DC Comics vamps up its digital titles, will British publishers follow their lead?

DC Entertainment has just unveiled two new digital innovations today that the company says will take its comics to "the next level of interactivity" - DC2, a new initiative that layers dynamic artwork onto digital comic panels, adding a new level of dimension to digital storytelling.

DC2 Multiverse technology allows readers to determine a specific story outcome by selecting individual characters, storylines and plot developments while reading the comic, meaning one chapter of a digital comic has dozens of possible story outcomes.

You have to wonder just how much all this interactivity costs - and what the endgame is, in terms of hoped-for sales and response. Many British comic publishers have yet to make bring any significant additional content to their digital offerings to really exploit the digital platform, although ROK Comics - which only publishes digitally - has included audio on all its titles, which has received acclaim from a number of quarters outside the comics industry. The Phoenix Comic app is great, but there's as yet few 'extras' to its digital version that might give it even more of a buzz among its gadget-hungry target audience. DC Thomson are working hard to make the most of what can be done digitally with their digital Dandy, and their electronic offerings of Commando make good combined use of both the releases and a fantastic official web site to promote the recently-revamped title.

(Declaration: I work for ROK Comics).

DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson and Co-Publisher Jim Lee unveiled DC2 and DC2 Multiverse at the opening of Time Warner’s “The Future of Storytelling” exhibition at the Time Warner Medialab in New York.

“Since we made the game changing decision to go Same-Day-Digital with the launch of DC Comics – The New 52, we very strategically built our digital business to have the broadest distribution and most extensive Digital-First content line-up, and now we’re at the forefront of innovation,” stated Nelson. “DC2 and DC2 Multiverse leverages technology to make iconic characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Green Lantern even more relevant through highly interactive storytelling.”

DC2 will first appear in the highly-anticipated new Digital-First title Batman ’66, based on the popular 1960s television show, and the dynamic artwork features will bring the show’s action and retro attitude to life for comic readers. Readers will experience an expanded storytelling canvas as each comic panel tells a multi-dimensional story through layered artwork and sequences.

Digital-First title Batman: Arkham Origins, based on the upcoming video game from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, will be the first to showcase DC2 Multiverse.



DC2 Multiverse features dynamic artwork, along with action sounds and the ability to integrate a soundtrack – all while allowing readers to determine the fate of each storyline and character, including Super Heroes and Super Villains, with multiple options and end results available in each comic chapter. Only with DC Comics’ compelling rogues gallery will fans be just as excited to see what happens to Black Mask as they are to follow Batman’s adventures.

“Digital comics have proven to be a driving force in attracting new readers, in fact, since the onset of Same-Day-Digital our print and digital sales have both risen by double and triple digits, respectively,” stated Lee. “With Digital-First titles we’ve created a successful formula of pairing comics with other media forms like TV shows and video games. Today’s announcements demonstrate how we can tie innovations that organically fit and enhance comics – for example with atman: Arkham Origins you can choose the destiny of your character by playing the game and reading the comic.”

In addition to offering its Same-Day-Digital print line-up, DC Entertainment’s  line-up of Digital-First titles includes  Injustice: Gods Among Us, Adventures of Superman, Arrow, Legends of the Dark Knight, Smallville: Season 11, the Beyond series, Batman: Li'l Gotham and upcoming titles Batman ’66 and Batman: Arkham Origins. Additionally, last year DC Entertainment secured the most expansive digital distribution of all comic publishers by forging new deals with Kindle Store, iBookstore and Nook Store, in addition to its previous distribution on all comiXology platforms.

Rainbow Orchid Prequel In The Phoenix This Friday

Artist and writer Garen Ewing’s latest adventure of Julius Chancer, The Secret of the Samurai, a prequel to his three book Rainbow Orchid saga, is starting a four week run in The Phoenix beginning this weekend. The twenty page adventure will be published in five page segments over four weeks beginning in issue 75 due on Friday 7 June and concluding in issue 78 due on Friday 28 June 2013.

