It's a little hard to believe, but it's been over two months since the grand opening of The Phantom Art Show at The Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour, and very soon the exhibition will be on the move once more. Unsurprisingly, the team at the Bunker are a little reluctant to see it leave. Manager Margaret Cameron says, "we're sad to see it go, it’s been a bit of a blast!" "We have broken most of our visitor records, and certainly the overall visitation for The Phantom Art Show has exceeded any previous single exhibition – over 1800 visitors which is pretty good for us! "Visitors have loved the exhibition and been particularly complimentary about the whole presentation here. "The presentation has of course enhanced the experience for them and also highlights the spectacular collection we have had on show. A couple of disappointed visitors that it wasn’t all about Phantom comics, but you can’t please everyone! I’ve loved hearing the ooohs and aaaahs that erupt from time to time right outside my door (you will remember the Gary Shead Phantom in a very intimate situation with his love)!! "The works submitted for The Phantom Downunder Art Prize were displayed in shop fronts for a month. They are now in a dedicated space in the local shopping centre. I think the competition did a great job of raising interest initially and people have come just to see the winning entries." It sounds like the merchandise associated with the Art Show at the Bunker has sold well. "We have only four of the Dick Frizzell T-shirts left and that only because we ran out of the larger sizes. [There are currently] two small and two medium left. Could probably have sold dozens if we had them in XL!! “We still have a supply of Reg Mombassa T-shirts. Although the large sizes sold out quickly, there are still plenty of smaller sizes. We have almost sold out of the rings – 130 in total and only about a dozen left. Still have plenty of the prints, and have a good supply of the t-towels although we have sold a number of those. The big news was we sold the beautiful wooden ‘Game of Life and Death’ for $1500 so very pleasing for Peter Kingston [artist and co-curator]! "[Hosting the Art Show] has been a magical experience, and both volunteers and visitors have got into the spirit of it. There are quite a few Facebook entries in our competition at this stage, will be interesting to count up just how many when it ends on Friday 12th May. Lots of people taking photos in the throne chair and having fun whilst doing it. "It's been a very varied visitor demographic, from kids to oldies, male and female so he has an appeal across the ages it seems." And so the Art Show at the Bunker comes to an end. Things are not slowing down for Margaret and team however, as they look forward to The Bald Archy Prize exhibition making its return to The Bunker Cartoon Gallery from 19th May 2017. So where next for the Art Show? The answer lies almost 400km south along the Pacific Highway, to Newcastle. It will appear at the Newcastle Art Gallery as part of their 40th birthday festivities; one of their first ever exhibitions was Ghost who walks never can die, a celebration of pop art inspired by The Phantom. Co-curator Dietmar Lederwasch is particularly looking forward to bringing the Show to Newcastle, his home town. "We have been working on this travelling show for 4 years. The Newcastle exhibition will be the largest original fine art Phantom show ever with over 200 pieces and a memorabilia display. "Two of the exclusive highlights for Newcastle will be original hand typed scripts with drawings by Lee Falk, author of the Phantom. Secondly, it will be the first time that a painting by American movie poster artist Drew Struzan will be displayed. This has been shipped out especially for the Newcastle exhibition." The Phantom Art Show will appear in the Newcastle Art Gallery from 10th June - 20th August. #ArtShow #DietmarLederwasch #LeeFalk #DrewStruzan #PeterKingston #1996movie #Clothing

Howard Gesbeck recently posted this fascinating history lesson to our PhantomCollector Facebook group. With his permission, we repost it here. Friends of the Phantom was an American fan club for the Phantom. Ed Rhoades, one of the founders of the group, was also the Editor of the FOTP Newsletter. The newsletter was published from February of 1993 until the Spring of 2004. There were 24 issues. The first issue contained 4 pages, and the newsletter became progressively longer (Issue #24 had 28 pages). Starting with issue #21, the issues were professionally printed. The FOTP newsletter was Ed Rhoades' baby, and Ed did the majority of the writing. Several of us [including Pete Klaus] helped him by writing articles, providing pictures of items from our collections, and getting the newsletter printed. There were articles about Phantom artwork and artists, collectibles (rings, toys, costumes, etc.), the 1996 movie, and much more. The 24 newsletters were all approved by King Features, and included appropriate copyright. The newsletter had less than 100 subscribers. For several years after the printing of the newsletter ended, Ed continued the newsletter in an online format. Ed died in a tragic bicycle accident in 2012. I became involved with FOTP in 1996 and was able to obtain copies of all previous issues. In my Phantom collection, I have all 24 issues and various extra items that were provided to subscribers. Is there any other collector who has all 24 issues of FOTP in their Phantom collection? In issue #17, Ed wrote an article describing Phantom trading cards that we would want to see. The cards were drawn by 9 different Phantom artists, and an uncut sheet of these cards was included with that issue. The back of each card provided information on the artist who drew that card. Also, in issue #17, there is a 4-page article about Phantom Costumes, with 14 color pictures. In #23, a 4-page article about Phantom Figures, included 22 color pictures. And, in #24 there was a 4-page article, with 13 color pictures on Phantom Games. There is a tremendous amount of information for Phantom Collectors in the FOTP Newsletters. As you can imagine, a lot of work went into the FOTP newsletters. Thanks so much to Howard for allowing us to reprint his post - it's wonderful that this important part of Phantom history is not forgotten. Pete Klaus spoke to us in detail about the FOTP club and newsletters in Episode 88 of X-Band: The Phantom Podcast, so make sure you check that out. And remember: if you'd like to access scans of the FOTP newsletters, many of these are available through ChronicleChamber's Phantom Preservation Project (P3) for Patreon supporters. #FriendsofThePhantom #EdRhoades #KingFeaturesSyndicate #P3 #PeteKlaus

Have you listened to Episode 97 of X-Band: The Phantom Podcast - the Ulf Granberg interview? If so, no doubt you have learnt a lot and may also have been intrigued by his comments when we asked about Lee Falk's opinions about Semic* stories. While of course Lee Falk's work provides the core of The Phantom canon, there are many disputes as to what else can be regarded as 'true' Phantom Lore. Scandinavian authors published stories on the origin of both of the Phantom's rings, and also of his faithful wolf Devil; but can these be regarded as part of the canon with Falk's stamp of approval? One frequent question posed in the Falkism debate is: Did Falk endorse or approve of Semic's work? What exactly did he think of them? Sadly with Lee having passed away almost 20 years ago, there is no real way we can say definitively one way or the other. But there are a few snippets and clues we can look at to try and find an answer. As outlined by Ulf in his interview with us and elsewhere (e.g. his interview in 2011 which appeared in Lee Falk: Storyteller), Team Fantomen deliberately left Lee to make the big decisions like the marriage of the Phantom and the birth of the twins. However, Semic did decide to write and publish three key origin stories, explaining the origin of the Skull Ring (The Ring 1977 by Ulf Granberg & Jamie Vallve), the Good Mark ring (The Message 1984 Norman Worker & Kari Leppänen), as well as Devil's origin (Devil's Story 1979 Donne Avenell & George Bess). The Ring and Devil's Story most recently appeared in Frew's 2017 trade paperback For those who came in late. The Message's only appearance in a Frew comic was in #1373 back in 2006. So the obvious question is: Did Falk know of these stories and accept the plot