Following on from our interview with Peter Mennigen, one of the Most Prolific Phantom Creators we have embarked on a mini German and Bastei Publishing Phantom exploration which saw us review the latest Bastei Freunde magazine issue #50. Next up is Ulrich Wick, who is the co creator and publisher of the magazine. (You can watch the Chronicle Chamber review of the magazine which is included in the interview). Chronicle Chamber: Welcome and thank you for your time. Can you start off by telling us a bit about yourself? What country and region are you from? Ulrich Wick: I was born exactly one week after John F. Kennedy was shot - on November 29th, 1963. So it wasn’t me. I have an alibi - my mom did not let me out to play. Seriously, I am German and was born right in the center of this country, in a city called Gießen. I have been working in a bank for nearly 37 years now, and retirement is getting closer. CC: What is your background with comics in Europe and Germany? UW: My first comic was - Sesame Street. The TV-series started in 1972 here in Germany, and was accompanied by a magazine. Later a friend at school introduced me to a comic magazine called Kobra. It contained one really special series - The Trigan Empire by Don Lawrence. You could really be drawn into and get lost into Don’s drawings. Kobra was cancelled in 1978, and I switched over to Silver Arrow. I was 14 by that time, and had found an interest in the Native American cultures and the drawings by Frank Sels (1942-1986). CC: What is it about the Bastei Publishing comics that appeal to you? UW: Bastei Publishing had other western series, like Bessy, Lasso and Buffalo Bill. I started collecting by visiting at flea markets and then later switched over to comic conventions. So it was not especially the Bastei Publishing label that I fell in love with. They were the big comics publisher here in Germany and had the biggest range of comics. CC: Your main love is the comic Silver Arrow. Can you tell us about your love of this comic? UW: The drawings are pretty good and I like the way the Native Americans are portrayed, in a positive way. It’s not reality, I know that, but I like it anyway. The series has a lot of humor and some unique characters, like the two trappers Harry and Jed who are, of course, mirroring Laurel and Hardy. They have a cougar cub named Tinka who always causes chaos - and a young squaw (I know this term is not politically correct nowadays, but the original meaning is plain and simple “woman”) called Moon Child who learned Judo from a Japanese friend named Endo Kisuki. I like this “multicultural band”, because there is also a black man with immense strength, Jeremias, and other characters as well. You could identify with Silver Arrow, a young Kiowa chief with a great responsibility. My girlfriend also liked the series as a child and fell in love with the very good looking young Kiowa. CC: I am led to believe the Kiowa tribe we see in the Silver Arrow comic you have a relationship with? Can you tell us about that? UW: I am publishing the collectors edition of Silver Arrow today and I try to correct all the mistakes Bastei Publishing made. I also try to make the series a bit more authentic by using the Kiowa language every now and then. Of course, I don’t speak Kiowa, just a few words. The language is tough to learn, especially if you don't have someone around who can teach you. So one day I contacted the public relations officer from the tribe and asked for a bit of help. It started promising but subsided bit by bit without a definite answer. But in 2009 there were some Kiowa's presenting their culture here in Germany. Joe Hobay and his younger brother Ben Hovakah Wolf are great-grandsons of the two most famous Kiowa chiefs, Lone Wolf (Guipago) and White Bear (Sat-tiah-day, better known as Satanta). So I just walked up to them and asked them directly. To cut a long story short, a friendship was formed, it was not intended, but that’s exactly what happened. In 2017 I was able to visit them in their homeland, and it was a quite amazing trip. Oklahoma, where they are residing today, may not have been the most spectacular place for a trip, but for my girlfriend and I, we met a lot of interesting people. Ben even introduced us to the tribal elders. From left to right in the photo attached below, you can see Ben Hovakah Wolf, Deanie Lucero, myself and Joe Lucero Hobay. Deanie is Joe's second daughter (he has three girls) and was a 14-year-old schoolgirl by that time. Today she is a young woman of 25 and has just finished university. Ben is Joe's younger brother. CC: Most Phantom phans will know of you because of the Bastei Freunde Magazine. Can you tell us about that and how it came about? UW: I have been part of the German comic scene for about 40 years, and you meet