In our last Comics & News podcast for 2019, there's a lot to discuss! 2min - Reflecting on Billy Zane 11min - Frew's launch on comiXology 19min - Fantomet's soft cover book sales 23min - Sal Velluto's Lucca prints 25min - Lightning Strikes in Australia 28min - Wulfric Media designs and plans 35min - A new Phantom card game! 48min - Mikael Lyck reviews Fantomen 2019/24, 25-26, and Christmas Album 1hr25 - Frew #1852 - The Sky Band 1hr42 - Frew #1853 - The Pit of Doom 1hr53 - Frew #1854 - Evil Lurks in the Night 2hr02 - Frew #1555 - Blood Rain 2hr14 - Heart of Darkness Ch 6 pts 3 & 4 2hr16 - Giantsize #10 2hr32 - Giantsize #11 2hr37 - Mythos - Em Busca da Cidade Perdida TPB 2hr45 - Appeal to international listeners Enjoy, and Merry Phantoming! #Podcast #XBand #Frew #Egmont #Semic #RayMoore #Mythos #LightningStrikeComics #HermesPress #GlennLumsden #LeeFalk #HenrikSahlström #Fantasma #Fantomen #BillyZane #LucaErbetta #JasonPaulos #JoanBoix #PiddeAndersson #SalVelluto #AnthonySpay

Phantom phans love their collections and are justifiably very proud of them. Some are lucky enough to be able to display their collection around the house or even in a dedicated "Skull Cave". Displaying is important, because no one really wants their collection to be stuck in the back of a cupboard or away in the attic. We also know the importance of being able to store the collection safely and securely to maximise return when or if you sell. Most phans will chase down a t-shirt or two to wear proudly as they walk the streets of the town. However others would rather just collect the clothing, while some phans swear off collecting apparel all together because it can be bulky and difficult to store and display. It is hard to know what is a good solution for storing and displaying clothing. We hope the following video may help provide a few options of possible storage and display solutions for your Phantom clothing. If you're keen to to try the plastic storage sleeves, just search for "ezstack clothes stacker" on your favourite online shopping platform whether that is eBay, Amazon or others, and you will be presented with several options. #CollectorsCorner #Clothing

In a very special episode of X-Band: The Phantom Podcast, we travel to Norway! In this podcast instigated and facilitated by Norwegian comics journalist and lecturer Kristian Hellesund, we hear from the author of The Masks of The Phantom Arild Wærness. Arild tells us about his history with The Phantom, his collaborative writing process, and his great friendship with artist Mike Collins. It may be the first time we've heard from Norwegian creators on the podcast, but hopefully it will not be the last! #XBand #Podcast #JamieJohnson #ArildWaerness #MikeCollins

Kjetil Johnsen, the editor of comics from Egmont Norway recently posted on a comics related Norwegian Facebook group (link here) about the future of the Fantomet Softcover Book after the first two issues was released in 2019. The sales was quoted as been 'unimpressive' by what they had budgeted and hoped for. This is sad as 2018 and early 2019 saw the regular monthly Fantomet magazine being cancelled and long standing newspapers ceasing printing the newspaper stories. This is a problem for all Phantom phans worldwide as we need to fight for the Phantom being published and seen by current and future phans in as many locations as possible! The initial news of the Fantomet Softcover Books was greeted with excitement world wide especially with new stories never seen before in Norway (& Sweden) sourced from around the world including publishers Lighting Strikes and Frew. This was seen as a huge bonus however it seems the pre excitement has not turned into extra sales. Kjetil, has turned to surprising tactic to ask the fans of the Phantom in Norway for their input on ways to ensure the series stays being published. One of the suggestions by Kjetil and the fans who posted on the Facebook thread, was an annual Christmas special much like their Swedish counterparts which is a tradition that the Norwegians have not seen for nearly 20 years. The team of CC is greatly disappointed in hearing this news as we generally were excited about this new series. In response to hearing that sales were unimpressive we chatted with several local phans for their input. The most common problem mentioned was the availability of the book to the public. Many fans apparently could not source the magazine which could have possibly led to lower sales numbers in shops with them sourcing the books online instead. Norway is different to Australia and the USA with their distribution system of magazines and Books. A regular magazine is sold for 4 weeks, and 6 for the softcover books at the local grocery shops. After this period of time, the unsold books are returned and never to be sold any more. This leads to an ongoing problem were physical shops do not stock the books as they do not sell them which then leads to less of a chance for new fans to pick up the book. As far as we understand, the softcover book has not stopped with the editors and decision makers re looking at how they can present and sell a better book for 2020. In the meantime if you are interested in these books for your own collection, we recommend ChronicleChamber phriend Ivan Pedersen who sources and sells Phantom comics from around the world. You can contact him here. #Fantomet #Frew #LightningStrikeComics

