Det Grymma Svärdet (which translates to The Cruel Sword) is a Magazine published by Lystring in Sweden. The Magazine publishes a variety of informative features on themes such as short stories, interviews, comics, art, photographs, music and more. Det Grymma Svärdet was first released in 2007 and is still in publication to this day, with at least 43 editions published.

The publisher, Lystring, a small and independent publishing house was established by Fredrik Jonsson in Stockholm, Sweden in the early 2000s, taking influence from fanzines, publishing alternative series which blend comics, fiction, visual arts and music.

Edition number 33, released in 2019 features the Phantom on both the front cover, and in Fantomen comic review articles within. This edition was co-authored by Stefan Petrini, Fredrik Jonsson, Robin McConnell, Kristina Abelli Elander, Simon Hanselmann, Henrik Bromander, Pär Thörn, Karolina Stenström, Cecilia Vårhed and Jaakko Pallasvuo.

Containing 112 pages, this edition contains a theme centered around cartoons. The cover title is ‘Vild & Vulva’, a play on the ‘Bild & Bubbla’ Magazine series, also published in Sweden. It contains an illustration of the Phantom with a speech bubble reading ‘HTML Flowers Kristina Abelli Elander’. Artists HTML Flowers and Kristina Abelli Elander both have interviews published within this Magazine edition.

The publisher provides us with some insight into what’s contained within the Magazine:

• Kristina Abelli Elander is interviewed in detail about her long career as an artist, teacher and cartoonist, and participates with a longer excerpt from her new, so far unpublished comic book where she talks about holding an exhibition with Carl Johan De Geer.
• The issue’s second interview is with the exiled American cartoonist HTML Flowers. An interview about class divides, the American health insurance system, being chronically ill with cystic fibrosis and about his best friend, the exiled Australian Simon Hanselmann…. Which in turn participates with a couple of satirical series on the theme of “cartoons”.
• Henrik Bromander writes about a relatively unknown manga series.
• Pär Thörn reviews the last two issues of Fantomen.
• Jaakko Pallasvuo draws a series about Katten Gustaf.
• The extensive review department gives an update on what is actually being done for comics out there in the wide world in 2019.

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