The Secret of the Samurai takes place several years before the events depicted in The Rainbow Orchid. Talking about it in his blog, Garen says, “My plan is that one day I will do a connected but equally stand-alone story of the same length, so there's the possibility they could be published together as a complete book. This will not derail the full-length (60-80 pages) adventure I have plotted and ready to start - hopefully this summer.”

Despite recently becoming a father for the second time, Garen continues to attend conventions. He will be attending Stripped, the comics ‘festival within a festival’ at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, where he will be taking part in three events on Sunday 25 August 2013. The full programme for the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Stripped will be announced on 20 June on the BookFest website. In addition, over the weekend of 19-20 October 2013, Garen will be selling, signing and sketching at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival’s Comic Clock Tower in Kendal in the Lake District.

• There are more details of all Garen Ewing’s work on his website and more details on The Secret of the Samurai and The Rainbow Orchid on his Adventures Of Julius Chancer website.

• The Phoenix comic is available from Waitrose supermarkets, Travelling Man and Forbidden Planet International stores, as well as a selection of other comics shops and book shops around the UK.

• There is more information about The Phoenix on the title’s website including a location guide to stores that sell it. Subscriptions and back issues are also available for those who do not have a local stockist.

Panel Borders radio show on The Phoenix / new British Horror Films

Panel Borders: The Phoenix

In the first of a new series of Panel Borders, we start a month of shows looking at comic book anthologies with a recording of a panel discussion of the children's comic The Phoenix. Creators Daniel Hartwell (writer: ‘Pirates of the Pangaea’), Neill Cameron (artist: ‘Pirates of the Pangaea’, Adam Murphy (‘Corpse Talk’), Robin Etherington (writer: ‘Long Gone Don’) and Patrice Aggs ('Blimpville') discuss creating serialised comics for children and how the title rose from the ashes of The DFC - hosted by David O'Connell and recorded live at Caption Festival, Oxford.

8pm, Sunday 16th September 2012, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

I'm ready for my close-up: Home Invasions

With unfortunately apposite timing, following the case of burglars being shot in a Leicestershire break-in at the start of this month, Alex Fitch interviews the directors of two new British horror films that deal with supernatural home invasions and their consequences. Oliver S. Milburn discusses his debut film The Harsh Light of Day which looks at a home owner's Faustian deal with a vampire to get revenge on the thieves who broke into his home and murdered his wife, and Pat Holden talks about his new movie When the lights went out, starring Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead) and produced by Bil Bungar (Moon), and dramatises the story of the 1966 haunting and subsequent exorcism of a semi-detached house in Pontefract.

When the lights went out was released in cinemas on 14th September and The Harsh Light of Day is released on DVD on 1st October - whenthelightswentout.com / www.harshlightofday.com

11.30pm, Tuesday 18th September, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Creator Talk: Six Questions For Artist/Writer Garen Ewing

When The Rainbow Orchid creator Garen Ewing began writing and drawing his ligne clair style Adventures Of Julius Chancer in Jason Cobley’s small press BAM! black and white anthology in 2002, he would have hardly have expected that a decade later The Rainbow Orchid trilogy of books would be available to buy in colour in both British and Dutch editions with French and Spanish versions in the works.

With the three individual books now collected and released in the United Kingdom as The Complete Rainbow Orchid omnibus, Jeremy Briggs talked to Garen about his work and the future of his characters.

downthetubes: The artwork and story style of The Rainbow Orchid would suggest that you grew up on Tintin books. What comics did you read and enjoy as a child and which ones do you like now?

Garen Ewing: Yes, Asterix and Tintin were the mainstays, in fact the obsessions, of my childhood, and they still remain my favourite comics. I also read various humour weeklies, such as The Dandy and Whizzer & Chips, but I preferred adventure comics - The Victor, Tiger, Warlord, Battle, and later 2000AD. I was also a big Oor Wullie fan thanks to my Scottish grandmother. As my teens approached I moved onto Warrior, which I loved.