lines as part of official Phantom canon? On behalf of the CC team, Jermayn has scoured both the Lee Falk: Storyteller book (video review here) and the Friends of the Phantom newsletters (the majority of these can be found on our P3) and it's pretty obvious that Falk knew about the Egmont / Semic created stories. Lee Falk is quoted as saying "the Scandinavian editors have done a great job with the Phantom comic books. I've been told you produce a majority of the stories yourselves." (Lee Falk Storyteller, 196). In a Friends of the Phantom interview, Ulf is quoted as saying, "we have furnished English translations of Swedish-produced adventures whenever Lee or King [Features] so have wished". The Election in Bengallan story, featuring Lamanda Luaga losing his Presidential office, is specifically mentioned as one that Falk requested a copy of (FotP #16). We note that Falk did not go on to change Presidents in the news strip... So, we know that Lee Falk knew about the Scandinavian stories, and seemed particularly interested in those that addressed key elements on Phantom lore. To be fair, this is not particularly surprising - one would hope he'd take an interest! However, the bigger question remains: did he approve of or even like them? The Skull Ring After listening to the first part of X-Band #97, it is clear that Ulf feels that Lee Falk was a big fan of the Skull Ring origin presented in The Ring, based on the fact that he requested Ulf to translate him a copy years before Frew released one for English-speaking readers. ​​ Perhaps Falk was keen to see what Semic had done with an origin story that he had already hinted at. Keen eagle eyed phans with diplomas of Phantom history may remember the 28th Sunday story which ran in newspapers from 29 October 1950 to 10 June 1951 titled The Phantom's Ring which featured an almost throw away line in a single panel (right). The Phantom's Ring was last published in Frew #1720 (2015) and Fantomen/Fantomet 26/1999. So Lee was certainly the first to explain the origin of the ring (however briefly), and his version is not compatible with Semic's far more detailed version written 27 years later. But did Falk even remember he wrote about it himself over a quarter of a century previously? Did he even write that story or was it ghost-written as some have proposed? Questions with no real answers, just conjecture. Given Falk's history of mis-remembering and changing his own Phantom Lore, many phans might think it's safe to assume he forgot. All we know is that The Ring was a story that Lee was eager to read himself but to our knowledge never publicly commented on. So do we accept the Falk version of the origin with one obscure mention that is official to many phans, or change to the more detailed and decisive Semic origin which is practically set in concrete with many others? The Good Mark On the subject of rings, Falk never wrote a story or apparently made any mention of the origin of the Good Mark, which is interesting as Lee explored the Good Mark mythos more than the Skull Mark. Indeed, he wrote several stories exploring the ring and the mark: The Two Signs (1958); A Tale of the Good Mark (1959); The Stolen Ring (1976); Tale of the Good Mark (1979). Of course, in typical Lee Falk Phantom lore style, the design of the mark was changed and adapted many times over the years as new artists took up the inking brush. As mentioned above, Semic did produce their own origin of the Good Mark in the 1984 story The Message (released in Denmark titled The History of the Good Mark), but we have no indication that Falk read the story. Devil As for the story of Devil, in Ulf's interview he stated that it was originally Team Fantomen's strategy to explore the origin of Devil. However, when Lee heard the idea he expressed a desire to write that story himself. Team Fantomen dutifully put the idea to one side, but ran out of patience and so in 1979 created the story after waiting several years for Lee and ultimately giving up. A key scene from Avenell's story is pictured (left). Again, Phantom newspaper strip scholars may well point to Lee Falk making mention of Devil's origin in one of his stories. Ulf was not sure if Lee knew about the story but it's certainly possible to say that he did! On 28th December 1986 the below panel appeared in the opening sequence to Falk's Queen Amaza's Mate. It refers to the Phantom finding Devil as a pup, which is clearly similar to the origin claimed in Devil's Story by Team Fantomen. While once again Falk never explored the story, it certainly dovetails very neatly into the lore set out by Donne Avenell and Team Fantomen 7 years earlier. So to the questions we asked at the beginning Did Falk endorse or approve of Semic's work? What exactly did he think of them? We have three clear example of origin stories that were left available by Lee Falk, and taken up by Team Fantomen. Did he approve of or like them? As we said at the start, with the great storyteller passed almost 20 years ago, we are just guessing, but the clues are there... The Skull Ring, possibly disputed. The Good Mark, no one knows. Devil, evidence says it has been endorsed. So, are these Semic stories to be taken as 'true', Lee-Falk-approved Phantom lore? As always, it is in the eye of the beholder! * For those who came in late: Semic was the company publishing Phantom comics in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark before Egmont brought them out in 1997. Thanks must once again go to Ulf Granberg for giving us so much of his time in this amazing interview. #UlfGranberg #Semic #Egmont #DonneAvenell #GeorgesBess #LeeFalk #FriendsofThePhantom #JaimeVallve #NormanWorker #KariLeppänen #Frew #Fantomet #Fantomen #KingFeaturesSyndicate

At first it started with rumours, then Facebook posts and by midnight Australia time on the 12 November 2018, news had officially broken that the Fantomet magazine in Norway is ending with issue 13/2018. Only Donald Duck has published a longer magazine in a country rich with Phantom history. We can confirm that the quarterly reprint magazine Fantomet Kronologisk will be continuing. There are also promises by Fantomet editor Hege Høiby to publish regular or semi-regular ongoing trade paperbacks. Note that the Fantomen magazine in Sweden WILL continue as usual, meaning that the production of Team Fantomen stories also continues. One of the first questions we had about the difference in language between Norwegian and Swedish seeing the Swedish Fantomen magazine is still being produced and going strong. We at Chronicle Chamber are not language experts but in asking several Norwegians, they will still be able to continue reading the adventures of the Phantom in the Fantomen magazine. Fantomet 13 / 2018 will feature an advertisement for a subscription to the Fantomen magazine. I expect majority of the hardcore fans will pick up this option. It is very unlikely shops in Norway will be stocking the Fantomen magazine however which will have a knock down effect on potential new phans. We have asked several Fantomet readers for opinions and the common thread is great sadness among them all. One fan Thomas Askjellerud made mention it has been a 25-year journey reading and sending in letters, drawings and having great fun discussing in the magazine letters and the Norwegian Fantomet club. Other fans are now fearful the Fantomen magazine will be cancelled but, in a Facebook reply by editor Mikael Sol he squashed those fears saying it will not happen. We are led to believe that 2019 will be a year of extending the Swedish legacy with a few big announcements to come. History of the Fantomet Magazine from 1964 The Fantomet magazine in Norway started in 1964. Although already popular in Norway - and with a very special history during World War 2 where "Fantomet" was used as a password for the resistance movement, and Diana Palmer was renamed Sala(!) - the Phantom's own comic book stumbled a bit in the beginning. After eight issues, Fantomet took an extended break after an issue released in February 1965. The next issue wasn't released until October 1966, 20 months later. The delay may however have been not due to low sales, but rather a practical matter as the magazine adjusted to releases in other countries. The 1966 issue was identical to issues released in Finland and West Germany at the same time. The contents of these issues were put together in Sweden, where the similarly named Fantomen magazine had been running since 1950. In