Category: ‘How To’ Books

Posted on

Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey Book 12: Day of the Heroes!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Paul Duffield & Armin Roshdi (DFB/Phoenix)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-391-2 (HB), 978-1-78845-434-6 (Waterstones Exclusive Edition)

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the premiere issue back in 2012, cataloguing a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but increasingly with a cerebral cosmic crescendo in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember, Find Chaffy; Megalomaniacs), these trendsetting, mindbending yarns have been wisely retooled as multi award-winning, bestselling graphic albums available in digest softcover such as this one hardback and sponsored special editions and even as AUDIOBOOKs. Just let that one last one sink in…

All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT?

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and refined breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-causing, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or useless “henches” Metal Steve & Action Beaver…

All those daily wonders and catastrophes were exacerbated by a mixed melange of mildly unconventional Crinkle creatures, none more so than aforementioned monochrome mad scientist Skunky, whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life and consequences presents as a propensity for building dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons. He is, at his core, a dangerously inquisitive thinker and tinkerer…

With artistic fiddling about from design deputy Sammy Borras, the unending war of nerves and mega-ordnances assumes a posture of asymmetric – if not arrhythmic and asthmatic – warfare as a series of sequences starring assorted minor artisans sees much of the cast taking a bit of a breather… at least on paper. It all opens with a few fluffy tales of ‘Bunny in… “Home is Where the Heart is”.’ It all begins one not so very ‘Good Morning’ as Monkey’s thoughtlessness and Skunky’s careless use of volcanoes and microwave ovens finally provokes the wracked rabbit to pack up and leave. Still hungry for ‘The Good Life’ our gentle hero seeks an isolated wilderness to be ‘A New Home’ but discovers all the best spots of perfect peacefulness have been previously “bagsied” by enigmatic furry Thoreau Le Fox…

However things turn really odd when Bunny uncovers sacred standing stones and manifests a sentient palatial edifice that floats on air and offers to cater to every whim…

Meanwhile back wherever Crinkle Woods is, Monkey & Skunky are missing their old niceness nemesis and unleash colossal mutant hybrid shark ‘Hammer Honk’ to keep the ADHD-ape amused, even as, far away on “A Day in the Life of Bunny … and his enchanted House!” arachnophobe Bunny adopts an 8-legged housemate in ‘“Brenda”’. Thanks to her passion for digging, before long she has uncovered ‘A New Guest’ who turns out to be the miraculous Grand Spirit of the Woodland… and a bit of a nuisance…

Nothing lasts forever, and the peaceful days end in ‘Underpants!’ when Monkey & Action-Beaver invade the magical kingdom with newly-minted monster Terror-Dactyl in search of entertainment and encounter a very unwelcoming Woodland Spirit…

As if anticipating Bunny’s imminent return, sensible but naïve robot Metal E.V.E. is trying to build him a perfect new home, but the good deed is hijacked by time-warping Skunky who casually turns all involved into ‘Old Folks’ just as disorder is fully restored and the Grand Spirit evicts all the crazy critters and despatches them ‘Home’…

As they all resettle in, focus shifts to superfast sweetheart aye-aye Ai in “Ai’ll Be Back!” – a relay race of rapid-fire adventures that opens with ‘Thants!’ as a REALLY GIANT giant anteater is turned loose during National Ant Day and only Ai can stop the tongue-lashing it begins, after which chaos is unleashed when our misplaced Madagascan finds Skunky’s Graveyard of Failed Scientific Experiments and is bitten by a disembodied undead head, sustaining a nasty ‘Zombiebooboo’…

Whilst Monkey indulges in a spot of robotic ‘Dino-War!’ – and briefly acquires the stern maternal influence he always needed – Squirrel Weenie, Pig Piggerton and Metal E.V.E. become the first of many woodfolk turned ‘Tiny and Whiney’ and stuffed in Skunky’s Jar of Idiots. Sadly one of them is bitey, zombie-contagious Ai and before long the plague of the gambolling dead is everywhere, as seen in apocalyptic vision ‘Guhhhh!’, prompting the evil genius to sideline his attempts to build/grow a superbrain ‘From Scratch’ to sort things out. Of course, said brain ‘Smartypants’ has ideas of its own, and once Monkey meddles some more, the war of Zombies vs Supercomputer! rages out of control until the mighty mind in a jar devises a cure for undead bitey-ness which it then cruelly locks away in ‘The Box’…

