as inspiration for Alan Moore’s cross-media graphic novel hit, Watchmen. By Jon B. Cooke with Michael Ambrose & Frank Motler. Thank you must go to David Dorward who brought this to our attention.

Finland is one of the few countries that has seen over 1000 Phantom comics published in its country. However since the regular Mustanaamio stopped publishing in 2010 we have seen less than 30 comics and collections published. Could that be about to change? Story House Egmont, the Finland branch of the Egmont super large publishing giant has announced that a new comic will be released on 17 May 2023. No news if this is going to be the start of a regular series again, a one off edition or even a semi regular collection series but either way this is very welcomed news indeed. The story "Karpaatian vampyyri" ("The Vampire in Carpatia") will be included and was created by Ulf Granberg and Jaime Vallvé and first published in Finland back in issue Mustanaamio 10/1976. No news yet if other stories will be included in this comic. For the past 6 years, Story House Egmont has been reprinting the Swedish Softcover books. Story House Egmont is first a business and they would not be starting this new series or publishing a new Phantom book unless they were fairly sure they could sell enough copies to make money. As explained to us by someone in the game. Printing singular collection books can be more cost effective. In layman terms, you can make a profit on a book that sells 500 copies but a magazine could need to sell 3-5000 copies to make the same profit because so much is lost in distribution through shops. At the moment, the book is not available for pre order at the Story House Egmont website (click here to view past and current Mustanaamio books). Thank you to Petri Aarnio, Andreas Eriksson and the Mustanaamio Facebook page for the information. When we learn more, we will announce here and on our social pages.

The amazing resource that every hard core Phantom phan, collector and researcher uses, The PhantomWiki website is asking for our help. The PhantomWiki is hosted and normally fully paid for by the Scandinavian chapter of the LFMBEC, they are however still feeling the effects of COVID-19. With them unable to hold gatherings there is a shortfall which we need to help out with. Due to the amount of data and images being hosted on the website, the price is 5,000 kronor per year which is about $750AU, $600US and 500 Euro. In order to give something back to the donors, SC have made their 2023 calendar available to download. On their website they announce: "We do not like to just ask for your money, so we would like to offer a printable custom Fantomen wall calendar, with all that you would expect from an calendar, including the dates your Fantomen magazine will land in your postbox (shop)." Download it from here, and from there you can also donate to the PhantomWiki If you would like to donate to the running of the awesome PhantomWiki website, please click here.

Even to non-Swedes this vote is important since it gives Team Fantomen and Egmont's editorial staff information about what type of stories you want to read in future issues. These days most Team Fantomen stories show up in Frew in Australia. Publishers from around the world are also more than likely to pick up a story that has won a Best Story award or polled well. 2022 gave us many good stories to chose from. Some of my personal highlights of 2022 are: Frew published series like "Saga of the Vultures", "Femme Fatale", "The Outlaws" and the 2 last parts of the "Hero Complex" trilogy. Even the Team Fantomen reprints where of great quality, including the 1987 winner of best story "The King is Dead" - could it win again? We also received several Newspaper stories both old and new in varying quality. However I would bet my money on one of the 9 new Team Fantomen stories of the year, it will be fun to see which story the readers fancy the most! How to vote? Click here to go to Fantomen.org. If you use Google Chrome you can right click and choose 'Translate To English' and follow the prompts. The last date to vote is 1st of April and the result will be published in Fantomen 10-11/2023. As an extra thank you and incentive to vote, Team Fantomen are raffling away 10 Fantomen Ondskans Nemesis books (review of the book here). From past experiences they do post prizes to overseas phans including Australia. As soon as we hear word about Fantomen's annual Best Cover vote, we will let you know! GO AND VOTE NOW!!

