Issue 1651 - Christmas Special, 2012

• "The Power House Gang" a new Sunday story in this issue - story by Tony DePaul and art by Terry Beatty.
• "Kingdom of the Amazons" - complete story by Scott Goodall and art by Felmang/Ferri.
• "Vultures over Vacul" - complete story by Norman Worker and art by Jaime Vallve.

Another year! Doesn’t time fly when you are busy and having fun? Which of course, is the lot of all at Frew Publications. Bringing you 31 editions of the adventures of The Phantom every year is always demanding, but mostly rewarding. So—to the 2012 Christmas Special, our 1679th issue dedicated to Lee Falk’s famous comics creation.

In this issue you will find three stories—the new adventure, The Power House Gang, written by Tony DePaul and illustrated by  Terry Beatty.While you enjoy the story, spare some extra time to study the dramatic artistic style of new Sunday artist Terry Beatty! In my opinion, Terry has brought a new dimension to Sunday action comic strips with larger-than-normal panels and the clever use of over-lapping images …. something which is well away from the usual presentation of perfectly shaped frames.

Soon he may well be the first artist to master the technique of transposing a traditional comic book style into the Sunday newspaper comics supplements! If he can achieve such a miracle, he’ll deserve the comics industry version of an Oscar! Backing up The Power House Gang are two old classics dusted off and rejuvenated since Frew first published them in 1991. Kingdom of the Amazons by writer Scott Goodall and the art team of Felmang/Ferri is a near-masterpiece of comic book creativity.

Vultures over Vacul by Norman Worker and Jaime Vallve is just as stark and heavily dramatic with The Phantom once again facing almost overwhelming odds. Remember that both stories are some 20-21 years old. Yet both stand up just as fresh and entertaining as if they were created last week! If that isn’t the sign of an inventive, well written and wonderfully illustrated story I cannot ever have seen and read one!

We decided to retain the original hand-lettering (rendered, I’m reasonably sure, by the late Keith Chatto) because it still has a certain old world charm and somehow adds a magic touch to the art. ...