Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews the latest Fantomen softcover album which features the following stories: "Star of Bangalla" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "The Star of Bangalla" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Gooroo's Jungle Muggers" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "The Return of Gooroo's Mob" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Luck and Wealth" ("The Necklace of Solomon") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry This is the 8th of the Softcover Swedish Fantomen series. For quite a few years Egmont have been publishing these Sy Barry collections with a vague theme and printed in black and white. The cover looks inviting and nice and is as per usual made by Luca Erbetta. The print is top quality also with a mixture of matt and gloss. This year's theme is stories that feature the Blue Dragon Bar with a title "Ondskans Nemesis" ("Nemesis of Evil"). 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.

Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews the Heart of Darkness Hardcover collection which is this years secret project from Egmont. What an amazing publication! The art on the cover on the dust jacket is made by Luca Erbetta and looks mysterious and inviting, the weight of it feels good in my hands, even when I removed the dustjacket the cover is amazing with all the relief and the brotherhood symbol on the front, wow. Before I even open this up I feel that this is the most luxurious Fantomen release made in Sweden, at least I cannot think of anything even remotely like this. It is also numbered, there are only 1000 printed copies of these and I believe they will be sold out soon! There is a foreword written by Andreas Eriksson that is very nice and highlights some nice things before you get into reading this. Then the comic part, first "The Fire of Life", by Claes Reimerthi and Hans Lindahl that works like a prologue. Then the huge multipart story and ending with the epilogue made for when the Heart of Darkness was published in the Fantomen Krönika. To be honest this is the first time I read it all within a short amount of days, Andreas wrote in the forward that Claes did not know where this would go when he started and I can tell, but in a nice way, since it is less predictable. The whole story feels very inspired by Indiana Jones, with so many elements, the arc of covenant, the Nazis the riddles. And I do love Indiana Jones so that is great! The one caveat I do have with this book is that it is in black and white. I know there are a multitude of Swedish phans who love to read Fantomen in black and white, so I understand the reasoning, but I would have enjoyed it even more in colour. Hopefully this was only the first of many books in this style. I want more! We have received lots of comments from phans about this being an English publication. If you would like to see an English publish, do not contact Egmont, email Frew who have the license for printing in English. You can read the concept and plot over at Phantom Wiki and the list of the episodes are: 1 "The Heart of Darkness - Prologue: The Stone of the Gods" 2 "The Heart of Darkness I - Part 1: The Grave of Imhotep" 3 "The Heart of Darkness I - Part 2: The Other Grave" 4 "The Heart of Darkness I - Part 3: Nightmares" 5 "The Heart of Darkness I - Part 4: Pharaoh’s Curse" 6 "The Heart of Darkness I - Part 5: The Secret of the Scroll" 7 "The Heart of Darkness I - Part 6: Unmasked murderer" 8 "The Heart of Darkness I - Part 7: In the Darkness of the Tomb" 9 "The Heart of Darkness II - Part 1: Secrets of the Temple Ruins" 10 "The Heart of Darkness II - Part 2: The Omen" 11 "The Heart of Darkness II - Part 3: The Escape" 12 "The Heart of Darkness II - Part 4: The Trap" 13 "The Heart of Darkness II - Part 5: Death has Many Shapes" 14 "The Heart of Darkness II - Part 6: The Secret of the Force" 15 "The Heart of Darkness III - Part 1: Intermezzo in Cyprus" 16 "The Heart of Darkness III - Part 2: The Death Squad" 17 "The Heart of Darkness III - Part 3: The Body in the Swamp" 18 "The Heart of Darkness III - Part 4: The Ship" 19 "The Heart of Darkness III - Part 5: The Prisoner" 20 "The Heart of Darkness III - Part 6: From the Other Side" 21 "The Heart of Darkness IV - Part 1: The Missing Pages" 22 "The Heart of Darkness IV - Part 2: The Traitor" 23 "The Heart of Darkness IV - Part 3: The Tawny Owl Inn" 24 "The Heart of Darkness IV - Part 4: A Failed Attempt" 25 "The Heart of Darkness IV - Part 5: Hide and Seek" 26 "The Heart of Darkness IV - Part 6: The Seventh Rider" 27 "The Heart of Darkness IV - Part 7: The Key of Solomon" 28 "The Heart of Darkness IV - Part 8: Death in the Catacombs" 29 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 1: Jerusalem" 30 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 2: The Ark of the Covenant" 31 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 3: The Secret of the Temple Mount" 32 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 4: The Hideout" 33 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 5: The Sword in the Stone" 34 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 6: Fight in the Underground" 35 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 7: The Booby Trap" 36 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 8: In the Shadow of Death" 37 "The Heart of Darkness V - Part 9: Uninvited Guests" 38 "The Heart of Darkness VI - Part 1: The Stowaway" 39 "The Heart of Darkness VI - Part 2: In the Dungeons of the Tower" 40 "The Heart of Darkness VI - Part 3: The Madman in Glastonbury" 41 "The Heart of Darkness VI - Part 4: The Bleeding Crucifix" 42 "The Heart of Darkness VI - Part 5: The Hidden Message" 43 "The Heart of Darkness VI - Part 6: The Secret of the Crypt" 44 "The Heart of Darkness VII - Part 1: The Apostate" 45 "The Heart of Darkness VII - Part 2: The Ethiopian Link" 46 "The Heart of Darkness VII - Part 3: The Saboteurs" 47 "The Heart of Darkness VII - Part 4: Operation Götterdämmerung" 48 "The Heart of Darkness VII - Part 5: The Ark of the Covenant" 49 "The Heart of Darkness VII - Part 6: In The Heart of Darkness" 50 "The Heart of Darkness: The Island of Death" 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.

