The second issue of The Phoenix arrived this morning, surprisingly a day earlier than scheduled. From its striking cover by cartoon genius Jamie Smart to its final page it's once again packed with some of the best artwork and stories seen in modern British comics. Good to see Gary Northfield (creator of Derek the Sheep) join the team with his new strip, Gary's Garden.
The comic looks and reads great and deserves to be a big hit. Shame then that there have been some glitches in distribution. The deal was for The Phoenix to be sold in the Waitrose chain of stores beginning with No.1. Unfortunately, according to feedback so far, it's not in any of those shops!
Secondly, some people who subscribed this week, and were told that their subscription would begin with issue 1, have discovered that it begins with No.2 instead. Why this should be so is uncertain. Surely the print run of issue 1 hasn't sold out already?
The good news is that the staff at The Phoenix are now aware of the problems and are working to rectify them. I sincerely hope they can, and quickly, because such a good comic does not deserve to be hampered like this. One of the things that damaged The DFC, in my experience, were problems in the subscription department. Missing issues caused myself and others to give up subscribing in the end. I wouldn't like to see that happen again with The Phoenix.
Members of Comics UK have been discussing their experiences with The Phoenix on the Comics UK Forum. Click here to follow developments. (Note: the member using the alias "Phoenix" has been using that handle for years and is not connected to the comic. Just thought I'd mention that to avoid any possible confusion.)
At time of writing, the problems still haven't been mentioned on The Phoenix website. Hopefully things will be made clear for readers soon in order to save any more wasted journeys to Waitrose for potential new readers:
https://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/news/
5 comments:
Yes exactly the same thing here. No issue 1 and then issue 2 arrives today. I phoned (gave up emailing them) and they stated my sub has started with issue 2. I had to order issue 1 over the phone.And no local Waitrose is not stocking it. However the comic is fantastic. I read Pirates of the Pangea to my 5yo and he loves it. In all a great comic and looking forward to going through the rest of the strip with my boys. I do hope they sort the sub out tho.
Ah, that explains that then: I was wondering what was going on. Not a great start but still, some ruddy nice illustrations and decent stories from what I've seen.
I took out a subscription on the 1st of January, got an email telling me that my subscription would start from #1, but the first issue I received was #2, which turned up yesterday. When I phoned up, I was told that my sub had started at #2 because I hadn't subscribed until the 10th of January. Once I managed to convince them that I had actually taken out my subscription on the 1st, they offered to send me a free copy of #1, so I'm happy, even though I can't read #2 yet and made a couple of unnecessary trips to Waitrose during the week (just in case I never got a copy). It is a lovely-looking comic.
P.S. That Jamie Smart draws a lot of pages every week, doesn't he?
Yes, Jaimie certainly seems busy, although four pages of his in The Dandy are reprint of course (My Own Genie and Space Raoul).
Re: The Phoenix, I notice now that if new subscribers came on board it'd begin with No.3! That's fine for established comics but new ones need time to gather readers, especially tiles that are only available by subscription. When Look & Learn was revived a few years ago readers could begin their subs from any issue.
I just wish we could get this in Canada, it looks magnificent!
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