Sad news that popular Phantom writer Dai Darell passed on 8th July 2024. Phantom phans will know her as her pseudonym Dai Darell with her maiden name Diane Alfredhsson and married name Diane Karlstrom. Other pseudonym she has written under are Saga Borg and Teo Troy.
She was introduced to the Phantom when she lived in Sweden as a teenager with her favourite artist being Kari Leppänen.
She wrote 18 Team Fantomen stories, including her first 16 in a three year period from 1983 to 1986. Her last two stories were published in 2019. These two stories came about after contacting Fantomen in 2016 with some story plots and she then wrote two stories with Magnus Carling.
Diane Karlstrom is most known for her "Hero's Death Sentence" story which features Hero almost dying with an emotional Phantom sheading a tear as he prepares to say goodbye to his loyal horse. An emotional Phantom is something that many creators struggle to capture and explore. Do you like your Phantom showing emotion?
Other memorable stories include "The Water of Life" which won best story as voted by Fantomen readers in 1983, "The Snake Ring" (sequel to "Hero's Death Sentence" story ), "The Devil's Smoke" and the two-part "The Floating Island" and "The White Rider". Her second last story "The Pit of Doom" was also the very first Phantom story written and drawn by female creators.
As of the date of her death, seven of the 19 stories have yet to be published by Frew and or in English.
According to the great article on the Deepwoods.org website (link here), Diane quit Team Fantomen in 1986 due to family commitments and differences of opinion on future directions for the Phantom. No idea what that difference was but it was to the detriment for us readers. She brought a different feel to the character.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in learning about Diane was her relationship with Claes Reimerthi and how she was influential in him becoming hitched to the Team Fantomen train. Attached is the quote from the article written by Andreas Eriksson:
In 1984, Diane met Claes Reimerthi at a local meeting of the Swedish comics society. She inspired him to start writing Phantom scripts, gave him a foot in the door with Ulf Granberg, and coached him along - they even rented an office together for a while. Had it not been for Diane, Claes might never have become one of the most prolific Team Fantomen writers ever.
Our thoughts are with Diane Karlstrom's family and we thank her for her input to the Phantom.
Thank you to Andreas Eriksson for the heads up about this sad passing of Diane Karlstrom and for writing the original article about Diane on the Deepwoods website.
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