Oktober 1-2 2005
Meeting in Gothenburg coinsiding with the comicfair
With: Rolf Janson

 

Twenty-fourth Event
Gothenburg, October 1th 2005

Attending Members: Brian Jensen, Torbjörn Onegård, Jan-Ola Sjöberg, Per-Åke Sjögren, Björn Harnby, Magnus Eriksson, Henrik Bengtsson, Andreas Eriksson, Ulf Bennetter, Simon Treschow, Patrik Axelsson, Pierre Sund, Susanne Johansson, Hans-Erik Hansson.

Special guest: Rolf Janson (The original “Gammel-redax”).
Guests: Thomas Storn (Editor, “Svensk seriehistoria”), Håkan Eriksson, Annica Svensson.
 

The traditional november meet in Gothenburg, at the time of the book fair, took place again and also took us way back to the truly “Year One” of the Phantom. Or at least 1950 and the first year of the swedish Fantomen comic book.

The SC-gang met up at conference room at Kville hotel. And there he was, the real Rolf Janson, sitting in the speakers area and looking a bit surprised but quite satisfied about the situation and the attended crowd of Phantom fans in front of him.

Rolf was the very first editor of Fantomen and he shared with us lots of fascinating memories from yesteryears. 1950 and the following years of the 50:s where of course different times, not least concerning the comics and the public opinion to these “evil and dangerous” publications. Those where days when Rolf faced some hard times for working with the comics and an important and well known publisher such as Lukas Bonnier was threatened by a “lynch mob” who in anger shouted out “hang him, hang him!”.

In Gothenburg the feelings where a lot friendlier. And Rolf was happy to look out at his audience of SC-members, which he found healthy and sane, in spite of all the bad mouths and words of warnings in the 1950:s, of what will follow the nasty habit of reading comic books.

Also, Rolf is the man who did create the significant swedish Fantomen logotype. To meet this historical and friendly Fantomen-man and to hear him tell his stories, well, it was kinda magic. 

The members who bring some nice Phantom collectible to show, also help making the event enjoyable. For example, Björn Harnby let us see his ultra rare and beautiful hardbound books containing years of american Phantom day-strips and sunday-pages. A lot more fun stuff, from all times and places, was to see and want. 
Also worth mentioning was the Norwegian Fantomet bobblehead who was delivered to the members who bought it through the club, a very cool item indeed!

The dinner at the Tropicana restaurant, only a block from Kville hotel, was a pleasure all the way. The staff was friendly and service minded, the food was very good and the guests (the SC-gang) was at it´s best too.

Some other dinner guests looked at us for hours, trying to find out who we where and what have bring us together. The answer to their questions result in a lot of happy laughs and smiling faces.

The next day, at the “Comic Sunday” on the book fair, there where chances to meet celebrities such as Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott. Also some Phantom related artists and authors: Björn Ihrstedt,Mats Jönsson, Bo Majgren and Jonas Darnell.

Jan-Ola Sjöberg
Founder #3