CAPTION: It ain't easy being you. Or being a hero. Especially when you're a guy just trying to hang out, B as kool as can B, and get through school AFAP. Reg was just another kid -- but the townsfolk in Harvest, Illinois felt he was special.

CAPTION 2: At 16, lots of kids are waiting for life to begin...but Reg's life was forced upon him by well-meaning folks. Ready or not, as the Phantom Kid, he'll fight cops, teachers, politicians, gang bangers, superheroes, a coupl'a thugs at school and even his own dad.

And, one of those people will die by his hand.

CAPTION 3: Phantom Kid will also battle prejudice, disease, fate, and human nature. Chances of winning those battles? Slim. But that's getting years ahead of this story...

PAGE 2

	Full PAGE of stormy Railway City. Lightning splashes whiteness between buildings -- an heroic figure is lit from below and behind as he leaps towards the street. The following panels are small insets of the stormy Full page panel -- make them a little smaller than what you might do normally, as they're just basic shots of panoramic landscape. PANEL ONE: WIDE SHOT, bird's eye POV of small town, farms, etc. REG CAPTION 1: "I feel different than everyone else, but I guess I'm not...

PANEL TWO:
still bird's eye, closing in on town...

REG CAPTION (cont'd): "When I was twelve, a friend at a camping trip told me this perticular dream I have all the time means I want freedom.

PANEL THREE:
Town now fills up most of panel, little sky visible. Good ol' mid-western folk can be seen now, along with some pick-up trucks and whatnot.

REG CAPTION (cont'd): "I guess it's true. At home, my mom, sister, an' I had lots of tense times.

Next caption are on the main pic of PAGE

REG CAPTION 2 (cont'd): "Freedom? I haven't had it since...

REG CAPTION 3 (cont'd): "...since everyone decided I should leave home."

	PAGE 3 TITLE: The Phantom Kid is Here -- And Gone! Credits: Writer: Keith Planit; Artist ; Letterer ; Colorist **Special Thanks To "Nick" For Pitching in Some British Bits**

PANEL ONE:
Shot of Midwestern town again.

PANEL TWO:
We pull back in this shot, POV is through a window.

PANEL THREE:
A silhouetted figure suddenly sits up, shoulder bandaged. This is Reginald Reynolds.

Reg: What's happ-- oh...

PANEL FOUR:
Good shot of Reg now (Good looking, unassuming, very mid-western in a charming sort of way... light brown/reddish hair, freckles. He's not so much a really big kid as just a sturdy one), we can see him in bed, grabbing his shoulder lightly.

REG: ...Right.

FOUR:
A woman stands at the doorway. She's an older lady, overweight, plain-looking. This is MRS. WESTERLY.

WESTERLY: You okay, Reggie? You woke up with a start.

REG: I'm okay, I think. Confused for a moment -- you know, not waking up in my bed an' all.

REG 2: How is, um--?

WESTERLY: Perfectly all right. Ms. Mason and the little one escaped with just some cuts and bruises. You fared about as well as the car, but Sidney says you'll be fine, and that shoulder'll be like new in a few weeks.

PAGE 4 PANEL ONE: Close on Reggie. Looking at audience. REG CAPTION: I bet you're wondering. Wondering what happen' in my dumb, little town in the middle of who-knows-where of the thing they call "America's Bread Basket." REG CAPTION 2: It was scary and it was, well, crazy. And I think I'm a lucky guy. I mean, I guess I am, because I do really know what I'm gonna do. With my life. REG CAPTION 3: And it's cool that this whole town's behind me...

TWO:
Medium shot of average townsfolk, an average FELLA, nondescript.

NOTE TO ARTIST: This and the succeeding medium shots of people telling the story of the crash should all look like small-town man-on-the street stuff...but there is no reporter. They're just telling the readers.

FELLA: It was amazing, I'll tell you. This kid, Reggie, always best player on school baseball, he's striding down this street like it was a beautiful spring day...

THREE:
Rain-soaked streets, NIGHT...a car is seen heading down the dirt road at center of town. Reggie can be seen on this lonely street, striding along happily

FOUR:
POV inside car.

FELLA CAPTION: "Mrs. Mason is cradling her littlest one, driving. That baby is crying something awful..."