a lot of people during those years, and also a lot of people with the same interests. I started back in 1986 by helping a well-known author of articles when he wrote one about the Bessy series. So bit by bit I got more used to that “journalistic” part. There were several magazines about comics at that time, but there was very little that published about Bastei Publishing comics. Martin Hilland, who had written a number of articles about Bastei Publishing comics, came up with the idea to present them in his own magazine so that fans who were looking for background information had a source. I have been with this project right from the beginning. Our magazine was done in a copy shop on a budget. We started by reprinting older articles, pretty soon we added checklists and began writing articles directly for the Bastei Freunde Magazine. Martin and I were the main authors, but there were also others, like Thomas Opitz. Soon the quality of our articles increased. I took over with issue No.40, to coincide with me already publishing other comics for a number of years. We have reached No.50. Incredible. None of us could ever dream about that at the start. CC: Bastei Freunde magazine #50 is a special magazine. Is it the first time you have published a previously unpublished story? UW: I have previously printed a Silver Arrow story that was unpublished in Germany and recently printed another two completely unpublished stories in a separate hardcover collection. As for the Bastei Freunde Magazine, we have printed eight missing pages of a Buffalo Bill story back in No.18, but this is really the first time we did a complete previously unpublished story. My thanks go to Thomas Opitz, who had the idea, and Peter Mennigen who agreed to collaborate on it. CC: How did you find these previously unpublished stories? UW: Let me put it that way: You have to be at the right place at the right time and meet the right people. I cannot go into specific details seeing I am not the owner of the artwork. CC: Are there any more hidden gems of past unpublished Bastei Publishing Phantom stories? UW: Yes, there are more. We have access to five unpublished stories by the artist José Maria Ortiz Tafalla, including The Slaves which was printed in Bastei Freunde Magazine #50. Another seven unpublished stories for the Phantom Regular series, nine for Phantom Spezial series (28 pages each) and one for the pocket series. That makes 17 in total. [Editors note: An example of José Maria Ortiz Tafalla's artwork from Bastei #225 "Der Zwillingsbruder" ("The Twin Brother") written by Peter Mennigen.] CC: WOW That is amazing! What are the plans for these Bastei Publishing unpublished stories? Will they ever be published? UW: Currently we are thinking about publishing the 22 stories by the artist José Maria Ortiz Tafalla in a collectors edition, uncut and reworked (which includes the five unpublished ones). Bastei Publishing severally edited and cut the comics as well as adding advertisements directly between the comic story. Advertising was sometimes more important than the comic itself, so if they got an advertising page right at the last minute before printing, a comic page was kicked out. That goes for all the magazine series. We are planning to correct this. There is a slight problem with three of the five unpublished stories with the scripts not existing anymore. So we have the drawings, but no text. Peter Mennigen, who probably wrote them, has agreed to help us and he has the skills to be able to work backwards. The project looks promising, but nothing’s definite by now. It’s just too early. We’ve also tried to contact José Maria Ortiz Tafalla, but so far we only have made contact with his son, Miguel. With the COVID-19 situation in Spain more dangerous than in Germany and other parts of the world, that has been put on hold for now. CC: Do you think there are other previously unpublished stories that were not found and now lost forever? UW: There are unpublished stories lost forever for sure but thankfully not with the Phantom. Apart from these stories the chances that there are more and we find them however is pretty small. Concerning other countries, like Sweden or Italy, I have absolutely no idea. [Editors note: An example of José Triay Cuencha's artwork from Bastei #155 "Notruf aus der Schreckenburg" ("SOS from the Castle of Horror") written by Peter Mennigen.] CC: Can you tell us about the artists behind these stories? UW: Peter Mennigen already told you a lot of things in his interview [Editors Note: can read the interview here]. Some of the art for Bastei Publishing was done by Studio Ortega in Barcelona, Spain. It’s really hard to find reliable information about the people that worked for José Ortega, who passed away a few years ago. You also have a big problem