Spoiler warning! This is a behind-the-scenes account of “ The Magician’s Curse ”, one of the stories in Frew’s 2026 Annual. Make sure you read the comic first as we will be discussing spoilers. I had already illustrated a Phantom two-parter (" The Pinstripe Wizards " published in Frew #1956 and #1957 ) written by Jason Franks and thought it would be exciting to do a Mandrake story as well. In my mind, they always go together! I grew up reading the newspaper strip reprints,