Following on from our The Complete Don Newton Charlton Phantom video review, we now review the first such complete compilation produced by Hermes Press. It was released back in 2016 and features the underrated artist Jim Aparo. Jim Aparo is best known for his time with DC Comics through the 1960s and 1970s, working on popular characters such as Batman, Aquaman and the Spectre. However, his first break into the comic book field came via The Phantom for Charlton Comics. He was hired at Charlton by the legendary Dick Giordano, who later lured Jim and other artists to follow him over to DC. Jim Aparo's The Phantom work came during what many phans consider to be the lower point of Charlton's run, but even in the poorer quality comic there are still nuggets of gold to be found. In the video below we review The Complete Jim Aparo Charlton Phantom which features all of Jim's covers and stories digitally remastered to bring us a better and more appealing read. In the video we compare the original Charlton and a Frew Publications reprint against Hermes' remastered version. You can be the judge on the results. You can still purchase the book from Hermes Press website here, as well as other sources like Amazon or Book Depository, and we are sure your Local Comic Store would be able to order in a copy for you. #HermesPress #DanHerman #DickGiordano #JimAparo #DonNewton #Charlton #DC

At the start of every season (Spring, Summer, Autumn [Fall] and Winter) we hold a competition for our loyal Patreon supporters. For the Australian Summer, we have nine (9) signed Frew trading cards to give away to our Patreon winner. The winner gets to choose from the signed cards we have collected. At the time of writing we have signed cards from American artists in Jeff Weigel and Keith Williams. Australians in Paul Mason, Glenn Lumsden, Jason Paulos, Jamie Johnson, Shane Foley, Daniel Picciotto and Marcelo Baez. As well as other overseas artists including Reno Maraquis, Wendell Cavalcanti and Jan Bielecki. We have more coming in time for the winner to choose from. The competition is open exclusively to Patreon supporters of ChronicleChamber.com, the fine folk who help keep this website running with their contribution. The competition will be drawn on Sunday the 1st September and announced via video. How to enter: Current Patreon supporters: Do nothing. You are already entered! Not a current Patreon supporter? Head over to our Patreon page and sign up for as little as $1/month. It's that easy! The raffle draw is random, and Patreons will be entered at a rate of one ticket for each dollar pledged monthly. For instance, supporting at $1/month equals one entry; supporting at $5/month equals 5 entries. Of course, $5/month support also entitles you to access all the Phantom goodies that are stored in our very own Major Treasure Room, the Phantom Preservation Project (P3). #Patreon #TradingCards #Frew #JeffWeigel #KeithWilliams #JasonPaulos #DrPaulMason #JamieJohnson #GlennLumsden #ShaneFoley #DanielPicciotto #MarceloBaez #RenoManiquis #WendellCavalcanti #JanBielecki