Currently I'm enjoying the greater availability of European comics in English, especially Blake & Mortimer and Yoko Tsuno - both of which I'd had the 1980s Comcat editions before - and Leo's Aldebaran series. As well as the Cinebook range, books from NBM (love the two Miss Don't Touch Me volumes) and Fantagraphics (especially the Tardi and Tillieux reprints). I'm really looking forward to Bryan Talbot's third Grandville album and also catching up with the more recent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books.

DTT: Where did the original idea of The Rainbow Orchid come from?

Garen: As far as the story goes I think it originated in my research for what was initially going to be a Victorian vampire tale, and looking into that era's obsession with orchid collecting. That, amalgamated with my love of classic lost world adventure stories by such authors as Rider Haggard and Jules Verne. Add a dash of Franco-Belgian graphics and we're there!

DTT: How much has it changed over the years from your initial concept?

Garen: Hardly at all as far as the plot goes, I pretty much kept to my original plan. Quite a few details changed, as they must, and the character of Meru was a bit of a surprise to me - he just popped up, but plays a major part.

DTT: Now that The Complete Rainbow Orchid is available, how would you 'sell it' to someone who hasn't yet bought one of the individual books?

Garen: Probably the best shorthand, courtesy of a friend's description, is it's Tintin meets Indiana Jones only a bit more cerebral. I'd like to hope that it's the kind of story you can settle down with on a Sunday afternoon, a mug of tea at your side, and get totally lost in for an hour or two. It's 1398 panels of pure adventure, good for kids and adults alike.

DTT: You have recently had several strips in The Phoenix comic. Can you tell us a little about them and if they will continue?

Garen: I was the illustrator on two of Ben Haggarty's Silk Roads strips, The Legend of the Golden Feather (left) in issue 1, and a four-parter, The Bald Boy and the Dervish, a few months later, both Arabian Nights-type tales and great fun to do. I'm not sure if I'll be doing any more of those, but I will be doing something for The Phoenix again at some point, if plans work out.

DTT: What's next for Rainbow Orchid's Julius Chancer character?

Garen: I'm writing the next Julius Chancer adventure now. I don't want to give too much away this early on, but I can say it involves a stage magician, a ruined seventeenth-century house, an uncharted island and an ornate wooden box.

DTT: Thank-you for taking the time to talk to us.

There are more details of The Rainbow Orchid on Garen's Rainbow Orchid website which includes a shop with badges, t-shirts and signed and sketched copies of the books available.

There are more details of Garen's other work at his own website.

The downthetubes reviews of the three Rainbow Orchid books -
Book 1 review
Book 2 review
Book 3 review

Doctor Who / The Dandy / Elephantmen in discussion on the radio

Squeezing in a trio of radio appearances on 104.4 FM and elsewhere before Resonance FM runs a three week repeat schedule while the studio is refurbished, Alex Fitch is covering a variety of subjects over the weekend...

Clear Spot: Out of the Whoniverse

In an hour long show looking at the further adventures of companions and minor characters in Doctor Who episodes, Alex Fitch talks to a selection of writers, actors and producers about two audio based spin-offs from a couple of 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) adventures in particular: The Minister of Chance which continues the story of a character from Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time,
and Counter Measures which explores further alien and paranormal encounters dealt with by the supporting cast of Remembrance of the Daleks.
Actors interviewed in the show include Paul Darrow (Blake's 7), Pamela Salem (Miss Moneypenny in Never Say Never Again) and Doctor Who audio regular John Banks, plus producers and directors Dan Freeman, David Richardson and Ken Bentley.

8pm, Friday 17th August, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcasts after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Jon Briggs Breakfast show: Caption and The Dandy

As part of Jon Briggs' Saturday morning breakfast show which runs from 6am - 9am, Alex Fitch and Robin Etherington will be talking about this year's Caption Festival in Oxford and the sad demise of The Dandy comic in its 75th year. Robin wrote the strips Yore and Tag Team Tastic for The Dandy in 2011 and is a regular contributor to The Phoenix comic, which he'll be discussing in person at Caption on Sunday 19th.

