New@FREW



Frew #1429
by Hans Lindahl & Jim Shepherd
#1429
(this edition is the 1457th actually printed)

Release Date: 28 Oct 2005

  • Pages: 36
  • Price: $2.50 inc. GST
  • Cover: Hans Lindahl & Jim Shepherd
  • No Phantom Forum in this issue

Fantomen Nr.20/2005
by Hans Lindahl

  • The Redeemer Pt.2: The Farm
    • Script: Claes Reimerthi
    • Art: Hans Lindahl
    • First published in Fantomen Nr.20/2005 by Egmont, Scandinavia. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Ulf Granberg.

  • Message from the Publisher:
    In this issue we return to Lubanga ("The Redeemer") in a story with the innocent title, The Farm.
    The title of this adventure is, as you are about to discover, completely misleading, because there is absolutely nothing innocent about the plot or most of the characters! Writer Claes Reimerthi and artist Hans Lindahl have combined to produce a blood-curdling nightmare of a story! President Luaga is once again at risk of ending up in political exile, Lubanga's henchmen use alligators and poison gas to deal with anybody who dares oppose them and The Phantom discovers that Sarah (whom you will remember as "Miss Mist" from a story published in 2000) has been recruited by Lubanga's maniacs, brainwashed - and turned into a merciless killer! Even The Phantom is not about to get off lightly! Read on - and prepare yourself for some shocks!
    Claes Reimerthi has drawn on many real-life events to create this story. Anybody remember the thoroughly weird story of 1978 involving the American religious cult, The People's Temple? In 1976, the cult's leader, the Rev. Jim Jones, induced 1000 of his followers to move to the deep jungle of Guyana and establish an agricultural commune he called Jonestown. When rumours were heard about Jones turning from a philanthropist into a dictator and rehearsing his followers in acts of self-destruction, US Congressman Leo Ryan and five aides went to Guyana in 1978 to investigate. Jones had all six killed and then ordered his followers to commit suicide by drinking a soft drink laced with cyanide. Amazingly, 913 members followed his orders in almost certainly, the world's largest instance of mass suicide. Jones shot himself and left a note describing the deaths as "an act of revolutionary suicide"! There are overtones of that in The Farm. And - the methods used to force President Luaga to resign are all too familiar to anybody with even a slight interest in modern politics - including the state and Federal political scene in Australia! It's all heavy stuff!
    In our next edition (on sale 4 November), we will continue the saga of Lubanga and his followers versus The Phantom. There are more twists and turns than you can possibly imagine! Lubanga is now emerging as the nastiest villain (with the possible exception of Kabai Singh) in the long history of The Phantom. Yet, there is something magnetic about his character. So magnetic, in fact, that I doubt if he will ever simply fade away! Remember that Lubanga possesses many very special powers. He could disappear without trace in an instant and he could easily fake his own "death". So, not only for The Phantom, but the script writers, Lubanga is now a major worry! He is such an important character that the story creators would be loathe to dispense with him! It's an interesting situation. Think about how many charismatic Lee Falk created evil characters disappeared, never to return - Mr. Hog, Sala, the Gurk Twins, the Gibs brothers, all the Scorpia gang, just to mention some. Now we have the most evil of all the villains - and Phantom fans simply cannot get enough of him! My guess is that no matter what fate awaits him; Lubanga is in for the long haul!

Jim Shepherd
Publisher


Future issues planned as of 21 Oct 2005 (subject to change without notice):

Check the New@Egmont and The Missing Semic Stories pages for details of other upcoming stories.

My thanks to the staff of Frew Publications for providing this information.


More Frew stuff ...



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Bryan Shedden / guran@deepwoods.org
Last updated 23 October 2005