With many newspapers dropping the comic strips in the last month, one question we have seen lately is how can phans read the comics now? We suggest Comics Kingdom even with the problems we have which we will highlight in this video. There are other options out there like the Phantom Trial website but the archive is limited. Yes Comics Kingdom has countless adverts and some commentators that may frustrate others but its nothing that you will not find on social media and we suggest you bounce those snarky comments. It is not the end of the world if you disagree with someone. Now a free account will only give you certain access for a month which to be honest is fairly standard and they need to make money. You have a yearly plan for $30US per year which is fairly cheap and only 4-6 coffees depending on where you like. You can also sign up for a bi-yearly and five year plan - slight discounts apply. You can also do a 30 day free trial which is worth doing before you take the plunge. The best thing about a subscription on top of the access to reading the Daily and Sunday strips every day is you get access to roughly 13,000 strips. At the moment the archive option goes back to 1970 to current but not all strips from as far back to that are currently uploaded. We can confirm that they are updating this archive on continuously as we have helped the archivist to find certain strips. In going through the archive, basically everything from the late 1990's to current are there. For example 1997, has just the Sunday strips in the archive section. I would like to see ALL dailies and Sundays in this section which will be a true archive and give more bang for your buck for your $30US. A negative is that the website can be clunky trying to access strips beyond the late 1990's. Another negative is the layout of the Sunday strips. Some phans prefer the 4x3 layout model instead of the portrait style. I prefer this method also. Another good example on the clumsiness of the website which is a real negative is that you can access old Wilson McCoy stories but to find them, you need to go to a separate section and search for it. I have designed websites for a living and I cannot understand what they have done. Its a dogs breakfast which is a pity as they have another 3,500 strips in that section of the archive. Why would you have two archives with one hidden? To access this hidden section of the archive go to https://comicskingdom.com/phantom-1 Now if you read other characters this will ensure you get even more bang for your buck. You can access Mandrake including strips by Phil Davies, Flash Gordon with strips by Alex Raymond and many more old and new comics. Again to access this, it is hard and a real dogs breakfast. So why should we visit this website when the creators and other phans post the strips each day on Facebook and other social media platforms? Great question and thanks for asking. KFS and Hearst who at the end of the day have the power to cancel the Phantom use this website to track what is popular and use it with their budget, costs etc to make decisions on what to keep and kill off. Factors like visits, comments etc on this website are all tracked and if there more comments, clicks on adverts, subscribers clicking on Phantom strips, they wont kill the comic off as it makes them money. We know the Phantom is important and this helps tells the uneducated also. KFS and Hearst do not track this on Facebook, Twitter and other possible websites out there. Yes, the website has plenty of holes like accessing a true archive, reading and finding the Wilson McCoy/Ray Moore classics and not to mention some snarky comments. However it is still our recommendation to use this website to read your daily and sunday new and old Phantom comics. And no, this is not a paid review. This is just my opinion.

The Phantom artist Kari Leppänen created a series called "Achilles Wiggen" that run in Fantomen from 1983 to 2004 and are by many Fantomen readers considered the best side comic that have been published in Fantomen. Now Fantomen editor Andreas Erikssons company ADES have joined forces with Albumförlaget to publish these Achilles Wiggen stories. With new coloring and new translations to be even closer to what Leppänen envisioned for the series! The book will be in Swedish and while we do not have a date yet on when the Kickstarter campaign starts but you can click on the campaign and signup to get notified when it opens.

