The Phoenix (comics)

The Phoenix

Issue 1 cover art featuring "Pirates of Pangaea" by Neill Cameron, 7 January 2012
Publication information
Publisher David Fickling Comics Ltd
Schedule Weekly
Format Weekly Story Comic
Publication date 7 January 2012 -
Number of issues 257

The Phoenix is a British weekly story comic for children aged 6–12, published by David Fickling Comics Ltd.[1] The comic was launched on 7 January 2012 with a preview issue which was released in late 2011.[2] The comic is often considered a successor to The DFC:[2] both are published by the same people and many of The Phoenix's creators had worked on The DFC.

Content of the Comic

Unlike other British children's comics, such as The Beano and The Dandy, the comic does not exclusively feature humour strips. It also features serialise adventure stories such as "The Lost Boy" and "Pirates of Pangaea", as well as humour strips such as "Star Cat", "Evil Emperor Penguin", "Looshkin" and "Bunny vs Monkey". The comic has also featured text stories (such as extracts from books like "Charlie Small" and "Julius Zebra") and puzzles (which are also present in both the modern Beano and Dandy). This makes the comic more similar to the older Beano and Dandy than the modern ones as they once had a mixture of adventure and humour strips as well as text stories. There is also a non-fiction strip called "Corpse Talk" where the creator Adam Murphy digs up a famous dead person and interviews them about their life.

The Team

Like a number of comics (2000AD has Tharg the Mighty and Sparky had the Sparky People), The Phoenix features a fictional editorial team, a group of cartoon animals led by feline editor-in-chief Tabatha Inkspot. The main members are Bruno Barker, reporter, Ellie Waggins, reporter, Scoop Yapski, in charge of the big news page, Iris, the photographer, Quincy, the scientist and Governor Carcass, in charge of addressing mistakes in printing or plot.[3]

Comics

Bunny Vs Monkey

A humorous comic strip of two pages with usually unrelated themes. The main characters are-

Bunny: A cynical rabbit who just wants a calm forest.

Ai: A recently introduced ai-ai who replaced the deceased Le Fox, an excitable character who is the opposite of Bunny, but still his friend, if only for the fun of it.

Weenie: A confused squirrel. Pig's best friend.

Pig: A confused pig. Weenie's best friend.

Skunky: An evil genius and skunk.

Monkey: A very stupid and annoying monkey that arrived in the forest by accident.

Metal Steve: A robot made by Skunky.

Action Beaver: A superhero beaver. He makes unusual noises and doesn't appear to fit in. He is stronger than a hundred nuclear bombs, and it is revealed that he has a romantic interest in Ai, following her to give her flowers, but thus annoying her and making her leave before he could give her them.

Tamsin And The Deep

A recurring strip starring Tamsin, an unknowingly magical girl who gets kidnapped by a mermaid who has cursed her family for generations. Her brother is threatened and she saves him, breaking the curse that took her father, and killing the mermaid.

Troy Trailblazer

A recurring sci-fi adventure comic strip starring-

Troy: A cocky and annoying but also brave and caring hero who fights with his friends.

Jess: A former enemy turned co-captain to Troy, who disrespects his authority a lot, but is also his love interest.

Barrus: A sort of wolf monster that speaks in growls.

blip: A robot

Gary's Garden

A strip about a garden and the animals and plants in it.

Star Cat

A sci-fi strip about a spaceship crew who live inside a rocket that is also a giant cat. The main characters are-

Captain Spaceington: A dozy character who is more loyal than he should be.

Plixx: A science officer and alien who doesn't know anything about science.

Robot 1: A greedy yellow humanoid who often gives un-necessary help.

Pilot: A cat-like creature who only talks in gibberish. She is the Queen of her species, the Pilots, an extremely endangered race; she and her two children, who were sent away to raise themselves are the only known specimens.

Corpse Talk

A talk show style comic looking at influential historical people such as Einstein, Boudicca, etc.

Evil Emperor Penguin (EEP)

A comic about a penguin and his plans for world domination - or spaghetti hoops. Starring-

EEP: An evil penguin who relies more on his help or friends then he would like to believe.

Number 8: An octopus and EEP's butler. He often disagrees with EEP's plans, but seldom puts his foot down.

Eugene: Another of EEP's workers, a small fuzzy bear who briefly defected to Evil Cat, but returned.

Evil Cat: EEP's archenemy, noticeably wears a top hat and is more evil than EEP.

Squid Squad

An underwater adventure strip featuring a team of 3 squid to protect the ocean.

Squid Bits

A deceptively simple strip of seemingly random doodles. Great for getting kids engaged in drawing.

Looshkin

The crazy adventures of the maddest cat in the world. No one knows what is going through this cat's head and life is never calm when he's around.

POW!

A purely illustrative comic with no text. Follows the adventures of POW! a space gladiator and his adventures.

Dirk Lloyd

A comic strip adapted from the Dark Lord series. A Dark Lord is transformed into a 13-year-old boy and we follow his adventures as he tries to turn himself back.

Von Doogan

The Dangerous Adventures of Von Doogan is the puzzle on the back page of The Phoenix everyweek. Children are encouraged to send in the answers to receive a Von Doogan prize and to be named winner in the next issue.

References

  1. ↑ "BBC News - The Phoenix comic rises from recession flames". Bbc.co.uk. 2011-12-26. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  2. 1 2 "Phoenix comic to launch with Waitrose". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  3. ↑ "Meet the Team". The Phoenix Comic. Retrieved 2012-02-10.

External links

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