Issue 1649 - Fortnightly, 2012

• "The Black Death" - story by Scott Goodall and art by Carlos Cruz.

Another visit to the past and a fascinating Scandinavian-created story from 1991! 
The Black Death was written by Scott Goodall, illustrated by Carlos Cruz and made its first and to this date, only appearance in a Frew edition, in issue No 980.The story was actually the second of a two-part adventure, but part two is  completely self contained and stands alone.

In case, the first time around, you missed The Black Death (and the preceding episode….The Man Who Never Slept (Frew No 979) - I should explain that the letters ‘I-Ho Ch’uan’ roughly translate to ‘Fist of Steel’ in Cantonese slang.In The Man Who Never Slept, we learned about the great Chinese rebellion of 1900, how the leaders, the secret society known as the Boxers, marched on Peking to overpower the ‘foreign devils’—and how an earlier Phantom helped save the day.

The story then moves into modern times, the 21st Phantom visits Hong Kong—and runs up against the son of the original Boxer leader! At the end of part one, The Phantom and new Boxer leader mix it in a fight on a cliff top and The Phantom believes his adversary has fallen to his death. Not so! In The Black Death, The Man Who Never Slept makes a surprise re-entry!

Read on—and discover his new, ultra- fiendish plan to wreak havoc on western civilisations!

His idea is to spread bubonic plague throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, utilising (shudder, shudder!) hundreds of thousands of infected rats! The Black Death contains plenty of references to the preceding story, so the entire Scott Goodall scenario for the two adventures will be revealed in easy-to-follow text. The original front cover art for this edition was rendered by the late Keith Chatto and for obvious reasons, a few modifications have been made to his design.