This is one of the best Phantom reprints in recent years. The only other book that is comparable and comes to mind is the Hermes Press Phantom Archive book published in 2015. This is a proper homage to a superhero that dates from 1936 indeed. Le Fantôme by Mitton stands out in terms of production quality. The book is hardbound, has an embossed cover with an insert of the Phantom’s origin story – a reprint which was originally published in 1964 in a French comic (Journal du Spirou). The book comes in a customized cardboard box with a sketch of the Phantom by the artist Jean Yves Mitton. The first 400 copies come with a hand signed Jean Yves Mitton Phantom sketch print. The key uniqueness is that the comic pages that appear in the stories are reproductions of the original art. Unlike most recent reprint publications, they were not reprinted from production proofs or tear sheets. The book might be considered a hybrid mix of an artist’s edition and an artefact edition (definitions below) and contains a bonus section with a substantial number of original art scans at 84% of the actual size. Readers will find anecdotal facts in the introduction written by Jean Yves Mitton where he tells us about Scott Goodall whom he never had the opportunity to meet. Goodall was a writer from England who lived a secluded life in a forest in France (In the Pyrénées in Ariège) and only corresponded with the artist via letters. Jean Yves also tells us about his fond memories of having a meal of frog legs and Chardonnay white wine with Ulf Granberg his Swedish editor in France. The text was translated mainly from the English reprint versions published by Frew, which according to the French translator Thierry Mornet wasn’t the best. Thierry had previously published a Phantom Special Zembla comic and had written a two-page introduction on the Phantom character. (attached below). Among the eight stories drawn by Jean Yves Mitton, two are set in historical contexts, in Europe, and the rest in the jungle. Jean Yves masters the art of jungle details with the smooth intertwining of flora and fauna as background detail in the panels. While his Phantom is clearly inspired by Sy Barry, we also see influences of Marvel & DC type superheroes and that of Tarzan - especially in the jungle sequences. Arguably, the stories were written in the genre of graphic novels than as pulps - as was originally conceived by KFS. "Mort à Bruges", is a tale where the Phantom has his portrait drawn by Rembrandt. In the corner of the painting, the artist draws the face of the Phantom without the eye mask which was the probable cause of the death of those who saw the painting and looked at the artwork detail. Interestingly, this aspect in the story brings to mind the supernatural theme of “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. We also get a glimpse of Rembrandt’s atelier (workshop) where a wounded Phantom finds refuge after a street fight in Belgium. Historically, there is no information on Rembrandts travel or stay in Belgium, but in this Phantom comic the writer Donne Avenell takes him to Bruges. The second historical story ("The Cathedral Mystery") is set in Paris, France where The Phantom has a hidden room in the South tower of the Notre Dame Cathedral that can be accessed by a secret door found behind a 15th Century statue inside a chapel on the ground floor. To get an idea of the complex architecture of the cathedral interiors please refer to this video. References are made to two sites – le “Bol d’Or” Tavern on “Rue de la Triche”. Those two names do exist today, but the former is in a town near the French riviera called Le Castellet and the latter in Bressuire – a town in the west of France. The protagonist of the story was Le Marquis de Fabras (Favras) who did exist and was a royalist during the French revolution. He was found guilty of financial treason and was executed by the revolutionaries. In the story by Goodall, however, the Phantom helps him escape on a Montgolfier balloon. painting of Le Marquis de Fabras arrested by the revolutionaries. A special mention must be made of the story “Nectar of Gods” with its otherworldly esoteric charm. The leitmotif of the tale, set in the dark and mysterious jungle, is the magic potion called the nectar of Gods that carry telekinetic powers. “The Valley Of the 1000 echoes is indeed a strange place! That’s where the golden sunbeam grows… the most beautiful and spectacular of all the orchids in the whole of Bengali, from its flower-cup runs a sweet and fragrant liquid… known as the nectar of Gods” as quoted by Old Man Mozz. A well written script that helps set the tone and atmosphere for the narrative. Scans of the article that Thierry Mornet written in a previously published a Phantom Special Zembla comic. Definition: An artist’s edition presents complete stories with each page scanned from the actual original art. Like an Artist’s Edition, an Artifact Edition presents pages scanned from the actual original art. While the Artist’s Edition range produces only complete stories, Artifact Editions present books even if all the original art cannot be obtained, and will include extras such as advertisements, portfolio pieces, colour guides, and more. External links: Secret visit of Notre-Dame - roof and frame (English subs) Buy the book Biography of Thierry Mornet, the translator Special Zembla #174 Protagonist Le marquis de Fabras from The Cathedral Mystery biography Thank you to Ohm for his indepth review of this amazing book. All reviews are included in our monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcast's. You can subscribe to them via your favourite podcast player or our YouTube channel. We are still chasing a reviewer from Brazil who can review the new O Fantasma comics for us, please contact us if you can.

In the current daily newspaper story "Phantom's End" by Tony DePaul and Mike Manley on the 31 August 2022 we were shown the burial spot of the 21st Phantom after he was killed in the Old Man Mozz what if story. However what some phans may not know is that we have seen this pile of rocks in the valley before. Do you recognise it? In the 254th daily story "The Llongo Forest" published in 2020, The Phantom has a hallucination and meets the ghost of his father who then turns into a flaming skeleton who predicts his death and even shows the place his body will lay outside of the skull cave. I am sure at the time phans back in 2020 did not expect this to be a sneak peak into the future what we are reading now. Did you remember the pile of rocks 26 months later?

