This Week's Phoenix - Issue 68

This week's Phoenix brings with it the return of one of its greatest strips - Star Cat, illustrated by James Turner. If I remember correctly, this is the comic's second most popular strip, closely following Jamie Smart's Bunny Vs. Monkey. Here is a one-panel preview!

This strip also introduces Haggis and Quail, which has clearly been inspired by Indiana Jones. Heres another one panel preview!

That's all I'm going to be showing you from this issue, to read any more you'll have to grab yourself a copy as soon as possible!

Phoenix issue #68, available from selected stores for £2.99.

This Weeks Phoenix - No. 42!

Phoenix No. 42 is out now, and as usual is full of awesomeness! Here are just a few of the strips inside!

Adam Murphy interviews Britains longest reigning monarch - Queen Victoria, ina two-page Corpse Talk. As usual, this strip is both intresting and entertaining!

Troy Trailblazer is on the hunt for another mystical treasure - a stone! But not just any stone, a stone that can create and destroy the universe! Well, actually - he's not looking for it just yet, but I'm not going to reveal what happens in the story!

My favourite Phoenix strip right from the comics birth was James Turner's Star Cat! Carrying on from last week when Plixx destroyed the universe with a cake, this story is definatly the randomest in the comic!

So make sure you grab a copy now - only £2.99 from any Waitrose and various comic stores! Go on - you know you want to!

Star Cat - Phoenix Issue 5!

I thought James Turner's Star Cat story in the latest Phoenix comic was absolutely brilliant, so I'm going to look at it here - one part at a time!

So where else to start - than at the beautifully coloured, action pack first box!

Star Cat whoosing through the galaxy at top speed, been chased by some polo's and pigs that shoot lazers out of their noses! (Anyone who is new to the story will be confused at how they got into this position, but it would be a fruitless task!

Moving on now to panel numbers two and three, in which officer Plixx's legs continue to be made of jelly, but not any jelly - lime flavoured - "the flavour of FEAR!".

Boxes 4 - 6 focus mainly on Robot One stating that he is imune to the emothion 'fear'. He then takes a leak in his pants after a loud crash! Also in box six - Captain Spaceington announces his ingenious escape plan...

...which suddenly changes in panel number seven!

Panel's 9, 10 and 11 (I'm skipping number eight here) are brilliant! The Star Cat starts to wibble and wobble, possibly about to implode and then...

And it worked flawlessly, as well as making the best piece of scriptwriting for I've seen for aaaages!

Page two was also amazing (and time 'wasting' too - if you try and solve what the Pilot is saying, although it isn't time wasting if you enjoy it :D ), but I won't be revealing what happens here! To find out - pick up the latest issue of The Phoenix - on sale now for just £2.99!

(Advert for issue 6)

The Phoenix Reveals It's Plumage - Part 3

It's finally arrived! (Okay, so maybe I have had my copy for a few days.) I'm not going to do much of a review of the first issue because there are already enough of those dotted all over thw world wide web! (I've linked a few of them at the bottom of the page.)

The original artwork for the cover of The Phoenix #1 - the pterodactyls were later covered up by the logo.

As I explained in a previous post (Phoenix Part 1) The cover of The Phoenix is not red as advertised, but blue. Neil Cameron, who drew the cover, explains:

"The above is an early / alternate version of the issue one cover - in the end, we decided that it looked a little too 'apocalyptic' and went for the blue-sky background used on the final cover."

Long Gone Don was another highlight for me. Drawn and written by the Etherington brothers, I have been looking forwards to this strip the most, and my patience was rewarded! It is a very strange start to a story (although it is actually the end - lost? I am!) story, in which Don drowns in a bowl of Oxtail soup only to find himself plummeting to earth in a land filled with oversized pencils and guitars!

Star Cat was the other highlight, drawn by James Turner. James' stories are always mad, filled with detail that's packed into every corner, and he made it funny! That's quite an accomplishment!

I was really looking forwards to The Pie Thief, something issue one was lacking (along with a few other stories as well). Fingers crossed it'll begin in issue two!!

Upon the launch of The Phoenix, everybody involved with it had a huge party at The Story House. There are some images over on The Phoenix website and on Sarah McIntyre's blog:

https://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/the-phoenix-takes-flight/

http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/452920.html#cutid1

The Times has helped increase subscriptions and The Phoenix is well into the thousands now!

The above copy of The Times was filled in by Neil Cameron, who draws How to make Awesome Comics! Click on images for a larger version to see his endings! Blank pages which you can fill in are avaliable to download on The Phoenix website for free.

https://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/awesome/

There has also been a delay in getting copies to Waitrose, but they hope to have the problem sorted soon!

Other reviews:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9458152.Phoenix_rises_again/

http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2012/01/in-review-phoenix-issue-1.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2012/01/review-phoenix-no1.html