time, it was evident that the Norwegian version was a big success, and the contents were then put together by a Norwegian editorial staff instead. This included unique covers by Norwegian creators and back-up comics only published in Norway and not in Sweden. This was a golden age for Fantomet, where several creators (such as Knut Westad and Eirik Ildahl) also produced stories for Team Fantomen - one such story was recently reprinted by Frew; The Ladykiller in No. 1811. In 1996, Fantomet joined a co-production with Sweden's Fantomen and Finland's Mustanaamio. From then on, the contents of the Norwegian magazine were mostly identical to its sister publications. Perhaps a sign of things to come, Mustanaamio was cancelled in 2010, and things began to diverge again between Fantomen and Fantomet in 2012, when the Norwegian version published fewer issues than the Swedish. This decline of issues continued in 2013 when only 13 issues were published, a frequency that remained until 2018. Issue 13/2018 will be the 1217th and last of the 55-year old publication. This was due to sales falling significantly and it was more cost effective to produce 13 issues than 26 issues. So is this the definitive end of Fantomet in Norway? No! As mentioned earlier in this article, there was a 20-month gap between Fantomet's last issue of 1965 and the first of 1966 and Fantomet editor Hege Høiby has promised they will be releasing future TPB’s and the quarterly reprint magazine Fantomet Kronologisk. One recent example of a magazine being renewed in Norway is the magazine Agent X9 (featuring Modesty Blaise) which was cancelled in 2015, after 42 years of continuous publishing. It was replaced by an album format series which only lasted a year, before returning as a comic magazine again. The new magazine is published less frequently than before, but four issues a year is probably better than nothing for the Norwegian Modesty Blaise fans. Let's hope the Phantom fans in Norway also see the return of Fantomet soon in some way. Australians also experienced a mini hiatus ourselves between the Shepherd and the Frew Crew reigns back in 2015-2016, we can only imagine how painful every Fantomet fan is feeling at the moment. I have heard stories of Australian phans going to the Frew office knocking and demanding answers plus many angry phone calls being dodged and left for the answering machine. I can only imagine the Fantomet Norway team are experiencing the same in the next few days. Some links to read: The official announcement by the Fantomet Editors Nettavisen article one Nettavisen article two You can read the English translated version of these articles by using Google Chrome and right clicking and press “Translate to English”. We thank several Norwegian Fantomet phans who gave us their time during this sad period of their life. We hope to bring some more phan reactions to this decision to our readers in the near future. #Fantomen #Fantomet #TeamFantomen #MikaelSol #HegeHøiby #KnutWestad

If you're reading this after being sent a link by a partner, parent, sibling, buddy or loved one, it's pretty evident that they are a die-hard Phantom phan who is dropping a not-so-subtle hint! Hopefully in this post we can remove some of the hard work for you in finding them a Christmas present, and ideally something they don't already have... NOTE: socks, jocks and towels do NOT count as Christmas gifts unless they have The Phantom on them! The information below should be a great guide, with links to purchase items as well as links to our YouTube reviews wherever available. Enjoy shopping, and all the best finding the ideal gift for the Phantom phan in your life! Comics We're Phantom phans because we love to read the comic strip and the comic book stories, so that can be a great way to start. Frew Publications in Australia have recently produced two trade paperbacks (books) that have never been released to newsagents, so odds are good that older phans especially may not have them. They should!! Frew TPB Vol 1 - For Those Who Came in Late Frew TBD Vol 2 - 70 Years Anniversary There are many other publishers around the globe also producing quality Phantom books, and many Australian phans (for example) may not have been able to pick them up yet. Lightning Strike comics (Ireland) Hermes Press (USA) - TPB Dolmen Editorial (Spain) - Issue 1 Of course you can give the gift that keeps on giving - a subscription! This can be a magnificent last minute gift, because while you may not have a physical gift on the big day, they will regularly receive it throughout the year! (HINT: if you get them the subscription from the other side of the world, you can almost bet your bottom dollar they don't already have it). Australian Frew Subscription Swedish Fantomen Subscription And for the kids, especially say 6-13 years old, you can suddenly become the favourite uncle or aunt by introducing them to the newest incarnation of our purple hero: Kid Phantom! And if they're already reading it, then a subscription is the perfect way to give them their comic phix all year round. Frew Kid Phantom - Kollection #1 TPB Kid Phantom Subscription Finally on comics, if they really do have all the stuff being released at the moment then maybe consider back issues of books they may not already have in the collection. You may have to ask a sneaky question but let's face it - they sent you this link so they're going to be okay with that ;) Moonstone Dynamite Entertainment Merchandise Maybe comics are not your thing so it's great that there is still a heap of Phantom merchandise available for you to wrap up and throw under the tree (not as much as we'd like, but that's a different story). Have a look through the options to spoil the phan in your life... Kids will love: Messenger Bag - features images from Kid Phantom & Phantom by Gaslight Colouring-in Book Frew Posters (including a Kid Phantom option) To help your Phantom friend be organised in the New Year, a wall calendar could well be extremely popular. 2019 Calendar - Mallon Australia (comes with bonus poster print if ordered direct from Mallon) 2019 Calendar - LFMBEC Sweden A few other items that have been available for a while can be picked up from the Phantom's Vault website: Trading Cards Clothing Puzzles Phantom's Vault Posters 99.94 Posters We're also lucky enough that Popcultcha still carries a few of the Ikon Collectables figurines and Pop Vinyls, but their stock is getting pretty limited so if you want to head this way we'd recommend you do it immediately! Pop Vinyl Hero Statue Phantom statue - reviewed here Phantom Rings - reviewed here Artwork Just about on top of every Phantom collectors' wish list would be some original Phantom art. Each piece is something that no one else in world has, and so much of it is absolute stunning. Your gift would go straight to the top of the favourites pile if you were able to deliver one of the following! Frew original covers Glenn Ford original art Sketch covers Sy Barry original art We hope that helps you find something for your phan, and good luck! You are about to know the joy of doing some Phantoming! #Frew #LightningStrikeComics #HermesPress #Fantomen #Egmont #DolmenEditorial #Moonstone #DynamiteEntertainment #Mallon #LFMBEC #KidPhantom #Gaslight #PhantomsVault #Phanfare #9994 #GlennFord #SyBarry #Popcultcha #PopVinyl #IkonCollectables