On the back of Australian News Corp media dropping King Features comic strips in their newspapers around the country, we can also announce that an American media company Lee Enterprises has made the same decision. From what we understand Lee Enterprises has 77 newspapers in their control. For two large media companies to make the same decision inside a short period of time may worry some. You can read our original article about News Corp here including comments by newspaper creators Jeff Weigel, Tony DePaul and Mike Manley. There has been an online petition started on change.org regarding the News Corp decision. You can sign here. At the time of writing - 3,500+ has signed. The official line from several sources when asked about this decision has been that no one reads the comics and more people want the puzzles instead. I will let you decide if you believe that or not. On the back of News Corp, the King Features comic archive website has started advertising their platform because of the situation. A screenshot of the advert is attached here. The list of the 77 newspapers for Lee Enterprises are: ALABAMA Dothan Eagle Dothan • dothaneagle.com Opelika-Auburn News Opelika • oanow.com ARIZONA Arizona Daily Sun Flagstaff • azdailysun.com Arizona Daily Star Tucson • tucson.com CALIFORNIA Napa Valley Publishing Napa • napavalleyregister.com IDAHO / NEVADA Elko Daily Free Press Elko • elkodaily.com Times-News Twin Falls • magicvalley.com ILLINOIS Herald and Review Decatur • herald-review.com Journal Gazette/Times-Courier Mattoon • jg-tc.com The Pantagraph Bloomington • pantagraph.com Moline Dispatch & Rock Island Argus Moline • qconline.com The Southern Illinoisan Carbondale • thesouthern.com INDIANA The Times Munster • nwitimes.com IOWA Clarinda Herald-Journal Clarinda • clarindaherald.com Denison Bulletin and Review Denison • dbrnews.com Globe Gazette Mason City • globegazette.com Logan Herald-Observer/Woodbine Twiner Woodbine • loganwoodbine.com The Muscatine Journal Muscatine • muscatinejournal.com The Daily Nonpareil Council Bluffs • nonpareilonline.com The Quad-City Times Davenport • qctimes.com Sioux City Journal Sioux City • siouxcityjournal.com Shenandoah Valley News Shenandoah • valleynewstoday.com The Courier Waterloo • wcfcourier.com MINNESOTA Winona Daily News Winona • winonadailynews.com MISSOURI Daily Journal Park Hills • dailyjournalonline.com St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis • stltoday.com MONTANA Billings Gazette Billings • billingsgazette.com Independent Record Helena • helenair.com Missoulian Missoula • missoulian.com The Montana Standard Butte • mtstandard.com Ravalli Republic Hamilton • ravallirepublic.com NORTH CAROLINA Greensboro News and Record Greensboro • greensboro.com Hickory Daily Record Hickory • hickoryrecord.com Independent Tribune Concord • independenttribune.com Winston-Salem Journal Winston-Salem • journalnow.com McDowell News Marion • mcdowellnews.com Mooresville Tribune Mooresville • mooresvilletribune.com News Herald Morganton • morganton.com Statesville Record and Landmark Statesville • statesville.com NORTH DAKOTA The Bismarck Tribune Bismarck • bismarcktribune.com NEBRASKA The Beatrice Daily Sun Beatrice • beatricedailysun.com The Columbus Telegram Columbus • columbustelegram.com Fremont Tribune Fremont • fremonttribune.com The Lincoln Journal Star Lincoln • journalstar.com Kearney Hub Kearney • kearneyhub.com Lexington Clipper-Herald Lexington • lexch.com North Platte Telegraph North Platte • nptelegraph.com Omaha World-Herald Omaha • omaha.com Scottsbluff Star-Herald Scottsbluff • starherald.com Grand Island Independent Grand Island • theindependent.com Wahoo Ashland Waverly Wahoo • wahoo-ashland-waverly.com York News Times York • yorknewstimes.com NEW JERSEY Atlantic City Weekly Pleasantville • atlanticcityweekly.com Press of Atlantic City Pleasantville • pressofatlanticcity.com NEW YORK The Citizen Auburn • auburnpub.com The Buffalo News Buffalo • buffalonews.com The Post-Star Glens Falls • poststar.com OKLAHOMA Tulsa World Tulsa • tulsaworld.com OREGON Democrat-Herald Albany • democratherald.com Gazette-Times Corvallis • gazettetimes.com Lebanon Express Lebanon • lebanon-express.com PENNSYLVANIA The Sentinel Carlisle • cumberlink.com SOUTH CAROLINA SCNOW Florence • scnow.com The Times and Democrat Orangeburg • thetandd.com SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City Journal Rapid City • rapidcityjournal.com TEXAS My Aggie Nation Bryan • myaggienation.com Bryan-College Station Eagle Bryan • theeagle.com Waco Tribune-Herald Waco • wacotrib.com VIRGINIA The Daily Progress Charlottesville • dailyprogress.com Fredericksburg Free Lance Star Fredericksburg • fredericksburg.com Danville Register Bee/Go Dan River Danville • godanriver.com Bristol Herald Courier - Tricities Bristol • heraldcourier.com Martinsville Bulletin Martinsville • martinsvillebulletin.com Lynchburg News and Advance Lynchburg • newsadvance.com The News Virginian Waynesboro • newsvirginian.com Richmond Times-Dispatch Richmond • richmond.com Roanoke Times Roanoke • roanoke.com Smith Mountain Lake Hardy • smithmountainlake.com Culpeper Star-Exponent Culpeper • starexponent.com SWVA Today Wytheville • swvatoday.com Franklin News Post Rocky Mount • thefranklinnewspost.com WASHINGTON The Daily News Longview • tdn.com WISCONSIN The Chippewa Herald Chippewa Falls • chippewa.com The Journal Times Racine • journaltimes.com Kenosha News Kenosha • kenoshanews.com La Crosse Tribune La Crosse • lacrossetribune.com Lake Geneva Regional News Lake Geneva • lakegenevanews.net Madison.com Madison • madison.com WYOMING The Casper Journal Casper • casperjournal.com Casper Star Tribune Casper • trib.com