7.50am approx., Saturday 18th August, BBC Oxford 95.2 FM (Oxfordshire) /
streamed at www.bbc.co.uk/bbcoxford /
'listen again' after broadcast at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wyw49 (until 24/08/12)

Panel Borders: Unleashing the Elephantmen

In the last of the current broadcast series of Panel Borders, which this month has been looking at anthropomorphic or 'funny animal' comics, Alex Fitch talks to writer, editor and letterer Richard Starkings, and Ian Churchill, one of a rotating team of artists on Elephantmen, an American monthly comic (primarily created by Brits) about retired super-soldiers that are half animal, half human hybrids. Mixing the sci-fi / noir ambience of Blade Runner with the anthropomorphic horrors of The Island of Doctor Moreau, the comic has been serialised since 2003 and in this episode, recorded in front of an audience at last year's Bristol Small Press Expo, Alex talks to Richard and Ian about the origins of the title, Richard's move to America as a creator and Ian's own creator owned title, Marineman, which first appeared as a back-up strip in Elephantmen #25.
(The next podcast episode of Panel Borders will be online 26/08/12 and next broadcast on Resonance on 16/09/12)

8pm, Sunday 19th August, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Tube Surfing: Phoenix, Jamie Smart, Commando and The Broons

It has been a while since we have had a Tube Surf so…

The Phoenix had a bumpier than expected take-off when their distribution deal through Waitrose supermarkets left many potential readers puzzled when no Waitrose had copies of the new comic. We are glad to say that our network of twitchers are now reported sightings of Phoenixes nesting on the shelves of many different Waitrose stores so, if you have a nearby store, this is a nest site that we would be happy for you to raid. It you don't have a nearby Waitrose there is still the option of a taster subscription which gets you five issues (worth £14.95) delivered to your door for just £10. Our review of Phoenix issue 1 is here and the Phoenix website with subscription details is here.

Dandy, Phoenix, Corporate Skull Who et al artist and writer Jamie Smart has recently been on the receiving end of criticism of his work that has too often crossed the line into some disgracefully personal attacks. Jamie takes the time to write a very well thought-out and articulated FAQ-style piece on what artists, professional or amateur, should expect when they release their work out into a harsh, cruel world. Jamie's blog piece is here.

On a similar note, while we don't hang out on forums much, we have noticed that comics professionals seem to be quietly withdrawing from many of the various comics forums. While such places are poorer when they leave, it is understandable if, for instance, a forum member posts that they hate a particular artist when what they actually mean is that they dislike that artist's work. To a certain extent Facebook has replaced the work of a lot of the forums, as forums previously replaced Yahoo groups. downthetubes gets more comments about our blog pieces on Facebook than on the blog itself and it is a much more pleasant place to be than some forums as people appear to think twice about what they say when they cannot hide behind cryptic nicknames.

Last year Carlton books issued a set of four Commando paperbacks each containing 3 Commando reprints which were reminiscent of the IPC War and Battle Picture Library Summer Specials from the 1970s and 1980s. They were also considerably cheaper (and lighter) than the big 10 and 12 story oversized reprint books of previous years. The four titles have proved popular enough that Carlton are issuing a second set of four, each themed around a particular military subject and with stories chosen by Commando editor Calum Laird. The titles are Bombs Away!, Desert Rats, Dive! Dive! Dive! and Who Dares Wins and they are due to be published on 12 April 2012 at a cover price of £4.99 each.

