Thursday 11 April 2013

A Future Phoenixer?

Today we have something, or rather someone, special  to share with you on The Phoenix blog ... a brilliant young comic-making talent, a potential Phoenix creator for the future and a thoroughly brilliant chap: Lewis Wilkinson!



We met Lewis Wilkinson at a workshop we held in conjunction with the fantastic Robin Etherington at the Imagine Festival at the end of February. Robin and ourselves were super impressed with his work and his passion for comics and storytelling. So we thought we'd give him the chance to tell us a bit more about himself. One to watch for the future. Take it away Lewis!

1. Firstly, tell us a bit about yourself. What is your name and how old are you?


Hello I'm Lewis and I'm 13 years old.

We met Lewis Wilkinson at a workshop we held in conjunction with the fantastic Robin Etherington at the Imagine Festival at the ed of February. Robin and ourselves were super impressed with his work and his passion for comics and storytelling. So we thought we'd give him the chance to tell us a bit more about himself. One to watch for the future. Take it away Lewis!

2. And how long have you been reading comics for?

I first started reading comics when I was 8 years old. My first comic was the 70th Anniversary edition of The Beano in July 2008. I soon discovered The Dandy and subscribed to both.

3. Have you always drawn your own comics?

I've drawn my own comics since discovering The Beano

4. When did you start drawing and why?

I've been drawing since I was able to hold a pen, probably when I was three. I just felt that I had to draw and create comics.

5. What's your favourite bit of work you've done? And where did the idea for it come from?

My favourite piece of art are my most recent comics. They are currently mostly inpired by the comics in The Phoenix and The Dandy.



6. What is it about comics that you like?

I love comics. They bring you into a fantasy world. They make you laugh and leave on a cliff hanger dying to know what happens next. The artwork and stories excite me. I can't wait for them to drop through the door (The Phoenix and Beano).

7. Any favourite artists and writers?

Jamie Smart
Jamie Smart is a brilliant artist. His art is so big, bold and colourful. He draws for The Phoenix, Beano, Dandy, Mega and Dr Who. He's drawn for The DFC and Toxic magazine int he past and has published two 'Find Chaffy' books. He has also produced great web comics like Whubble.

The Etherington Brothers

I enjoy their gripping adventure stories. Robin creates fine stories which fit with Lorenzo;s incredible and detailed artwork. I really loved reading Baggage and Monkey Nuts from The DFC Library. They were so gripping. I love reading Long Gone Don in The Phoenix every week and enjoyed Yore! ever so much in The Dandy. (I hope they return to the digital Dandy or even The Beano). I wish I could complete a Von Doogan Puzzle. They are so tricky.

Lew Stringer
As well as a comic history genius Lew has been giving us humorous comics since the 1980's. He's written some of my favourite Beano and Dandy strips and I know he also drew for Viz and some American comics. My personal favourite though is 'Tom Thug' from Oink comic. Oink was amazing, like a Viz for kids. I was pleased to see Tom Thug live on in Buster comic.

8. Do you still think there is a place for paper comics or do you think everything should be digital only?


The Dandy went digital only last year and I thought it was a shame, but better Digi-Comics than no comics at all I suppose, but I prefer the real paper comics. The good thing about Digi-Comics is the sound and interaction.

9. If there was one thing you could say to someone who doesn't read comics what would it be?

Read comics!!!!

10. And what would you like to be doing in 10 years?


Writing comics and having my work published. I hope The Phoenix is still going in 2023 I'd be honoured to work for it.

And we'd be honoured to have you!


A MASSIVE thank you to Lewis, we'll look forward to hopefully seeing you within the pages of The Phoenix in the future!

Thursday 4 April 2013

Phoenix Roosts - Cole's Bookstore


The Phoenix brings great stories to children every week. Packed full of thrilling, original content that will have readers trembling with excitement. There are deep serial-stories to savour, one-off adventures to be swallowed whole, funnies to feed the sense of humour and loads more including competitions, puzzles and non-fiction that might even raise the dead for an interview!