with the Spanish family names that are quite complicated. It’s very easy to mistake one artist for another. Hopefully our interview with José Maria Ortiz Tafalla will help. We have written some basic information in previous articles, like in No.39. For example, Thomas Opitz did some research and came up with the following “short” names: Puerta, Espinosa, Triay, Padros, Mallol, Subirana, Marcett, Puchades, Chacopino, Bellés, Sanchez and Tafalla. That’s another problem with the Spanish names. The artists often use only one part of their name. Thomas Opitz, who wrote that article back in 2014, found out some factual information and some are just educated guesses based on his research and eye identifying artists style. Here is his research so far: Triay seems to be José Triay Cuencha. Marcett are two artists who collaborated, Alberto Marcet Aparcio (Born August 24, 1930 in Barcelona/Spain) and Manuel Angel Marcett, his son. Chacopino did a lot of covers for other Bastei Publishing series. His complete name was Joaquin Chacopino Fabre (1926-2014). As for the others, we don’t have any more information right now, except José Maria Ortiz Tafalla (*1932), but it’s not very much and we put it into Bastei Freunde Magazine #50. We hope to get some more in the interview, if possible. Over 200 covers were done by Rafael López Espí (Born 1937). He is still active today and has his own website: www.lopezespi.com. So it should be no problem for your readers to find out more about him. [Editors Note: He did card #72 in the recent Gallery Trading Card Series produced by Frew Publishers and included in the Gallery are a sample of his Bastei Publishing Phantom covers] CC: That is simply amazing research and information for all the phans. Thank you for that. Lastly, do you have a place where phans can see your work and buy your Bastei Freunde Magazines and other comics? UW: I do have a website, www.wick-comics.de. There you can see all the covers of the comics I have printed. I have tried to set up another website for the Bastei Freunde Magazine for years now, but I can’t find the time. But when the Phantom project becomes reality, it will be on that website and I of course, will let you guys know. My site is not bilingual, but in German only. It doesn’t make much sense to invest that amount of time when you’re only publishing material in German. But you can contact me in English anytime via the website contact details. CC: We thank you for your time Ulrich, It was a pleasure to get to know you and learn about yourself, Bastei Publishing and the Phantom in Germany. UW: My pleasure. Keep up the great work.

Dan Herman is the owner and publisher at Hermes Press, the world’s leading producer of The Phantom books and comic strip reprints focusing on the art and artists. We’ve been lucky enough to have a chance to chat with Dan and ask him six quick questions about the current publications that Hermes Press have available. ChronicleChamber: Thanks so much for agreeing to join us Dan - we are big fans of your work! Your Phantom books are widely recognised as setting the bar in terms of print quality and workmanship... Are you a Phantom phan yourself, and what made you choose to include The Phantom in the list of titles produced by Hermes Press? Dan Herman: Of course I'm a fan of The Ghost Who Walks! Back in the old days, when comic books were sold on spinners in drug stores I first saw those great George Wilson covers on the Gold Key Phantom and I was hooked (great covers always draw you to a book). The stories never disappointed and I became a long term phan. I sought out the strips, read the King version of the Phantom, which replaced the Gold Key series, and I've loved the character and his world ever since (going on over fifty years now). As to the second part of your question, Hermes Press had been doing archival reprints for some time before we were lucky enough to get our license for The Phantom. Getting a license to reprint the strip from the beginning was at the top of my list and we were fortunate to get the ability to preserve these great stories. CC: Around December last year there seemed to be some concern about the reproduction of the Avon novels, and whether Hermes Press would be able to complete the 15 book series. With four more books published since then, it appears that these concerns have been put to bed and the whole 15 books will be now produced (hopefully with the slipcase to conclude the set)? Can we ask about the timeframe for these? DH: You are correct that I was extremely concerned as our sales fell off after we came out with issue #1. We were lucky that phans are supporting the project because sales picked up so we're able to regularly come out with our reprints — so far we have 8 books in print, but, we need the continued support