Sticking with a DC Thomson theme, the company now has a Broons and Oor Wullie on-line shop, separate from the main DC Thomson e-shop. They have also expanded their range of Broons and Oor Wullie merchandise from the familiar softcover bi-annuals, hardcover reprint books and Ma's cookbooks to include, amongst other things, scarfs, flat caps and baseball caps in the official Broons and Oor Wullie tartans plus a range of jute shopping bags with Broons images on them. With DC Thomson's hometown of Dundee known for its three J's of Jute, Jam and Journalism our favourite of the new items would have to be the shopping bag, showing Ma Broon despairing of the cost of her groceries, which covers the jute and journalism of the three J's and allows you to add the jam yourself.

The Independent has an interesting piece on book illustrators and how, in modern book publishing, internal book illustration has become the preserve of children's books when, in the past, major authors writing for an adult audience such as Charles Dickens would work closely with an artist to illustrate their work. With quotes from the likes of Gerald Scarfe and Posy Simmonds, it is worth a read.

In Review: The Phoenix Issue 1

It feels like a long time since the last issue of The DFC appeared - although The DFC Library books have been reminding us what that title was like and, with the Etherington Brother's Baggage, what it might have continued to be given the chance.

So when The Phoenix was first mooted last year, there was some discussion about how this second title from David Fickling Comics Ltd was going to have to change to survive longer than its predecessor. The biggest change that was considered to be needed was it being available over the counter rather than just by subscription and, with their Waitrose deal, The Phoenix has managed that.

As for the comic itself, £2.99 gets the reader 32 pages of semi-gloss colour, which is a big improvement on the matt colour of The DFC. The dinosaur on the front cover leads into Daniel Hartwell and Neill Cameron's The Pirates Of Pangaea. When the first Phoenix image of this was released I e-mailed it around the rest of the downthetubes team saying that if it was available as a book on Amazon I would have bought it there and then based on that one image. Eight pages in, four in issue Zero and another four here, and I stand by that initial assessment - I like both the idea and the execution and I can completely understand why editor Ben Sharpe ran it as the cover and first story in this issue.

Next up are two pages of Jamie Smart's Bunny Vs Monkey which sets up the humorous strip's basic concept and, like Pangaea, continues directly on from the pages in Issue Zero. As the two protagonists didn't meet in Issue Zero this is one strip that seemed a little strange there, but the fateful meeting has now occurred and I can now see how it is going to play out. With Jamie's delightful chibi-style animal characters, this is one strip that I expect will grow on me.

Via two pages of text from the Ash Mistry book due to be published by Harper Collins in March, the next comic strip is the Etherington Brothers' Long Gone Don. The brothers' love of the manic is in full flow here with the main character dying on the first page before being transported to what could only be described as an Etherington version of Alice's Wonderland. Issue Zero didn't give much away about Long Gone Don and it has to be said that you aren't going to be much the wiser after these three pages but, with a hat wearing talking crow and Lorenzo's trademark detailed art, I fully expect this one to become a firm favourite.

Neill Cameron gets another page and a bit to get the readers to interact with the comic in How To Make Awesome Comics before the first two pages of Kate Brown's The Lost Boy. There isn't much to the story in these two pages, an apparently ship-wrecked boy wakes up on a sun bleached beach, finds a piece of a map and follows footprints up the shore. Yet Kate's style is so distinctive in the way she plays with the elements that make up her pages, as it was in The Spider Moon, that it makes these two pages interesting to look at despite the initial lack of action.

Garen Ewing's ligne claire style is much more traditional in the four page complete story by Ben Haggarty of The Golden Feather in which a middle-eastern boy and his grandfather, appropriately, watch the death and rebirth of a real Phoenix.

This is followed by Adam Murphy's Corpse Talk in which Adam talks to the reanimated corpses of famous people, in this instance scientist Nikola Tesla. Corpse Talk really sounds like a bad idea, zombies for kids mixed with history, however when I asked my 10 year old nephew which was his favourite strip in Issue Zero, it was Corpse Talk - and I have to agree with him. It may sound like a strange idea but, remarkably, it works really well.

The final strip in Issue 1 is James Turner's 2 page Star Cat, the beginning of a longer adventure, which does its job of raising a smile. If James' DFC strip Super Animal Adventure Squad was The Avengers for the Fineas and Ferb generation, then Star Cat is their Star Trek.