Ankit Mitra from Chronicle Chamber reviews the latest Regal issues 26 and 27 which was released 30 November 2022. For the first time in their regular series, Regal has published classic Lee Falk and Sy Barry stories. Attached in issue 27 is an article about the Indrajal series. Click here an article on the reaction to the editing of issue #26. Contents for the two issues are: Phantom Issue 26 Cover by Ankit Mitra Free supplement is a collectible card based on the cover art "The Nomad" by Tony DePaul, Paul Ryan, and Eduardo Barreto "The Shadows of Rune Noble" by Tony DePaul, Eduardo Barreto, Paul Ryan, and Terry Beatty Phantom Issue 27 Cover by Ankit Mitra Free supplement is a collectible card based on the cover art "The Mysterious Passenger" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "The Vultures" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry The price for each issue is 200 Indian Rupees which is about: $3.70 Australian Dollars, $2.68 US Dollars, 2.36 Euro & 24.23 Swedish Krona. (Approximate Rates) Due to licensing limitations, Regal can only sell & ship to addresses within India - so for Phans living outside India, I recommend you befriend an Indian Phan & have these books bought & shipped to you by them. If not, FREW are selling some copies of this series via their website, and I'm sure these issues too will show up for order there - although in very limited quantity. Regal has a website you can order from plus an Amazon Storefront for Indian Phans who would like to order these books from Amazon.in. You can also buy them direct from Frew. For any assistance regarding ordering these books directly from Regal you can contact Regal Publishers here: Regal Publishers Whatsapp & Phone No: +91 94810 52592 Website: https://regalpublishers.in/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/regalpublishers/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/regalpublishers/ E-mail: regalpublishers@gmail.com Until next time, Happy Phantoming! All Regal Publisher 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.

Regal Publishers issue #27 brings back two classic stories by Lee Falk with Sy Barry's artwork in full colour for the Phans. The review of this issue can be found here. "The Vultures" story is coloured by Ivan Pedersen and as we all know, he is a Lee Falk purist when it comes to Phantom lore. This story is produced as it was originally published with colours added. Ivan in my opinion is one of the finest modern colourists when it comes to The Phantom. His colouring style is modern, but still keeps the originality and nostalgia of The Phantom. On the other hand, in the other story "The Mysterious Passenger" has had some edits made along with the colouring by India’s artist Ankit Mitra. He has chosen mostly bright colours to match Indrajal Comics, the most popular Phantom comics in India from the 1980s style, still retaining the mystery using blue shades on outdoor night scenes. There are couple of panels where the dark shade has supressed the Sy Barry art to some extent. But overall, the colouring is good and pleasant to read. There has been some minor editing done in this story. No panels have been removed, and the changes are very minor. This is what we will focus on in this article. On why I think we should highlight these changes in this article, Ankit Mitra has mentioned that he has edited and corrected in his preface and at the bottom of each page. Some readers will be curious to know what changes were done. Personally I don't think we should "edit" or "correct" Sy Barry art even if it is wrong. "The Mysterious Passenger" story is presented in comic book format with an average 3 panels in each row as compared to 4 panels as it originally appeared in the newspapers. If you have seen the Frew edition of this story (Frew #1884), the panel and page layout style is exactly the same. There are two places where Ankit has extended the panel with his artwork. What is interesting is that the Frew #1884 issue also includes the same panel edited. The Regal issue has been edited even further. Below is the example of the extended panel - first is the original from the newspapers. The second is from Frew #1884 and the third is from Regal #27. Can you spot the difference? The second example of a panel being adjusted is the panel featuring this helicopter. Look at the left side of the panel. There are several panels where Ankit has corrected small inconsistencies like bangles, patterns on shirts, shoes etc that slipped into the artwork. One example is below when Bella is shown wearing bangles on one arm, in another connected panel the bangles are on both arms, and in other panels no bangles are shown. Ankit has corrected this in his coloured version to maintain consistency. Below is an example of this compared to the Frew issue which is the same as the original newspaper in this example. Other minor panel edits includes the shirt changing in design for the bald bad character throughout the story. Backgrounds have also been changed for consistency like door knobs swapping sides of the door and furniture in cabins. Due to the length of the article we cannot show every example so we will only highlight a couple, we recommend going through the story yourself if this interests you. A good example of Regal and Ankit correcting inconstancies is they have rearranged the panels to maintain consistency in the story flow. The sequence below was incorrect in the original strip and in Frew #1884, but now these are arranged as per story flow in the Regal issue. Overall, I think these are very minor changes that can easily be missed if you don't pay attention or compare them with the original newspaper printing or Frew #1884. In my opinion, there was no need for these small alterations in artwork. While these edits may surprise some phans it wont surprise others with these classic newspaper stories been butchered, edited and censored for decades beforehand. It has happened with every publisher prior and likely will continue to happen in the future as well. All in all, this issue is a treat for Phantom Phans, with two original Lee Falk stories & artwork by the legendary Sy Barry, presented in colour. Do these edits change the story or enjoyment levels for the readers? That is best left for the readers to decide, majority may not even notice them. Regal has announced that the next issue, their Christmas special will feature two new artists in Simi Muhamma and Anand Kumar who have taken the Indrajal Comics approach and used vibrant colours - example below. Panels also seam to be converted into comic book format. Let's wait for the issue to reach us, and meanwhile, enjoy the current issue. About Binay Kumar Pandey Binay is a phan of The Phantom since 40+ years, and claims to be reading Phantom even before he could read. The Phantom comics was read to him by his aunt, and his motivation to learn reading in his childhood was to be able to read Phantom comics on his own! He is a techie by profession, but like his first love, his love for Phantom comics is still as fresh and strong as it was during his childhood. He starts his day with reading the Phantom strip of the day.