of Phantom phans everywhere to keep up the project. So far, so good. Also, we ARE going to create a fantastic, huge, box/slipcase for all 15 books when we are finished with the set. I really want to be able to see all 15 books in a great looking slipcase sitting in my library. CC: The President Kennedy’s Mission comic series seems to have been beset by problems after the release of issue #1 last year. We’ve heard that the planned five comic series has been reduced to three, but there has still been no sign of issue #2. Can you provide a little more detail for phans about the delays for this book, and let us know how the is series going? DH: First I loved the idea of using President Kennedy and the Phantom in a story. Add in Russian spies, American astronauts, espionage and mystery and you've got a great story. We signed a great new artist, Sean Joyce to draw the book and veteran Phantom writer Ron Goulart worked on the script. After we got the sales numbers for issue #1, I was surprised. The sale on the book was, to put it mildly, not satisfactory. Doing a quality comic book, using great people is not an inexpensive proposition and we had to rethink the project. The sale on issue #2 was far less than #1 (which is always expected) but the sale has to, at a minimum support the creation and printing of the comic. I made the decision to “fold” issues 3, 4, and 5 into one longer issue. The story was condensed and issue #3 is finished and much longer page-wise than a standard comic story. Instead of printing issues #2 and #3 as separate issues, we are going to issue all three as a graphic novel which will be solicited in Previews next month. Also, everyone who bought issues #2 and #3 from us (with the variants) will receive at no charge the graphic novel instead of the separate issues. I would note that the graphic novel will have a lot of extras and will only be printed as a limited edition hardcover, so our direct customers will be getting a great book. It's my way of saying we appreciate your business and we're always going to make things “right” for people who buy from us. CC: A few phans who have placed (and paid for) pre-orders of The Phantom: The Art of the Ghost Who Walks are beginning to become impatient about the delivery of this book... can you explain your pre-order process and perhaps give an indication of when it will be available for delivery / purchase? DH: First if you pre-order you get it first and if it sells out, as with many of our titles, you are guaranteed getting the book. This book is a very involved project and we went to a number of collectors and scanned the art in their collections. We have original Ray Moore Sundays and dailies, original Wilson McCoy dailies and Sundays, original art by George Wilson, Bill Lignante, Sy Barry, Jim Aparo, Don Newton, and that's just a start. We have covers, splashes, dailies, specialty pieces and illustrations by artists from all around the world who worked and are working on The Phantom. The hold up has been my pursuit of the complete original art for Charlton Phantom #67. I have 13 of the 23 pages: I need pages 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 13, 14, 20, 22 and 23. I've been quietly pursuing these pages from a number of collectors and have put the word out but at this point, I'm just going to send the book to print with the 13 pages we have. We have literally hundreds and hundreds of examples of art including all the Gold Key, King, and Charlton covers in a special gallery in the book. The book will go to press in August and be available in December of this year. CC: In the spiel for The Art of the Ghost Who Walks, it promises to include chapters on all of the artists who have worked on the strip from its beginning in 1936 to the present - we take it to mean that artists up to and including Mike Manley and Jeff Weigel will be featured? DH: The book has chapters divided chronologically and then focuses on the artists during each period. Mike Manley and Jeff Weigel are in the last chapter. CC: We’d love to have a much longer chat with you about your process of collecting and printing the Daily and Sunday Phantom stories, the Charlton, Gold Key and King reprints, and all the challenges that come with the various elements of Phantoming that you do. Can we ask you to join us for an interview on X-Band: The Phantom Podcast sometime in the near future? DH: Of course! I would love to spend as much time as you have talking about my favorite character in comic-dom: the Phantom! SO, hopefully that answers your questions — I'm always ready for more! Thanks so much to Dan for his time in responding to our questions, and to the whole team at Hermes Press for the great work they do. We're really looking forward to a podcast interview in the not too distant future!

