Fantomen Nr.17/1989
by Hans Lindahl
|
- The Mysterious Inheritance
- Script: Michael Tierres (aka Claes Reimerthi)
- Art: Hans Lindahl
- First published in Fantomen Nr.17/1989 by Semic, Sweden. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Ulf Granberg.
- The Iron Python
- Script: Tony De Paul
- Art: Graham Nolan
- 161st Sunday newspaper story; 3 Oct 2004 - 27 Mar 2005.
- First Frew appearance
- This story was adapted by Tony De Paul from his Egmont story The Ghost Train that was originally illustrated by Heiner Bade. The story was first published by Egmont in Fantomen (Sweden) and Fantomet (Norway) Nr.17/1997, but has not been published by Frew.
- The Swamp Dragon
- Script: Lee Falk
- Art: Sy Barry
- 101st Sunday newspaper story; 26 Dec 1976 - 17 Apr 1977.
- Previous Frew appearances: #624 (1977), #836 (1985), #1219 (1999)
- The Hunters
- Script: Lee Falk
- Art: Sy Barry
- 102nd Sunday newspaper story; 24 Apr - 7 Aug 1977.
- Previous Frew appearances: #624 (1977), #836 (1985), #1248 (1999)
- Message from the Publisher:
Presenting - our first 100-page special for 2005 - a collection of two new stories and two complete Lee Falk-Sy Barry classics.
We lead off with The Mysterious Inheritance, written by Michael Tierres (aka Claes Reimerthi) and illustrated by Hans Lindahl. This originally appeared in Scandinavia in 1989, but is published in Australia for the first time in this edition. Reimerthi's script is not only clever, but fast moving and Lindahl has captured the essence of the story with his innovative use of panel designs, duotone and offbeat angles which stress the sea action and the weird landscape of Bird-of-Prey Island. Aspiring comics and commercial artists should study his techniques, because some of his stormy ocean scenes and perspective shots on Bird-of-Prey Island are absolutely brilliant. Take a good look at Aunt Maggie if you are endeavouring to create a comics villain! Have you ever seen a more evil female character than Maggie?
Our second new story is the most recent Sunday adventure, The Iron Python, written by Tony De Paul and illustrated and lettered by Graham Nolan. There are touches of an old Lee Falk story in this adventure. See if you can spot it!
Our two golden oldie stories are Swamp Dragon and The Hunters, both created by Lee Falk and Sy Barry in the period 1976-77. Both have been out of print for some time and both have been reproduced from the original masters so that for the first time, they appear in their entirety and in far better quality than In previous impressions. Swamp Dragon immediately preceded The Hunters in Lee Falk's Sunday chronology and the stories dovetail into one.
Lee Falk wrote both stories at a time when he was unimpressed by the almost fanatical American enthusiasm for hunting and the equally fanatical growth of gun ownership demands by those who clung, limpet-like, to the "right to bear arms" clause contained in the American Constitution. Lee Falk was one of the most patriotic Americans I have ever met and he was proud to have served in the armed forces in World War Two. Yet, he never took a backward step when he thought that certain "rights" of his fellow Americans were possibly morally questionable. There were many stories written by Lee in which he clearly stressed his reservations about widespread gun ownership. To that end, he continually depicted The Phantom shooting weapons out of the hands of rough necks and going to extreme lengths to avoid having The Ghost Who Walks wounding or killing animals, let alone human beings! Interestingly, one of his lifelong friends was movie actor Charlton Heston, a fervent supporter of the National Rifle Association and in later years after these stories appeared, a lobbyist for the NRA. What Heston thought of The Hunters story has never been revealed, but to his credit, it had no effect on his long friendship with Lee!
In both stories, artist Sy Barry displays his brilliance at depicting animals (one of the great passions of his long artistic life was being always accurate with his images of animals and to that end, he maintained a huge library of reference books and National Geographic magazines).
Our next issue will be #1414, on sale 6 May, which will feature the new story, The Mysterious Wreck. This is the official end of the long series about The Phantom and his largely imaginary battle with the Singh Pirates. Script is by newcomer Magnus Seter and art is by Romano Felmang.
|
