Issue 1492 - Fortnightly, 2007

• "The New Leader" - story by Claus Reimerthi and art by Hans Lindahl.

THE NEW LEADER takes us into largely unexplored Phantom history!

Claes Reimerthi and Hans Lindahl combine to delve deeper into the ongoing battle between The Phantom and the Singh Brotherhood and we learn that for the first time, The Ghost Who Walks is sentenced by the Singh to die in an electric chair!

Once again, I must stress that the creators have veered light miles away from the official Lee Falk account of the centuries-old struggle. Lee, as I have pointed out on a number of occasions, barely returned to the scourge of the Singh Brotherhood after his 1936 launch story.

For those new to The Phantom (if indeed anybody out there falls into that category!) Lee Falk built his famous 1936 story, The Singh Brotherhood, completely around the appearance of the first Phantom. He explained that the man who hit upon the idea of becoming the first Phantom, did so because he wished to avenge the death of his father at the hands of Singh pirates and to devote his life to fighting piracy and evil. He swore an oath which involved all who followed him pursuing the cause and as we all know, there have since been 20 more brave men over the centuries, who donned the uniform and the mask. All continually risked their lives and some, at least, died at the hands of pirates and other evil men. None however, until this new story, came close to being fiendishly executed! The proposed electric chair execution of The Phantom is but one fascinating part.....