The whole comic is packaged up with editorial characters, a couple of humorous shorts, Patrice Aggs' centrespread of a school open day that is just about to go wrong, Lorenzo Etherington's tortuous Von Doogan prize puzzle and a superb Chris Riddel image of a cat restaurant.

So is there a drawback? As with The DFC, getting children and their parents to realise The Phoenix is available is going to be the issue. While the Waitrose deal is heartening to hear, there are only eight Waitrose stores between Yorkshire and John O'Groats, which at least is eight more than Northern Ireland has. For a vast swathe of the United Kingdom, "available at Waitrose" equates to "subscription only". If you have a local Waitrose then consider yourself lucky that you can simply walk in and buy a copy.

The Phoenix Issue 1 is an impressive start for the new title and, based on the contents of this week's issue, it deserves to do well. Time, and hopefully a wider distribution deal, will tell.

• There are more details about The Phoenix comic at their official website where a digital version of Issue Zero is available to read. The various Phoenix subscription options are also available here.


• The Phoenix is available at Waitrose supermarkets. Your nearest Waitrose can be found using the Waitrose Branch Finder.

• The Oxford Mail ran a short article on the release of Issue 1 which includes a picture of The Phoenix team.

Get The Phoenix for Christmas!

The cover of Issue 1 of The Phoenix

If you're looking for a last minute Christmas present for the youngr comic fans in your family, The Phoenix - the new weekly comic launching in January - would be an present for children, delivering 32 pages of fantastic story-strip entertainment.

We've now received a copy of their free Issue Zero - offered through Waitrose - and can echo the comments of others who have praised the mix of adventure stories, humour strips and text-based features. It's a lively combination and more focused than its predecessor, The DFC, with some great creators involved.

Right now, you can take out a "Taster" for just £10 or a three month subscription for £24 and save over 30 per cent on the cover price (saving based on £2.99 cover price of £14.95 and £35.88 respectively).

If you subscribe for six months (£54) or a year (£99), you'll get a free binder.

The Phoenix launches on 7th January 2012 - check the official web site at www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk for retail outlets that will be stocking it.

It’s so easy to subscribe, so make sure you take advantage of this offer before it’s too late! (Lines open Mon-Friday 8am - 9.30pm and Sat 8.00am to 4.00pm)

The Phoenix Issue Zero Via Waitrose

The first issue of the new Phoenix comic is due to come out on at the start of January 2012 however Waitrose supermarket customers are being given the change to get a sneak preview with a printed copy of the Phoenix Issue Zero.

The current issue of Waitrose's free weekly Waitrose Weekend publication has The Phoenix featured on its front cover and a four page centrespread pull-out all about the new comic. In addition there is a printed code in the pull-out that, when put into the appropriate page of The Phoenix website, allows readers to get a free copy of the preview issue zero.

Emphasising the University of Illinois' findings that comics are as good as books at helping children to read, the Waitrose Weekend describes Phoenix as "published weekly at £2.99, the 32-page comic has at least seven story strips in every issue, plus a puzzle competition and a non-fiction strip on a new topic each week." Phoenix editor Ben Sharpe is quoted as saying, "We're making The Phoenix for all 8- to 11-year-olds; boys and girls. But really it's for everyone. Children will have their favourite strips, but so will kids in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond!"

The pull-out also introduces readers to the Phoenix characters of Monkey from Jamie Smart's Bunny and Monkey, Sophie Delcourt from Daniel Hartwell & Neill Cameron's Pirates Of Pangea, Castanet from the Etherington brothers Long Gone Don and Kate Brown's amnesiac child in The Lost Boy.

It also gives details of various subscription options for The Phoenix ranging from a full year down to a five issue taster. These are also available on the subscriptions page of the The Phoenix website.

There are more details about The Phoenix on the comic's website.