Every week we will be sharing with you the favourite roosts of this most perky and fiery of birds. These are the places where you can pick up the most recent issue of your weekly story comic and join in the adventure.

This week is the turn of the fabulous Cole’s Books in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

 Cole's Bookstore in Bicester, Oxfordshire.


With a wealth of book treasures, Cole’s Books is a real bookshop in the real world. Four walls, one roof, thousands of books and a fantastic bunch of customers and staff make it a great place to be and one of The Phoenix’s favourite roosting spots.

Cole's Books counter.

Based in the north Oxfordshire town of Bicester and run by the brilliant Caroline and Nigel French, Cole’s gladden all breeds of bookworm.  Specialists in Signed Editions; great books by great authors, Cole’s also ensure that their local history shelves are well stocked (especially as Bicester nestles cosily within Flora Thompson country – a popular destination for book lovers everywhere due to its special relationship with Larkrise to Candleford. Their beautifully adorned children’s area caters for all ages, and is a great nook to curl up in with a tale or two.

Where The Phoenix roosts in store.

If you would like to pop along you can visit Cole’s Books at…

Cole’s Books
Crown Walk
Bicester
Oxfordshire
OX26 6HY

Or visit their online store at www.coles-books.co.uk for full details.

Monday 25 March 2013

The Phoenix visits the Education Show


From the 14-16 March The Phoenix spent a fabulous three days at the Education Show, held at the NEC Birmingham. Our magnificent bird spread it’s wings proudly over the stand as we showcased and shared the weekly story comic, the physical and the digital, with as many teachers, exhibitors and visitors as possible.

The free event was the host for over 350 education providers as well as providing workshops and information points to hear from leading education bodies and associations. Attracting all those involved in Education, from Early Years to Secondary, the show opened its doors to around 13,000 people over the course of three days.

As you can imagine the high footfall meant lots of new people just waiting to be initiated into The Phoenix family. We tried our very best, as always, to spread the word and ended up speaking to a host of brilliant educators and potential Phoenixers from all walks of life - hopefully our perky fiery bird will be roosting with many of them soon!




The Phoenix also managed to get a hug from one special guest at the Fair, in the form of  Henry Winkler, OBE, best known for his role as “The Fonz” in the 1970s American sitcom ‘Happy Days’.

With his strong affiliation with First News and the goal of engaging children in reading and learning we ensured Mr Winkler didn’t go away without having a copy of The Phoenix safely tucked under his arm ... aaaaaayyyy!




This is all well and good you say, but why was The Phoenix at the Education Show? Well, as we have been including in our newsletters we are bringing the comic into schools and are successfully nested in over 70 around the country. Following all the fantastic feedback we have received from teachers and education officials we believe that every school should have the opportunity to be a part of The Phoenix and that every child should have access to great stories. 

If you would like to order a subscription for your school, please check out our website at www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/schoolsandlibraries now!

We also provide teaching resources, including ‘what makes a good character’, ‘character faces’ worksheets, ‘what makes a good story’ and storyboarding exercises which provide learning objectives, relevant vocabulary and suggested lesson plans that teachers can use.

All of which are available for FREE. Check them out HERE.

Yes, The Phoenix are putting a big effort into making sure that we can bring as many new Phoenixers as possible into our family, to enjoy our content and bring great stories to school children all over the country. Thank you Birmingham Education Show for taking us one step further along the way! 





Thursday 21 March 2013

World Poetry Day!

Phoenix Poetry Party

(in celebration of World Poetry Day)


To celebrate today, World Poetry Day,
We’re having a party at the Phoenix - Hooray!
Chops and the Hounds bring cake and some tea,
While Tabs wonders where mischievous Barnaby could be.

With Bunny and Monkey for once in accord,
The Pirate ‘Raven Jess’ briefly puts down her sword,
Dear Adam Murphy talks with those still alive,
Haggis, Quail and Von Doogan then quickly arrive.