The Phantom is making a splash in Germany with not one but two recent comic magazines reporting on the Phantom. This magazine is released in January 2023. We have already reported on the Zack Magazine Issue 12/2022 featuring an article on Team Fantomen writer Bernd Frenz. However the magazine Die Sprechblase has also announced their Junuary 2023 monthly magazine which will even feature the Phantom on the cover. The cover design is by Fantomen cover artist Henrik Salhstrom. This cover was first published by Fantomen 21/2019 and the cover won the 2019 best Fantomen cover of the year as voted by you, the phans. Die Sprechblase is a Germany comics themed magazine which started in 1977 by German publisher Norbert Hethke Verlag. Featured in this magazine will be an article on the history of the character. It can be purchased for €11.90 ($12US, $18Au, 130 sek/nok and 1,000INR) and be purchased from their website here or I am sure other good shops like comic book shops and magazine outlets.

The Phantom is making a big splash with its return to Germany with two publishers in Zauberstern and Wick publishing regular Phantom comics. Add to this renewed interest, Team Fantomen now have two German creators in Heiner Bade (interview with him here) and now new writer Bernd Frenz. Zack Magazine is a German magazine that has been around since the 1970's with the December 2022 edition number 282 in the series. While the magazine normally deals with French-Belgium western, crime and adventure comics like Lady S, XIII, Readbeard or Thorgal. In the 12/2022 edition it features an article about Bernd Frenz and his new role as a creator for the Swedish Team Fantomen crew. At this stage, none of Bernd Frenz's stories have been published in Frew or outside the Fantomen magazine. This Zack magazine costs 9€ (10US, 15AU, 100sek/nok & 800INR). Thanks to Bernd Frenz who has supplied us with a scan of the article. You can use a translator app to read the article.

