Mad Cave Studios announces 6x variant covers & the synopsis for issue #1 of their regular Phantom series

Jermayn Parker
6 minutes ago
4 min read

For the Phantom to be successful, we need a popular and successful Phantom series in the USA. Starting July 30 2025, Mad Cave Studios regular series will be out in comic shops around the world. Issue one is also now available for pre order. You can either pre order via Mad Cave Studios website or via your local comic shop.

The series is written by Ray Fawkes and drawn by Russell Mark Olson. Their first Phantom story was in issue #0 which was released on Free Comic Day on 3 May 2025. Our review of this comic can be found here.

The synposis of the first issue is:

When a violent gang of smugglers stubbles on an idyllic Bandar village, the peace that the Phantom has brought to the African nation of Bangalla will suddenly shatter. It will take all of the Phantom’s many skills — and allies — to restore it. The most exciting series of the year starts here!

To help make a big splash with this new series, Mad Cave Studios has released SIX covers including three of the artists who have either drawn Phantom covers for Australian publisher Frew and Swedish publisher Egmont. I believe this will help excite some of the international readers outside the USA market.

Cover A drawn by Freddie Williams II
Cover B drawn by Canaan White
Cover C drawn by Russell Mark Olson
Cover D drawn by Dan Brereton
Cover E drawn by Anthony Spay
Cover F is a Blank Sketch Cover Variant

At the time of this article published the Anthony Spay cover has not been published. It will be updated to this article once Mad Cave Studios has published it.

Freddie Williams II

Freddie Williams II entered the comic scene in 2005, when he began work with DC Comics on Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle. He has since gone on to work on several series including finding a niche in crossover series, including Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man/ThunderCats, Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe, and Turtles of Grayskull.

This is not the first time he has drawn the Phantom. He has drawn the cover for the second Frew TPB. When we have spoken to him about the story behind this cover, he talked about his relationship with the Phantom came from his mother in-law who was a fan of the character and that he contacted Frew to draw the TPB cover as it was a homage to his mother in-law.

Canaan White

Canaan White entered the comic scene in 2006, when he was published by both the lndie Graphic Novel Publisher Dabel Brothers and Marvel Comics. He has since gone on to work on several series for Avatar Press (Uber which is a historical fiction series on second world war), Zenescope (Grimm Fairy Tales) and Marvel Comics (Luke Cage and Ptolus)

Canaan White has also drawn a cover before for Frew for their 2017 Female Phantom Annual (issue 1774).

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Russell Mark Olson

Russell Mark Olson has the disctintion of growing up in the St Louis, Missouri area which was the home town of Lee Falk. Russell is the current ongoing artist for this new Phantom series.

Since moving to the United Kingdom, he has worked on several comic series in the UK comic scene including 2000AD, AccentUK, Cult Empire, Mad Robot, and other various UK and US small presses like "Gateway City".

Have you read the first #0 comic? If you have not, you can download your FREE copy at the Mad Cave Studios website.

Dan Brereton

Dan Brereton entered the comic scene back in 1988 with the story "Lost Causes Chapter 1" in Merchants of Death #1 published by Eclipse Comics. Brereton gained further attention for his work on Batman: Thrillkiller, Superman and Batman: Legends of the World's Finest, and JLA: Seven Caskets, His most famous work is his own series "The Nocturnals."

This will be his first Phantom licensed work and it is good to see another USA well known creator adding the Phantom to their credits.

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Anthony Spay

To most Phantom phans, Anthony Spay will be the most well known Phantom creator out of these cover artists. He has drawn stories for Team Fantomen and Frew since 2019 and three covers for Frew. He was also the artist for the new Phantom video game as well as other video games for Art of Play in Lady Death and Danger Mouse.

Anthony has been working in the comics scene since 2008 with his "1001 Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad" work for Zenescope. Other credits include Zenescope (Grimm Fairy Tales), Coffin Comics (Lady Death) and Batman.

The final cover is a sketch blank cover where you can hire an artist to use the comic as a canvas to create an unique custom illustration for you. Many of these have become popular in the USA comic industry. It will be interesting to see how many other Phantom phans buy this for their collections.

Chronicle Chamber can confirm that these comics are available to pre order via your local comic shop.