New@FREW

Release Date: 16 June 2006

• Pages: 36
• Price: $2.50 inc. GST
• Cover: the photocopier
• No Phantom Forum in this issue

• The Shadow
  • Script: Claes Reimerthi
  • Art: Kari Leppänen
  • First published in Fantomen Nr.11/2006 by Egmont, Scandinavia. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Ulf Granberg.

• Message from the Publisher:
  Claes Reimerthi and Kari Leppänen team up again on another story appearing for the first time in a Frew edition!
  The Shadow is a mysterious adventure which takes you back to the days of the 14th Phantom. Reimerthi has stretched Lee Falk's official Phantom history a little in his script! The 14th Phantom, according to Lee's story, The Phantom Cowboy (1994), married Jeanette Lafitte and not, as Reimerthi tells us, "Marie Claire". Lee never told us how the 14th Phantom died, yet according to Reimerthi, he was killed by Singh Pirates who somehow infiltrated the Jungle Patrol! Again, according to Lee's official history, the Jungle Patrol was formed in 1664, a century or more before the time zone chosen by Reimerthi for his story.
  However, we have been down this path many times before! Lee Falk, possibly deliberately, left many blank spaces in the history of The Phantom and it is just too tempting for modern writers to attempt to guess at what might have happened (to not only many Phantoms, but their wives)! Officially, Lee detailed the deaths of only nine of the first 20 Phantoms and rarely referred to the fate of the wives! Like so many devotees, I live in the hope that one day someone will stumble on the master plan Lee may have created, which would fill in all the gaps. Best we forget the official Lee Falk history and simply concentrate on The Shadow, Reimerthi has created a very tight script and has buried one vital clue which you may spot before the climax! Leppänen's art is brilliant! Enjoy!

  [Comment from Guran: For further interest, read Hans Christian Andersen's story The Shadow which is referred to on the final page of this comic.]

Jim Shepherd
Publisher