One of the world's most iconic comic book covers is Batman: The Killing Joke (right) which features the Joker holding up a camera in front of his eye in a classic ‘Smile!’ pose. What some may not know is that artist Brian Bolland drew the image based on a photographic reference of himself posing for the cover. Other famous mainstream artists like Jim Lee and Alex Ross also use photographic references for their work. This is far from just a modern thing, with a very similar story for many Phantom artists including grandfather of pop Wilson McCoy, Moonstone cover artist Douglas Kluaba and current Frew artists Jamie Johnson & Paul Mason also employing the technique. Ray Moore himself had a Phantom bust made up by Wilson McCoy that he would hold and rotate for a reference for the Phantom's face as far back as the 1930’s. Of course today with modern gadgets it is simple and virtually instantaneous to use digital photography, but it has not always been that way. Back when Wilson McCoy and even Klauba and Bolland for his Killing Joke cover they used photographic references that needed to be developed and returned, which of course meant more time and more planning. Below is a collage of example photos Jamie Johnson posted on social media as he was preparing his cover for Frew #1793 (the centre of his 22nd Phantom saga triptych). Douglas Kluaba has also graciously shared several examples of the photographic references he used for his famous and iconic Moonstone covers with us. We will show these next week and are also very proud to announce that he will also be special guest on an upcoming podcast – more details to follow. However we need to take some time to focus on Wilson McCoy, who was doing the same thing back in the 1950's when it was far more tedious and costly to do. In the 1996 Winter edition of the Friends of the Phantom newsletter (Patreon supporters can read it in our P3 section), Ed Rhodes published an article revealing the lengths that Wilson McCoy went to to ensure his work was authentic, including travels to Morocco, Egypt and the Belgian Congo. He returned with photographs, slides and movies, as well as artefacts suck as bows, arrows, and drums. McCoy also brought back a lifetime of stories including: studying and befriending the Bambuti (Mbuti) peoples of the Ituri forest after being threatened by their poison arrows; being jailed in Cairo accused as a spy for unauthorized photography; suffering from acute food poisoning; having travelers cheques stolen; and he was even chased by rhinos and elephants in the wild. Among his utilities for recording source material was a double camera he devised himself. This was used to photograph a scene from two vantage points simultaneously or to instantly make color and black and white references. Another tool was a full length mirror with a 35mm remote control camera mounted in its center, stationed in a small steam heated, air conditioned studio on his property at the McCoy Barrington estate. His own house featured as Lily Palmer's country house. Below is an image of the McCoy's Barrington estate that was used in various stories, as well as a panel it featured in from the 73rd Daily story The Betrothal, which appeared on 28 March 1959. But it didn't stop there. Whenever he needed human references, McCoy would plan a pose and use himself or his family for a photographic reference using a mirror or one of his other utilities. His daughter Carol was Diana, while his son Robert was often used as a model for the Phantom. His wife Dorothy (who often lettered the strips) also posed for Aunt Lily. See here some samples of photographs Wilson McCoy took of his family and himself for panels in the Sunday story A Proper Husband from 12 February 1956. You can compare the full Sunday page with the source photographs he used for these panels. Click on the images below for a closer look at each panel and the original source. A huge thank you to all who have helped with this article: Jamie Johnson for the usage of his above photographic references; Paul Mason for the Brian Bolland reference; the Wilson McCoy references images were sourced from the Wilson McCoy website wilsonmccoy.com; and Ed Rhoades & Pete Klaus for their research into the artist for their Friends of the Phantom newsletters. #WilsonMcCoy #RayMoore #AlexRoss #DouglasKlauba #JamieJohnson #DrPaulMason #EdRhoades #PeteKlaus #Frew #Moonstone

Have you listened to the Episode 121 of X-Band: The Phantom Podcast yet? In our Sydney Supanova podcast special we have a chat with Sunday artist Jeff Weigel. Jeff is travelling to Australia for the Sydney and Perth Supanova comic conventions, as well as the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorer's Club dinner. In our chat, Jeff drops a huge bombshell regarding the next Sunday adventure, due to follow The Free Avar Front, which started on 19 May 2019. The Phantom is a character that appeals to a lot of countries and cultures throughout the world. For various reasons many of them (predominantly Australia, India and the Scandinavian nations) claim him as "their" hero. To that end, Egmont has commissioned many stories over the years that feature various generations of Phantom travelling to Scandinavia and broader Europe to help keep their audience interested. However it must be said that in all the hundreds and hundreds of published Phantom stories, he has only very rarely visited Australia. That's soon to change with Jeff announcing casually in the Supanova Special X-Band: The Phantom Podcast that, for the first time ever in the Newspaper strip. a Phantom will be soon visiting Australia's shores! We've contacted Jeff Weigel and Tony DePaul for further comment but they remain tight-lipped, keeping us in great anticipation over what will likely become one of the most read Phantom Sunday stories in Australia for a while. What we do know is: The story will be the 189th Sunday It will features a past Phantom and not the 21st The story will be based on a friendship with an important figure in Australian history The unique Sunday title image may be Australian themed (if Jeff takes up the suggestion of the Chronicle Chamber team!) What makes this story so unique is that The Phantom has only visited Australia a handful of times before in any stories released by any publisher, including the following: Two-part 1989 Team Fantomen story Wuluti's Secret and The Black Fire by Norman Worker and Carlos Cruz The Kings Cross Connection from 1992 which was the third story to be produced by Frew. It was written by Jim Shepherd and drawn by Keith Chatto Rise of the Red Dragon Part 1, a 2018 Frew story written by Dale Maccanti with art by Jason Paulos It's also worth noting that the 24th Phantom visits Australia in the animated TV series Phantom 2040 in Season 1 Episode 9 Dark Orbit part 1 originally aired November 13, 1994. Drawing a long bow, The Phantom has also visited New Zealand once in the 2017 Team Fantomen story Red Zone, written by David Bishop with art by Rafael Ruiz. David spoke about his long efforts to try and get the Phantom to visit our shores more often in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #117. What makes this news from the creative team so special is that none of these stories are Newspaper Stories. To many phans, the Newspaper stories are canon and an "official" visit by our hero to Australian shores is certainly worth celebrating. #JeffWeigel #TonyDePaul #Sundays #KingFeaturesSyndicate #Phantom2040

Luca Giorgi is an Italian comic artist who first came to the attention of the broader Phantom community as the cover colourist of Frew #1800, that memorable 2017 Christmas-themed cover by Massimo Gamberi. Luca has since worked closely with Massimo on Phantom projects on several occasions, including colouring the cover of the well known Fumetto #106 [right] as well as Fumo di China #280. Luca also coloured Massimo's carton card from the 2019 The Phantom Gallery: Series 2 trading cards, among several other cards in that set. We have also seen Luca's work as an inker of stories, collaborating again with Massimo on Planetman (Frew Giantsize #5) and Legacy of the Reef (Frew #1820). His most recent Frew cover work was for the War-themed 2019 Annual cover by Wendell Cavalcanti (Frew #1830). In this ChronicleChamber exclusive interview, we are lucky enough to hear directly from Luca about his history, his process, and his association with The Phantom. Chronicle Chamber: When and where were you born? Luca Giorgi: I was born in Rimini, in the north east of italy, in 1986. It’s a city by the Adriatic sea and it was founded by the Romans. I've always lived in this city. CC: May I assume that drawing preceded inking and colouring? How old were you when you first developed an interest in art and what influenced you to draw? LG: My passion for art started when I was a child. I used to draw cartoons and the comics characters that my dad bought me. At the age of 15 I took part in the first comics course, then I attended art school and in the end, I graduated from the University of Urbino. CC: Who encouraged your interest in drawing? Who now encourages your interest in inking and colouring? LG: My great-grandmother wanted me to always draw. Furthermore, the good teachers who I met in my first course at 15 years old encouraged me. CC: Do you have any formal art training / art school / design course? If, so, what? LG: Yes, I have my degree. My first course in Rimini gave me the basics of the comic, then I took a specialised coloring course in Jesi when I was 23. These are the two most important courses of my education. CC: What motivated you to move to inking and colouring? Do you see yourself primarily as an inker or primarily as a colourist? LG: At the beginning, I only studied the black and white comics. I found my first job like as inker on Facebook when an artist asked me to ink one of his comics for the French market. Then, I attended a coloring course and in the end, I began to have the first collaborations. CC: Has any artist influenced your style? Who? How? LG: A lot of artists inspired me like Wally Wood, Jack Davies. In the Disney world, I admire Giorgio Cavazzano, Sandro Zemolin, Romano Scarpa and Massimo de Vita. CC: Do you ink "old school"? If so, what type of ink? Type of brush or type of pen? LG: I like them both equally. I can ink digitally or in the traditional manner. Regarding the old school inking, I prefer to use Windsor & Newton inks, Marten Bushes and different pens with Japanese felt tips. CC: Do you you colour digitally or "old school"? If digitally, what program do you use? LG: I prefer to color digitally, given the fastest creating times. I mostly use Photoshop. I like to use acrylics and airbrushes but they take much time and I stopped using those. CC: For those not familiar with Italian and European comics, what work have you had published and in what comics or magazines? LG: I work mostly for the Mickey Mouse’s newspaper in Italy and I colored a Nathan Never volume recently, a character of the Sergio Bonelli editor. CC: How long does it take you to ink a Frew sized comic page? LG: I ink a page a day, if I'm lucky two. CC: Is creating comics your full-time job or do you have a "day job"? LG: It’s my full-time job. CC: Do you collect comics? If so, what? What comics did you read when you were a young child and then as a teenager? LG: I've collected comics since I was a child, but I'm not a real collector. I ruined the majority of them because I used to read them over and over again. CC: When were you first exposed to the Phantom? LG: When I was 9 to 10 years old, I read Phantom’s comic for the first time. During the summer holidays, I found a newsstand where I bought a reprints of classic stories made by Lee Falk and Ray Moore. It was published by the Comic Art Publisher. Afterwards, I watched the cartoon series on TV, Defenders of the Earth. In particular, the Phantom’s panther fascinated me. CC: What is the appeal of the Phantom to you? LG: I'm deepening my knowledge about the character. At the moment my favorite artists are Sy Barry, Felmang and Ferri, Paul Ryan, Terry Beatty and Sal Velluto. CC: How did you come to Frew's attention? LG: I knew about Frew thanks to Massimo Gamberi. I colored the comic strips that were drawn by him for Mandhro and The Mind, so the publisher liked them very much. Never change a winning team. CC: How did you get the colouring job for the Frew Phantom #1830 2019 Annual? LG: Frew, the publisher approached me about the cover of the year 2019. I was lucky because it was based on a military theme. Fortunately, I have a lot of specific books regarding military uniforms that helped me. I enjoyed making it and I was happy the readers like the colours of the cover. CC: I want to devote a question or three to colouring. (By way of background, I am not a fan of colouring having suffered through colour bleed in American comics and garish colouring in the Marvel reprints. I find your colouring refreshing as you have a muted style and you have mastered 3D) How did you learn to colour? Is it instinctive, ie, something you are born with or were you taught? What process did you go through to master the 3D effect? LG: I learned to color in high school. First, I started to use watercolors, then acrylics and oil colors. I also used the airbrush for a period; in the end I definitively switched to digital coloring because it has given me endless possibilities. I am very instinctive when I color. I don't have a regular process. I'm interested in intensifying the author's drawing. Sometimes this lengthens the working times, but it is the result that counts. CC: Do you have a favourite piece of Phantom art / story upon which you have worked. Why? LG: The first cover is never forgotten. The Christmas special cover was a very intense work and I have to thank Sal Velluto for the supervision. He taught me a lot. Among the most deeply felt work was also the inking for the Phantom story Legacy of the Reef. Massimo and I dedicated it to Pino Rinaldi, our dear friend who died recently. CC: Do you have any more work for Frew in the pipeline? Do you have any non-Few Phantom work in the pipeline? Is this something you can discuss? LG: Massimo Gamberi and I are working on more Phantom and I hope to give you and the phans more news soon. Luca and Anthony wish to thank Veronica Cestari (Luca’s girlfriend) for her sterling assistance translating questions and answers for this interview. Chronicle Chamber also especially wishes to thank Anthony for his dedication and initiative in providing this fascinating interview for us to publish, so that our readers may get to know a little more about the work of this very talented Italian artist. #MassimoGamberi #LucaGiorgi #SalVelluto #WendellCavalcanti #Frew #Fumetto #FumodiChina #TradingCards #Giantsize #DefendersoftheEarth #LeeFalk #RayMoore #SyBarry #Felmang #GermanoFerri #PaulRyan #TerryBeatty #Marvel

On April 15 back in 2013 one of the biggest influencers of The Phantom sadly passed away in Jim Shepherd. Jim Shepherd hardly needs any introduction but for those who came in late, he started working as an external consultant in 1987 for Frew Publications. This was because Jim Richardson had passed away and Ron Forsyth was winding down and heading into semi retirement. It turned out to be a master stroke. In 1988 with Ron fully stepping down from the company he had started, Jim was the main publisher and by 1995 he had sole ownership rights to the company. He sadly passed away in 2013 after 25 years in the service of The Phantom. In my opinion this is the first of the Frenaissance's and Jim Shepherd has left a huge legacy on The Phantom and phans from around the world but also the comics scene in Australia. Jim's legacy as publisher includes Frew creating their own stories which was never previously done, establishing the Swedish stories as a regular staple with Frew readers, modernising the comic and much more. However if I was to only focus and choose one thing as his biggest legacy it would have to be how he attempted to bring back the unedited and uncensored newspaper Daily and Sunday strips in their original state. So much so that even now 20+ years later, the work of what he uncovered is still being used today by publishers around the world. Up until that stage there was no effort world wide by either of Frew, Semic, Fratelli Spada, Bastei and many other publishers to produce the newspaper stories in their unedited and uncensored format. It is also fair to say that publishers today still struggle to produce Lee Falk's works unedited. To find these unedited stories was not an easy task. King Features did not have copies, much of the original art was gone and this was before the Internet, which has seen original art and newspaper clippings being more readily available now than perhaps ever before. Publishers including Frew had chopped, edited and poorly presented the newspaper stories for many years. For decades Frew had simply photocopied a previous issue which saw the stories cut to fit the 32 page structure, panels were cut and stretched to supposedly give the phan a better comic. Jim Shepherd was so adamant with his goal that he traveled to Europe, South America and of course to the United States several times to try and find unedited copies of the stories he could use. Remember all this was lost and King Features did not even have them in storage. Jim personally visited and contacted libraries, collections and publishers to find what he could. While Jim Shepherd was able to find many unedited copies of Lee Falk's works perhaps fittingly he was unable to achieve this overall goal with several stories still published with edited panels. Interestingly Jim was then wanting to collect and produce these stories in a chronological book format much like what Hermes Press are doing currently. Even today the goal of publishing every Lee Falk story unedited and uncensored has still not been achieved and is waiting for someone to take up their skull and swear an oath to fulfill his legacy he started 30 odd years ago.