I’ve always enjoyed reading the newspaper. When I was a little kid visiting my grandparents I’d always have a look through the paper after Nan and Grandad had finished with it. They’d always get a copy of the Sun News-Pictorial . I’d first turn to the comics and then to the TV guide, then maybe some sport. And in 30 odd years not much has changed. When I was in High School, Dad got a subscription to the Herald-Sun and when he’d come home from work I’d have a look. Once again turning to the comics first, then the sport, then any articles regarding issues that we were following at school. It’s a habit that is still going strong today. Every morning as I’m sitting down having my breakfast I fire up my Herald-Sun App, go to the comics page then to the “ Today’s Paper ” section and read the comics as they would appear in the day’s physical copy. Then if I have time, I’d read some sport and maybe a general article. I remember, back in High School, a mate’s dad saying that you should always read the back of the newspaper first as it tells of humanity’s triumphs whereas the front has nothing but it's woes. However, I always start with the comics because no matter what else I have to face during the day, at least I’ve started it with a smile. In the past the Herald-Sun has published comics such as Blondie , Robot-Man , Hagar the Horrible , Andy Capp , Snake Tales and Garfield . In more recent years Ginger Meggs has gotten a guernsey and in 2013 The Phantom returned to the comics page. This was a cause of much celebration in the Victorian Phan community! However, even though Comic Strips have long been synonymous with newspapers, News Corp (who owns the Herald-Sun amongst others) is cancelling their comic strip page! News Corp Statement from August 2022 reads… Our editorial cartoonists remain as loved and valued as ever and continue to play a critical role in both our print editions and increasingly in our digital growth strategy. The decision to end comic strips reflects the changing readership habits of our audiences and this is why we are increasing our focus as a business on puzzles, games, and crosswords which is highlighted by our recent launch of Brain Gains. It also reflects a world-wide trend where the audience for comic strips has moved to movies and events rather than newspapers. ( The Daily Cartoonist ) This has of course been met with harsh criticism from many any in the industry: The Daily Cartoonist , “we condemn what seems like a short-sighted and culturally brutal decision, which will render the work of comic strip artists even more precarious, and impoverish the character and value of their mastheads.” Sean Leahy , quoted by the ABC Sunshine Coast , states, “If you want to hang on to young readers comics are an introduction to the paper… It’s gobsmacking to me really, it doesn’t cost the newspapers much to run them, why wouldn’t they keep them digitally?” Jason Chatfield ’s Ginger Meggs’ strip from the week beginning Monday 5th September has echoed these sentiments with the following comic strip. (The above Ginger Meggs strips appeared in the Herald-Sun from Monday 5th September to Friday 9th September) Returning to Leahy , he says in the aforementioned ABC article that US papers still published large supplements of comic strips with dozens of pages of cartoons. This seemed to go against what I was hearing anecdotally over the years so I decided to ask the current creators of The Phantom strip, Tony DePaul , Mike Manley and Jeff Weigel , for their thoughts on the situation. Jeff Weigel: Newspapers seem to carry comics only begrudgingly these days. That attitude is reflected in how small the comics are printed, and in how disrespectfully they are distorted to fit page layouts (a habit that REALLY hacks me off—I’ve never seen one of my Sundays printed in a paper where it wasn’t stretched in some bizarre way). Tony DePaul: No surprise, really. It’s the love of money meets the march of time. Newspapers have been selling off the furnishings and giving readers less and less for quite a few years now… I suppose News Corp has made a judgment that the readers most likely to cancel over comics are being canceled by time anyway, and at an ever-accelerating rate. That probably explains why the company’s doing away with comics altogether and not simply moving them over to its websites. If readers who get their comics from newspapers are bowing out on the obituary page, money once spent appealing to them can just as well go to shareholders. Mike Manley: Well for our type of strip, the adventure strip, its days started declining after the WWII. No great adventure strip has been launched since then and almost all canceled. The readers who buy papers want feature, want comics. But they are older for the most part, my parents age down to the 60’s it seems. Look at political cartoonists—they are being let go too all over. Jeff Weigel: Comics were a gimmick newspapers came up with more than a century ago to boost sales and customer loyalty. I’m not sure anything can do that today for an industry as antiquated as the print newspaper. Comics will survive and thrive in the future, but I doubt newspapers and their comics sections will. I expect that ten years from now you’ll be getting your Phantom fix someplace other than a daily sheet of inky newsprint. The world continues to spin. The Phantom will have to find a way to keep pace (but he’s always been pretty good at adapting to his times). The Current " Wrack and Ruin " storyline which is running in newspapers at the moment seems to be an image of what is happening to comic strips as a whole. The Phantom has been lost to time and dies far from home with his line coming to an end. (The Phantom, DePaul & Manley, 31/8/22) (The Phantom, DePaul & Manley, 8/9/22) Tony DePaul: The grass is no greener for comics creators over here (the US). Mike and Jeff can tell you more about that than I can. But from a writing perspective on the Phantom, as just one strip among many, the 2-panel day became the standard years ago precisely because of newspaper cutbacks. They had reduced the strips to a size where you can barely see what’s going on. That’s why I think of each day’s strip as basically half a strip. Thinking of a story in two-panel increments can give it the beat of a flat tire going down the road, with a buh-BUMP-buh-BUMP-buh-BUMP… Mike Manley: Newspapers routinely run polls on which strips