However, despite being afflicted with zombie hunger, the aye-aye has enough grit and resolve to step up and sort it, to become ‘Ai, Saviour of the World’…

With what passes for normality restored to the Woods we next pay some attention to ‘Pig + Weenie in “Pig & Weenie Fun Police”’ as after five days of noxious obnoxiousness and Monkey playing with his ‘Fart Face’ chemical weapon, the sweet simpletons found an official vigilante team to stop the horror. However once the job is done it’s hard to stop and soon they are annoying/cheering up Underwater Adventurer Le Fox as he tries to be a ‘Water Grump!’ and unwelcomely refereeing the 563rd Annual ‘Bonk Bonk’ Race, befriending and defending Skunky’s runaway terror ‘Robotron’ before confronting Pig’s potent desire to be a poodle in ‘Arf!’

‘A Day in the Life of “Pig & Weenie Fun Police!”’ sees the variety of purely existential perils involved in cheering folk up, after which a family visit to Jonty, Monty, Ponty and Big Bertha Piggerton broadens Weenie’s horizons and highlights who is ‘The Wrong Pig’ whilst preceding a genuine rescue mission as the Fun Police save beleaguered Bunny from a House of Nightmares in ‘The Winchester’ and overindulge in one final mission to stop Skunky’s recently-mined ‘Shiny Pebbles’ fuelling an arsenal to techno terrors…

Generally regarded as “The Unluckiest Red Panda in the World!!”, next to shine here is ‘Lucky in “Stay Lucky!”’ with a simple fun session with the gang going awry in ‘Card Luck’, and doubled down on in ‘Statuesque’ as Monkey’s latest Bunny-bothering collaterally lands Lucky in the muck, prior to everything changing after encountering mystic monument ‘The Tablet’ in the really deep, dark woods…

‘Brown Duck’ then details a noisome scatological sidestep, but if we all hold our noses it’s soon over and the fallout of a cosmic change sparked by latrine lunacy and toilet terrorism can be registered as a ‘Lucky Chance’ and heralding a flipping of fortune for the pitiable panda…

As she becomes “the Luckiest Red Panda in the World!”, her ‘Attitude Adjustment’ scuppers a potentially lethal attempt to blow Action Beaver into space. Karmically, her new status doesn’t extend to those around her, so when ‘The Decoy’ finds a duplicate of Monkey making mayhem for all and his acts as Cardboard Samurai Monkey creating a cascade of all-conquering ‘Cardboard Creations’ she steps in to shield them. However, confusion and carnage culminate in a cross-chronological panda pair-up as time-travel allows ‘The Next Lucky’ to come back from the future to warn that her fortunes are about to change again…

The animal assemblage concludes for now with a look at enigmatic sage ‘“Le Fox in “Big ol’ Grump!”’ It opens long ago as an impressionable fox cub meets a crusty hibernating bruin who shapes his mental and philosophical growth in ‘Bearing It’… but not as much as the pesky bees buzzing him…

In the present, perpetually irritable Le Fox is caught in Monkey’s latest attempts to annoy Bunny in ‘Natural Mystery’ and retaliates with devasting aplomb, before ‘Ah, Poop!’ sees Skunky unwisely boast to his partner in perfidy that his poo collection is now perfectly complete even as deep underground, Le Fox shares his views on despondency with sad Metal E.V.E. and demonstrates vengeance as a means of ‘Coping’ when Monkey interrupts their musings…

Eternally anarchic Monkey’s meddling with Skunky’s reality-warping Wishinator leads to Le Fox achieving Godzilla-like size and temperament in ‘Wish Big’ but all his rampaging and ‘Stomping About’ is rightly directed at one small hairy nutcase, before a calamitous event heralds big changes for everybody as eerie, appalling Signalmen invade the wood and all those left free must find ‘A Place to Hide’…

As those few survivors seek ways to make Le Fox ‘Smaller’ desperation forms an alliance of former foes, but no one made them joint pilot the ridiculous mega-mecha Bunny vs Monkey-a-tron in a last-ditch duel of colossi, even if it does somehow save the day and create ‘An Understanding’ and peaceful resolutions not even one last unleashed tentacle monster can disrupt…

