Every year since the 1970's Fantomen has asked their readers to give their opinions on what they think is the best story and cover from the previous year. After 800+ votes the results are in for the best of 2023.
What does it show us?
To the team, it shows that we phans love our classic stories with the classic theme of the Phantom standing up for the down trodden and as a justice warrior. We also like our imagery showing the classic heroic themes of the Phantom with Devil, Hero and fighting pirates.
Best Cover for 2023
For the first time since 2015, the best cover as voted by the phans was drawn by someone new. Henrik Salhstrom has had an iron grip on the award and the best cover as voted by the phans for 2023 is Fantomen 20/2024 drawn by Mikael Gustavsson.
The unique factor about this cover is that it was first published as a schedule poster back in 1991 and didn't feature Devil which was originally hidden by the publishing schedule for 1991. This received 19.% of all votes. From what we understand, this cover was used as a placeholder with some rescheduling needing to happen - whatever happen, it was an inspired choice by the editorial team to choose this.
Second place was Fantomen 1/2023 which also features the Phantom riding Hero with Devil plus Diana drawn by Rafael Ruiz. This cover received 15.4% of all votes which was a close second. Rafael Ruiz's cover for Fantomen 16/2024 was voted for third place showing him in a heroic pose fighting pirates. This was at 8.8%, three votes more than fourth place.
You can have a look at the below table which is printed in Fantomen 16/2024 which shows the breakdown of all covers.
Best Story for 2023
The Best story 2023 vote started in Fantomen 2-3/2024 and the results were presented in Fantomen 10-11/2024. 406 phans from around the world have voted and the results are very interesting. You can see the full results on this PhantomWiki page or below which is the page from Fantomen 10-11/2024.
"Ku Klux Klan" is a Team Fantomen created story first published in 1978, created by Heiner Bade and Ulf Granberg. It has been republished in the regular issues for a total of four times and each time has been popular in that years best story votes. Goes to show this is a classic story in the true means. You can watch our review of this story here.
1978: voted as the third best story. 1986: voted as the second best reprint story (the best story vote was divided into separate categories for new and old stories for the only time).
1998: voted as the second best story.
The second most popular story as voted by the readers is a Mandrake daily story created by Fred Fredericks titled "The Missing Aviatrix" from 2001. Again, this story was a reprint and is the first time it was published in a Phantom comic anywhere in the world. Could it be a story that could be printed by other publishers? You can watch our review of this story here.
The third most popular story as voted by the phans is a new story from 2023 "Lokes skatt" ("Loki's Treasure") by Dag Frognes and Kari Leppänen printed in Fantomen 16/2023. You can watch our review of this story here.
It must be said that these votes can be hard to balance when you have multi part stories like the Belle Époque stories written by Pidde Andersson, with art by Percy Ochoa which have votes scattered across the 7 stories published through out the year, For example, if the votes gathered for the seven stories it is the same amount as who voted for "Ku Klux Klan".
Editors Note: Apologies for the delay in getting some of the Fantomen news and reviews out in a timely manner. If you would like to help and join the team, please email us at ChronicleChamber@gmail.com.
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