In our X-Band: The Phantom Podcast episode #178, we announced that Wick Publications was going to be producing a new Phantom series coming from Germany. Thanks to Ulrich Wick owner and publisher from Wick Publications who has confirmed that the series will be a total of 12 comics starting in May 2021. In our exclusive interview with Peter Mennigen he mentioned that he knew there were several stories that he wrote that was never published. June 2020 saw Bastei Freunde #50 released which featured a story (The Slaves) that was never published with the cancellation of the Bastei Phantom magazine that was re-written into a prose adventure for the magazine. More information and a review found here on the Bastei Fruende #50 issue. Because of the great success and interest of that magazine Wick Publications has purchased a license from KFS to release 22 Phantom stories written by the amazing team of Peter Mennigen and drawn by José María Ortiz Tafalla. The best thing is that five of these 22 stories have never been previously published which is a huge exclusive. One of the five is the full comic version of "The Slaves" story which is what previously appeared in a prose format in Bastei Freunde #50. You can find out more about Ulrich Wick and how he found these previously unpublished Bastei comics by reading our interview with him here. The details of the 12 comics are: Each comic will be around 36 pages long. Majority of the stories will be in black and white as the art was created for that style publishing. Two comics will be in colour with those stories created for the Phantom Spezial series with those stories 28 pages long. These will be issues #6 and #12. Included in each comic will be editorial extras to give the reader more background information about the Bastei series. Priced at €12.50 each ($20Au, $15US, 130Sek) The previously Bastei comics that were published and will be again published are listed below. In some cases confirmed by Ulrick that the stories will be printed using modified titles. The titles of the stories as originally published by Bastei comics are the following: "Die Flußpiraten von Sambesi" (The River Pirates of Sambesi) - in colour "Die Gefangene des Wüstenprinzen" (The Prisoners of the Desert Prince) "Die Erpresser von Paris" (The Blackmailers of Paris) "Der Schatz des wandelnden Geistes" (The Treasure of the Ghost Who Walks) "Eine Rechnung geht nicht auf" (A Sum Doesn't Work) "Die Todeskralle" (The Deadly Claw) "Der Doppelgänger" (The Doppelganger) "Der Gefangene" (The Prisoner) "Der Zwillingsbruder" (The Twin Brother) "Die Bergkrieger" (The Mountain Warriors) "Die Falle am Highway" (The Trap on Highway) "Die Göttin des Todesvulkans" (The Volcano of the Death Goddess) "Der Piratenfreund" (The Pirate Friend) "Der Racheschwur" (The Oath of Vengeance) "Der Hexer von Manhattan" (The Wizard of Manhattan) "Schwarzer Tag für Diamantenhaie" (Black Day for Diamond Sharks) "Der Gefangene des Teufels-Grafen" (The Prisoner of the Devil Count) What will excite many a phan is that the cover art will be produced by Ertuğrul Edirne who was born in in Turkey and now lives in Europe with a very successful career. Ertuğrul recently produced several covers for Turkey publisher Büyülü Çizgi Roman between the years 2013 and 2017. Below is a sample of Ertuğrul's cover art. If you are interested in getting yourself a copy, we would recommend contacting Ulrich Wick at www.wick-comics.de.

There was some excitement this week when Timo Wuerz released his new Phantom cover on Facebook for then an unknown German publisher. Initially many including me thought it may have been a new cover for Wick Publications who earlier this year announced they will be releasing a new series in 2021. We can confirm that is not the case. It looks like King Features again has sold a second license in the same country. The Wick Publications series has been delayed for personal reasons and COVID-19 but will be out early 2022. The new publisher is a comics and music publisher / producer called Zauberstern - their website can be found here and their Facebook here. We will later on try and bring interviews of both the publishers and Timo so you can learn more about them. However in the mean time, according to their announcement, they will be producing new stories including new and classic newspaper strips, other publisher created stories and maybe even their own new stories. We understand the new series will be released first week of January 2022, bi-monthly. The price will be € 9,99 ($16AUD, $12USD & 100 sek). As we learn more details, we will let you know via our website, social media and our X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts.

The COVID pandemic has caused a lot of things to be delayed including the Boss Fight Studio figurines which were originally penned for a 2021 release date. Good news is that after the delays Boss Fight Studio are working on the final tooling and then comes the next stage of the samples being painted. Below are some photos of the current tooling prototypes. While it is still too early to commit to a concrete date for the first wave to be released - Erik Araña did suggest that the first half of 2022 is a realistic date if things continue to move in the right direction. To recap. The contents of wave 1.0, wave 1.5 and wave 2.0 have been announced. They are: Wave 1.0 (available for pre order): Blue Julie Walker as the Phantom 21st Phantom in purple Phantom with Hero in grey(gray) Wave 1.5: 21st Phantom in blue Julie Walker as the Phantom in red Wave 2.0: 11th Phantom in purple Singh Pirate with multiple heads and gear so you could buy several and have multiple pirates for the Phantom to fight. To find out more about Erik Araña and Boss Fight Studio, we recommend watching our X-Band: The Phantom Podcast episode #146. Video is below:

Welcome to our 200th celebration for X-Band: The Phantom Podcast. It has been an amazing ride for the last 8+ years. Chronicle Chamber gives thanks to the past and present hosts in Joe Douglas, Lindsay Walker, Jermayn Parker, Stephen East, Dan Fraser and Matt Kyme along with our many correspondents including Mikael Lyck and Ankit Mitra. To celebrate the 200th, our patreons were invited to chat with the newspaper adventure creators Tony DePaul, Mike Manley and Jeff Weigel. What followed was an amazing two hour chat were they got to field questions to the newspaper creators. Some of the highlights includes Tony gives us a clue of stories a year in the future including us seeing how the 21st Phantom dies (again) which you can listen and watch in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #196A, the return of the Temple of the Gods on Eden plus a story that was directed by Jeffs keen interest in African heritage. Below is a list of topics that was discussed including their time stamps: 3 Minutes: Welcome to the guests 8 Minutes: What does Tony's, Mikes and Jeffs normal day look like? 14 Minutes: The love of drawing 16 Minutes: How Tony DePaul got connected with the Phantom, Ulf Granberg and Egmont 17 Minutes 30 Seconds: Tony DePaul's history with the Phantom 19 Minutes 30 Seconds: The Lore and has Tony ever had any stories rejected or changed? 23 Minutes: Has Jeff and or Mike had anything changed by KFS? 29 Minutes: Possibly why Tony has never had anything changed by KFS 33 Minutes: Inconsistency of the Phantom strip 35 Minutes: Interactions and process between the three creators 37 Minutes: Mike shows us example of script from Tony, Daily originals 39 Minutes: Mike talking about props and references including showing us one he brought. 42 Minutes 30 Seconds: Jeff talking on the time it takes for him to draw a strip 45 Minutes: Jeff talks about that special project for Frew. 47 Minutes 30 Seconds: Jeff as the "canary in the coal mine" 48 Minutes: Mike talking on the time it takes for him to draw a strip 52 Minutes: Mike talks about working with Al Williamson 55 Minutes: Gurans hat and being respecful to Bengallans 57 Minutes: Jeff Weigels New Sunday Story Theme 1 Hour, Minutes: Colonel Weeks and his retirement 1 Hour, 4 Minutes: Zippa Tone, Colouring the strips and the lack of handover 1 Hour 20 minutes: Extremes the creators go to creating our strips 1 Hour 23 Minutes: Phans compared to other fans and their legacy to the Phantom 1 Hour 33 Minutes: Pressure of the strip 1 Hour 37 Minutes: The official Phantom colour 1 Hour 39 Minutes: Restrictions of the strip 1 Hour 43 Minutes: fav or phun stories worked on 1 Hour 50 Minutes: The Phantom is not Batman 2 Hour: When is the 21st Phantom going to die? 2 Hour 6 Minutes: Patreon Draw We would love to hear from you on what you think of what we discussed with Tony DePaul, Jeff Weigel and Mike Manley. and we hope you have a great time listening to the podcast. You can email us at chroniclechamber@gmail.com or chat with us via our social media profiles with your feedback at Facebook, Twitter and or Instagram. Make sure you stay with us and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast and or our YouTube Channel.