to cancel. They would really love to just run tire ads. I also asked Dudley Hogarth from Frew , who publishes The Phantom comic book in Australia, for his thoughts on News Corp cancelling their comic strip pages. The News Corp Decision to drop comic strip pages has no doubt been made by people who deal with numbers but have little empathy for readers or feel for content. I’m in little doubt that newspapers have been struggling with rising costs and falling readership and this is no doubt a decision made editorially in response. I am equally certain that there are readers of the newspaper who purchase it specifically so that they can follow their comic strip. I know that is the case with The Phantom, because I have met such people and spoken to them often. My personal opinion is that it may prove to be short sighted and will only lead to further loss of interest in purchasing newspapers. When asked if he feels that the decision may impact Frew Dudley said, “Any loss of Phantom content is going to have a long-term detrimental impact on Phantom awareness for sure, but the same audience that purchase the newspapers for comic strips are not necessarily the ones who purchase Frew for complete comic books!” He then goes on to say… “I will make sure that we focus more on these unpublished American stories and try to fill the void created. Does it signal a general decline in syndication of the strip? It’s a loss, of that I have no doubt! Time will tell how that pans out for Frew! I’m sure we will survive this corporate mistake… we may even prosper from it, short term. But long term is the bigger question…? Am I concerned? Yes, every Phantom day!” Unfortunately, the news from the US seems no cheerier than what is happening here in Australia. Though comic-based media is still booming, the latest Marvel Blockbusters and tie-in shows are a testament to that, the source material is very much on a downward slope. Mike Manley: Comics are more popular globally than ever and while comic books like Spidey sell less and less Kid Lit has exploded! Schoolastic has a Spidey book that way outsells Marvels. So, I see comics as healthy and these old models like newspaper strips and even direct sales comic as days numbered. As Jeff Weigel alluded to, comic strip creators are pretty good at adapting to the times. It will be a sad, hollow world if the pure fun and escapism that comics provide were to fall by the wayside, but with the internet constantly evolving, and media such as webtoons now exploding, I, for one, still hold out hope that I will still be reading comic strips with my grandchildren in some way or another. Do you agree or do you think this optimist is living in a fantasy world? Special thanks to Tony DePaul , Mike Manley , Jeff Weigel and Dudley Hogarth for their responses. Edit from Editor Comics Kingdom ( KFS online comic strip website) has started advertising on social media their platform. You can see the advert here .

The 193 Sunday newspaper story "Return to the Temple of the Gods" created by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel is a follow on from a series of six stories printed and created 15-17 years ago. For those who have not read the stories or have forgotten, we have created a For Those Who Have Come In Late video for you to catch up. We have included the origin story of Eden which tells us about the submarine being wrecked off the coast which plays a key part in the development of the story. The seven stories we reference and talk about in the video are: Eden - Team Fantomen (Frew 1609) Temple of the Gods, Part 1: The U-Boat Mystery - 213 Daily story (Frew #1418) Temple of the Gods, Part 2: Return to Eden - 214 Daily Story (Frew #1434) Temple of the Gods, Part 3: The Secret Sect - Team Fantomen (Frew #1445) Temple of the Gods, Part 4: Servant of Evil - Team Fantomen (Frew #1464) Temple of the Gods, Part 5: Thirst - Team Fantomen (Frew #1469) Temple of the Gods, Part 6: The Beasts Stir - Team Fantomen (Frew #1479) Plot of "Eden" The animals were brought to Eden by Archie, a boy who was raised by apes and captured by the Wambesi. The 20th Phantom fails to civilize him and is given an island as refuge who uses the island into a paradise, Archie is able to make wild animals friendly by seemingly talking to them in a whispering voice - the name Eden comes from this. Germans come to visit the island with a submarine. a battle between a British ship and the submarine occurs which sees the submarine sink but the British ship then shells Eden. Archie assembles all the animals at a wooden raft and then the English soldiers open fire out of caution killing animals. Archie grabs a grenade and while wounded reaches the soldiers and kills everyone including himself to save the animals. Sad, sad story and perhaps one of the few that would see many cry or feel sad after reading it. Plot of "Temple of the Gods, Part 1: The U-Boat Mystery" The Phantom spots some reef divers near Eden who dive at night. The phantom dives underwater to spy on them and finds out that they are after a scroll map inside a German submarine which sank there in 1945. He learns from listening to the divers about a secret society that had been exiled from Egypt came to Eden and created a race of super-men. The German sub was looking for the temple to learn the secret science of creating super-human soldiers. The phantom steals the scroll from Mina, who is also the leader of the expedition. He then goes on alone to find temple hidden beneath a mountain on Eden. Mina, finds her way to the temple through her memory of the map. Once inside, Mina's colleagues start looting all the precious items from the temple. When Mina protests, they knock her out and the Phantom rescues the day. Mina stays with the Phantom to try and understand the temple more. Plot of "Temple of the Gods, Part 2: Return to Eden" Mina Braun helps translate a strange series of Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols that he finds in the third phantom's chronicles while looking for any mention of the secret temple