With the publication of issue #28 of The Phantom in December this year, Regal Publications of India have launched their first Christmas-themed issue with a wonderfully fun and festive cover image from artist Ankit Mitra. This marks the very first time an Indian publisher has used a Christmas theme for one of their Phantom books and for mine, raises a very interesting question. We will get to that soon. Meanwhile... It may be a new concept in India, but Christmas issues are not exactly new to the world of Phantom comics. Indeed, some Phantom readers around the world have started to have actually become expectant of Christmas covers, as they have become increasingly common over the past few years. So in the spirit of the season, let's have a look around the world, back through the decades, and explore The Phantom's relationship with Christmas! Keen Phantom historians and collectors will know that the longest continuously running Phantom publication in the world is colloquially known as the Fantomen Christmas album, which has been released annually since 1944. However this Swedish volume is released each Christmas and only each Christmas; it's not a Christmas-themed book – if we can follow that difference. What is less well known is that in fact before that first Fantomen book had even been considered, the Phantom had already featured on the cover of a Christmas Special comic book, and in a Christmas setting no less! It seems that the first publishers to recognise the Christmas season on the cover of their books was O Globo, the Brazilian producers of Almanaque de O Globo Juvenil. Their first ever Christmas special "Youth Almanac", published in December 1941, features the Phantom in an understated but clearly identifiable Christmas scene; an unknown artist has depicted all the characters from the O Globo comic strip universe smiling at a plain Christmas tree in the centre of the page. Remarkably, this is only five years after Lee Falk began the strip! It would be 1948 before the Phantom appeared on the cover of this Brazilian annual special again, then again in 1952, 1958 and 1959, when The Phantom stories actually started appearing in the internal contents. With Santa and other Christmas tropes featuring heavily, there seems little doubt that the South American publishers O Globo lay very strong claim to the title of "First Phantom Christmas cover". Meanwhile in his home country of America, the Phantom first appeared in a Christmas book in 1946. Interestingly, this was not a comic book: it was a copy of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol. Published by King Features Syndicate, the volume was apparently used as a promotional tool for the company as, apropos of nothing, the inside front cover features an image of the Phantom joining the rest of the King Features cast gathering around a table for a Christmas meal, resplendent with tree and presents in the background. As far as we can tell the first European publishers to recognise the Christmas season in any way on the cover of their books was Interpresse, the Danish producers of Fantomet. Their December 1975 edition, issue #57, decorated the title of the book with a frosting or recent snowfall. The connection of course is that Denmark has a white Christmas, so this could really just be a "winter" cover more than a Christmas one. However from the following year, there could be no doubt regarding Fantomet (Denmark) being the next Phantom publisher to incorporate Christmas elements or artwork on the cover of their books. From 1976, new editor Marianne Zivadinov ensured that the December edition of Fantomet (Denmark) went one step further with the title featuring a Santa hat, most amusingly in 1977 and 78 when it was being worn by the cartoon skull in the O of the text in Interpresse's new title font. No other reference to the season though, without so much as a "Glædelig Jul" [Merry Christmas] or a "Godt Nytår" [Happy New Year]. After a quiet spell with no Christmas references in their December 1979-80 issues, Fantomet (Denmark) released their most Christmassy Phantom cover with Fantomet #176. Marianne brought back the frosted title text, and the anonymous artist depicts a jovial Phantom riding Hero through a light snow fall, with a snowman in the inset pic. The words "Extra Jules Fjas!" [Extra Christmas Fun!] are prominently emblazoned in bold lettering too. However, we have returned to no overtly Christmas artistic elements. Given that during this period the internal contents of Denmark's Fantomet were largely a re-printing of the Fantomet magazine from Norway, it is possible that they were also using Norwegian covers. However, a search of the amazing phantomwiki.org resource suggests that the Danes were developing their own covers through the timeframe, distinct from the Norwegian designs. None of the exactly corelating Norwegian issues have cover images uploaded to the wiki for us to be able to confirm these particular covers. That said, it is absolutely worth noting that during the tenure of editor Petter Engbo the December issues of Fantomet (Norway) from 1981-1983 each included a supplement of four "God Jul" [Merry Christmas] cards. That said, these cards are happy Phantom scenes with "God Jul" text overlaid, rather than festive Christmas themed scenes as such. The first time we actually see the Phantom drawn in a Christmas style in Scandinavia was the supplementary set of "God Jul" cards that accompanied Fantomen #25/1986. It appears that Jaime Vallvé had a bit of fun creating these cheery images of Diana and the Phantom in festive attire. These were not accompanied by any type of Christmas cover on the actual comic book, and seem to have been a one-off for the Swedish publisher with no similar cards coming with other December issues of the Fantomen magazine. It would seem that this was the last time the Phantom got Christmassy in Europe! In Australia, Phantom comic books titled or labelled as Christmas Specials emerged in the 1990s, with full Christmas-themed covers a much more recent development of theirs, but one that has been gathering some momentum. Frew Publications began embracing the trend under the watch of Jim Sheppard in 1992. Issue #1030 was the first copy of The Phantom to be headed with the words Christmas Special, beginning an annual tradition of Frew finishing their calendar year with an end-of-year bumper Christmas Special. These books are typically around 100 pages with 3-5 stories. 1993 was the first time a date was added to the words Christmas Special. A sprig or two of holly appeared as decoration for the 1994 iteration, then Jim really stepped it up for the cover of #1123 in 1995, adding a small inset of Santa with sunglasses. Mr Walker dressing as an “ordinary Christmas man”, perhaps? From 1996 to 1998 the effect was less subtle, with the inset featuring a Phantom wearing a Christmas cap. Issue #1248, released as a Christmas Edition in 1999, marked the first time in 40 years that a Phantom comic book featured a genuine and complete Christmas cover, with both text and artistic elements deliberately evoking all the festive spirit of the season. Frew used a panel from Ray Moore’s iconic Christmas Day strip from Daily story #4 Little Toma (25 December 1937*). Proving it truly a Christmas cover and not just a coincidental advert for the contents: the story Little Toma did not even appear in that issue! Without knowing why or what feedback Frew may have received regarding this cover, the following year we saw a reversion back to a simply titled Christmas Special (or occasionally, Edition), with no artistic Christmas elements at all. Suddenly, and despite what had seemed a decade-long build up, other than those words up the top there was nothing particularly Christmassy about the covers of these still bumper end-of-year issues from 2000 right through to the end of the Sheppard era in 2014. Interestingly, it was actually American publication Comics Revue that released the next comic to use a cover that featured the Phantom in a Christmas scene, when Jim Keefe had Phantom and Hero riding out from behind the tree as part of their then one-off Christmas-themed cover in 2013 (#331-332). Back in Australia, the new Frew Crew continued the Christmas Special tradition in their first December release in 2015 (#1744). Changes were made internally from 2016, as they pivoted the contents so that the now-institutional 100-page issue became a colour collection run of recent newspaper stories. On top of that, a little bit of holiday spirit returned to the cover! When we asked, publisher Dudley Hogarth told us, "In 2016 responding to feedback from Phans I asked for a bit of Christmas on the cover and got a sprig of holly applied to the Frew logo." And then, all of a sudden, Frew were all in! In 2017 and 2018, with Massimo Gamberi’s festive “Phantom on Hero with Christmas Sack of Phantom Goodies” (#1800) launched the idea of a Christmas cover into a new stratosphere. Following that in 2018 with Jeff Weigel’s whimsical “Ugly Sweater” (#1828), Frew were now offering their readers Christmas covers with bells on. Frew subscribers even got a little more touch of merriness in 2017, when their envelopes arrived with a bonus gift of a Sal Velluto postcard depicting the Phantom enjoying a very Aussie Christmas. We were back to just the title Christmas Special for 2019 and 2020 – albeit with that little dash of Christmas spirit on the Frew logo again. "The cover artists were given the internal stories but had not been briefed that we wanted a Christmas theme, so we were back to adding sprigs of holly," explains Dudley. In 2021, they returned to placing a Christmas-themed cover under the tree for phans, as Glenn Lumsden provided the cheers on #1908 with Phantom and Santa sharing a nice cold milk, and have shown clear intent in following it up this year, in #1934. Dudley seems excited about continuing this more recent trend and plans to make it a tradition: "This year's cover by Giancarlo Caracuzzo is also a Christmas theme and I'm hopeful that from now on they will all be. Merry Christmas to you all!" Meanwhile Comics Revue also returned to including the Phantom as part of a Christmas-themed cover for their 2020 and 2021 end-of-year issues, both created by Jeremy Macpherson. They have stepped away from the practice in 2022, with a wedding scene advertising that classic featured story. However as mentioned from the outset, Regal Publications has jumped on board the Christmas issue sleigh ride this year with Ankit’s classic Christmas holiday feel. Regal have been publishing titles under the banner of a "Christmas Special" since 2020, but for the first time have added a cheery scene on the front cover. Now what struck me – and this is my interesting question from much earlier, patient reader – is that a Christmas theme is surely an unusual one for the region. The most recent census of India (2011) tells us that a mere 2.3% of the population are Christian. With a predominantly Hindu and Muslim population, India does not particularly celebrate this Christian holiday, not even in a commercial secular fashion. Nor would you think that Regal readers would particularly be drawn to a Christmas theme. However, it seems that the publisher sees things differently. You see, in recent years more and more Indian readers have had access to Frew issues through subscriptions and the like. And Indian readers like colour comics. So, the issues featuring a colour collection run of recent newspaper stories have been a hit. And, those issues have had Christmas themed covers. Could this be a thing? Have Indian phans begun to associate Christmas covers with quality Phantom comic books? Possibly. Will The Phantom bring Christmas to the subcontinent?!? It could also just possibly be that Regal is mindful of potential Australian sales (issues available through Frew's website) and are hoping this issue might be more popular among those buyers. Either way, the proof will be in the pudding and we'll have a fair indication if they do it again next year! Whatever happens, it’s all a bit of fun and festive way for the Phantom to let his hair down after another long and brutal year fighting roughnecks and battling cruelty. And what’s wrong with that? Merry Phantoming to us all! * Side bar #1: Ray Moore’s Christmas panels in Little Toma are actually a complete anomaly, written by Lee Falk solely for the purpose of being published on Christmas Day 1937. As you can see from that weeks' strips below, the 25 December strip is completely out of context and contributes nothing to the continuity of the story. It is, however, irrepressibly charming. Far more thoughtfully written is Paul Ryan’s sequence from Daily story #224 Justice for the Python, as Tony De Paul simply sets the closing actions of that story to take place over Christmas Day 2008. ** Side bar #2: Phans with long memories might ask about a story where the Phantom dressed as Santa to catch a murderer dressed as Santa? Didn't that have a Christmas cover?? Well, that is debatable. A Team Fantomen story with that plot certainly exists. Murder in the Eyes, written by Tony De Paul and illustrated by Kari Lappanan, was first published in December 1994 in Sweden (Fantomen #25/1994). Frew published a English language version in January 2007 (#1466). However, looking at the covers by Christer Thunborg and Antonio Lemos respectively, I'm not sure we could call them a genuine Christmas cover, at least not in the fun and festive sense! Many thanks to Jermayn Parker, Frank Borg and Harmony Gates for their research assistance. Phantomwiki.org and ThePhantom.fan were invaluable sources for this piece.

