Fantomen Album (1980)
by Rolf Gohs
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- Flame
- Script: Norman Worker
- Art: Georges Bess
- First published in a special Fantomen Album (1980) by Semic, Scandinavia. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Phantom Kingdom.
- Zabadabah
- Script: Lee Falk
- Art: Sy Barry
- 162nd daily newspaper story; 14 Sep 1987 - 16 Jan 1988.
- Previous Frew appearance: #905 (1988).
- The Snake Goddess's Island
- Script: Claes Reimerthi
- Art: Graham Nolan
- 157th Sunday newspaper story; 6 Oct 2002 - 30 Mar 2003.
- First Frew appearance
- Message from the Publisher:
In this special 100-page edition we bring you three stories, headed by the long and unpublished Scandinavian classic, Flame.
Backing the lead is another new story, the American Sunday adventure, The Snake Goddess's Island and to round off the issue, we present the first complete version of the 1987-88 Lee Falk-Sy Barry thriller, Zabadabah.
Flame is an unusual and long, at 44 pages, blockbuster which was first published in 1980, but never before by Frew. The story is by Norman Worker, the art by Georges Bess and the action is non-stop.
The Snake Goddess adventure is slightly off-beat, with some fine art by Graham Nolan and it seems Graham is likely to take us back to this forbidding island, because the story ending is left up in the air.
Possibly of most interest to enthusiasts will be the first complete printing of the Lee Falk-Sy Barry thriller Zabadabah. The splash page gives you all the historic detail, but of special interest is the art. It is obvious that Sy Barry had some assistance on this project (not unusual in the comics profession, because even the top artists need either a holiday break or some help to make always demanding deadlines). Study the art in Zabadabah carefully and you will spot many variations to Sy's always smooth and immaculate style! This alone makes the story a collectible, because during his long career illustrating daily and Sunday Phantom stories, Sy only resorted to outside help as a last resort.
[Comment from Guran: Sorry Jim, but this statement is a bit misleading. Sy Barry nearly always had assistance from other artists. Sy's role was mainly on the inking where he maintained an overall style on the strip. Perhaps what Jim meant to say was that there are some occasions in this story where it appears that Sy's assistants did all of the artwork, including the inking. See for example the strips from Sep 30 to Oct 3 1987 on pages 51-52, which were probably pencilled by George Olesen and inked by Andre LeBlanc.]
Covers for this issue came from the drawing board of Antonio Lemos. On the subject of covers, see if you can spot a subtle difference to Frew's standard cover format. (If you have already decided there is a difference, but cannot pinpoint it, look again at the main story heading. We liked the look of the Flame story title in the original comic art so much, we decided to use it on the front cover!)
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