With laughter and talk, oh the stories they share,
Of Pterodactyls, dinosaurs and a large polar bear,
All the cake and tea gone, the party end comes very near,
Happy World Poetry Day! we all cry with a big Phoenix cheer!



Monday 25 February 2013

Comics in Real Life!


A comic is just fiction, right? All of those silly situations we read each week in The Phoenix don’t REALLY happen. Well, we discovered that comics may actually be more true to life than you think! We’ve selected three wonderful strips from the enthralling pages of The Phoenix and compared them to the world YOU live in. 


So can you remember how Monkey arrived in THE WOODS? Well, some rather unsuccessful scientists tried to launch him into space but only managed to send him over the hill! (Look back to Issue One if you want to know more). At Phoenix HQ we were wondering whether humans have ever actually managed to send monkeys or other animals into space. What do you think?

Well, we discovered that many monkeynauts were FURIOUSLY FIRED into space before any humans were. Scientists in the Soviet Union (modern Russia) and the USA were trying to beat each other in the SPACE RACE and prove that living creatures could survive in outer space. In 1948 the USA launched monkeynaut ‘Albert II’ who zoomed an enormous 83 miles high (134KM), making him the first monkey in space. Well done Albert! Following this success, numerous other countries have tried their hand at sending monkeys into space, some more successfully than others! In 1969, hero monkey ‘Juan’, reached 60KM in the Argentinian “Christmas Operation” (not outer space – sorry Juan!) before PLUMMETING to earth again. He was recovered successfully by scientists but was probably pretty confused.

picture courtesy of www.universetoday.com

In the 1960s and 1970s Russia also launched more than 50 dogs into space. In fact, Laika (meaning "Barker" in Russian) was the DARING DOGGY who became the first animal to orbit the Earth. She was picked up from the cold streets of Moscow because scientists believed that she would already be extra TOUGH. She flew in the spacecraft Sputnik 2 and in America soon gained the nickname “MUTTNIK”.



Picture courtesy of webecoist.momtastic.com

Speaking of which, Nick Adabdzis (the brilliant artist behind Cora's Breakfast), is probably best known for his sensational book 'Laika', the winner of the 2008 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens and Eisner Award nominee for Best Reality-Based work.





More recently, tiny pond animals called tardigrades or “water-bears” became the very first animals to survive exposure to space in 2007. They survived 10 DAYS in space with no protection! What makes tardigrades TOUGH AS NAILS in any extreme is their ability to stop their own metabolism – meaning they can put their whole body on pause for up to ten years. Pretty handy!


Other missions have seen frogs, mice and even RABBITS (Yes, Bunny, believe it or not!) whizzing through the atmosphere. Two spiders, Arabella and Anita were also sent to test if they would spin webs in space (The answer? Yes, but the weightlessness made them WOBBLY). But what do you suppose were the very first animals in space? FRUIT FLIES! The US sent them to test the effects of radiation way back in 1947 – when our understanding of space was PATCHY at best – but they survived. Still, we don’t think the occupants of Gary’s Garden will be volunteering for space missions any time soon!  

Bunny vs Monkey is created by Jamie Smart


We all know that the town of Blimpville is highly unfortunate. It may not feature in The Phoenix at the moment, but we're reliably informed by Blimpville creator Patrice Aggs that a day doesn’t go by without at least three children getting stuck up trees, something large falling on someone’s head, washing-up liquid being ingested and an assortment of CATASTROPHIC explosions. Such places can’t exist in real life…or can they?!



Well, the closest we can get is little Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, which has been crowned the MOST CLUMSY town in England, with over 3300 falls per year! This voodoo village is also famous for being the home of pork pies and SMELLY Stilton cheese. Despite its pungent prominence in the food world, Melton Mowbray is still the country’s unluckiest place to live!
Other CHAOTIC locations of bad luck include icy Anchorage in Alaska and Charleston in West Virginia – we suggest that you take a first aid kit if you ever visit.

Blimpville was created by Patrice Aggs.