MS. MASON: Shhh, don't worry baby, we'll almost at the doctor's...everything will be okay! Come on, honey, shhh, shhh, Mommy's taking care of you...

PAGE 5:

PANEL ONE:
Close-up of Reggie again.

REG CAPTION: "It was raining, and I was soaked but who cares?

REG CAPTION 2 (cont'd): "I just heard from my bud Tom that this girl, and she's, well, it's not like she's a hottie, but she's like really cute and -- skip to the best part -- totally into me!"

TWO:
Medium shot of Dr. Westerly.

DOC WESTERLY: Well, I was waiting for Ms. Mason for about 5 minutes only, since I got the call about her baby.

DOC 2: It seems her son, who had just learned to walk, oh, gosh, I dunno, two weeks ago? It seems he kinda fell down and somehow landed on a stray nail. Poor li'l fella.

THREE:
Back in the car, Mason's got her baby in hand as she drives quickly down the small town road.

MS. MASON: Okay, okay, my strong little man, we're just about there.

FOUR:
Outside, she turns the corner as some kid on a skateboard skitters about.

FIVE:
Close-up of Ms. Mason shocked!

SIX:
Close-up of kid, skateboard slipping away on rain-soaked street, numb with fear as headlight beams hit him.

SEVEN:
Close-up of Mason spinning the wheel to avoid a collision with the child.

PAGE 6: Back to the close-up of Reggie

ONE:
REG CAPTION: "I'm not a bigshot or nothin'. But when you find out Becky Stearns is doodling your name in her looseleaf, geez, your brain is saying you're the greatest thing since...the invention of sunrise or something.

REG CAPTION 2:
"So from the peripheral of my vision, as some folks looked on, something caught my attention..."

TWO:
Teenager and her friends, medium shot.

TEEN: I don't know. It was like, amazing. I'm not friends with Reg Reynolds, but I've seen how fast and stuff he is. And you know what?

TEEN 2 (cont'd): He really is...

THREE:
From here, we see what she narrates:

	TEEN CAPTION (continuing): "...just that fast! Like that old show, The Six Bazillion Dollar Man or whatever. He's movin' at the truck in, like, super slow motion or something and the truck is on two side wheels, like it was about to tip over.

FOUR:

TEEN CAPTION: "I don't know what the deal with that mom was, but her baby just, like, completely rolled outta that window...

NOTE TO ARTIST: This is the passenger-side window she describes

FIVE:

TEEN CAPTION: "And Reg, when he was just like on the sidewalk a second earlier, now has one arm cradling the baby and another hanging on to the door of the truck.

TEEN CAPTION 2: "Oh, and his feet were moving so fast. For a minute I thought he was gonna push the truck back on its other wheels. (Stop it! I really did!)"

PAGE 7:

PANEL ONE:
This shot is indoors -- not a man-on-the-street shot. It's a quaint home and we're looking at Mrs. Reynolds, Reggie's mom (we know this by pictures surrounding her of Reg and the rest of his family [his dad and one little sister]).

MRS. R: I'm almost used to it. He's got a gift, I'll tell you. My mother believed that everyone has a reason for being here...

MRS. R. 2: ...saving that baby was just a small part of the big picture I think. He's going to help a whole lot of people that boy.

TWO:
Shot of Doc Westerly & the Mrs. This IS a man-on-the-street shot.

MRS. WESTERLY: It was the scariest thing we'd ever seen with our own eyes, wasn't it, Sidney?

Sidney is nodding.

DOC SIDNEY: I don't know what the boy was thinking.

THREE:
Close-up on Reg again.

REG CAPTION: "I can't really tell you what my plan was. 'What was I thinking?' Beats the holy heck outta me.

REG CAPTION 2: All I know is that the truck went down hard, and I went with it...

FOUR: LARGE PANEL, TAKING UP MOST OF PAGE. The truck is crashing with Reg losing his grip on the frame of the window of the passenger door (which his right arm was holding) -- his shoulder getting gashed as he slides off of the breaking door. The baby is in his left arm, safe.

REG CAPTION: "...and the baby came away unhurt.

REG CAPTION 2: "'Cept for that nail in his butt."