Issue 1652 - Fortnightly, 2013

• "The Boy From The Sea" - story by Donne Avenell and art by Carlos Cruz.

The Boy From The Sea, is, to put it mildly, a most unusual story!

Written by the late Englishman Donne Avenell and illustrated by Carlos Cruz, it cleverly links the accepted beginning of The Phantom legend with a young boy washed up on a deserted beach, smugglers and murderers and weaves around the sad tale of the boy’s father driven to desperation by debt—with The Phantom attempting to put all the pieces in their correct places.

Frew published this story for the first and to date, only, time in edition No 985 in 1991. For this special reprint, we have made a number of necessary changes. Firstly, the original hand lettering has been completely replaced with a modern computer font. Other modifications: Two old advertisements, the original Message from the Publisher and a page of Phantom Forum letters have been dropped and most importantly, the original outside back cover has been discarded.

For some reason, in the original printing, the outside back cover was a lift from the beautiful story Eden (Frew No 931) also written by Donne Avenell, which Frew published in 1989. Eden also centred on a young boy, but had absolutely nothing to do with The Boy From The Sea! (I have no idea how this gaffe slipped through the system!)

Glenn Ford rendered the original front cover art and this has been retained. Naturally enough, the usual tweaks have been applied….new edition number, retail price and so on….

The Boy From The Sea contains a number of messages about morality and stresses the importance of family loyalty, belief and bonding.

Look at the final page of the story and The Phantom musing about a small white lie he has told the young boy and you will get the point!.