Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave or locked in an airing cupboard or something, you’ll no doubt be aware of the amazingly fab weekly children’s comic The Phoenix! Rising from the ashes of the dear, departed DFC comic and running weekly since early January, The Phoenix is stuffed to the gills with gorgeous art, crazy stories, nutjob characters and some of the finest children’s comic creators these fine isles have to offer; including Neill Cameron, Jamie Smart, Patrice Aggs, James Turner, Simone Lia, Adam Murphy, Ethrington Bros, Kate Brown, Matt Baxter, Ricardo Tangle, Jamie Littler, Paul Duffield, Chris Riddell, Dave Shelton, Rob Davis, Garen Ewing, Daniel Harwell and plenty more to come (I’m looking at you Jim Medway, Sarah McIntyre, Nick Abadzis and Philip Reeve).
And little ol’ me! Yes, I have a jolly strip in there too; Gary’s Garden! Part autobiography, part made-up nonsense (well, mainly completely made-up nonsense to be fair), Gary’s Garden delves into my favourite thing ever – me spying on the comings and goings of all the little dudes and dudettes who dwell in my garden.
Amongst my various backgarden observations so far, we’ve had:
A spider with his tiny insect orchestra…
Apple worms getting on each others nerves…
A daredevil, rather obtuse caterpillar…
Lord of the jungle, Larry Ladybird…
A loopy squirrel hoarding his nuts…
and, out this very week, a menagerie of looting critters emptying my kitchen cupboards (complete with groovy front cover…)
Photo ©Sarah McIntyre
And there’s more to come! Oh yes, June through to September/October will be crammed with more Gary’s Garden: we’ll have shed spiders, tadpoles, leaf bugs, hedgehogs, foxes and much, much more. There’s a whole world of loony toons living in my garden, and I’ve got my beady eye on ’em…
I’m having an absolute ball working on the Phoenix, so a big thanks to Ben and the team for giving me this opportunity to create my nonsense!
Don’t miss out on all the fun and get yourself a subscription or pick up a copy from Waitrose (or the growing list of selected independent bookshops/comicshops)!
Thank you!
Hooray! All my favourites! And what a fetching loincloth.
Thanks deary xxxx