on Eden. They find out that the message is actually a warning from the third phantom to avoid going to the Temple. However they decide to find out the truth, so they set out to explore it once again. On the way Mina reveals that she learnt of the temple from her great uncle's diary who had learned of the mission from her grandfather before his death. When they reach the temple they find out that it goes deeper underground than imagined. They find a large number of inhuman mummies and Mina starts getting nervous from seeing statues of evil gods in the temple. The Phantom leaves her with Guran and Devil and goes on alone travelling for hours. He finds the third Phantom's skull mark made with blood on a wall. He leaves and sees some 'monsters'. When the Phantom takes Mina back to Germany he steals her grandfather's diary to prevent anyone from learning about Eden and leaves. Plot of "Temple of the Gods, Part 3: The Secret Sect" Strangers are kidnapping Wasaka men to attack and kill the monsters on Eden. The 3rd Phantom learns about werewolf's, vampires, big foots and other monsters have their origins in this temple. The men capture the Phantom and give him as bait to try and kill as many monsters as possible. A great battle follows and he barely gets away with his life. He is the first to encounter these beasts and the temple. Plot of "Temple of the Gods, Part 4: Servant of Evil" In 1680 the Phantom and Zuran are travelling in Egypt when they meet an old man who is guarding an old grave from grave robbers. It turns out to be a sarcophagus of Pharaoh Ahmose who was behind the creation of the monsters. Plot of "Temple of the Gods, Part 5: Thirst" Featuring the 8th Phantom who is trying to find a young pretty lady and learns of the island of Eden and how there are people who are experimenting on things. He is unable to save her and she dies in his arms and is rather a tragic story and touches upon our inability as humans to treat people with compassion. Moroaica drinks blood to live and was found in Transylvania and gives us a potential origin of the myth of vampires. Plot of "Temple of the Gods, Part 6: The Beasts Stir" The 17th Phantom arrives in Paris in 1888 to visit his sister Julie. What follows is a true classic 'Beauty and the Beast' storyline without the happy ending. Monsters are capturing humans so they can swap heads so they do not have to live in fear of looking different. Of course the Phantom rescues the day and the beast dies while rescuing the beauty. We hope this gives you the best understanding of what has happened in the past for what is about to happen in the future. Let us know if you like this 'For Those Who Came in Late' video and we may make more videos on other Phantom stories or elements of the Phantom.

Jan Håfström the artist for the Stockholm Mr Walker statue and products has an exhibition at the museum part of the Pumphuset Borstahusen building from Landskrona Sweden. The exhibition is held between Tuesday 23 August to Sunday 4 September 2022. You can find more information at the Pumphuset Borstahusen website. Thanks to Pidde Andersson for the heads up on this exhibition.

Every year phans from America and beyond catch up with each other and creators at the annual Sardi's luncheon. The group of phans are called "Friends of the Phantom" founded by Pete Klaus , the late Ed Rhoades and some other phans - a more in depth history of the group can be found here written by Howard Gesbeck . The FotP lunches started in 1990 and the first event included Lee Falk , Jim and Judith Shepherd , Phantom historian Bob Griffin , founder Pete Klaus , Ed Rhoades plus others. The event went for two hours as all that attended soaked up every minute and story from Lee Falk . The location of Sardi's was chosen because it was one Lee Falk 's favourite local restaurants. Even without Ed Rhoades and Lee Falk no longer alive to attend and other original foundation phans attending, the event still goes on every year hosted and organised by Pete Klaus and Jaime Diaz . It should be noted that these events are by invite only. Attached below are photos from the event which included creators, publishers and phans from America plus Brazil. Thanks to those who attended who gave us permission to share the photos here.

Originally released as part of Wave 1.0 we review the Grey Phantom and Hero articulated figurines from Boss Fight Studio. If your interested in buying these figurines, go to our world wide list of retailers. We have previously reviewed: Wave 1.0 review (purple 21st Phantom & blue Julie) Wave 1.5 review (blue 21st Phantom & red Julie) Boss Fight Studio release great figures that are ready to play straight out the box - no need to give them a bath to loosen their joints. As we have reviewed the figurines twice before (wave 1.0 review & wave 2.0 review), I did not focus too much on the grey figurines that came with Hero in this review. The Grey is a nice dark grey, really like the colour. Would be good to see a past male Phantom next - three is enough of the 21st Phantom's. The horse (Hero) is the main hero (pun intended) of this pack, he is fully articulated and is amazing when compared to other horse figurines. If I was to be negative Hero is not easy to pose, the secret which took me a while to find out was the stand with two posing sticks - once you figure that out, it is much much more easy to pose Hero. The two sticks are for Hero to 'run' and the other is to make him 'rear' up on his hind legs. The other secret when posing the Phantom on hero is to slightly rotate the Phantom's thighs and he is much more secure to stay in the saddle. If you do not rotate the thighs, he doesn't stay in the saddle. Loston Wallace and Steve Downer are a great artists and their work on the packaging again is top quality as previously. I did not like the sticky tape on the packaging but apart from this and the knowledge needed to pose them together I have nothing but praise for the work Boss Fight Studio do with their Phantom. All 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.

