Monday, 29 June 2020

#Booky100Keepers Day 57: The Mighty Phoenix Comic

Posted by ReadItDaddy at June 29, 2020 Labels: #Booky100Keepers, Children's Comics, David Fickling, Oxford, The Phoenix Comic, Tom Fickling

For a lot of comic-loving parents, they will have a particular memory of "Their" comic, the comic they grew up with, stuffed rolled up inside a back pocket while riding their Raleigh Chopper off to some bit of scrubland, to scrutinise every page, thrill at the stories, marvel at the art and perhaps even doodle their favourite characters and strips in their spare time.

I wanted C to have that memory, probably a bit too early on in her reading journey if I'm really honest, but casting around for kid comics when she was really tiny had me coming up empty handed.

Then I found a copy of "The Phoenix Comic" in our local library and let her have a flick through. Back when we started reading it, it hadn't been going that long - born from the ashes (very Phoenix-like in fact) from the sadly departed / way-ahead-of-its-time "The DFC" but retaining a solid collection of awesome comic folk from that glorious tome, turning out a new kid comic that has gone from strength to strength, establishing itself as a firm favourite with kids across the land.

When C first started reading it, she was drawn to the 'funnies' - Strips such as Bunny vs Monkey and Evil Emperor Penguin. Later when she started solo reading, she started to get her teeth into strips like Von Doogan (brain-melting puzzling stuff with the sharpest art you'll ever see) and Pirates of Pangaea, mashing up dinosaurs and pirates in a truly glorious way.

At first we used to pick up our copies from Waitrose, who had the foresight to stock The Phoenix amongst all their hideous licensed character mags and plastic tat mags for kids. We used to re-arrange the shelves in Waitrose so that the Phoenix Comic was always brought to the front and spread out a bit, just so it would catch the eye of other kids.

I remember going to a launch evening for a stack of David Fickling-published titles, and listening to the man himself talk about The Phoenix Comic and what his aim was. He grew up reading comics like Eagle, and just like me, wanted kids to have something that awesome in their lives on a weekly basis.

Of course, putting together a weekly comic isn't easy - yet over the years we've been reading it, we're constantly surprised and delighted at the sheer variety, diversity and brilliance of the stories and strips that find a home within its hallowed pages. "Old timers" on the comic like Jamie Smart, Neill Cameron and Laura Ellen Anderson constantly come up with the goods of course, but newer folk like Robert Deas, James Stayt and Kate Brown are bringing awesome stuff in too (in fact Gorebrah is another huge fave with C and I'm constantly in awe of James' ability to work in weird pop culture references into his strips).

Monday, 29 June 2020

#Booky100Keepers Day 57: The Mighty Phoenix Comic

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Monday, 29 June 2020

#Booky100Keepers Day 57: The Mighty Phoenix Comic

About ReadItDaddy

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