In Fantomen issue 9/2020 the best Fantomen of 2019 was announced and as always it brings up some interesting results. As per usual we would love to hear your thoughts on the voting. The voting breakdown is to the right which appears in issue 9/2020. In the 2019 poll for the best 2018 adventures, Egmont received 165 votes, this time around they received over 200 votes which is an encouraging sign to see more people voting. Click here to read our thoughts on the 2018 voting. In 2018 the highest placed newspaper Daily or Sunday story was voted at 15th. In 2019, Tony DePaul's and Jeff Weigel "The Rat Must Die!" Sunday story came in equal second. Tony DePauls and Terry Beatty's "The Ghost Story" Sunday story also came in fourth. There was also two more Tony DePaul and Mike Manley Daily adventures in the top 10. It goes to show that the current Newspaper teams are doing a great job. Well done all. The top story for 2019 has received some interesting social media comments. However the "Djävulen i Stockholm" (The Devil in Stockholm) story written by Mikael Sol and drawn by Jan Bielecki in Fantomen 14-15/2019 polling so well should not be surprising. It received a lot of media attention by local Stockholm and Sweden press with the Phantom visiting Stockholm and it dealing with the very real subject of depression and suicide. It should be praised for such a topic to be in a comic and is no surprise to me for winning the best story of 2019. Mikael Lyck also gave us a virtual tour of the landmarks used in the story in a video which you can watch here. As we saw in the Frew best adventure for 2019 polling, a lot of Australian's were patriotic with their voting and I think its fair that we have seen something similar here with them voting for stories created by their local publisher for their local audience. Interestingly Mikael Sol also received an equal second vote at best adventure story for 2019 with his "Döden i Carpatia" (Death in Carpatia) story drawn by Janusz Ordon in Fantomen 18-19/2019. "The Fight Against Singh" stories (Fantomen 5/2019, 6-7/2019, 17/2019 & 22-23/2019) did not feature as highly as I thought they would. I think the fact that it was a four part story stretched over the year did not help. Frew readers have read the first part and so far, the feedback has been very positive. Also in looking back over the list of stories for 2019, you will notice that the baton has truly been passed from the mainstays of the past 20-30 years to a new generation with Claes Reimerthi not writing as many stories and artists like Kari Leppänen and César Spadari only drawing three stories between them. Mikael Lyck (our Fantomen correspondent) has expressed his views several times in articles and podcast and in his opinion he expressed that "This year was hard since there was no story that stood out as the greatest above the others. There where a lot of good ones but no clear winner in my view". When asked on what what his personal views as the best stories for 2019, he had the following to say "The Fight against Singh" (Fantomen 5/2019, 6-7/2019, 17/2019 & 22-23/2019) is a 4 parter of the new 22nd Phantom saga, "A New Hope" (Fantomen 24/2019), "The Devil in Stockholm" (Fantomen 14-15/2019) and "Death in Carpatia" (Fantomen 18-19/2019) where all equal the best stories for 2019 in my opinion". What is your view? What was your favourite stories from 2019 in your opinion?

We are joined by Mikael Lyck, the creator and developer behind "The Phantom: The Card Game". We talk to Mikael about the game, the history and how it came about along with the Kickstarter campaign itself. Mikael explains the pledge levels of the campaign and some of the stretch goals which will interest a lot of phans as they start planning their budgets. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN The kickstarter campaign runs from 1st May to the 30th May. If you are after one of the limited versions of the pledge levels and trust us, you do not want to miss out on that, you will need to pay attention to the important start time of the Kickstarter Campaign which is highlighted below. The start time is 5pm CEST time. That is: 11pm Western Australia Time 1am Eastern Australia Time (2 May) 3am New Zealand Standard Time (2 May) 11am New York Time 8am Pacific Daylight Time 8:30pm India Standard Time 4pm British Summer Time 12pm Brasilia Time If we have not included your time zone, you can click on this World Clock link and add your own location / city to get your correct time.

Have you noticed Tony DePaul doing what Lee Falk only did once? Tony has made a habit of injecting Team Fantomen established story lines / lores into the newspaper universe. Majority of phans may miss these tip of the hat moments, but some have not and are loving the level of care and respect shown to both universes. Lee Falk to be fair did not have the same access to the Team Fantomen stories that Tony has with the Internet, experience working for Team Fantomen and the easier access to Team Fantomen stories through Egmont and Frew. When we asked Tony DePaul about these influences coming into the Phantom newspaper stories Tony had this to say: I’ve always considered the newspaper strip the core universe. It was there at the founding. It’s the dog that wags the tail. But that’s not to say we shouldn’t steal good ideas from Team Fantomen now and again. The Crocco stories, for example; if a concept proves popular overseas, why not pull it into the King Features end of things? Scandinavia occupies quite a chunk of real estate on the map of Phantom phandom, it’s inevitable that readers there should exert some kind of influence. Ulf Granberg was the guy standing at the intersection of the two universes. If you think of it as a Venn diagram, Ulf is where the circles intersect. He knew the Phantom universe better than anyone at King ever did. For a time, King relied on Ulf to decide what should be in the daily and Sunday strips. He served as our unpaid editor, basically, and did so much to get things sorted out in that first 18 months or so after Lee Falk died. Let us go through the elements. This list may not be extensive so if we have missed any, please let us know. To create this list, we have contacted several well-known Phantom historians as well as discussing each of these elements with Tony DePaul himself. Thanks must go to Andreas Eriksson, Marko and Mikael Lyck who helped out in the creation of this article with their research. Lee Falk as far as we have found has introduced one Team Fantomen story element into the Newspaper stories. That was the origin story of Devil, the Phantoms sidekick / pet / best friend. You can read about how Lee Falk introduced the origin story as originally told by Semic into his own Newspaper stories here (link to article). Rodia / Rhodia Perhaps the biggest inclusion is Rodia / Rhodia which was a Team Fantomen creation from 1971 and has been central in so many story arcs and stories from a mirror of South Africa’s apartheid regimen to being behind Lubanga’s rise to power kicking out Luaga back in the 1990’s. We once interviewed Robert Aman who went into more details about this country and the history of it with our Phantom. Rhodia (in Newspaper stories) first appeared in a Newspaper story in 3 January 2002 in the 207th Phantom Daily Story titled “Jungle Mystery”. In the newspaper stories, Rodia / Rhodia is not depicted as practicing an apartheid regime with members of leadership and in the military of colour. However, they are depicted as a military dictator style regime. Bengete Bengete is a poor slum suburb of Mawitaan / Morristown. It become a popular place in Team Fantomen stories in the 1990’s especially during Luaga’s exile when he was hiding out helping at the Cartwright’s Doctors Surgery. In the 2003 classic Sunday story "Terror in Mawitaan" featuring Chatu – the Python for the first time, after our hero is badly injured, he goes to Sarah Cartwright’s Doctors Surgery in Bengete. This below panel is from 31 August 2003 and is the first time Bengete has appeared in the Newspaper stories. Sarah Cartwright Sarah Cartwright is a former secret agent for the government of Rodia, under the name "Miss Mist". She spent the first years of her