Fantomen Nr.4/1977
by Rolf Gohs
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- The Kali Sect
- Script: John Bull a.k.a. Norman Worker
- Art: Jaime Vallvé
- First published in Fantomen Nr.4/1977 by Semic, Scandinavia. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Phantom Kingdom.
- Buried Alive
- Script: Donne Avenell
- Art: Hans Lindahl
- First published with the title The Zombie Gang in Fantomen Nr.4/1983 by Semic, Scandinavia.
- This story is reprinted from Frew #853A in 1986.
- Wildman from Bengali
- Script: Donne Avenell
- Art: Hans Lindahl
- First published with the title The Wild Beast in Fantomen Nr.12/1986 by Semic, Scandinavia.
- This story is reprinted from Frew #906 in 1988.
- Message from the Publisher:
Some great reading in this 100-page special with a new story, The Kali Sect, topping the bill, supported by two classics, Buried Alive and Wildman from Bengali!
The lead story is written by England's Norman Worker (who sometimes signed as "John Bull", when this story was first published in Scandinavia in 1977) and art is by Jaime Vallvé. The Kali Sect is one of a select group of adventures Frew recently obtained from the Egmont publishing group in Stockholm.
The other two stories are reprints, but both have been in constant demand for many years. Buried Alive and Wildman from Bengali were both written by the late Donne Avenell and illustrated by Hans Lindahl and made their only appearances in Frew No 853A (1986) and No 906 (1988) respectively. In their first (and to date) only printings, no credits were given writer or artist. This has now been remedied and the splash pages for both stories have been slightly modernised.
Art students especially will enjoy analysing Lindahl's renderings! In the reasonably short space of time between the original Scandinavian appearances of both stories, Lindahl's style became slicker and the differences are very apparent in Wildman from Bengali.
However, our previously unpublished lead story is probably the most fascinating of the three. It has absolutely everything! Fantastic locations, tension, dramatic action and yet another revelation about one of the hundreds of priceless objects held in The Phantom's Treasure Room. You will enjoy discovering what happened to the character Piroo the saddler, who first meets The Phantom in a castle cell. Piroo is a member of the Kali sect who falls very much out of favour and is clearly destined for torture and execution. There are, you will discover, some similarities between the followers of the Kali Sect and Lee Falk's old Thuggee gang! Likewise, Kali, or at least the stone idol depicting the goddess, bears some resemblance to other stone idols featured in a few of Lee's older stories.
In our next edition, (The First Assignment, on sale on 28 March), we will bring you another new story and one with a vital difference! While there are many flashbacks to The Phantom, the adventure really revolves around Kit and Heloise, both in the present and the future - and Old Mozz. Mozz gives both youngsters a look into their futures and for Heloise especially, the future may not be too bright! The story is mysterious, full of action - and not a little disturbing! The story has been written by Ben Raab and illustrated by Romano Felmang, who has turned in some masterly art. That will be followed by yet another new story, The Weapon of Terror, (on sale 4 April) which has been written and illustrated by Hans Lindahl.
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