Hans Lindahl

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Hans "Hasse" Lindahl created his first Phantom story in 1983 for the Swedish magazine Fantomen, published by Semic Press (now Egmont). Thereafter, he maintained a busy schedule of three or four stories per year, all without the assistance of ghost artists. Many of his stories, such as The Water of Life, The Floating Island, The Devil's Brotherhood, and The White Horseman, are fondly remembered by fans all over the world as Semic classics. His characteristically dramatic and vivid style is very popular amongst Scandinavian and Australian readers, the latter revealed by the observation that only four of Lindahl's stories have not been reprinted by Frew. Less known amongst Australian phans is that Lindahl has been a regular cover artist for Fantomen, and was awarded the best cover design in 1986, 1988 and 1989.

However, in 1989, Hasse became frustrated with Semic, believing they had pigeon-holed him as a Phantom-artist only. He felt he needed greater creative freedom and jumped ship to a magazine called Agent X9 (still part of the Semic stable of titles). This magazine is the Swedish home of all the best detective and secret agent strips, such as Modesty Blaise, Agent Corrigan, Johnny Hazzard, Rip Kirby, etc. Hasse created two new strips for the magazine: Chuck Riley with scripts by an Englishman named Patterson (12/89, 2/90, 8/90, 11/90), and Murphy's Law (9/91). About the same time, he illustrated a strip called Kerry Drake for the 24/89 issue of Seriemagasinet (features strips such as Steve Roper and Mike Nomad). Between 1990 and 1994, Hasse also got involved in Lilla Fridolf, a Swedish comedy strip about the experiences of a short, fat, hen-pecked husband.

After a few years away from The Phantom, Hasse longed to draw jungle and animals again, so he returned to Fantomen in 1992 and has remained faithful ever since. His interest in the strip was boosted when he was selected to participate in an editorial group whose main responsibility is to plot the overall direction of the Fantomen magazine and think up new story concepts. Comically known as The Editorial Brain Trust (EBT), the other members of the group are Ulf Granberg (editor in chief), Bjorn Ihrstedt (editor), Claes Reimerthi (writer), and Lennart Moberg (writer, sometimes penciller). They started in 1992 with the mission from the owners of Semic to analyse why sales were falling so dramatically and what changes Fantomen needed to regain public interest. Their solution was the Lubanga storyline, which saw the destruction of the Tree House, the twins sent to USA, broke up the friendship between Luaga and the Phantom, etc ... the goal was to shake up the Phantom's world, making it much more unpredictable. There were only 5 or 6 Lubanga episodes each year, but all Semic storys had to fit this new universe. Hence the EBT had to brainstorm all the storys during these years (1994-1996). Hasse was very satisfied with this time:

"The magazine was vital and full of energy. Of course we did a lot of mistakes (among them: we didn't present an updated resume page in every issue, so we left the reader hanging if they hadn't followed the Lubanga plot from the start). But on the whole it was a success. The statues of Fantomen went up, and to some degree we made Fantomen a cult magazine. Now we have letters on and off where people miss the old Lubanga days."

Even though the days of Lubanga ended in 1996, the EBT has continued to hold meetings and brainstormed storys. The group has proven to be an extremely valuable resource, particularly since the takeover by Egmont. This is because the editors are able to present the owners with a plan of all the stories a year in advance. Once approval is granted, production of the stories can commence with a better understanding of the intended direction for the year.

More recently, Hasse has tried his hand at scripting his own stories, beginning with Return of the Zombie League -- appropriately, a story that revisited the characters from his first Phantom story, and a tribute to the recently departed writer, Donne Avenell.

from The Zombie League (1983), Frew #853A

from Return of the Zombie League (1998), Frew #1208

A complete index of all Hans Lindahl's Phantom stories is listed below in order of their first publication. The corresponding issue numbers for Fantomen (Sweden), Fantomet (Norway), and Frew's The Phantom (Australia) are included. Some stories have been reprinted in subsequent issues, but these details are not given. Story titles are translated from the original Swedish titles, and where different, the titles used by Frew are given in parentheses.

Notes:

1. Castle in the Sea (#18) was the third part of a three-part story. The first two parts were illustrated by George Bess and were titled The College Ghost and Death in the East End.
2. The Wolfman of Montargis (#25) was also printed in Wolf Phantom #5 with the title Monster Mayhem.
3. Diana's New Job (#32) was titled A Dangerous Mission in the Norwegian edition.
4. The Masked Murderer (#34) and The Magic Flute (#35) were not printed in the Norwegian Fantomet magazine. Instead the stories were printed in a special album, separate from the normal series. This was necessary so that the Norwegian edition could match the Swedish schedule commencing with 1/1996.
5. Hans Lindahl was the cover artist for the following issues of Fantomen (he also drew the covers for some issues containing stories he did not create, as shown in italics):
   
   • 3, 9, 10, 19, 21, 22, 24 in 1985;
   • 5, 12, 18, 26 in 1986 (Nr.5 voted best cover of the year);
   • 14, 15, 18 in 1987;
   • 2, 10, 13, 20 in 1988 (Nr.10 voted best cover of the year);
   • 8, 11, 12, 17 in 1989 (Nr.8 voted best cover of the year);
   • 19 in 1992
   • 13 in 1993
   • 15, 17, 19-21, 23, 25 in 1995;
   • 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, 24, 25 in 1996;
   • 9, 10, 19, 26 in 1997 (Nr.9 voted best cover of the year);
   • 7, 15 in 1998 (Nr.15 voted best cover of the year);
   • 9, 15, 22 in 1999.
   • 15, 16, 21 in 2000.
   • 4, 14, 23 in 2001.
6. In 1988, Lindahl did the master pencils for many covers that were subsequently painted by and credited to Rolf Gohs. They were 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9, 12 and 14 (thanks to Jostein Hansen for this info).
7. Lindahl has done all covers to the Fantomen Krönika (The Phantom Chronicles) since 1993 (four per year, and six per year from 1997).
8. Hasse drew five panels in the 30 page story entitled The Monster by Donne Avenell and Heiner Bade, issue 8/88 Fantomen. He also pencilled the front cover which was then painted by Rolf Gohs.