life with her parents in Marcusburg, Rodia. After her parents, members of the political opposition, were sent to prison camp Sarah grew up in an orphanage, believing that her parents had died in a terrorist attack. We first met "Miss Mist" in a 1986 Team Fantomen story "Deadly Infection" (published by Frew #890 & Fantomen Krönika 1/2007). After finishing her secret agent career she worked with her father in his medical practice in Bengete, Morristown. In the 2003 classic Sunday story "Terror in Mawitaan", after our hero is badly injured, he goes to Sarah Cartwright’s Doctors Surgery in Bengete. Sarah makes her first Newspaper story appearance on the 7 September 2003. The Crocco Creatures These monsters are a classic tale of 'great minds think a-like'. When the first Crocco Team Fantomen story was published, Lee Falk with Olesen and Fredericks had a similar themed story running in the Sunday newspapers. DePaul who was then solely a Team Fantomen writer created these mystery men of the deep back in 1997 prior to taking over from Lee Falk (Frew #1186 1997 & Fantomen 15/1997). The Team Fantomen story was first published July 15, 1997 and the Sunday "Waterman" story by Lee Falk started in newspapers dated August 31, 1997. They appeared in the 225th Daily Newspaper story "Crocco Island West" which features them finding a new home for these creatures elsewhere away from Bangalla. On the 3 January 2008 in the below panels they made their first Newspaper appearance. It is worth noting that Paul Ryan, the newspaper artist visually changed the look of the Crocco People from the Cesar Spadari style (above panel) to look more 'human-like'. Archie The classic Team Fantomen "Eden" story is one of the best ever created stories which goes into detail on how the magical island of Eden was created. It follows a story of a wild child raised by Apes (Tarzan anyone?) who has this ability to calm and help animals become friendly by seemingly talking to them in a whispering voice. According to Team Fantomen, it was he who created Eden. This story was published by Frew in #931 (1989) and #1609 (2011) and Fantomen 10/1988 and their 2010 Christmas Album. The 204th Daily story “The Animal Collector” is a treasure trove of Team Fantomen elements with Archie, Aron and the Unicorn all mentioned and shown in one way or the other. Note only the gravestone of Archie is shown in this story. Archie’s tombstone is alongside Aron’s which is another classic storyline which tests the ability for someone not to cry reading a comic. These panels are from 27 November 2001 and 25 March 2002. Aron Aron was one of those beautifully written stories that sticks in my memory for all the right reasons. "Aron" is a 1993 Team Fantomen story written by Tony DePaul, with art by Hans Lindahl (Published by Frew #1059, 1993 & Fantomen 15/1993). It makes sense Tony would re-add this character into a newspaper story. I have often wondered why Aron never made more of an appearance in other stories teaming up with the 20th or 21st Phantom helping him battle poachers and rescuing animals. The 204th Daily story “The Animal Collector” even shows Aron in person. A little surprised we saw no Dodo though. These panels are from 27 & 28 November 2001. The Submarine Sunk off the Island of Eden One of the sub plots of the Eden story line was the German U Boat (submarine) being sunk during the story. "Temple of the Gods, Part 1: The U-Boat Mystery" is the 213th Phantom daily story however the story is more known for Paul Ryan starting his Newspaper reign. However the submarine / U Boat from World War 2 plays a vital cog in the start of a huge crossover between the Newspaper and Team Fantomen stories. These panels are from 10 and 11 January 2005. The Unicorns Fair to say that Tony DePaul among many other creators likes Eden and there are many subplots and stories that can come out from this original Lee Falk creation. Everyone also loves a unicorn and when Semic was going through their environmental phase in the late 1980's, unicorns was added to the Phantom universe. In the 1989 Team Fantomen story titled "The Secret of the Valley of Wamballa" (Frew #958A, 1990 & Fantomen 5/1989 & 11/2003) we are first introduced to the characters as Luaga and the Phantom have a disagreement between progression and traditions. Sadly in "The Last Unicorn" (Frew #961, 1993 & Fantomen 9/1989 & 12/2003) all unicorns are destroyed and killed by human greed except one last colt who the Phantom rescues and re homes at Eden. Interestingly in the 204th newspaper Daily story “The Animal Collector”, the wording could be depicted as that both the stag and colt both survived with the colt making its way to Eden. However in the "The Last Unicorn" story the colt sacrificed his life as he kills the unicorn killer. Old Man Mozz as a seer Old Man Mozz was always known as a jungle storyteller and then slowly he became a seer and someone who also had psychic powers. Interestingly in the first two stories he was Moz with one Z and then Mozz with two Z's. In the 1971 Sunday story "The Tale of the Gooley-Gooley Witch" Mozz comments that he knows the true history of the jungle. This Sunday panel appeared 28 March 1971 and was the first time we see him in a Phantom story. On 9 November 1971 in the 115th Daily story "The Lost City of Pheenix", he is for the first time introduced as the Storyteller. According to my research it was Tony DePaul who introduced Old Man Mozz as a mystic and seer in the 1999 Team Fantomen story "The Monument" (Frew #1248 1999 & Fantomen 25/1999). What is interesting is that this story is one of the few that has appeared created for both Team Fantomen and the newspaper stories. The second panel appears from 6 August 1999. Dr Axel's First Name I find this piece of Phantom history very interesting indeed. It took Lee Falk 35 years to give Dr Axel a first name. In that period of time, he had changed appearances a lot including originally being a white man and then depicted as a black man between 1971 and 1977. His colour swapped continuously until the mid 1980's in many stories. In the 170th Daily story "Attack of the Witchmen" his first name is Bjorn. This below panel was shown on 18 June 1990. However the problem is that in the 190th Daily story "The Shaman" his name was given as Thor. This panel was shown on 5 August 1997. So we now have two first names. Team Fantomen has a good history of trying to merge, tidy up and make sense of Lee Falk changing Phantom Lore and the best solution was just to merge the two names. This makes even more sense, seeing that Thorbjorn is actually a common name in Scandinavian countries (wiki link). It was not an actual story where Team Fantomen first used the merged names but an editorial piece printed in the Fantomen 13/2001. I believe it was created by then editor Björn Ihrstedt, but it could have been written by a ghost writer. The 190th Daily story "The Shaman" was not published in Sweden until Fantomen 14-15/2019 and the above panel was removed. Here is a photo of the editorial piece on Doctor Thorbjorn Axel published in Fantomen 13/2001 On 18 March 2018, in the 251th Daily story "Heloise Comes Home", Diana goes looking for a school and enrolls Heloise and Kadia in the local public high school named after the good doctor. The Bandar Amnesia Powder Must admit this could be seen as a stretch if the sleeping and amnesia powder are the same thing or different powders Guran uses. Either way, what we do know is that Guran used a powder first in a Team Fantomen story and then a similar powder was used later on in a newspaper story. I will let you be the judge if they are the same or different powders. The first time we saw this magical powder being used was in a Team Fantomen story "The Ghost of Tawasu Valley" (Frew #1074, 1994 & Fantomen 1/1994). It was used by Guran as he wanted to keep the secret of the Tawasu Valley quiet. The first time we saw a powder being used in a newspaper story was 7 May 2005 in the 213th Daily story "Temple of the Gods, Part 1: The U-Boat Mystery". It has been used commonly ever since. The amnesia powder has also been used in the Andreas Eriksson "Blood Rain" storyline which featured eight artists creating a Phantom first 'jam