I was lucky enough to attend the 2019 Lucca Comics & Games Convention in Italy. As written about on Chronicle Chamber it is huge, the largest comics festival in Europe. For those who have attended Sydney Supanova, this is 100 times as big with booths and people. This has been the second time I have attended and following are a bunch of photos and reports from my time at the festival. While the Phantom does not have a huge current imprint in the Italian and Southern Europe market, if you look hard enough you will find everything from back issues of Fratelli Spada comics, Phantom related articles in high quality magazines like Fumetto and by Associazione la Nona Arte and of course the prints, sketch covers and consignments by artists like Massimo Gamberi , Eugenio Mattozzi and Sal Velluto . I was lucky enough to have several lunches and coffees with these artists both together and separately, on occasions when their convention commitments allowed them to. One time I had lunch with Eugenio Mattozzi , his wife Kusum Happawana , Sal Velluto and Angelo, a young historian originally from Sal’s home town of Taranto. At the end of the lunch Eugenio showed me some work from his portfolio. I liked his photo-realistic style and loved the clarity of his pencil work. He is available for commissions via his email here . Eugenio can do it all with pencils, inks and of course colours. He is also a complete gentlemen and always has time for phan boys like us. One special lunch we spent together was our own mini memorial lunch with classic Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorer's Club trappings, including place mats and serviettes from past dinners donated by Bradley and Joyful Peach . Sal Velluto and Luca Giorgi attended with Massimo Gamberi arriving late in time-honoured LFMBEC style. My wife Susan, wearing her Good Mark pendant, dressed the table while I fumbled through a milk toast to The Phantom. Then we had a marvelous luncheon with almost two hours of chatting about the Phantom and comics in general. It was a great time. I was taken aback and very grateful when Eugenio gifted to me the beautiful pencil Phantom piece pictured above. My thanks goes out to Eugenio. A tangible reminder to reinforce the memories of a wonderful Lucca! Attached below are a few other photos from the convention and the many other coffee stops to get us through long days. Editors Note: We thank Anthony and the boys for sharing their experiences with us over the convention. If you attend any conventions and want to report on the Phantom at the convention, please get in touch with us. #LuccaComics #LucaGiorgi #MassimoGamberi #SalVelluto #EugenioMattozzi #Spada #Fumetto #LFMBEC

In Fantomen 22-23/2019, we see an advert informing us that their next issue will feature a new Phantom artist named Anthony Spay. Anthony is an American artist who grew up in Swarthmore, PA, near Philadelphia. Anthony completed his undergrad at Gettysburg College and graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with an MFA in Sequential Art. Anthony Spay's credits include Zenescope Entertainment, Legendary: X-Men Deck Building Game, Lady Death, covers for Dynamite Entertainment and as well his own projects including "New and Improved" which was part of a Kickstarter campaign in 2008. We have already seen some of his Phantom work in the recent The Phantom Gallery - Series 2 trading card set. The exciting thing is that not only is Anthony drawing stories for Team Fantomen with his first story appearing in Egmont issue 24/2019 (due November 14, 2019) but he also has some Frew work in the pipeline. Below we have the original inked black and white version of the trading card and the coloured production version of the trading card. Anthony was first introduced to the Phantom through the newspaper strips as a lot of USA comic lovers were, but also the ever-popular Marvel Defenders of the Earth TV show that featured the Phantom fighting to survive the earth with other King Features Syndicate characters of Flash Gordon, Mandrake and Lothar. As it happened, Anthony rediscovered the Phantom with the Moonstone's publishing history on the Phantom. Soon the Phantom began to follow him with a colleague at Zenescope by the name of EricJ who had also worked on Moonstone's Phantom. This and a desire to draw the Phantom in the jungle saw Anthony seek out both Egmont and Frew for the opportunity to draw the Phantom. Soon we will see that passion in our fortnightly comics. Anthony will be featured on a future Chronicle Chamber podcast chat as more of his Phantom work becomes available to readers around the world. We thank Anthony for his time - you can view more of his work at his Facebook and Instagram profile. #AnthonySpay #TeamFantomen #Frew #Moonstone #DynamiteEntertainment #DefendersoftheEarth #Marvel #FlashGordon #Mandrake #EricJ

ChronicleChamber discusses all the latest Phantom news from around the world, including detailed reviews of recent releases from Frew, Egmont, Mythos and Hermes Press. 2m45 - Steve's Lightning Strike visit 6m45 - Stevo's Choice 10m50 - Billy Zane in Australia 17m50 - Sal Velluto prints 20m20 - Brazilian products; Ludi 22m20 - Pod66 apparel 24m55 - Guy Possaint cards 27m50 - News strip creative team, health 30m10 - Lightning Strike news 33m25 - Hermes Press & JFK 35m40 - Phantom in Hungary 40m50 - Comics reviews 42m10 - Fantomen 2019-20 44m05 - Fantomen 2019-21 47m15 - Fantomen 2019-22/23 49m40 - Fantomen Noir 53m05 - Frew #1849 1hr02m40 - Frew #1850 1hr22m50 - Frew #1851 1hr27m25 - Frew Phantom's World #10 1hr43m25 - Mythos O Fantasma #1 & Cronicas do Fantasma #1 1hr49m35 - Hermes Press - Sundays Vol 6 1956-1960 Enjoy and as always, Happy Phantoming! #Podcast #XBand #Frew #Egmont #Semic #RayMoore #Mythos #LightningStrikeComics #HermesPress #MattKyme #GlennLumsden #WilsonMcCoy #LeeFalk #GrangeWallis #HenrikSahlström #Fantasma #Fantomen #BillyZane

