As you may know the Phantom got married in 1977, which is 40 years ago! Wow, that is a good innings in today's society even if comic years are different to ours.
To celebrate, both Egmont and Frew are releasing special issues. While Egmont Norway and Egmont Sweden (& Finland) have released different covers to celebrate the wedding, the contents are the same with a great selection of Lee Falk stories: the Engagement, Wedding and other romantic stories which of course feature Diana and the Phantom throughout their decades long courtship / dating period. The stories are all drawn by the classic newspaper artists: Ray Moore, Wilson McCoy and Sy Barry.
The featured stories are:
The Prisoner of the Himalayas by Lee Falk and Ray Moore
Adventure in Algiers by Lee Falk and Ray Moore
an excerpt from The Golden Circle by Lee Falk and Ray Moore
The Phantom's Engagement by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy
The Matchmaker by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy
A Proper Husband by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy
Yes by Lee Falk and Sy Barry
The Normal Life by Lee Falk and Sy Barry
The Proposal by Lee Falk and Sy Barry
The Wedding of the Phantom by Lee Falk and Sy Barry
As you can see the covers are different. Sweden's and Finland's (left) are the same cover style with the red retro look but Sweden's as the cut out heart shape while Finland's doesn't - Pidde Anderson has shared a video of this cut out cover (below). Norway has instead used a separate collage of the ring being exchanged during the ceremony.
Egmont Sweden has not stopped there with a recent photo emerging from Facebook, which shows the latest Egmont and the free postcard that came with it; the postcard image is of the cover of Fantomen 21/2017 featuring a brand new Old Jungle Saying "Kärleken har tio tigrars styrka" (Love has the strength of ten tigers) which will surely keep a certain Falkist Chronicle Chamber podcaster happy.
A few months ago Frew announced they were also going to release a wedding special before the end of 2017, but there has been no further word since on the contents, cover, release date etc. We have been in contact with Frew and at this stage they have made a firm "No comment", so it is a wait and see. As soon as we know more, we will inform you.
At this stage purchasing the Norway, Sweden and Finland magazines have to be done via phans in those countries. We have also contacted Rene White from Phantoms Vault about him stocking the items on his website and are awaiting word back from him.
We will keep you the phans in touch!