Not all adventurers are perfect. The Phoenix readers will CERTAINLY agree, having gawped at the puzzling pursuits of Von Doogan. Despite his best efforts, things just don’t always go to plan for daring Doog. But this is nothing new. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries almost every explorer who embarked on a mission thought they knew where they were going. But the truth is, the majority of them got lost on those STORMY seas of old. At least they ended up discovering places NO-ONE had ever see before. That would be pretty AWESOME. 

You might have heard of two chaps called Lewis and Clark – their TREMEMDOUS TREK across the USA has gone down in history as a prime example of awesome adventuring. But the truth is, Lewis and Clark FAILED their mission! They were looking for something called the Northwest Passage, supposedly a direct trading route over water from America to Asia. The year was 1804, when the United States were still beginning and much of America remained unexplored and unmapped. The two HARDBOILED HEROES and their party of 33 people travelled THOUSANDS OF MILES along the Missouri River, taking notes about the wildlife and territories they encountered. 

They were guided by a 15-year-old girl named Sacagawea, who was MONSTROUSLY BRAVE and acted as an interpreter with the Native American Shoshone tribe, as well as giving directions and saving their boat when it capsized. Lewis kept a diary of their expedition, recording the EPIC BATTLES and HORRIFIC TRIALS – at one point they were so hungry, they had to eat CANDLES to survive! Their two-year journey was INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT in discovering all we know about the geography of the United States – but they never did find the Northwest Passage, despite being some of the most famous explorers ever. Maybe Doogan would have better luck if he abandoned his mission!




Another ne’er-do-well explorer was the unfortunate Ernest Henry Shackleton. He made 3 trips to the Antarctic in his life – and two out of three ended DISASTROUSLY! His first trip was with Captain Scott on the ship THE DISCOVERY – a bold journey towards the South Pole that ended in tragedy for almost everyone – except Shackleton, who got sent home ill! Considering the FROZEN FATE of poor old Scott, Shackleton seems to have been suprisingly lucky. His second mission went AWESOMELY and he made loads of important discoveries as well as being KNIGHTED when he got home! He probably should have quit while he was ahead – Shackleton’s last voyage, THE ENDURANCE, crashed into ice before it got anywhere near the South Pole. His hapless crew had to cross thousands of kilometres of ocean in a tiny boat to find rescue. Shackleton’s dad wanted him to be a doctor – a less dangerous day job might have been a wise idea, but his BRILLIANT BRAVERY has been remembered ever since.

Von Doogan is created by Lorenzo Etherington.


You may remember the brilliant Lost Boy by Kate Brown, nominated for the Young People's Comic Award in the British Comic Awards 2012, well here's it's real life counterpart.

Jim was hopelessly lost in a MYSTERIOUS new world – yet he wasn't the first to be stranded alone on a deserted island. Nowadays we can hardly imagine having to fend for ourselves and survive in the WILD, but some real-life castaways have found themselves in that very situation. 

Alexander Selkirk was a SEAFARING SCOTSMAN who became the inspiration for fantastic adventure books like Robinson Crusoe when he survived alone on the group of pacific islands called Juan Fernández. When the ship he was travelling with made a stop for supplies he advised his captain not to get back on the ship with too much weight. The captain returned the favour by ABANDONING him! Selkirk lived alone on the islands for a FLABBERGASTING FOUR YEARS – and they were fraught with danger. He made huts on the beach while waiting for rescue, eating shellfish and hoping to be seen by a passing ship – but an angry gang of SEA LIONS soon appeared and wanted their territory back, driving him further into the UNKNOWN DARKNESS of the forest, where RAVENOUS RATS attacked at night. 
Much like Jim, he managed to befriend some of the creatures of the forest – wild goats provided him with milk and meat, and a group of feral cats loyally protected him from the rats while he slept. When he was finally rescued he got a HERO’S WELCOME and continued his career as a sailor (we wouldn’t have thought he’d fancy EVER being near the ocean again!). 