Wulfric Media have just announced the release of a prestige collection of Phantom jewellery. In the set are two variations of a Skull Mark and a Good Mark ring, as well as a unique pair of Jungle Patrol dog tags. The pieces are designed by John Evans, a bespoke jeweller with over 30 years experience, and produced by his Gold Coast business ParaMount Jewellers.. Some phans might feel the line is reminiscent of Bradford Country's Phantom range from the early 2010's. They are certainly eye-catching, and the personalisation available (ring sizes and dog tag engraving) will appeal to many. Right now, Wulfric are asking for a presales commitment. At this stage buyers need to send an email registering interest and committing to an order. Only once 70 commitments have been received will you be asked for the money. After all money is received, Wulfirc will be able to start production. Once initial orders are filled, Wulfic will be in a position to take orders on demand. As the items are locally produced in Australia, delivery will be 7-10 days for these secondary orders. Why 70 commitments? Covering costs for the King Features licensing fees. Pre-approval has been granted, with their sighting of the final models the final hurdle. These models will be produced and submitted to KFS in the next week, with Wulfric promising a video of the prototypes. Future plans once this line is underway include a woman’s line with rings and pendants as well. To help meet licensing requirements and get this project happening for all phans, visit their Facebook page and email Wulfric to be sent an order form and ring sizing guide. #WulfricMedia #GlennFord #BradfordExchange #KingFeaturesSyndicate

Continuing the resurgence of Phantom comic publishing around the world, after a quarter of a century our favourite character has returned to the nation of Hungary. This follows the return to Spain (via Dolmen Editorial in 2018) and Brazil (via Mythos earlier this year). In the late 1980's, Swedish publisher Semic tried to expand their titles in various nations around Europe like Russia, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Most of these forays into other nations only lasted 4-8 issues, but for whatever reason Hungary was by far the most successful with 25 comics released from 1988 until 1992 on a bi-monthly basis. Now after 27 years, a magazine called Kockás is back publishing the Phantom. The Kockás magazine will be publishing bi-monthly in a magazine format featuring 116 pages of American and European comics. Alongside the Phantom some well known characters like Scorpia, Cat Claw, Modesty Blaise, Rip Kirby and Lucky Luke and many others will also feature. The first issue featuring the Phantom was published 15 October 2019 and sports a black and white cover featuring Modesty Blaise. The first story is a Team Fantomen story Revenge of the Drummer by Norman Worker and art by Knut Westad. This is a sequel story to the 1963 Daily newspaper Sy Barry / Lee Falk classic The Drummer of Timpenni. We have been told that future issues will also feature classic Newspaper stories. Below are two examples of the Phantom being featured in the first magazine, with a huge half-page splash and the first page of the Newspaper story. We can also announce that the Phantom will be making an appearance on the front cover of the first magazine for 2020, as you can see in the advertisement below. Kockás does offer subscriptions which you can organise through their website here. #Semic #Kockás #SyBarry #LeeFalk #Dailys #TeamFantomen #Mythos #DolmenEditorial #BaneKerac

In a huge breakthrough for Australia's Frew Publications, one of their locally commissioned stories has been published by an international comic book producer. This is the first time this has happened in Frew's 71-year history. Hero Complex, penned by Duncan Munro, illustrated by Jeff Weigel, and published in Frew #1832, has been made available to Norwegian audiences by Egmont in issue 2 of their Nye Fantomet historier magazine, released earlier this month. The story has been rebranded with Flammens rov used as the Norwegian title; this can be translated into English as "The Prey of the Flame". While Australian audiences are accustomed to the American-created newspaper stories and Scandinavian-created Team Fantomen stories being republished on their shores, this is the first time a story has gone back the other way. Without doubt this marks an important step for Frew, further validating the move into broader creation of their own stories. For the benefit of audiences around the world who may soon have the opportunity to enjoy this new source of Phantom tales, as well as for the benefit of the Australian publisher who no doubt would appreciate the revenue stream, we hope that this is just the first of many stories that gets picked up by publishing houses around the globe. As a pleasant little footnote to this post, we note that Norwegian phan, aficionado and colourist Ivan Pedersen has contributed an editorial on Phantom collecting. In his writing, Ivan is nice enough to feature ChronicleChamber's own Jermayn Parker, including photos of his collection, and also provides a little plug for this website. The English translation of this can be seen exclusively below. Many thanks to Kristian Hellesund for his help with translating the story title, and to Ivan Pedersen for his generous contribution via writing and providing the translated editorial. #Fantomet #Frew #DuncanMunro #JeffWeigel #TeamFantomen #IvanPedersen