The Phoenix Issue Zero is available by entering the Waitrose code and your details into the Waitrose page.

Pirates of Pangea teaser poster revealed by Phoenix Comic

The team behind The Phoenix Comic, which launches "early next year" in the UK, continue to tease potential readers with some tasty artwork and other announcements.

The latest news includes the release of promotional art for Pirates of Pangea, "an epic adventure of Cutlass and Claw", drawn by Neill Cameron.


Confirmed creators involved in the title, which will be aimed at the 8-11 age group, include Jamie Smart with Bunny versus Monkey, Dan Hartwell and Neill Cameron on Pirates of Pangea and Patrice Aggs – animator on The Snowman, co-creator of The Boss and the artist behind many fantastic children’s books, who has created Blimpville for the title.

Set in Blimpville – the world’s most accident-prone town – the strip is called WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?! and is part story, part brain-baffler, part mystery and all eye-popping visual wonder. Expect some sneak peaks on the comic's blog very soon.

"I'm having so much fun drawing this thing already," says Neill of Pirates of Pangea, "and I absolutely can't wait to set it loose upon the world. (I know that January seems like a long time to wait, but believe me from the point of view of me having to draw it all, it is no time at all)."

Web Links

• The Phoenix Comic Official Site


• The Phoenix Comic Official Blog

• The Phoenix Comic on Facebook


• Follow The Phoenix Comic on Twitter

Phoenix Comic post Submission Guidelines

The Phoenix Comic - the new weekly comic springing from the ashes of The DFC - has just updated its website and also published its submission guidelines, which we're running here in full.

Launching in January 2012, the team say the 32-page comic will offer both humour and adventure strips, along with features and puzzles.

The Phoenix Comic is looking for strips with heart – stories that are open and engaging, whether they are told across three panels, three pages, or episodically over several months.

"We’re always open for new submissions of self-contained (ie conclusive within one issue) and episodic strips.
 We consider pitches from makers working alone, or from writer/illustrator teams and are interested in strips in the following forms:

• Single panel to single page (fiction or non-fiction), self-contained
• 
Visually dynamic non-fiction spreads, self-contained

• Longer form episodic fiction strips (up to 3pp per week)


"Right now we’re particularly interested in receiving pitches for stand-alone (conclusive within one issue) stories of 4pp in length.

"We’re also keen to hear from puzzle-makers with experience in producing challenging and fun puzzle content for 8-11 year olds, and artists with experience of providing occasional illustrations for text content.

When it come to what they're not looking for, the Phoennix will not be publishing material for  very young children, or teenagers, or adults, or strips bulging with counter-culture angst. "We won’t be a good home for you. Sorry! And at present we are not accepting material from authors with a script but no illustrator on board."

To submit material, include the following in your submission:

• a brief outline of the concept and, if not stand-alone, short detail on the proposed story arc and intended number of episodes.
• a script for the first episode
• style sheets showing key characters, a sample page layout and indication of finished colour work.

Tech info: detail on paper finish TBC but please assume a sheet-size of 211×297 (A4).
You can email your submission to: submissionsATthephoenixcomic.co.uk or send by post to: The Phoenix Comic, 29 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX33 1AL (please enclose an SAE if you would like your material returned).

The Phoenix crew point out "we are a very small editorial team and look closely at every single submission. Sometimes this can take a little time.

"We will get to your material as fast as we can, but you may have to wait up to six weeks for a response (sorry).

"If we think your submission has potential we’ll contact you to arrange a meeting to discuss the material in more depth.

"If your submission isn’t right for us we will let you know the core reasons for rejection. And, in that event, please don’t give up hope – there are many other potential homes for great content out in the world and in many instances we will be saying no simply because of space limitations. We have to make tough choices, and of course there is a degree of subjectivity involved too. Unfortunately time constraints prevent us from engaging in extended correspondence on rejected submissions."

• Help spread the word about The Phoenix Comic and point parents, teachers, librarians and everyone else to www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk