New@FREW



Frew #1478
by the photocopier
#1478
(this edition is the 1506th actually issued)

Release Date: 1 June 2007

  • Pages: 100
  • Price: $5.50 inc. GST
  • Cover: the photocopier
  • Editorial by Jim Shepherd (pp.92-93)
  • Two pages of Phantom Forum in this issue

Fantomen Nr.9/2007
by Jaime Vallvé /
collage Editor &
Mats Jönsson

  • My Swedish Enemy
    • Story: Janne Lundström
    • Art: Kari Leppänen
    • First published in Fantomen Nr.9/2007 by Egmont, Scandinavia. Original cover shown on the left, thanks to Ulf Granberg.

  • The Doorman
    • Script: Tony De Paul
    • Art: Paul Ryan
    • 218th daily newspaper story; 4 Sep 2006 - 30 Dec 2006.
    • First Frew appearance.

  • The Forbidden Lands
    • Script: Tony De Paul
    • Art: Graham Nolan
    • 165th Sunday newspaper story; 1 Oct 2006 - 25 Mar 2007.
    • First Frew appearance.

  • Message from the Publisher:
    Three new stories are featured in this issue!
    The feature story is My Swedish Enemy, written by Janne Lundström and illustrated by Kari Leppänen. Backing up is the new American daily, The Doorman, written by Tony De Paul with art by Paul Ryan and the new American Sunday, The Forbidden Lands, also written by Tony De Paul and illustrated by Graham Nolan.
    My Swedish Enemy is an incredible adventure featuring the future sixth Phantom and therefore set in a time centuries ago. Writer Lundström has taken a few theories to the limit to build a story around the youngster, because in official Lee Falk Phantom history, little was ever revealed about him! Lee was always a little vague about the sixth Phantom, despite references to him in four stories. It seems the sixth Phantom married Natala, Queen of Navarre, but if you dig deep enough into the Chronicles you will also find a hint that he married a 'Queen of France' and an unnamed Sultan's daughter! Lee never made any reference to the death of the sixth Phantom's father - or the sixth Phantom himself! With so little information available, the purists can forgive Lundström for conjuring up a scenario! Whether it is even close to what Lee Falk possibly had in mind is not really important. Settle back and enjoy a gripping adventure full of exciting twists and turns!
    You will also enjoy The Doorman and The Forbidden Lands! The Doorman could easily have been written by Lee, because it stars some wonderfully nasty villains and is almost entirely based in the jungle. The story which will probably give rise to the most discussion is The Forbidden Lands. It is a highly mysterious adventure with heavy overtones of fantasy which even Old Man Mozz has difficulty understanding. The central character is aviator adventurer Beryl Markham, who lands her old-fashioned, prop-driven aircraft in the jungle. The Phantom remembers her flying exploits in the 1930s, but also recalls that she died twenty years before the time in which this story is set! Hence, the story title, The Forbidden Lands. Somehow, The Phantom (and everybody else in the story) has strayed into a jungle time warp zone!
    Beryl Markham was a real person! Born Beryl Clutterbuck in Leicester, UK in 1902, she grew up in Kenya, known then as British East Africa, learned to fly and made an adventurous solo flight from Kenya to England. She set out on September 4, 1936 in a single engined aircraft in a daring attempt to become the first person to fly non-stop from London to New York the hard way - east to west, against the prevailing wind currents. She didn't make it to New York, crash landing in Novia Scotia on September 5, but was feted as the first person to fly the Atlantic, east to west, solo and non-stop. You will find lots more about her on the Internet. See if you can track down a copy of her best-selling book, West With The Night, published in 1942 and last reprinted by North Point Press in 1983. Ernest Hemingway described the book as a masterpiece. Sadly, it was never made into a motion picture. Today, controversy still rages over whether Beryl or her third husband, Raoul Schumacher actually wrote the manuscript, but in the full scheme of things, it hardly matters. For the record, Beryl, who, after retiring from flying activities, became an acclaimed racehorse breeder and trainer, died on August 3, 1986, aged 84.

Jim Shepherd
Publisher


Future issues planned as of 2nd June 2007 (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 June 2007