At the other extreme, a team of rather bad explorers in 1921 who set off for Wrangel Island in northern Siberia turned out to be UTTERLY UNPREPARED for the icy conditions that awaited them. After a very short time they completely ran out of rations, which led to three men leaving to look for more food, leaving just two people remaining – an ill man who was suffering from SCURVY, and an Inuit woman named Ada Blackjack.

Ada had taken a job on the ship as a cook and seamstress to raise money for her ill son, but got more than she bargained for when she was left alone with the dying man for two years! Those DOUBLECROSSING DESERTERS never returned and Ada was forced to learn survival quickly, becoming an expert trapper and gunwoman – she even fended off POLAR BEARS. The dying man was no help; his illness prevented him from even moving but he was still picky and ungrateful for the food Ada gave him, and towards the end of his life he even started deliberately insulting her! When he was gone Ada kept a journal to cope with the terrible loneliness. Luckily, the story has a happy ending - eventually a ship found her and returned her to her son, whose treatment she was finally able to pay for – we’re sure you’ll agree she EARNED IT!

Wednesday 13 February 2013

How to Make Awesome Comics ... for a Living!


Every day at The Phoenix we receive HEAPS of amazing fan art; scribbles of your favourite characters, bizarre made-up monsters and ENTIRE comic strips. There are clearly a lot of talented fans out there, but what about actually making comics as a job? If you’ve been inspired by The Phoenix and want to know more then look no further, because two of our super-talented contributors – Neill Cameron and Paul Duffield - have agreed to share their top tips….

Neill Cameron: Born in Oxford. Started drawing robots and dinosaurs. Did some other stuff for a bit. Decided that drawing robots and dinosaurs was way more fun, so went back to that. Currently Neill appears in The Phoenix where he is a close personal friend of Professor Panels and co-writes the brilliant Pirates of Pangaea with Daniel Hartwell. Neill also holds degrees in Philosophy, Information Technology, Paleontology, Robotics and Advanced Awesomeology. (NOTE: NOT ALL OF THESE ARE TRUE).

Neill: "When I was at school the teacher asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up and I said "draw comics about robots and dinosaurs". She said "No, as a REAL Job." HA.
       
If you want to draw comics the best thing you can do is to DRAW: all the time, as much as possible, and all kinds of different things. Draw from life, draw real people, draw crazy made-up monsters. Try drawing photos you see in magazines.

The OTHER best thing you can do is to READ: read lots of comics, read lots of books. Read fiction, read non-fiction, read comedy, read newspapers, read magazines, read people's twitter feeds, read the backs of cereal boxes. It all goes into the Big Soup Of Awesomeness that is your head, and all helps you come up with amazing ideas for comics."


A panel from the current Pirates of Pangaea


Paul Duffield: Comicker, illustrator and animator working in Oxford, UK. Paul has worked with a diverse range of clients (including The BBC, Dark, Horse and SelfMadeHero) and his work has received a number of awards including to Eagle Awards for Freakangels. Currently Paul explains the mysteries of the universe in the brilliant Star Born only in The Phoenix.

Paul: "If you want to draw professionally, there are a few pieces of advice you hear a lot - "draw every day" and "make sure you love drawing". They're very useful pieces of advice, but they're only part of the big picture!

The best way to think about drawing is "perfect practice makes perfect" - so whilst you're drawing, learn about drawing too! Challenge yourself, deliberately try things you find hard. You can teach yourself some of the basics with Professor Panels and Art monkey in The Phoenix, but there all sorts of books about drawing and cartooning that can help with the more advanced stuff if you're really serious about it.

Drawing pictures can be really fun, and it's easy to imagine that drawing as a career would be just as fun! In many ways it is, but there is a lot of work involved too! Occasionally you're going to have to draw when you'd rather be doing something else, so see it as a challenge and don't give up. It's worth all that effort when you finally see your finished comic published in a magazine like The Phoenix!"

A sneak peek of what you can expect in the upcoming Star Born.

Fantastic advice! We hope you found it useful. And remember, keep sending your comics to fanfare@thephoenixcomic.co.uk - practice makes perfect!