Issue 1608 - Fortnightly, 2011

• "Encounter with Murder" - story by Caes Reimerthi and art by Joan Boix.

Encounter with Murder, by writer Claes Reimerthi and artist Joan Boix holds nothing back.

This is what revolution and terrorism is all about. So—prepare yourself for a grim and brutal ride …. and spare a thought for The Phantom, who has more than a few rough moments! Author Reimerthi is obviously a long way from wrapping up the drama!

Sandal Singh has now been told (but still has no proof) that her demented father Sogai is alive and that scenario alone will keep the pot boiling for some time yet.

It’s interesting that Reimerthi has returned to a favoured old theme concerning hallucinatory drugs.

There’s nothing fictional about such things. The use of mind-warping drugs is commonplace these days in international espionage and counter-intelligence!

One other thought struck me while scanning through Encounter with Murder.

The highly personable Morristown detective!

With his untidy look, ill-fitting clothes and permanent cigar, he has many overtones of the recently departed actor Peter Falk and his famous TV detective character Columbo.

The similarity is not physical, but almost everything else about the comic book detective is straight out of a Columbo script. (Still waiting for the first appearance however, of the famous Columbo line….‛One last thing’….!)

I’ll be surprised if Reimerthi’s detective character is not in for the long haul, because it is obvious he remains highly suspicious about the Skull murders and doesn’t seem the type to give up too easily.

Judging from our mail, the recent re-release of the old Lee Falk-Wilson McCoy classic Romance (Frew No 1606) was well received.

Thank you to all who went to the trouble of letting us know how much they enjoyed being transported back to an era when comics stories were written as pure entertainment for the masses and not simply to pander to the oversized egos of pseudo-intellectual ‘writers’ and publishers.

Collectible!