Issue 1613 - Fortnightly, 2011

• "The Wolf Man of Montargis" - story by Norman Worker and art Lindahl.

If one Phantom adventure had to be selected as a perfect example of Hans Lindahl’s artistic skills, it would be hard to go past The Wolfman of Montargis.

This incredible creation was first published by Frew in issue No 1027 in 1992. That was some 19 years ago—a few light years in the frantic world of comic book publishing—yet Wolfman still stands up as a superb example of pen and brush rendering.

Somehow, Lindahl captured the very essence of Norman Worker’s entertaining and demanding script!

Study Worker’s writing approach to this adventure and you will discover he set out to strike a balance between comedy and horror—a difficult enough scripting challenge, but a near-impossible task for the illustrator.

In many ways, it is a quite strange union of writer and artist.

Setting the story in forbidding landscapes and ruined castles, Worker and Lindahl continually cause the reader to smile at the antics of a playful baby bear cub and on the turn of a page, shrink  at the sight of two ferocious wolves, the veiled threats of two maniacal killers and the frightful images of skeletons and starving rats in a death chamber.

The little bear cub almost steals the story and his endearing character was possibly expanded by Lindahl to provide just the right amount of warmth to an otherwise grim and forbidding story.