Mikael Lyck from Chronicle Chamber reviews three Fantomen comics (Fantomen 16/2023, 17/2023 and 18-19) featuring the following stories:
Fantomen 16/2023
"Lokes skatt" ("Loki's Treasure") by Dag Frognes and Kari Leppänen
Fantomen 17/2023
"Besökaren" ("The Visitor") by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel
"Gamle Moz Krönika" ("The Chronicle of Old Man Mozz") by Tony DePaul and Mike Manley
Fantomen 18-19/2023
"Belle epoque del 5: Mord på Maxim's" ("Murder at Maxim's") by Pidde Andersson and Percy Ochoa
"Vattumännen" ("Waterman") by Lee Falk, George Olesen, and Fred Fredericks
"Joomba försvunnen" ("Joomba Missing") by Özcan Eralp
Fantomen 18-19/2023
Cover by Joan Boix and Andrea Cagol, I love the colors and think it must be Jermayn's favourite since it features the chain of patience which I know he loves.
The main story features "Belle epoque del 5: Mord på Maxim's" ("Murder at Maxim's") by Pidde Andersson and Percy Ochoa. The never ending honeymoon of the 19th Phantom continues, full of action and chases, I enjoyed this as I have the earlier stories.
"Vattumännen" ("Waterman") by Lee Falk, George Olesen, and Fred Fredericks is not the best period in the Daily stories, the art is good and it is nice to have it printed in Fantomen for completeness sake.
"Joomba försvunnen" ("Joomba Missing") by Özcan Eralp is a short story, only 9 pages in total, Joomba is missing after Rex took him for a trek, they search but he is nowhere to be found so Rex and Kit goes to the circus to look at the elephant… I would define it as a filler like the stories featuring in the Frew comics recently.
Then we have Thorgal as a side story, they finally come home to the village only to see that everyone is mind controlled, one of the better stories for a while in my opinion.
The preview for the next issue is a Team Fantomen reprint featuring a Norman Worker and Hans Lindahl story so it is bound to be good, do not remember it by just the title. This is also the first time in a long time that we do not see any new Phantom content in a Fantomen comic. We also see the conclusion of the Thorgal story
Fantomen 17/2023
The cover is by Luca Erbetta, I get the feeling that it depicts an evil doppelganger to the Phantom, sure, I was unsure of how evil or good he is when reading it.
The first story featured is "Besökaren" ("The Visitor") by Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel. This story got a lot of attention when it was featured in the newspapers on social media.
There is a lot happening here, there is a new room in the Skull Cave, the hall of costumes and with it Jeff makes a unique costume for each Phantom. Some negative comments I read about this are that he should look the same during all these years. I disagree, I think it is really cool with some variations and they still look close enough to be thought of to be the same during the years.
Then the new entity of the Visitor, I am unsure about this one, but my hope is that it was not a one time thing and we get to learn more about it in the future.
The next story is "Gamle Moz Krönika" ("The Chronicle of Old Man Mozz") by Tony DePaul and Mike Manley.
This story is the follow up from Wreck and Havoc at Gravelines. I personally think about these stories as one long ongoing story.
This part is still the cautioning of the future and I look forward to see what really happened.
Fantomen 16/2023
This cover is by Rafael Ruiz, I think it looks great and would love to have it hanging on the wall, unsure if it pops enough in the newsstand though. What do you think?
The main story is "Lokes skatt" ("Loki's Treasure") by Dag Frognes and Kari Leppänen.
This is Frognes first story since 2014, a bit too heavy on the supernatural side, but also has some nice world building. Kari's art is not up to the great standard he once held but a lot of the scenery feels like he has taken his time and care and looks good.
The Thorgal side story is the concluding part about the seal woman, a good episode, better than most of the earlier ones.
Featured in this comic is the best Fantomen cover 2022 poster with art by Henrik Sahlström. There is an article about this on chronicle chamber website which you can find here.
Until next time, Happy Phantoming!
All Fantomen reviews will be included in our monthly X-Band: The Phantom Podcasts. You can find out more at our website and or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos. Thanks also goes to Jörgen Karlsson for his help creating the Fantomen review intro which will now be featured for all reviews by Mikael Lyck.
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