New@FREW



Frew #1464
by the photocopier
#1464
(this edition is the 1492nd actually issued)

Release Date: 8 December 2006

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

Fantomen Nr.25/2006
by Paul Ryan & Tom Smith

  • Temple of the Gods Pt.4 Servant of Evil
    • Script: David Bishop
    • Art: Paul Ryan (credit is given to Dick Giordano for inking, but Paul Ryan has assured me that he was responsible for all the art on this story and Giordano had no role at all)
    • First published in Fantomen Nr.25/2006 by Egmont, Scandinavia. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Ulf Granberg.

  • Message from the Publisher:
    The long-running saga of The Temple of the Gods mystery continues in this issue! Writer David Bishop has come up with an engrossing script illustrated by Paul Ryan. The Third Phantom is seen in action in Egypt and what happens is a flashback follow-on to previous stories published by Frew, the last of which was Temple of the Gods - The Secret Sect, which appeared in edition #1445.
    In case you missed any of the previous episodes, the mystery of The Temple of the Gods revolves around a secret Egyptian temple discovered on the Isle of Eden. It all began in a story called The U-Boat Mystery published last year (#1418). A German scientist called Mina Braun recovers an ancient scroll which contains directions to the forgotten temple, originally discovered by the third Phantom. The 21st Phantom recovers the scroll from Mina, who translates it from hieroglyphics to English and together they discover that the ancient Egyptians had used the temple to experiment on the creation of a race of super beings. In The Secret Temple on Eden story in Frew #1434, the 21st Phantom actually sees some of the super beings, who have animal heads on human bodies! Other than explaining as much as he knows to his children and Guran, he makes the decision to retain the third Phantom's hieroglyphic account of the strange happenings to keep the mystery safely within the Chronicles library in the Skull Cave. So much was left unexplained that the matter could not simply rest there. See also Frew #1445 for Part 3 of this series, with the story called The Secret Sect.
    In this new story, David Bishop takes us back to the days of the third Phantom and this old/new adventure set in ancient Egypt as he visits the country with Zuran, a predecessor of Guran. You are about to learn more of the mysterious super-beings, but at the end of the story it becomes crystal clear there will be more parts to this story! The mystery of the super-beings is a long way from being solved! Hopefully, the next time we revisit this enthralling story will be early in 2007.
    Meanwhile, you can look forward to Frew's 100-page Christmas edition which will go on sale on 15 December, followed by another new story called Murder in the Eyes, on sale on 5 January 2007 and then, our traditional Annual Special which will be on the newsstands on 12 January 2007. Murder in the Eyes actually has a Christmas flavour to it, but for reasons you will appreciate when it is published, we decided to hold it over until after Christmas Day!
    I can promise you a really superb 2007 Annual Special next year! The edition will be crammed with nine or ten (more, hopefully!) Lee Falk classics plus one new American story and we will again include a bonus replica of an old Frew edition, which this time will be issue #16 from 1949, Adventure in Algiers, with art by Raymond Moore. If you are new to The Phantom fold, you will discover that all those years ago, Frew editions were quite modest publications. Modest (in terms of paper quality and covers), but historically fascinating! Newsprint was scarce back in 1949 and Frew was often forced to edit stories to fit what was then a 32 page, self cover format. In more recent times, we have brought back loads of old stories in their original entirety and you will have fun comparing the 1949 version of Adventure in Algiers with our last complete, re-presentation (#1249)!

Jim Shepherd
Publisher


Future issues planned as of 17 November 2006 (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 2 December 2006