Fantomen Nr.6/2005
by Hans Lindahl
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- The Secret Singh Leader
- Script: Claes Reimerthi
- Art: César Spadari
- First published in Fantomen Nr.6/2005 by Egmont, Scandinavia. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Ulf Granberg.
- Message from the Publisher:
Presenting - The Secret Singh Leader, the third-last episode in our saga of an injured Phantom battling the odds as he lurches from one crisis to another. Claes Reimerthi's engrossing script is, as always, perfectly illustrated by César Spadari. Covers for this edition are by Antonio Lemos.
*** START SPOILER WARNING ***
As promised in an earlier issue, we again meet up with the dreaded General Bababu, catch sight of the hooded "secret" Singh Leader, encounter one of the Phantom's forefathers and find The Phantom confronting President Lamanda Luaga with an alarming accusation!
*** END SPOILER WARNING ***
In our next edition (#1412, on sale 8 April), we will bring you the next-to-Iast episode of the story. The story title is In The Shadow Of Death. Script is by Claes Reimerthi and art by Hans Lindahl. The 21st Phantom comes as close to death as humanly possible in this episode - and there is one more part of the story - The Mysterious Wreck - to come! The Mysterious Wreck is illustrated by "Roy Mann" (aka our old friend Felmang). We will have a short interval before the presentation of the grand climax, because we have a 100-page edition to schedule. This will be edition #1413, which will go on sale on 22 April. The 100-pager will feature another new (to Australia at least) Scandinavian story, the new American Sunday adventure by Graham Nolan and two Lee Falk-Sy Barry classics which have been out of print for almost six years. That will be followed by The Mysterious Wreck which will hit the newsstands on 6 May.
There is now a cloud of sadness hanging over all the Phantom excitement. Veteran English Phantom writer Norman Worker passed away early in February. Over the years, Frew published many of his stories which were originally written for the Semic/Egmont publishing organisation. The first Norman Worker story presented by Frew was The Ghost Pirates (art by Jaime Vallvé) which appeared in our issue #765 back in 1983. The last of his stories published by Frew was The Avenger From The Sea, illustrated by Georges Bess, which appeared in our 2004 Christmas Special. The last Phantom story written by Norman before his retirement was The Horn of Roland (art by Carlos Cruz), which appeared in Frew #1379 early last year. Over the years, Frew published more than 60 of Norman's stories and arguably, none were more famous than the five-part, The Mystery of The Golden Rune and The Black Fire which appeared in 1989. The latter title was a two part adventure which brought The Phantom to Australia for the very first time! It was set in the early years of the settlement of Australia and was remarkable for two things - writer Norman Worker was an Englishman and the artist was Carlos Cruz, a Spaniard!
Norman Worker wrote Phantom stories for Semic and Egmont for more than 30 years and little known is that like another Phantom comics writer, the late Donne Avenell, he also worked as a ghost writer for Leslie Charteris (creator of The Saint) and wrote some comic books based on the character and some Saint paperback novels which always carried Charteris' byline. Norman was only 77 when he died in hospital near his home at Brighton in the south of England. All at Frew extend the deepest sympathy to his wife, daughters and son.
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