Fantomen Nr.18/1985
by Kari Leppänen
|
- Return of the Scorpia
- Script: Norman Worker
- Art: Kari Leppänen
- First published in Fantomen Nr.18/1985 by Semic, Scandinavia. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Phantom Kingdom.
- This story is reprinted from Frew #872A in 1986. The title was incorrectly translated as Return of the Scorpion, and has been corrected with this reprint.
- The Sinbad Stone
- Script & Art: Graham Nolan
- 159th Sunday newspaper story; 5 Oct 2003 - 28 Mar 2004.
- First Frew appearance
- The Viper God
- Script: Tony De Paul
- Art: George Olesen (pencils) & Keith Williams (inks)
- 210th daily newspaper story; 29 Dec 2003 - 1 May 2004.
- This story is an adaptation of the Egmont story Death in Central Park by Tony De Paul and Joan Boix. The story was originally published in Fantomen (Sweden) and Fantomet (Norway) Nr.12/1998, and then an English translation by Frew in #1209. This is the fourth Swedish story to be adapted from the comic book to the newspaper comic strip medium.
- First Frew appearance
- Message from the Publisher:
Presenting - another fascinating line-up of Phantom adventures in this 100-page special.
Two new stories created in the United States top the bill and are supported by the first complete reprint of the Scandinavian classic, Return of the Scorpia, which was published back in 1987 and has not appeared since.
An accompanying editorial page and the splash page preceding the story tell you more about this adventure which was incorrectly titled the first time around. Script is by the now retired Norman Worker with brilliant art by Kari Leppänen.
Our two new stories are the recent Sunday adventure, The Sinbad Stone and the new daily, The Viper God. Both of these are wholly American creations with art respectively by Graham Nolan and the George Olesen - Keith Williams team.
There's something for everybody in this story line-up - a flashback to an old enemy of The Phantom, a programmed robot which is a perfect likeness of The Ghost Who Walks, ancient history and intrigue and such settings as a remote jungle outpost and New York's famous Central Park.
I know you will be impressed with Graham Nolan's work on the Sunday story. Taking over such an established comics character as The Phantom is always a challenge for even the most highly skilled artists, but Graham has conquered all the challenges, and is now fast approaching the standard set by the great Sy Barry and all who preceded him. He improves with every Sunday adventure and will continue to do so!
To follow this edition we will bring you two more new stories, The Mysterious Commander, with the action taking place in the jungle, featuring the Jungle Patrol and The Grave Robbers set in the highlands of Scotland! These new adventures will appear respectively in Frew #1385 and #1386, with covers by Antonio Lemos. From Frew #1387 onwards we will commence re-publishing a number of Lee Falk classics, all of which will be presented for the first time in their entirety. Where applicable, we will revert to original story titles or retitle these wonderful old adventures to make more sense than in by-gone Frew years. There were so many story titles invented by previous Frew editors! All of these were listed in the 50-year Frew publishing index released in 1998. (See pages 30-32 in the Index). Among the oddest story titles used years ago were such gems as Kidnapped in Egypt and Trapped Under the Sea for two continuing parts of the famous story, The Mysterious Girl and Diana Abducted by Spy Ring and Phantom to the Rescue for two parts of the classic adventure, The Seahorse. One of my special "favourites" will always remain, Frew's second edition back in 1948. The official story title of Queen Asta of Trondelay was changed to In the Tiger's Lair!
With more new Scandinavian adventures and more Lee Falk masterpieces in the works, the lineup looks really strong through to the end of 2004!
|