Recently we were made aware of new licensed merchandise products released last year in Brazil branded and released by Ludi. Unfortunately we missed the original release date and there is only three different items in the line. The three items are a Ceramic Mug, a Travel Thermal Mug and a Pillow which all feature collages of several Sy Barry artwork from Daily Newspaper Stories. It is a nice change to see something different from the normal KFS licensed style guide collection we have been seeing for the last 10-20 years. Unfortunately, you can not purchase these from Ludi or some of the other ecommerce home-ware websites from Brazil but you can purchase from Brazil's Mercado Livre which is their equivalent of eBay. Generally the Pillow and Travel Mug will cost you around 40BRL ($15AUD & 10USD) each and the Ceramic Mug will cost you around 65BRL ($23AUD & $15USD). However with any online auction website you can pay less and more depending on shipping, taxes etc. Mercado Livre can ship overseas but we would recommend contacting a Brazil Phantom phriend and getting them to purchase these items for you. The other note of caution is that Brazil's postage system is sub standard at best with export and import taxes and super slow service to Australia and elsewhere. #SyBarry #KingFeaturesSyndicate

They're the classic debates you'll hear wherever phans gather to discuss their favourite Phantom stories, characters, comics and collectibles. Do you prefer colour or black & white? Who's your favourite publisher? Who's your favourite artist? To spice up the conversation it's a Sophie’s Choice: we pose a Phantom question with only two answers. Once you've made your selection, the other is lost to you forever! We hope you enjoy the debates and leave you to ponder the questions.... What would you choose and why? We also wrap up #130 with a shoutout to our newest Patreons and a reminder of the latest additions to the Phantom Preservation Project (P3). Happy Phantoming! #Podcast #XBand #RayMoore #WilsonMcCoy #DonNewton #Frew #Egmont #Semic #Dailys #Sundays

The Phantom will be represented at the Lucca Comics & Games Convention, the annual comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy. Tickets are selling fast for the event, this year held from 30th October - 3rd November. Lucca Comics is the largest comics festival in Europe. At the time of writing 100,000 tickets have already been sold for the five-day convention. In 2016, 275,000 people attended the convention. We are delighted to confirm that a host of Phantom creators will be present at the convention. None other than Phantom royalty and ambassador Sal Velluto, the legendary Italian-American artist and guest on our very own X-Band: The Phantom Podcast (#125) will be attending. He proudly joins friends and local Italian talent such as colourist Eugenio Mattozzi, FREW Publications story and cover artist Massimo Gamberi, and Luca Giorgi, who has worked on several stories with Massimo. Sal will be attending the convention in an official capacity promoting his new story for Zagor, published by Sergio Bonelli Editore with a special issue of the SCLS Fanzine dedicated to Sal and his new project. Massimo and Luca will be at the "ANAFI - Amici del Fumetto" booth. For those keen-eyed phans, Fumetto releases a monthly magazine devoted to comics, and last year released a special issue dedicated to The Phantom, with a beautiful cover by Massimo (pictured right). Sal Velluto himself was featured in issue #51 from 2004, focusing on his work for Marvel and DC. Phriend of ChronicleChamber,com, Anthony Gillies, will be attending Lucca. He'll be reporting and taking photographs of the convention from a Phantom perspective for us. Ticket details, locations of these Phantom luminaries, and all other Lucca-related information can be found at the Lucca Comics & Games Convention website. #LuccaComics #MassimoGamberi #SalVelluto #LucaGiorgi #Fumetto #Frew #EugenioMattozzi