story'. Viking Forefather I expect some non-Scandinavian and Falkists not to like this element but it is worth noting that it was not a Scandinavian writer who originally wrote this connection, but Tony DePaul himself. In the Team Fantomen saga "Mystery of the Golden Rune" (Frew #940-944 & #1726-1734 & Fantomen 16/1988 - Fantomen 19/1988) it was discovered that a viking was buried in the Skull Cave. In 2004, as Tony recovered from a serious motorbike accident, his Team Fantomen story "The Viking Castle Mystery" (Frew #1172, 1997 & Fantomen 7/1997) was re-imaged with Graham Nolan drawing the story. That version of the story was titled "The Viking Fortress Mystery" and published by Frew #1403 (2004) and Fantomen 2-3/2014. In this story it is discovered that the dead viking king is an ancestor of the Phantom linage. The Jungle Patrol Monument The Jungle Monument has had several names and guises. It was first shown in Team Fantomen “The Commander is Dead” (Frew 1091, 1994 & Fantomen 16/1994 & 5/2007) story line by Donne Avenell and art by Kari Leppanen. (This panel above from "Duel on Destiny Top, Part 1" - Frew #1118 (1995) & Fantomen 13/1995) What is interesting is that the first time it was shown in a newspaper story was 1999 “The Halloween Kidnappers” which was a story original written by Claes Reimerthi for Team Fantomen (Frew 1270 - 2000). The first Tony DePaul story it appeared in was the 167th Sunday story “Plutonium Pirates” (Frew 1510, 2008 & Fantomen 18-19/2014). It was presented as the Monument to the Unknown Patrolman and the upper part of the obelisk is a bust with the shape of a patrolman. As discussed above, the Jungle Patrol monument has had various designs and names. Here are a couple of variations: Daily Story “The Halloween Kidnappers” it was shown as an Obelisk - see the first three examples. From the Sunday story “Plutonium Pirates” on wards it was presented as the Monument to the Unknown Patrolman and the upper part of the obelisk is a bust with the shape of a patrolman In the Team Fantomen story “Return of the Commander, Pt 1” it was known as The Grave of the Unknown Patrolman In the Team Fantomen Story “Return of the Commander, Pt 2” it was again named as The Unknown Patrolman's Monument To most it is splitting hairs with it being known as both "The Unknown Patrolman's Monument" and "The Grave of the Unknown Patrolman". Would be nice to eventually see a story about this monument and how it came about. As you can see here are a number of important Phantom lores that have been added to the Newspaper Canon that originated from the Team Fantomen stories. Maybe the two universes are closer than most suspect.

It is with a heavy heart that we bring this bit of news that it seems the series of the Fantomet Softcover Albums has been cancelled after only two issues in 2019. Let us start at the beginning. The end of 2018 was a bitter blow for our Norwegian and Fantomet phriends who found out that Fantomet 13/2018 was to be the last issue with the cancellation of the regular series after 54 years. Only the Donald Duck magazine was published longer than Fantomet in a country rich with Phantom history. You can read about our views of the news here and read some Fantomet readers reactions here. There even was a 'wake' for the Magazine which saw some phans gather to celebrate the impact of the magazine and character on their lives which was arranged by phan Kristian Hellesund. The news was slightly better in 2019 when Kristian Hellesund wrote for us explaining the new Softcover Album series called by some "Nye Fantomet Historier". You can read Kristian's article here. However after two collectible issues, the sales was quoted as been 'unimpressive' by what they had budgeted and hoped for by Kjetil Johnsen, the editor of comics from Egmont Norway. After originally suggesting that 2020 will see more albums in this format being published, six months in and no new magazines or Softcover Albums have been published. After asking some questions, we are led to believe that the "unimpressive" sales was the death knock and no new Fantomet magazines, will be planned for 2020. We are also led to believe that the new Fantomen Softcover yearly album wont be published in Norwegian and only in Swedish and Finnish. (You can see the cover art for that album here) At this stage, the Fantomet Kronologisk which is a collection of reprint stories previously published in Fantomet, chronologically from 1964 onwards is still being published and is currently the only way the general public can buy the Phantom in Norway. For the last few years there has been on average four editions a year of the Fantomet Kronologisk. However so far in 2020, there has only been one printed and released. We have been told the remaining three issue for 2020 will still be released.

Did you watch the video that was live on Boss Fight Studio's Facebook page on Thursday 7 August 2020 at 7pm PDT time (8am Friday 8 August EST Australia time)? They officially announced the first wave and most of the second wave of the Phantom series plus much more tidbits which we will go over below. You can watch the video here. Most of the Phantom content is from the 23 minutes mark on wards. If you would like to watch more including seeing a prototype of the figurine, we recommend the X-Band: The Phantom Podcast Episode #146 with the video of the podcast at the bottom of this article. The biggest take away is that for us to get more cool Phantom stuff and more waves we need to pre order as that gives them a better idea on what will make them money and then they can spend more time on that line making cool things. For example the horse took the sculptures over a year of work and they will only put in that time if the line is successful. Pre ordering for the Phantom 1st wave will begin on Thursday, 20th August * *Please note: This date may change. The first wave will have three Phantoms: Blue Julie Walker as the Phantom 21st Phantom in purple Phantom with Hero in grey(gray) The second wave will include: 11th Phantom in unknown colour Singh Pirate with multiple heads and gear so you could buy several and have multiple pirates for the Phantom to fight. In each wave there is likely to be different colours for Boss Hero Fights to fulfill the rainbow of Phantoms with maybe slight variations to the figurines. Also the Phantom generations wont be released in generational order like 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc but will be scattered. Some of the questions asked and answered where: Maybe a 2040 and Billy Zane Phantom. Erik Arana is very keen on both. If pre orders and orders are successful will determine if we get a Phantom lunchbox. Thanks to Erik and the guys and girls at Boss Fight Studios for producing an awesome articulated figurine we can actually be proud of. If you want to learn more about past Phantom figurines, go and read this article here. Are you keen to be ordering some Phantom figurines? Will you be pre ordering?

It is HERE!! Big shout out to Stephen who battled sickness & family commitments to get this edited and to you for a listen. Opportunities like this do not come along very often. Ulf Granberg is the man behind Egmont through what was a golden age for The Phantom in Scandinavia - he was the editor of the Swedish Phantom comic book, Fantomen from 1973 to 1987, then again from 2003 to 2012. From 1973-2012 Ulf was head of Team Fantomen, the group of creators responsible for producing Phantom stories for Semic, then Egmont. Ulf has also written over 30 Phantom stories himself. That is over 40 years of being involved in the writing, editing, reading and plotting out our hero! Ulf is a treasure trove of stories and anecdotes. He interacted with creators from Lee Falk, Sy Barry, Norman Worker, Jamie Vallve and the list goes on and on. and on and on and on!! This interview is so good and so long, Ulf was so very generous with his time, we have had to split it into several parts. Enjoy the final part, and ... Happy Phantoming! #XBand #Podcast #UlfGranberg #Egmont #Semic #Fantomen #Fantomet #NormanWorker #LeeFalk #SyBarry #JaimeVallve #JanneLundstrom #DonneAvenell #HeinerBade #GeorgesBess #KariLeppänen #KnutWestad #TonyDePaul #ClaesReimerthi