Wrapping up these sidereal shenanigans, farty fooffawraws and monster bum gags are a few related activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and yourself to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Jamie Smart and Armin Roshdi. This time the subjects are ‘How to draw the Floating Island’, including tips on The Cosy Cabin, Pond and Sewer Waterfalls before closing with an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website, complete with instant access via QR codes, plus previews of other treats & wonders to be seen in The Phoenix to wind down from all that philosophical fun and Kaiju kerfuffle…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, Bunny vs Monkey – Day of the Heroes! is weird wit, wild invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning incautiously crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Just Trust Me… It’s Beyond Your Control But Worth It … 10/10

Bunny vs Monkey – Day of the Heroes! will be released on October 8th 2026 and is favailable for pre-order now.

Posted on

Neill Cameron’s How to Make Awesome Comics


By Neill Cameron (The Phoenix Comic Books/David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-147-5 (TPB)

A lifetime ago in January 2012, Oxford-based publisher David Fickling Books launched a traditional-seeming anthology comic weekly aimed at girls and boys between 6 – 12 which revelled in reviving the good old days of picture-story entertainment intent, whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content. Each issue offers humour & adventure strips (most subsequently gathered into a formidable library of stunning Graphic Novels); quizzes; puzzles; educational material and drawing/storytelling tips comprising a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy and, in the years since its premiere, The Phoenix has become a staple of kids’ fun, winning praise from the Great and the Good, child literacy experts and the only people who really count – the utterly engaged kids and parents who read it…

The magazine celebrated its first anniversary by launching a digital edition available globally as an app and continually expands its horizons. These days they offer internet added value via an ongoing tutorial fun-lab dubbed the Phoenix Comics Club…

It is, most importantly, big and bold and tremendous fun.

The publishers are also a fantastically inclusive bunch, ever-eager to get us involved. Conceived and delivered by best-selling Graphic Novelist Neill Cameron (Donut Squad, Mega Robo Bros, Freddy, Tamsin of the Deep, Pirates of Pangea), activity feature ‘How to Make Awesome Comics’ has featured intermittently since issue #0, offering enticing insights and practical tips through the auspices of cartoon know-it-all Professor Panels and his long-suffering collaborator Art Monkey. Its sage pages were first gathered and released in book form in 2014, and now there’s a fully updated and improved version to impart just how to be the best… and why you shouldn’t draw on walls…

As part of the company’s line of comic albums those invaluable observations and exercises were superbly repackaged into a lexicon of hands-on instruction: a not-so-serious foundation course in cartoon wonder-making no aspiring comic book genius can afford to be without.

Broken down into six chapters and (more or less) 21 easily assimilated lessons, the book also makes full use of modern technologies, with exercises, cartoon cheats and spare drawing pages all included as well as downloadable from the internet.

Leaping straight in following the standard equipment check, tuition begins in Chapter 1 with Getting Started, via Lessons 1 & 2: Anyone Can Make Awesome Comics and Awesome Comics can be about Anything. These offer tutorial insights from the Prof ranging from stick-figure first-concepts to fully inked and coloured final work, all augmented by opportunities to create your own strips through the first of many Art Monkey Challenges… plus a Level 1 Bonus Challenge…

Chapter 2 introduces Great Ideas! and in Lessons 3 through 6 covers How to Have Awesome Ideas, How to Have Awesomer Ideas, How to Have Awesomest Ideas before finishing with a treatise on Real Life Awesome (biographical comics) accompanied by an Art Monkey Challenge of dedicated daily fun and complexity…

With work-philosophy fully engaged and imaginations suitably fired up, Chapter 3 then determines What’s a Comic? as Lesson 7 (Warning! Clowns at work!) focuses on the basics with How Awesome Comics Work, whilst L8 details How to Make Funny Comics – with many strip examples!