With news that volume one is now being shipped, volume two wont be far behind released in the first quarter of 2022. You can pre order via your local comic and book shops, Amazon and of course the Hermes Press website (click here to preorder). The second volume will pick up from volume one and contain issue 3 to either issue 8 or 9 from the regular series (confirmation to come). The front cover is from issue 8. It will of course contain extras like copies of original art, a special interview with artist Luke McDonnell and documentary materials. The stories the volume book will contain are: Issue 3: "Pirates" Issue 4: "Hate, Part 1" Issue 5: "Hate, Part 2" Issue 6: "Waste" Issue 7: "Gold" Issue 8: "Apes" Issue 9: "Trains" Will you be buying these hardcovers? When Chronicle Chamber gets their copies we will record our thoughts in a review. We have been lucky enough to interview both DC creators artist Luke McDonnell and writer Mark Verheiden in our X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts. Below are the video podcast interviews. If you are a phan of this series, these podcasts are a must watch / listen.

Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews the latest Fantomen issue - 2021/22-23 which features the following stories: "Spionskeppet" ("The Spy Ship‎") by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel "Hanta-Häxan" ("The Hanta Witch‎") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Heloise" ("The Name‎") by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Halloweenligan" ("The Halloween Kidnappers") by Claes Reimerthi, George Olesen, and Keith Williams There are also two editorial pieces, one featuring people who have been buried in the Vault of the Missing Men (wiki link) and Queen Heloise from Hanta (wiki link). 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

At the same time Dynamite Entertainment had the Phantom license they also had the license for Doc Savage. Stan Lee labelled Doc Savage as the forerunner to today's modern hero's. Doc Savage first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s as a doctor, scientist, adventurer, detective, and polymath who "rights wrongs and punishes evildoers". It all sounds familiar and makes sense why Dynamite Entertainment would explore a possible crossover. Brent Schoonover (interview here) was asked to create a cover and then some interior art to pitch the idea. Between the inking of the cover and the colouring it was obvious it was not going to go any further due to copyright issues. It never went any further and all parties moved on. Would you have been excited to see it?

5th of October was the date that Mikael Lyck for when the kickstarter campaign starts for the first expansion pack to the popular Phantom card game. (EDIT: The game was backed in just hours). The kickstarter campaign ends Sunday 31 October - still plenty of time to back and reach some stretch goals. CLICK THIS LINK TO BACK NOW The expansion pack is based on the Sunday newspaper story "Terror in Mawitaan" from 2003 written by Tony DePaul and drawn by Graham Nolan. If you want to keep an eye on the campaign you can follow all related news on his Facebook and or Instagram social accounts. Attached below is a video of Mikael informing us of the Kickstarter. Have you backed?

