Sunday Spotlight: The ‘Licking The Stamps’ Edition
by Richard Bruton
It’s Sunday, and you know what that means? We, yes, I suppose you could go to church. But, to be honest, I was thinking more of the Sunday service here. Oh yes, it’s The Sunday Spotlight …
Happy 750th issue to The Phoenix Comic…
Yes, The Phoenix Comic made it to 750 weekly issues — Seriously, how good is this? A comic designed for kids, read by hordes of kids (it reportedly overtook the Beano in sales earlier this month — The Times), and full of such great, great comics from super talents like Jamie Smart, Neill Cameron, Jess Bradley, and a heck of a lot more incredibly talented creators, has now been published since 2012 (2011 if you count the issue 0 preview).
Seriously, that’s a major, major achievement and one that deserves raising a glass. Obviously, if you have kids, if you have relatives and friends who have kids, if you work in a school — you should be encouraging any kids you know to get The Phoenix.
And also in Phoenix Comic news — Jamie Smart wins the British Book Awards’ debut graphic novel prize..
In terms of British comics, Jamie Smart‘s rather doing a Dav Pilkey/Raina Telgemeier thing and dominating everything in comics. So, it was no surprise to see that he won the inaugural graphic novel award at the British Book Awards (and yes, BBA, next year, maybe have an adult and kids category?).
Anyway, Smart’s Bunny Vs Monkey: Intergalactic Monkey Business got the win. And Jamie writes a little about it on his socials here:
‘I was honestly a bit stunned, the other shortlisted books were so so good. I also had such a fun night! I finally got to meet the legend Dav Pilkey himself (he is the nicest), Liz Pichon (also nicest) Rachael Smith and Paul Cornell (nicest), the lovely Joe Wicks (look everyone is really nice okay), we watched MC Grammar and Michael Rosen rap, ate puddings, then staggered back along Hyde Park at 1 in the morning. It was magical.’
It honestly couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, and a huge, huge talent. Jamie’s Nibbies acceptance speech can be found here.
And even more Phoenix news … you can also hear all about the Phoenix in BBC’s Radio 2 Book Club, where DJ/presenter Sara Cox talks with various creators, including Smart, Cameron, Bradley, Patrice Aggs, and Joe Brady at the annual Phoenix Fest event.
Cartoonist’s United want you to contribute to their US Comics Worker Survey …
Cartoonists United (formerly The Cartoonist Cooperative) want all US comics workers to contribute to their workers’ survey (go here to take part). It comes right after the results of the UK Comics Creator Survey, and I can’t help but think that it’s going to tell us much the same thing — comics medium doing great, books selling gangbusters, comic creators doing jobs that pay less than working at your local McDonald’s.
Thunderbirds are, indeed, GO! — new anthology announced …
More interesting comics announcements over here in Blighty, as many creatives started sharing the news that they’re involved in a new 60th Anniversary Thunderbirds Comics Anthology — Thunderbirds: Hidden Dangers.
I’ve already seen the likes of Mike Collins, Paul Cornell, Gary Erskine, Marc Laming, John Reppion, Dan McDaid, Lee Sullivan, Ned Hartley, and Ian Edginton being involved, and all edited by Dan Whitehead.
The anthology comes from Anderson Entertainment as part of their big plans for the 60th anniversary celebrations.
