Woodrow Phoenix
Encyclopedia
Woodrow Phoenix is a British
comics
artist
, writer, editorial illustrator, graphic designer, font designer and author of children's books.
He was a contributor to a number of British comics magazines including Escape
, Blaaam! and Blast!
and was part of the British small press comics scene in the 1980s.
Phoenix is known for two main solo creations, The Sumo Family and The Liberty Cat. The Sumo Family debuted in Escape
magazine, and was serialised weekly in the Independent on Sunday
newspaper in the UK, then monthly in both Manga Mania magazine, and German/Swiss Instant magazine. The Liberty Cat was published in Japan by Kodansha in Morning magazine.
Phoenix's critical essays on comics have appeared in catalogs for exhibitions at the ICA in London, and at the University of Sussex. Books he has authored include a children's book titled Count Milkula: A Tale of Milk and Monsters! (ISBN 9780954657659); a cultural study Plastic Culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World (ISBN 9784770030177), an in-depth look at Japanese toy designs from the post-war era to present times, and their effect on the imaginations and Western markets along with their impact on trends in design and pop culture; "Rumble Strip", published in 2008 by Myriad Editions
http://www.myriadeditions.com/?location_id=30, is a nonfiction look at the difficult social issues arising from society’s dependence on the automobile, and has been reviewed in The Times as “an utterly original work of genius”.
in the 1980s for most of the UK's comics publishers, including Escape
, Fleetway
, Dark Horse
UK, Toxic and Acme. He also lettered graphic novels for Gollancz
and Methuen.
He self-published several comics during this time as part of the Fast Fiction
collective begun by Paul Gravett
, before working as a professional artist and writer for UK and US comics companies.
Phoenix's first collaboration was with Glenn Dakin
on Sinister Romance, a humor title they jointly wrote, drew, and edited. Four issues were published by Harrier Comics
' New Wave imprint. He has since collaborated as artist and/or writer with Andi Watson
, Matt Wagner
, Alan Moore
, Chris Reynolds
, Chris Webster, Eddie Campbell
, Rian Hughes
, Gordon Rennie
, Warren Ellis
, Grant Morrison
, Paul Grist
, Evan Dorkin
, Oscar Zarate
, Jose Munoz
, Carl Flint, Ian Carney
, Jake Carney, Zach Howard, Annie Caulfield, and Steve May
.
With co-writer Ian Carney
Phoenix created an anthology comic called SugarBuzz, published by Slave Labor Graphics
, featuring a cast of over fifty characters. The most popular was Pants Ant
, who was featured in an animated cartoon for The Cartoon Network; and the Where's It At, Sugar Kat?
series, which was also optioned for film and TV projects by Walt Disney
inc.
Phoenix was one of the first Western comics creators to appear in Kodansha
's weekly manga
anthology Comics Morning magazine in Japan
, producing a mystery detective strip called The Liberty Cat. His work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and book collections including Grendel: Black White and Red (with writer Matt Wagner
), The Big Book of Death and The Big Book of Weirdos, It's Dark in London edited by Oscar Zarate, The Brighton Book and Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman.
Phoenix shares a studio in London with another comics writer/artist, Ed "ILYA" Hillyer.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, writer, editorial illustrator, graphic designer, font designer and author of children's books.
He was a contributor to a number of British comics magazines including Escape
Escape Magazine
Escape magazine was a landmark British comic strip magazine founded and edited by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. Nineteen issues were published between 1983 to 1989...
, Blaaam! and Blast!
Blast! (comic)
Blast! was a British comic published by John Brown Publishing that ran biweekly for seven issues from June to November 1991.It saw some of the earliest publications by modern comic talent including Warren Ellis and Gordon Rennie.-Strips:...
and was part of the British small press comics scene in the 1980s.
Phoenix is known for two main solo creations, The Sumo Family and The Liberty Cat. The Sumo Family debuted in Escape
Escape Magazine
Escape magazine was a landmark British comic strip magazine founded and edited by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. Nineteen issues were published between 1983 to 1989...
magazine, and was serialised weekly in the Independent on Sunday
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper in the UK, then monthly in both Manga Mania magazine, and German/Swiss Instant magazine. The Liberty Cat was published in Japan by Kodansha in Morning magazine.
