Fantomens Bilsamlarserie

Fantomens Bilsamlarserie (which translates to The Phantom’s Car Collector Series) was released by Serieförlaget in Sweden in 1958. Found within Fantomen comics, usually lightly glued on an internal comic book page, a series of car themed cards was produced, with a total of 40 cards found in the series.

Fantomens Bilsamlarserie were first released with Fantomen comic book number 15, published in 1958. The front and back cover of this edition can be seen below.

This first edition to contain Fantomens Bilsamlarserie came with card numbers 1 and 5, which can be seen below.

Fantomens Bilsamlarserie cards were provided by Serieförlaget in pairs in Fantomen comic books, which require cutting by the owner either horizontally or vertically. They contain an image of a car in color on the front plus the number of the card in the series and the model of the car featured. The back of the card is left blank. They were lightly glued into the comic book in the lower part of page 3, allowing them to be easily removed without damaging the comic book page.

The car details are printed in the comic book, only revealed once the card is remove. Below we see the cards attached to the comic book on the left, plus the print in the comic book once the card is removed.

Fantomens Bilsamlarserie cards were not release in sequence as Fantomen comic books were published. Once the lightly glued-in cards were removed, we read a small biography about the car, plus the engines size, it’s power output, the cylinder volume and the cost of the car.

An album to house the 40 Fantomens Bilsamlarserie cards was released by Serieförlaget named ‘Fantomens Bilsamlaralbum’, which translates to ‘The Phantom’s Car Collector’s Album’. The front and back of Fantomens Bilsamlaralbum can be seen below.

Serieförlaget commissioned Åhlén & Åkerlunds Offsettryckeri, located in Stockholm, Sweden to print the Fantomens Bilsamlaralbum, the same printing house who were printing Fantomen comics in Sweden at the time. The front cover is illustrated by Rolf Gohs, depicting a very stylish BMW 507 Roadster. The back cover details a large number of road signs found throughout Sweden.

After the Fantomens Bilsamlarserie cards are removed from the Fantomen comic book, they’re to be glued into the album into a designated section. The cars details are printed in the album as found in the Fantomen comic book, containing a small biography about the car, plus the engines size, it’s power output, the cylinder volume and the cost of the car. A sample of internal pages can be seen below.