Regal Publishers again have released three issues for October with covers created by popular Vincent Moses Raja and myself. Attached is my review of the three comics. The contents of each comic are: Phantom issue #16 Cover by Vincent Moses Raja "The Jungle Trek" by Tony De Paul and Paul Ryan "The Scoundrel" by Tony De Paul and Paul Ryan Phantom issue #17 (Claes Reimerthi tribute issue) Cover by Ankit Mitra "The Snake Goddess's Island" by Claes Reimerthi and Graham Nolan "The Lion's Head Tamarine" by Claes Reimerthi and Graham Nolan Phantom issue #18 Cover by Ankit Mitra "The Halloween Kidnappers" by Claes Reimerthi, George Olesen, and Keith Williams "The Challenge" by Tony DePaul and Paul Ryan Each issue comes with supplements of a Phantom Sticker by Vincent Moses Raja and Phantom Book Mark and Card by Ankit Mitra based on previous covers. The price for each issue is 200 Indian Rupees which is about: $3.66 Australian Dollars, $2.69 US Dollars, 2.27 Euro & 23.11 Swedish Krona. (Approximate Rates) Due to licensing limitations, Regal can only sell & ship to addresses within India - so for Phans living outside India, I recommend you befriend an Indian Phan & have these books bought & shipped to you by them. If not, FREW are selling some copies of this series via their website, and I'm sure these issues too will show up for order there - although in very limited quantity. Regal has a website you can order from plus an Amazon Storefront for Indian Phans who would like to order these books from Amazon.in For any assistance regarding ordering these books directly from Regal you can contact Regal Publishers here: Regal Publishers Whatsapp & Phone No: +91 94810 52592 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/regalpublishers/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/regalpublishers/ E-mail: regalpublishers@gmail.com

Jason Paulos, is one of the most prolific Frew creators and we have not had him on since 2016 in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #65 when we where introduced to the Phantom by Gaslight series. We learn all about Jason including his history of comic creation including great stories of receiving a photocopy of art from Glenn Lumsden (Glenns Podcast Interview) as a kid and photocopying his first comics while stuck in an office job. One of the interesting parts was when Jason showed us an A3 folder full of unpublished Phantom stories. Some of the other topics we talk about during the 95 minute podcast are: His love for black and white comics How to draw not to rely on colour How he grew up on horror and DC comics in suburban Brisbane His relationship with Glenn Ford and Glenn Lumsden How Jason returned a story back to Frew His views on story telling His views on the American v European panels on page argument How comics should be an escapism Jason Paulos' process on drawing, lettering and colouring his comics About The Gray Malkin Gaslight story Jason talks about his Phantom song and how he wants a phan to create him a music video to it. One other topic is that Jason is after feedback from phans on his Frew #1883 "The Poor People's Plague" story. If you would like to purchase artwork from him you can go to his website and or Facebook and contact him which page your after. Please note that the video is not the best quality as Jason was having some technical difficulties and maybe not for delicate ears with a few F and S Bombs dropped occasionally. We would love to hear from you on what you think of what we discussed with Jason Paulos. You can email us at chroniclechamber@gmail.com or chat with us via our social media profiles with your ideas: Facebook, Twitter and or Instagram. Make sure you stay with us and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast and or our YouTube Channel.

Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews the latest Fantomen Softcover issue for 2021 which features the following stories: "The Slave Market of Mucar" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Queen Samaris XII" by Lee Falk and Bill Lignante "The Golden Sands of Keela-Wee" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "The Lions of Kukhan" by Lee Falk and Sy Barry "Jungle Olympics" Lee Falk and Sy Barry This is the seventh issue from the series and The book themed title is "Hård mot de hårda" is a translation of the old jungle saying "Rough on Roughnecks". As reported here back in April You can order the Swedish book at Adlibris for 135 kr ($20AU & $16US) plus shipping or Dintidning. You can order the Finnish book at Turun Sarjakuvakauppa for 24 Euros ($37AU & $29US). The other method is to do a swap with a Swedish or Finnish phan. 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 latest Fantomen issue - 2021/21 which features the following stories: "Lätta pengar" ("Easy Money") by Michael Tierres and Georges Bess It is dedicated to the memory of writer Claes Reimerthi. "Easy Money" is a 1986 story and has yet to be published in a Frew comic but has been published in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Norway & Sweden. 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

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1996 Phantom movie being released we hold a phan commentary on the movie. This podcast is released on the day the movie was released in Australia. Come and join us as we watch and talk about the movie. Due to legal issues we could not have the video of the Billy Zane 1996 Phantom movie on YouTube, the above video player is just the audio. If you want to watch the video us chatting click here. We would love to hear from you on what you think of what we discussed during this phan commentary. Do you have a solution on how you could change the skulls of Touganda? You can email us at chroniclechamebr@gmail.com or chat with us via our social media profiles with your ideas: Facebook, Twitter and or Instagram. Make sure you stay with us and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast and or our YouTube Channel.