Phoenix's critical essays on comics have appeared in catalogs for exhibitions at the ICA in London, and at the University of Sussex. Books he has authored include a children's book titled Count Milkula: A Tale of Milk and Monsters! (ISBN 9780954657659); a cultural study Plastic Culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World (ISBN 9784770030177), an in-depth look at Japanese toy designs from the post-war era to present times, and their effect on the imaginations and Western markets along with their impact on trends in design and pop culture; "Rumble Strip", published in 2008 by Myriad Editions
Myriad Editions
Myriad Editions is an independent publishing house based in Brighton, UK, specialising in three genres: topical atlases, graphic non-fiction and original fiction.-History:Myriad Editions was founded as a book packager in 1993...
http://www.myriadeditions.com/?location_id=30, is a nonfiction look at the difficult social issues arising from society’s dependence on the automobile, and has been reviewed in The Times as “an utterly original work of genius”.
Biography
A trained typographer, Phoenix was a lettererLetterer
A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic. The letterer crafts the comic's "display lettering": the story title lettering and...
in the 1980s for most of the UK's comics publishers, including Escape
Escape Magazine
Escape magazine was a landmark British comic strip magazine founded and edited by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. Nineteen issues were published between 1983 to 1989...
, Fleetway
Fleetway
Fleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a UK publishing company which mainly produced comic magazines. For a time owned by IPC Media, they are now a division of Egmont Publishing....
, Dark Horse
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
UK, Toxic and Acme. He also lettered graphic novels for Gollancz
Gollancz
Gollancz often refers to the British publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd.Gollancz, a family name originating from the Polish town Gołańcz , is mainly known as the name of a prominent British Jewish family, including:* Sir Hermann Gollancz , rabbi* Sir Israel Gollancz , scholar of...
and Methuen.
He self-published several comics during this time as part of the Fast Fiction
Fast Fiction
Fast Fiction was a market stall, magazine, mail order distributor and news sheet that played a key role in the history of British small press comics...
collective begun by Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over 20 years....
, before working as a professional artist and writer for UK and US comics companies.
Phoenix's first collaboration was with Glenn Dakin
Glenn Dakin
Glenn Dakin is a British cartoonist and author of children's books. He was a contributor to a number of British comics magazines including Escape and Deadline and was part of the British small press comics scene in the 1980s...
on Sinister Romance, a humor title they jointly wrote, drew, and edited. Four issues were published by Harrier Comics
Harrier Comics
Harrier Comics was a British comic book publisher active in the mid-to-late 1980s. Harrier was notable for putting out black-and-white comics in a mold more similar to American comics than typical British fare...
' New Wave imprint. He has since collaborated as artist and/or writer with Andi Watson
Andi Watson
Andrew "Andi" Watson is a British cartoonist and illustrator best known for the graphic novels Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day and his series Love Fights, published by Oni Press and Slave Labor Graphics....
, Matt Wagner
Matt Wagner
Matt Wagner is an American comic book writer and artist, best known as the creator of the series Mage and Grendel.-Career:...
, Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds
Chris Reynolds is a Welsh DJ.-Career:Reynolds began his career as a technical operator at 103.2 & 97.4 Red Dragon, later becoming a Programming Assistant.In July 2005 he left the station and joined 96.4 The Wave to present overnights....
, Chris Webster, Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
, Rian Hughes
Rian Hughes
Rian Hughes is a British graphic designer, illustrator and comics artist, noted for his work on 2000AD, where he illustrated Robo-Hunter, Tales from Beyond Science, Really and Truly and Dan Dare, among others...
, Gordon Rennie
Gordon Rennie
Gordon Rennie is a comics writer, responsible for White Trash: Moronic Inferno, as well as several comic strips for 2000 AD and novels for Warhammer Fantasy....
, Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
, Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
, Paul Grist
Paul Grist
Paul Grist is a British comic book creator, noted for his hard-boiled police series Kane and his unorthodox superhero series Jack Staff.-Biography:...
, Evan Dorkin
Evan Dorkin
Evan Dorkin is an American comics artist and writer. His best known works are the comic books Milk and Cheese and Dork...
, Oscar Zarate
Oscar Zarate
Oscar Zarate is an Argentine comic book artist and illustrator. He has drawn for the UK comics magazine Crisis. He is probably best known in the United States as the artist for Alan Moore's graphic novel A Small Killing. He has drawn an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello...
, Jose Munoz
José Muñoz
José Muñoz may refer to:*José Antonio Muñoz, a.k.a. Muñoz , Argentine artist and cartoonist.*José Esteban Muñoz , U.S. Latino writer, academic.*Jose C...
, Carl Flint, Ian Carney
Ian Carney
Ian Carney is a British comics writer. Born in Liverpool, Merseyside on 11 September 1962, carney began writing comics in the 80s for Fleetway Editions in the UK and First Comics and Dark Horse Comics in the US...
, Jake Carney, Zach Howard, Annie Caulfield, and Steve May
Steve May
Steve May is a politician from Arizona, a former member of the Arizona House of Representatives. May came to national attention in 1999 when, following a speech to the House in which he discussed his homosexuality, he was discharged from the United States Army Reserve under the gay-exclusionary law...
.
With co-writer Ian Carney
Ian Carney
Ian Carney is a British comics writer. Born in Liverpool, Merseyside on 11 September 1962, carney began writing comics in the 80s for Fleetway Editions in the UK and First Comics and Dark Horse Comics in the US...
Phoenix created an anthology comic called SugarBuzz, published by Slave Labor Graphics
Slave Labor Graphics
Slave Labor Graphics is an independent American comic book publisher, well-known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics.-Company history:...
, featuring a cast of over fifty characters. The most popular was Pants Ant
Pants Ant
Pants Ant is a fictional character created by Woodrow Phoenix and Ian Carney. Pants Ant first appeared in 1998 in the second issue of SugarBuzz! by Carney and Phoenix, and was eventually featured in his own book, a one shot special,The Pants Ant Trouser Hour, published by Slave Labor Graphics...
, who was featured in an animated cartoon for The Cartoon Network; and the Where's It At, Sugar Kat?
Where's It At, Sugar Kat?
Where's it at Sugar Kat? is a humorous action comic book series created by Woodrow Phoenix and Ian Carney, published by Slave Labor Graphics. Sugar Kat is a supermodel and the most popular girl in the world. Rebecca is Sugar's brainy twin sister...
series, which was also optioned for film and TV projects by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
inc.
Phoenix was one of the first Western comics creators to appear in Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
's weekly manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
anthology Comics Morning magazine in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, producing a mystery detective strip called The Liberty Cat. His work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and book collections including Grendel: Black White and Red (with writer Matt Wagner
Matt Wagner
Matt Wagner is an American comic book writer and artist, best known as the creator of the series Mage and Grendel.-Career:...
), The Big Book of Death and The Big Book of Weirdos, It's Dark in London edited by Oscar Zarate, The Brighton Book and Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman.
Phoenix shares a studio in London with another comics writer/artist, Ed "ILYA" Hillyer.
Art style
Phoenix's work is graphic and playful, while noted for its high degree of formal experimentation. He draws in very different styles, which make his comics appear to be the work of three or four completely different creators. The vividly colored angular graphics of The Sumo Family are completely unlike the grainy impressionist mood of The Liberty Cat. The elegant line of Sherlock Holmes and The Vanishing Villain is a differing style again that bears no relation to the many SugarBuzz! comics that followed. His most recent book Rumble Strip is his most radical departure from previous directions that even dispenses with characters, leaving only backgrounds.Comics (selected)
- The Sumo Family weekly comic strip in The Independent on Sunday, 1990
- The Sumo Family one-page color comic strip in Manga Mania magazine 1991-93
- The Liberty Cat four episodes for Comics Morning magazine, Kodansha Japan 1993-94
- Sherlock Holmes in the Curious Case of the Vanishing Villain (Atomeka PressAtomeka PressAtomeka Press was a British publisher of comic books set up in 1988 by Dave Elliott and Garry Leach. Atomeka ceased publishing in 1997 and was then revived in 2004, but its future seems uncertain, as it has not published any new material since 2005.-History:...
