Ulf Granberg was a giant in the Phantom community as both a writer and editor but perhaps even more as a historian and Phantom-lore builder who added structure to the loose lore established by Lee Falk. Sadly, he recently passed, and Dan Fraser and Jermayn Parker talked about his legacy and reminisced about our chat with him almost a decade ago.
At the end of us talking and remembering a legend, we include some snippets from our 3-hour chat with him from XEpisodes 97A and 97B.
Ulf Granberg (born 1945) was the editor responsible for the Swedish Phantom comic book, Fantomen, from 1972 to 2012, a duty that also included heading the Team Fantomen production of Phantom stories. He had also written almost 40 Phantom stories.
Granberg became the 12th editor of Fantomen in 1973, succeeding Per-Anders Jonsson, and continued until 1987, being succeeded by Mats Jönsson. In 2003 he returned as editor, succeeding Petter Sjölund. He did, however, remain in charge of the production between his two periods as an editor, serving as editor-in-chief.
He retired from his Phantom duties with Fantomen 9/2012, after a total of 1001 issues. He was succeeded by Mikael Sol as editor for Fantomen and by Claes Reimerthi and Hans Lindahl as editors for the Team Fantomen production of stories.
What this bio doesn’t include is the behind-the-scenes stuff that many of us take for granted.
- He was important in the hiring of several key creators from around the world, including Cesar Spadari, Norman Worker, Jamie Vallve, Carlos Crus, Hans Lindahl, Claes Reimerthi, Dai Darell, Donne Avvenell, Felmang, Ferri, Joan Boix, Tony DePaul, Paul Ryan, Graham Nolan, David Bishop, Georges Bess, Kari Leppanen, Lennart Moberg, Sal Velluto, Bob McLeod, and Dick Giorando.
- He added to the lore of the Phantom and filling in the gaps.
- He created the first timeline of all 21 Phantoms. Even giving Lee Falk the list.
- He created the first Phantom map of Bangalla and the countries around Bangalla. The Bangalla map was very much liked by Lee Falk who asked for a copy.
- He added to the first Phantom adventures on how he got the skull ring and how he became known as the man who cannot die.
- He oversaw the origin of Devil.
- He oversaw the creation of Dogai Singh, perhaps the most dreaded Singh pirate, and of course Sandal Singh.
- He created the ‘Brain Trust’ or Team Fantomen which was a group of creators who would meet once a year and map out the theme of stories for the next year or period of time.
- He oversaw the Lubanga storyline, which was controversial but also impactful, which saw Luaga lose the presidency of Bangalla.
- In 1999 after Lee Falk's death, the newspaper strip almost was cancelled. He pushed the continuous nature of it and suggested Paul Ryan and Tony DePaul/Claes Reimerthi to take over.
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Feb 19 20263 Min.