Here’s my suitably spooktacular cover for today’s Phoenix Comic, which you can buy all over the place, see?

I had great fun doing this one, especially the pay-off on the inside front cover ‘Welcome’ page. Who ya gonna call?

Quick! Whilst the sun’s out (oops, it’s gone again) and everyone is feeling sporty, here’s the front cover of tomorrow’s issue of The Phoenix Comic, rustled up by yours truly. In addition to the usual subscription stuff I keep bashing on about, you can buy it in Waitrose shops nationwide (every shop has a supply: if they’ve sold out, ask them to stock more!) and from these lovely bookshops.

Ker-sploosh!

It’s all in the timing.

Part of my weekly contribution to The Phoenix Comic is what we call the Welcome slot. It’s where my characters say “hello” to the readers every week. Occasionally, we decide to make the Welcome slot tie-in with a real-world event. Recently, the Welcome slot has been given: a splash of right royal river pageantry; a Wimbledon-esque centre court slant; a rush of Marathon madness; and a Grand Prix-referencing whiff of petrol.

Coming up soon is the fourth of the images above, making subtle, LOCOG-friendly reference to a certain large sporting event. That’s right, the 2012 World Hula Championships.

You know, for kids.

Bloomin’ heck, it’s all kicking off over at The Phoenix Comic.

The editorial offices have been infested with spooks, ghouls, ghasts, ghosts and other assorted spectral ne’er-do-wells. Quincey Trowel (the in-house boffin, see previous post) stepped in with his patented Ghoul-Go© spray, with limited success. So when the aggressive afterlifers made a move on the Phoenix Feather Vault, luck would have it that editor extraordinaire Tabs Inkspot was on hand to battle them off with an magical Ice Blue Phoenix Feather.

Fortunately, I was on hand too, and was able to capture the image above (which appears in this weekend’s edition of the comic, issue 20).

And if none of the above makes any sense whatsoever, you really should be subscribing. You can buy one here, too, if you fancy trying out a single issue. It’s spooky how brilliant it is.

Terrible, dastardly deeds are afoot over in Phoenix Comic land.

If you’re a reader you’ll know all about the sneaky owl Barnaby (Barney) Knowles; about how he framed mild-mannered sub editor Chops Piggerton; about how it turns out that it was Barnaby who stole the magical Phoenix feathers all along. And if you’ve got this weekend’s Issue 10, you’ll know that the bad bird has half-inched the Phoenix Comic’s own time machine and scarpered with the feathery loot.

And if you don’t know about any of this, perhaps it’s time you subscribed. That way you won’t feel embarrassed when dinner party conversation inevitably turns to the saga of the time traveling, feather stealing, beaked baddy and you don’t know what anyone is on about. Think on.

I’ve posted my drawings above, which chronicle the Barnaby Knowles saga to date. Just to keep you in the loop(y).

Man alive. I knew that the weekly issues of The Phoenix Comic would come around quickly once we got into the flow, but this is reeee-diculous! Issue Six is in the shops now, with an amazing cover by dino-supremo Neill Cameron. My usual Welcome page shenanigans are in there too, as well as the drawing above of Phoenix Newshounds, Mr Bruno Barker and Ms Iris Hasselblad. Meanwhile, I’m beavering away on Issue Eleven! I know! I’m having the time of my life and expect to come up for air some time around St Swithin’s Day.

Before I crack open the pencil case once more, here’s a quick look at the working process for my Welcome page illustration for Issue Two; from scratchy pencils, to wobbly inks (Pentel brush pen and Kuretake Fudegokochi), to fully coloured-up Photoshop file. Not sure where Ellie Waggins appeared from on the right: she has habit of sneaking in like that…