, Tundra Press 1993) with Gordon Rennie, writer - Lazarus ChurchyardLazarus ChurchyardLazarus Churchyard is a fictional character in a British comics series, created in 1991 by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Matt Brooker under the pseudonym D'Israeli...
#2 (Tundra Press 1992) "Goodnight Ladies" pin ups by D'Israeli, Phil Winslade, Steve Pugh, Woodrow Phoenix, Duncan Fegredo, Garry Marshall and Gary Erskine. - Sonic the Hedgehog in Sonic the Comic #2 and #5 (Fleetway Editions, 1993) writer: Mark MillarMark MillarMark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
artist: Woodrow Phoenix - Ecco the DolphinEcco the DolphinEcco the Dolphin is a puzzle video game released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The central character, Ecco, is a bottlenose dolphin controlled by the player through a progression of side-scrolling aquatic levels...
in Sonic the Comic #13-18 (Fleetway Editions, 1993) writer & letterer: Woodrow Phoenix (letterer on #13-15 only) Artists: Chris Webster and Steve White - ToeJam and Earl in Max Overload #1, #2 and #3 (Dark Horse UK, 1994) writer: Annie Caulfield artist: Woodrow Phoenix
- Eager Beaver (Missive Device) with Ian Carney (Slab-O-Concrete Publications, 1999) ISBN 1-899866-93-0
- Sugar Buzz! with Ian Carney, 9 issues (SLG Publishing, 1998-)
- Sugar Buzz: Live at Budokan! (Slab-O-Concrete, 1999) ISBN 1-899866-33-7
- The Skeleton Key/Sugar Kat special (SLG Publishing, 2000) with Andi Watson, Ian Carney
- The Pants Ant Trouser Hour (SLG Publishing, 2001)
- Kitsune Tales (SLG Publishing, 2003) with Andi Watson, artist
- Where's it at Sugar Kat: The Thin Of the Land (SLG Publishing, 2003) ISBN 0-943151-56-2
- SugarBuzz! Your ticket to happiness (SLG Publishing, 2004) ISBN 1-59362-008-X
- That's a Horse of a Different Colour (The DFC, ongoing weekly, 2008–)
- Donny Digits (The Guardian/The DFC, 2008)
Animation
- Pants Ant (pilot, 2004) for Cartoon Network, unaired
- Net Worth (2001) The Prudential
- Vicious Mouse (1999) MTV Asia
Children's books
- Count Milkula (2006) Mogzilla ISBN 0-9546576-5-9
- Is That your Dog? (Mammoth, 2001) ISBN 0-7497-4247-X
- Baz the Biz (Mammoth, 1999) ISBN 0-7497-3630-5
Other books
- Plastic Culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World (Kodansha International, 2006) ISBN 9784770030177
- Rumble Strip (Myriad Editions, 2008) ISBN 9780954930998
Anthologies
- "End of the Line" in The Brighton Book (Myriad Editions, 2005) ISBN 0-9549309-0-8
- The Slab-O-Concrete Inactivity Book with Craig ConlanCraig ConlanCraig Conlan is a Scottish comics writer/artist.He is best known for his character Hairy Mary, who has appeared in two graphic novel collections and several minicomics, all through Brighton publisher Slab-O-Concrete from 1998 to 2002....
, co-editor (Slab-O-Concrete Publications 2000) ISBN 1-899866-42-6 - Grendel: Black White and Red (Dark Horse)
- "You are Here" in It's Dark in London (Serpent's Tail, 1997) ISBN 1-85242-535-0