The Cloud Pirates

The Cloud Pirates
Produced for:	Fantomen 24/1986
# of pgs:	28
Writer:	Norman Worker
Artist:	Kari Leppänen
Original colorist:	N/A
Producer:	Semic Press

"The Cloud Pirates" is a 1986 Team Fantomen story, written by Norman Worker, with art by Kari Leppänen.

Plot summary

The Phantom reads to Rex and Tom-Tom from a chronicle book, written by his grandfather, how he came to fight a gang of Singh Pirates who is robbing banks and raiding ships on the Bengali coast by attacking them from aeroplanes.

The 19th Phantom gets involved when an Imperial Airways plane transporting diamonds to London crashes in the jungle. The Phantom learns how to fly and on the airfield he meets a daring young pilot, Lili Mayerling. She has arrived in Bengali to meet her uncle, badly wounded after escaping from prince Farouk, for whom he has built a gigantic rigid airship, "Titan". The airship is now used by pirates to make daring robberies. Her uncle has heard of a masked man who lives in the jungle who may be able to help. Lily and The Phantom fly to prince Farouk's country in The Misty Mountains. The prince loves airplanes and after making several aerobatic manouvres, the prince confesses that he was tricked into building Titan by Akbar Singh.

The Phantom and Lily Mayerling crash their plane near a luxury lines off the Bengali coast to warn the captain that the ship may be attacked. The captain refuses to believe them but not long after the Titan airship arrive and pirates climb down using rope ladders to rob the passengers of everything valuable. The Phantom and Mayerling climb aboard the airship, then The Phantom has one airplane crash into the envelope of the airship. In the ensuing chaos, The Phantom takes control of the airship and orders the captain to fly towards prince Farouk's country. The pirates are arrested by prince Farouk's palace guards. Akbar Singh force Mayerling into a plane but flying the plane upside down, the Singh leader falls into a lake and disappears. The Phantom quietly disappears but not before making sure that Mayerling receive a Good mark necklace. Prince Farouk makes sure that the items stolen by the pirates are returned to the rightful owners.

Appearances

Recurring characters

• The 19th Phantom
• Duran
• Akbar Singh
• The 21st Phantom
• Rex
• Tom-Tom

One-time characters

• Lili Mayerling
• Prince Peregrine Farouk
• Captain Douglas, flight teacher
• Josef Mayerling
• Captain Kurt Jurgen
• Tengku, pirate
• Yasuf, pirate
• Hasha
• Abu

Real-life characters

• Ferdinand von Zeppelin (in flashback)

Locations

• Bengali
  • The Deep Woods
    • Phantom Head Peak
    • The Skull Cave
      • The Major Treasure Room
      • The Chronicle Room
  • Morristown
    • Morristown Airport
    • Morristown Flying Club
• Prince Peregrine Farouk's palace

Organizations

• The Singh Brotherhood
• The Monkey Mail

Vehicles

• Airship "Titan"

Newspapers

• Bengali Times

Objects

• The Good Mark necklace
• Model of a biplane made by The 19th Phantom

Behind the scenes

• According to Fantomen Krönika 1/2001 the story is set in 1932.

Reprints

This story has been published in the following publications:

Australia

• "The Cloud Pirates", The Phantom #919 (1988)
• "The Cloud Pirates", The Phantom #1621 (2012)

Denmark

• "Luftpiraterne", Fantomet #303 (1989)

Finland

• "Pilvipiraatit", Mustanaamio 11/1987

Norway

• "Luftpiratene", Fantomet 10/1987
• "Luftpiratene", Fantomets Krønike 1/1993
• "Luftpiratene", Krønikebok #19 (2004)

Sweden

• "Molnpiraterna", Fantomen 24/1986
• "Molnpiraterna", Fantomen Krönika 6/2000
• "Molnpiraterna", Fantomen Christmas Album 2008