Phans were intrigued with the story about Bret Blevins the man helping out drawing the strips in Mike Manley's absence. However Chronicle Chamber can also now announce that Bret is only one of the ghost artists stepping into Mike's shoes and the second artist is Scott Cohn.
Both have worked hard to continue the strip and we owe them.
What we understand is that Bret Blevins drew the whole strip from the 13th of June to the 25th of June and again 4th of July to the 9th of July. For the other times, Bret did the layouts based on Tony DePaul's script and then Scott Cohn tightens the roughs, inked and lettered the strip. These dates are 27th of June to the 2nd of July and the 11th of June until Mike picks up the mantle again.
A good example of Cohn over Bret's layouts is below which you can see on Scotts Twitter, Instagram and or Facebook accounts. The first image is the layout of the Wednesday 13 July 2022 strip by Bret and the second image is what it looks like after Scot has finished.
It is also worth mentioning that Monday 11 July was the first time Scott Cohn was credited on the strip. Bret Blevins was never credited on the strip.
We can announce that Mike Manley is back working on the Daily newspaper adventures. As suggested in our X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #223 we believe his first strip will be the end of July or early August.
Scott Cohn has known Mike for 30 years and Bret Blevins has known Mike for 40+ years. Their friendship has seen them help each other countless times in the past and probably will again in the future as all three continue their artistic careers. Because of their lifetime friendships, they happily helped out a mate in need and we phans have a lot to be thankful for.
Thanks must go to Scott Cohn and Mike Manley for their time explaining to us about their relationship between themselves but also how Scott and Bret ensured the daily newspaper stories continued. They deserve a good mark imprinted on their wrists from a grateful Phantom and his loyal phans.
