September 18 - 2004
Meeting in Stockholm coinsiding with Serieoriginalets exhibition.
With: Janne Lundström, Magnus Knutsson and Rolf Gohs
Nineteenth Event
Stockholm September 18th 2004
Attending Members: Brian Jensen, Torbjörn Onegård, Jan-Ola Sjöberg, Bosse Engberg, Björn Harnby, Ulf Bennetter, Magnus Eriksson, Martin Dahlström, Patrik Axelsson, Pierre Sund, Henrik Bengtsson, Mikael Lyck and Michael Lindqvist.
Honorary Guests: Ola Hammarlund
Guests: Janne Lundström, Magnus Knutsson and Rolf Gohs (Honorary Members)
One by one the Phans arrived to the 19th gathering of the Scandinavian Chapter. This time we were to enjoy the grand opening of a Phantom Exhibition – SerieGalleriet in Stockholm had filled their walls with more then 100 (106 if I got it right) Phantom originals from artists representing four continents and over 30 years – from American and Italian pages from the early 1970’s to new “Fantomen” covers yet to be released.
Beautiful comic pages, covers, illustrations and sketches by masters such as Rolf Gohs, Hans Lindahl, Pat Boyette, Germano Ferri, Paul Ryan, Jaimé Vallve, Graham Nolan and about a dozen more, had us thrilled, and the presence of two of the Scandinavian Chapter’s Honorary Members, as well as Phantom writers, Janne Lundström and Magnus Knutsson added even more to the feeling. And, to top it all, legendary Swedish Phantom cover artist Rolf Gohs (who, of course, also is a Honorary Member of the SC) paid us an unexpected visit.
The opportunity to own your own Phantom original was too appealing to miss for many of the attending members, specially when you had the chance to get it signed by the artist himself - Rolf Gohs seemed rather surprised by the attention he attracted - while others was satisfied just to enjoy the atmosphere. And maybe get a photo of themselves next to their favorite cover.
After about an hour of discussing the painting, sharing a thought or two with the attending Honorary Members, and eating snacks - SerieGalleriet’s treat (after all it was an art exhibition) - we left to go to Stockholms Kulturhus (Stockholm Culture House) and Serieteket, Sweden’s only library specialized in comics, where the Honorary Guest of the day, Ola Hammarlund from Svenska Seriefrämjandet (Swedish Comic Association) informed us about the library and Seriefrämjandet.
Then it was time for one of the recurring highlights of the SC gatherings; the sharing of “drooling objects”. Among the many Phantom related objects that was shown were a really nice set of 1950’s original Black & White Proofs (big sheets of Sunday pages distributed by Bulls – the company distributing the Phantom and other comics in Scandinavia – to the weekly magazines printing their comics), a set hardcover bound French magazines, an advertisement sign, Christmas Cards drawn by Stan Lynde (his only Phantom related work?) and some rare Italian magazines.
Following the “drooling objects” was the Goody Bag, this time compiled by Brian Jensen, Bosse Engberg, Björn Harnby and Simon Treschow. This Bag, which was made for the nineteenth and the twentieth gathering, contained a copy of a synopsis to a new Phantom story by Magnus Knutsson (his first in almost 30 years!), a autograph card by Moonstone artist Lou Manna, a DVD (The Phantom Collection IV – with the first episodes of the “Defenders of the Earth” TV-series) and a CD (Absolute Fantomen VIII – a music record with “Fantomen och Djungelbandet” (“The Phantom and the Jungle Band”)). And to everyone’s big delight, SC’s own Santa, Bosse Engberg, returned to hand out T-shirts (with the art from Rolf Gohs’ cover for the Swedish Christmas Album from 1995 as motive) to all the attending members.
To end a truly great gathering we finally moved up to “Café Panorama” at the top of the Culture House, where we had sandwiches and chatted about the Phantom, Scandinavian Chapter, comics and maybe just a bit about other things as well…
/Pierre Sund, SC #37