Christmas has come early for some phans with the Phantom and Flash Gordon mini 3 inch PVC figurines now available for sale and some pre orders being fulfilled. For those who came in late, these PVC figurines come in a box of 18 figurines with 5x Phantom themed figurines and 5x Flash Gordon themed figurines. In each box you will receive a set of 10x plus 8x doubles. These items will come in individual blind bags and boxed in a cool box which you can see aligned to your right. From a Phantom perspective you get 2x Phantoms in blue and purple, Devil, Diana and a Mr Walker in his civi's. A close gallery of the 10 is below. The price for the box is $180US which is $270AU, 170Eu, 1800 sek/nok and 15,000 INR plus shipping. That works out at $10US per figurine ($15AU, 10Eu, 100 nok/sek and 800 INR). At the moment you can buy the boxes from Boss Fight Studio website here. While they do ship to around the world, many phans around the world have decided to wait for them to be sold in their local shops. if that is you, we suggest looking at this link, where we have listed shops from around the world that stock in these and other Boss Fight Studio figurines. No official word yet if these figurines will be sold individually. It is my guess that some shops will list a blind bag individually to sell while others will list the complete box. Opened figurines will likely find their way on eBay and the Phantom Trader Joes buy and sell Facebook group. Thanks to phan Will Dorrington for bringing this news to us. If you ever notice anything else Phantom related that we have missed. Please contact us.

Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews the latest Fantomen issue - 2022/25-26 which features the following stories: "Spökkanoten" ("The Ghost Canoe") by David Bishop and Kari Leppänen "Diana gift" ("Diana Married") by Janne Lundström and Özcan Eralp "Djungelns herre" ("Lord of the Jungle") by Kjell T. Johnsen, Claes Reimerthi, and Heiner Bade Cover depicting Julie, created by Henrik Sahlström. This cover actually got a bit of publicity here in Sweden when a politician wrote a tweet where she had mistaken Julie for the Phantom being a transvestite. Obviously did not read the comic knowing it was Julie and not the 21st Phantom... On the editorial page Andreas Eriksson goes through the fact that Fantomen published a new (for Fantomen readers) story in each issue as the plan for the year originally was. There is also some information about the Achilles Wiggen Kickstarter campaign that ended some weeks ago and was successful. The main story, that the cover is from "The Ghost Canoe", art by Kari Leppänen and story by David Bishop which takes place in New Zealand, Julie is on a trip to the white terraces as a part of her medical studies. There are some bad men there and a volcanic eruption. This story is based on real circumstances which David Bishop covered in our X-Band: The Phantom Podcast Episode #117 - you can read more about this story here. Back up Phantom stories in this comic are two Team Fantomen reprints. "Lord of the Jungle" by Kjell T Johnsen, Claes Reimerthi and art by Heiner Bade published originally in Frew #1225 and Fantomen 4/1999. A modern classic for me, Phantom and Tarzan often gets “lumped together”, it is a really fun twist that according to this The Phantom is the inspiration for Tarzan. "Diana Married" by Janne Lundström and Özcan Eralp which is one of these early Team Fantomen stories that are not that deep, The Phantom gets a note that Diana has married someone else, travels to America to track her down, and gets fooled that an imposter is Diana, I am quite certain Lee Falk has done a very similar story. We also get another Karl Kämpe adventure, "The Price of Innocence", I love these Karl Kämpe stories and this is a really good adventure about a princess that makes a deal with a witch and Karl needs to save the innocent. In the preview we see that the first issue of 2023 which is out before next year (again), it features the story where the Phantom first met Savarna in "Crocco Island West" along with a Team Fantomen classic "The Slavers" by Janne Lundström and Özcan Eralp. As per tradition we will also get a schedule poster. We also get more previews, during 2023 we will see more Thorgal, Karl Kämpe, Undertaker and Libertalia. La Venin seems to be a new side comic we have not seen before. Until next time, Happy Phantoming! All Fantomen reviews will be included in our monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts. You can find out more at our website and or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos.

