Issue 1722 - fortnightly, 2015

36 pages.

Mint condition.

• "A Plague in Venice" - story by Janne Lundstrom and art by Hans Lindahl.

A Plague in Venice, presents a view of the second Phantom that we would never have imagined. To my reading of this the Phantom comes across as a slightly insecure and flawed man who is looking for love in all the wrong places such is his desperation to find a wife! 

Janne Lundstrom wrote this interesting and slightly divergent depiction of our hero and set it against the backdrop of beautiful Venice, which normally conjures up a picture postcard vision of romance and celebration. Not this time! I’m afraid any notion of beauty and romance is shattered by way of the black plague. 

The plague of 1576-1577 killed 50,000 in Venice, almost a third of the population.  There is a strong link between port cities like Venice and the plague. If the plague had not been able to travel from port to port with the rats and fleas on merchant ships, it probably would have not spread so widely or been so devastating. The most visible symptom of Bubonic Plague was painful, swollen lymph glands in the armpits, groin, or neck, called buboes, which gave Bubonic Plague its name.

Be forewarned and prepared the artwork by Hans Lindahl is appropriately dark, brooding, chaotic and at times pustulant. This same combination of writer and artist brought us The Slave Ship Zong Issue No 1657 in 2013 depicting with graphic horror the suffering of African slaves. It is not always pretty but it’s harrowingly real.....

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