Semic archive Pt. III

If you were a reader of the Swedish Phantom comic book ("Fantomen") in 1984 you might remember this:

Yes, it's the original painting of the Bengali map that was enclosed with numer 26 that year.
Now it's time for the final visit to the old Semic archives and you guessed it: It's Phantom time. :)

One of the largest parts of the archive is the space occupied by old issues of the Phantom comic book originals and stats.
Like these giant original paintings from issues unknown to me.

Here we see Germund checking out a box labeled Fantomen 1958 1959. It's filled with pages of cut up and pasted up Phantom pages.

Here's another box with pasteups from 1942-1961.

And here's a look inside Pandora's... eh that Phantom box.

Here are some other random pages so that you can see the different state they are in. Some of the pages are falling apart while others still are in excellent condition.



One of the films used to make the cover of Fantomen 2 1951.

Naturally there is plenty of modern art by Kari Leppenän, Hans Lindahl and others.


Now, enough of archive porn... ;)

Semic archive Pt. II

Now, back to the archive. :)

Besides original art there is plenty of old proof sheets to newspaper comics. Both reformatted and translated but also unedited original proofs on glossy paper.
Like these Buffalo Bill strips or Johnny Hazard sundays.


Johnny Hazard is BTW running in the Swedish Phantom comic book now wich reprints every sunday in color.

Besides all adventure comics there are also a great deal of Funny Animal stuff. Mostly Walter Lantz comics like Woody Woodpecker but also Tom & Jerry and other MGM titles like Carl Barks Barney Bear stories.
Here we see Germund pulling out a folder and finding, by pure luck, an issue with Paul Murry art and with the original proofs intact. Happy, happy. Joy, joy. :)


When the material couldn't be obtained from Western publishing it could always be traced. Oddly enough the traced image here doesn't match the printed one so I have no idea what it was used for.

The next and final installment to this archive visit will appear early next week.
Here's a little teaser to keep you coming back :)

Semic archive Pt. I

[Edit: the entire post is now in English.]
Finally! It's time to show you some photos from the almost legendary "Semic archive".
It's located in Stockholm, Sweden and is in reality the storage room for almost all of Egmonts comic books and production materials. This is were you go when you are looking for stuff to reprint.

Last Wednesday myself and my colleauge Germund made a business trip to Stockholm to move a small part of the Egmont archives to Malmö. But during a break in the packaging we explored the treasures hidden on the other shelves.
As you can see in these photos every shelf is jam-packed from top to bottom with folders. Each folder contains originals or reproduction copies for a specific comic book published by Åhlen & Åkerlund, Semic, Williams etc. during the past 60 years.
I don't know hom many thousands of folders there are but there sure are plenty...

On the second photo you see folders for old (and new) x-mas albums. The wall to the left contains stuff for Swedish comics like 91:an, Åsa-Nisse and Kronblom.

Besides original art there are a huge amount of bound volumes a´nd stacks of comic books. Some 10 copies deep.
What about a Mint-set of 1970's Lajban? No? ;)

What follows are some random photos just to show the wide range of material found.

Old original art. Don't remember the name of the comic but it looks like 1940's stuff.

Original artwork for the covers to Musse Piggs Julbok. The artwork is rather crude and copied from interior art but I'm still glad that they has survived. Disney comic book art from this time period is pretty rare.


The boxes with Pellefant has besides reproduction material also comic books in different languages. Hesre is one issue in four different versions.


There are an incredible amount of Pelle Svanslös material from the late 60's and 70's. Did you know that besides the comic book there were a daily strip and a sunday? Note that the dot pattern is on a separate layer.


A pasted up repro copy of a Swamp Thing cover used in Gigant 4/85.


The original cover for Toppserien 8/78. Painted by?

Let's take a break here and return in a day or two with some Funny Animal stuff and then a huge post on the Swedish Phantom comic book. Lots of interesting stuff to come. :)