Peter David has written two USA Phantom mini series for DC back in the late 1980's and 20 years later wrote the first comic book series for Hermes Press. Both stories has been praised by many phans for the creators understanding and depth of the character while also being an enjoyable read. Sadly, Peter David has been experiencing some health issues lately including kidney failure, strokes and a mild heart attack. As many will know, with the USA health system bills can quickly add up. Graham Murphy a family friend to Peter and Kathleen David has offered to help out with an organisation of a Go Fund Me campaign. The original target was $80,000 USD. If you have enjoyed the Phantom & other stories Peter has written, maybe you could donate an amount as a thank you for services served. Link to Peter David's Health Bills Go Fund Me Campaign

Normally December is when your buying presents for Christmas but Boss Fight Studio's has opened pre orders for their wave 2.0 of the Phantom figurines. Wave 2.0 features a swashbuckling 11th Phantom and Singh Pirate. No set date for the release but an educated guess would be the first quarter of 2023 ie February - March 2023. You can pre order this new set of Phantom's via Boss Fight Studio's website: 11th Phantom Singh Pirate Or you can buy from your normal Action Figure shops. If your wanting to know which local shops stock Boss Fight Studio, click here for our extensive list of world wide retailers. The figurines are US 27.99 each ($45Au, 27EU, 300 sek/nok and 2300 INR) plus postage from Boss Fight Studio website and prices will be similar at other retailer shops. Here is a preview of the figurines for wave 2.0: The 11th Phantom comes with a flint gun, cutlass, a webbing belt which allows the cutlass to be carried on the hip and different boots to the 21st Phantom. The Singh Pirate however is the real hero of this wave 2.0 (ironic I know). Above you will see two versions of the pirate and the Singh Pirate figurine set comes with extras which allows you to dress and customise the pirate as you see fit. For those who are posing and using their figurines, it encourages you to buy two pirates so you can have the Phantom fighting two different looking pirates. The customisation is the big selling point with Boss Fight Studio figurines. Did you know they also sell 4" skeleton's? Surely he is needed to be included to fight the 11th Phantom along with the two pirates. For Those Who have Come In Late, we have reviewed all three releases so far including a X-Band: The Phantom Podcast with Erik Arana the mind behind Boss Fight Studio and these Phantom figurines. X-Band: The Phantom Podcast Episode 146 Wave 1.0: The 21st Phantom (purple) & Julie (blue) Review Wave 1.0: The Phantom (grey) & Hero Review Wave 1.5: The Phantom (blue) & Julie (red) Review

You may remember a little while ago we told you about UK magazine titled Infinity #55 featuring an article on The Phantom. Well, below you can see a short review of said article to help you decide whether you'd like to add it to your collection or not. The magazine was released 25th November 2022 and the cost is £6 ($12Au, $7US/EU & 75sek/nok). We hope you enjoy. A scan of the article will be included on the Phantom Preservation Project which is available for all $5 or more of our Patreons. You can learn more about our Patreons and the project here.