You can now pre order the Fantomen 2022 Christmas Albums online with them being released usually in November. We will of course review it when it comes out. You can either pre order directly from the Jultidnings Forlaget website. The price is 99sek ($15Au, $10US, €10Eu and 90nok). The Fantomen Christmas album is the worlds longest continuous Phantom publication. First published in 1944 and for every year since. The contents of this years Christmas album is: "Shangri-La" by Pidde Andersson and Angelo Todaro "An Evening in Morristown" by Jimmy Wallin" "The Ghost Pirates" (daily version) by Tony DePaul, George Olesen and Keith Williams Replica supplement of the 1972 Christmas Album including "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 Coincidentally this is Pidde Andersson's first Phantom story published original by Frew "The Phantom's World Special #4" and his first Phantom comic was the 1972 Fantomen Christmas album where they both are printed together. You can listen to his journey in our X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #224.

August 2020 Regal Publishers released their first issue of their regular series and it was the start of something magical which has seen a renaissance of the character back in India which perhaps has the largest number of phans. To celebrate their two year anniversary, Regal are releasing a special #25 issue with 164 pages instead of the normal 56 page issues they have been releasing for the past year. As per all their issues, this is in full colour. It can be purchased at Regal's website for Indian fans here. Purchases outside of India will need to be done via Frew's website here (or conduct a trade with an Indian phan). Retail price is 800INR with a special pre order price of 720INR which is 10US, $15AU, €10 and 100 sek/nok. The contents of this comic (almost a TPB) are all Sunday stories including: "The Wiseguy" by Tony DePaul and Terry Beatty "The Rat Must Die" by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel "Vigil at Phantom Head" by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel "The Visitor" by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel It is worth noting that "The Rat Must Die" is the longest Sunday story and this will be the first time "The Visitor" will have been published in comic format including before Frew and Fantomen. Regal are really upping the game with their publications that some other publishers could learn from with the cover printing in a laminated softcover with glue binding and all 164 pages on beautiful gloss paper stock. The cover art is by Chronicle Chambers own Ankit Mitra who credits it to be inspired by Sy Barry's design and the painting style of the late Patap Mullick, a legendary Indian illustrator and comics artist - best known for his work on the Amar Chitra Katha comics and the character of Nagraj of Raj Comics. It is worth noting that Sy Barry has seen this cover and was very impressed - more on that at a later date. As with most of Regal Phantom comics it comes with an extra supplement, this time a free poster commemorating all the issues released so far by Regal.

Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews the latest two Fantomen issues - 2022/16 & 2022/17 which features the following stories: Fantomen 16/2022 Contents "The Valley of a Thousand Graves" by Jacob Habincs and Alex Saviuk "Drama in the Desert" (Remake off "The Slave Traders" by Lee Falk and Ray Moore) by Lee Falk and Özcan Eralp. Fantomen 17/2022 Contents "The Outlaws" by Pidde Andersson and Rafael Dantas "The Buried Witness" (Remake off "Diana and the Bank Robbers" by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy) by Lee Falk and Özcan Eralp. Fantomen 16/2022 Review With the first cover in Fantomen made by Janusz Ordon we get this style that looks like a painting, which I enjoy. Your thoughts? We finally got the result of the best cover of 2021, included a nice poster. If you want to read more about the best cover you can read my article on the Chronicle Chamber website. The main story is written by Jacob Habinc and has art done by Alex Saviuk. It seems inspired by all these old environmental stories we used to see plenty of in the late 1980's but with a more modern take. A lake with a power plant construction and a closeby tribe is the setting… The second story is an old Özcan Eralp story which is remade by a Lee Falk story. "Drama in the Desert" is about Diana and Byron getting caught by slave traders, Byron flees and informs Phantom and while Diana outsmarts the slavers and Phantom follow the tracks they run past each other in the way that happened a lot in the early Phantom stories. Fantomen 17/2022 Review A bright nice cover from Luca Erbetta with the Phantom and the outlaws. Main story "The Outlaws" by Pidde Andersson and Rafael Dantas, a Frew created story that looks great with some colours. A lot happens in this one, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid meet up with the Phantom and the story is quite funny. As backup, we get an old reprint, "The Buried Witness", which is a 1972 Team Fantomen story by Lee Falk and Özcan Eralp. Which is another remake story, this time "Diana and the Bank Robbers". In Robert Aman's book he references this story and after reading both I can see some of his points. Diana is more or less lucky in her endeavours while the Phantom comes in and saves the day. Next issue will contain daily stories "Towns Ellerbee" and "Hello the Himalayas" by Tony DePaul and Mike Manley, plus a Sy Barry classic "Death from the Sky" and a new story of "Red Pirate". Until then, 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.