Issue 1517 - Fortnightly, 2008

• "The Secret of the Haunted House" - story by Claus Reimerthi and art by Felmang.

In this issue, we return to the year 1989 for a reprint of a Scandinavian story which has been regularly topping the lists of Phantom adventures most in demand by enthusiasts. The Secret of the Haunted Castle certainly has plenty going for it….brilliant art, a pacy script and possibly most interesting of all, a very special appearance by that arch-villain, General Bababu!

Bababu was the creation of Lee Falk and Lee introduced him in the 1962-63 daily, The Mysterious Ambassador as the new dictator of Bengali, an evil character who had overthrown Doctor Lamanda Luaga. From the very beginning, Bababu captured the imagination of fans with his twisted mind, his cowardice, gaudy uniforms and immense physical proportions.

Lee kept bringing him back to plague both Dr Luaga and The Phantom (and anybody else who got in his way) and had him star as recently as the 1994-95 Sunday, Battle of the Jungle Boys. Bababu appealed to everybody who appreciate nasty heavies and European and candinavian creators regularly included him in Semic and these days, Egmont comic books which are produced in Australia by Frew.

The story in this edition originally appeared in Frew No 926 and in that issue, no credits were given to the writer and artist.

This time around, we correct those omissions. Claes Reimerthi, who signed the first Scandinavian printing as ‘Michael Tierres’ (an anagram treatment of his real name) was the writer and ‘Felmang’; (Romano Felice Mangiarano) was the artist.