The Phantom was my favorite comic magazine to read when I was a kid in late 70's and 80's Sweden. 'Fantomen' was a huge hit in Sweden and scandinavia and was probably the biggest selling comic in those days with probably only 'Donald Duck' that competed. Sweden also took over the syndication and production of The Phantom and exported the results. A slew of really good swedish artists contributed and I remember some of my favorite ones were Hans Lindahl, finnish Kari Leppänen and Rolf Gohs. Me and my dad used to pop into every thrift store and second hand book shop to try and find issues that we missed to complete yearly runs. I was a member of Fantomen Klubben, the magazine's fanclub and forever wanted but never got a real 'the good ring' and 'the bad ring' :D. I seem to recall my favourite yearly run was that of 1983. Last summer the same summer my mom passed away I went up to my parents attic to check my collection and it was all there a full large chest packed side to side bottom to top with just Fantomen magazines.
My Phantom drawing was published in an official Phantom comic 1 page away from Sy Barrys piece . The bushfire relief comic. One of my proudest moments. He has been my favourite Phantom artist since i was 12 years old.
😱The Barry Brothers , Alex , love their comic book work but even more their comic strip contributions! I grew up reading Sy's Phantom in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the Spanish language La Opinon newspapers my maternal grandparents subscribed to. In 1973 as a reader of the magazine Nostalgia News I discovered Dan's Flash Gordon , which is my favourite version. For me my appreciation of Alex Raymond is reserved for Rip Kirby and Jungle Jim.
The one guy who inked Murphy Anderson almost as well as Anderson did. I thought he and Toth on Johnny Peril probably created the DC house style usually attributed to Infantino/Anderson.
