The Phoenix is a British weekly story comic for children aged 6–12, published by David Fickling Comics Ltd. The comic was launched on 7 January 2012 with a preview issue which was released in late 2011. The comic is often considered a successor to The DFC: 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 and puzzles. 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.
Strips
Like a number of comics, The Phoenix features a fictional editorial team, a group of cartoon animals led by feline editor-in-chief Tabitha Inkspot. The main news reporters that are Bruno Barker, Ellie Waggins, Scoop Yapski and Iris Hasselblad, who have a big news page where they report on new comics and other information of note. The other strips include:
Bunny Vs Monkey - A strip about the adventures of anthropomorphic woodland animals, centred around a long-suffering bunny and a mischievous monkey.
Troy Trailblazer - A recurring sci-fi adventure comic strip starring a team of space heroes led by Troy, their cocky but brave captain.
Gary's Ga - A strip about a garden and the whimsical animals and plants in it.
Star Cat - A sci-fi strip about a spaceship crew who live inside an interstellar cat.
Corpse Talk - A spooftalk show comic by Adam Murphy looking at influential historical people such as Einstein, Boudicca, etc. by digging up their skeletons.
Mega Robo Bros - A comic by Neill Cameron about two robot brothers on a distant future Earth.
Squid Squad - An underwater adventure strip featuring a team of 3 squids protecting the ocean.
Squid Bits - A simple strip of unrelated short cartoons.
Looshkin - The adventures of "the maddest cat in the world. Contains characters from the writer's ten issue series.
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 by the Etherington Bros. is the puzzle usually on the back or middle page of The Phoenix. Children are encouraged to send in the answers to receive a Von Doogan prize and to be named winner in the next issue.