Then L9 Awesome Words + Awesome Pictures offers some sound lettering tips before this heavy session closes with a welcome pause in which students can peruse a batch of Bonus Comic strips such as ‘Mecha Monkey Meltdown’; ‘Sir Meows-a-Lot and the Bandit Mouse’; ‘Triceracop’; ‘Kung Fu Banana Squad’; ‘BananaBarbarian’ and more…

Returning to learning, Chapter 4 deals with Awesome Drawing, with Lessons 10 to 15 revealing How to Draw Anything Awesomely (like characters & costumes) with L11 pinpointing How to Draw Cartoons Awesomely, before we learn in rapid succession How to Draw Awesome Faces, How to Draw Awesome Robots, How to Draw Awesome Pirates and, of course How to Draw Awesome Monsters. As always that monkey is there to lay down those pesky but so useful challenges…

The really important stuff is Telling Stories as covered in Chapter 5 with How to Tell Awesome Stories, How to Create Awesome Heroes, How to Create Awesome Villains, Creating Awesome Drama before culminating with the big secret in L20’s Awesome Endings…

Finally the practicalities of production and dissemination are revealed in Chapter 6 with How to Make Your Very Own Comics, covering such arcane but crucial topics as folding, pagination and layout; copying and reproduction and getting your work into the hands of your readers…

Packed with superb examples, handy breakdown & layout tips, lots of practical exercises and offering tons of cool ideas plus a library of inspirational examples, this perspicacious primer even includes a wealth of Awesome Appendix of More Awesome Stuff: comprising visual inventories of gallery of stock characters, Cool Robot Accessories and Pirate Moustachery. You will see How to Draw Dinosaurs Step-by-Step, as well as Creepy Creatures and Penguins – also all Step-by-Step – before ending with More Fun Comics challenges for the now-adept student to complete…

There are a host of books, both academic and/or instructional, designed to inculcate a love of comics whilst offering tips, hacks and a hands-on education in crafting your own sequential narratives. There are precious few that do it with as much style, enthusiasm and cunning craft as Neill Cameron’s beguiling release under the all-ages aegis of The Phoenix. This bright & breezy album hones in on and perfectly highlights all the core skills necessary to crafting picture-stories, cleverly drenching them in an aura of rambunctious, addictive fun. With such a boost how can any prospective or neophyte storyteller fail to be galvanised into making their own magic?
Text and illustrations © Neill Cameron, © 2014, 2016, 2026. All rights reserved.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Seasonal Secret Weapon to Ensure Silent Nights… 8/10

How to Make Awesome Comics! will be released on October 8th 2026 and is available for pre-order now.

Posted on

Neill Cameron’s Donut Squad: Destiny of the Donuts! (Book 3)


By Neill Cameron & various (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-390-5 (TPB Standard edition), 978-1-78845-436-0 (Waterstones edition)

Had enough to eat yet? Do You Like Donuts?

Only you can truly answer that question, but if you’re undecided, and dangerously unaware of the ramifications of indecision, then rowdy raconteur and inestimable art fiend Neill Cameron has another batch of artisanal, edibly-edifying arguments you might want to consider before deciding. They’re all jam-packed into a manic new compendium of strips, activities and artificially-sweetened exploits starring a bargain box of comics champions cherrypicked from modern British periodical treasure trove The Phoenix. Since debuting in 2012 and just like Beano, Dandy and other perennial childhood treasures, the wonderful weekly has masterfully mixed hilarious comedy with enthralling adventure serials… and frequently in the same scintillating strip.

Everybody braced in? Got your snacks? Napkins? Sick bags? Right then, let’s go…

Crafted by Cameron (Mega Robo Bros, Freddy, Tamsin of the Deep, How to Make Awesome Comics, Pirates of Pangea), a unique team of toothsome adventurers reconvene here in a world much improved by an absence of bagels. As enny fule kno, Bagels are the arch enemy of Donuts and probably all Life, but you won’t see many here as this time we’re threatened by our own suicidal tastes and unwise behaviour. No change there, then…

As always, we open with a temptingly gussied-up menu reintroducing family favourites like Dadnut & Li’l Timmy; DS commander-in-chief Sprinkles; impetuous Jammyboi; Chalky (ghost of a murdered Victorian Donut); nerve-wracked Anxiety Donut; violent vigilante Justice Donut and potty-mouthed piratical Caramel Jack! (he’s a little bit salty!). There are, of course, more and fresher delights to come…

Old treats like new Official Donut Squad merchandise, Great Moments in Donut History, Classics of World Donut Cinema, ‘Donutiquette (Tips for Polite Donut-Eating When Travelling)’, ‘Ask your Father’ abound, garnished by further examples of senseless violence with Justice Donut, cruel pranks by Jammyboi and whatever it is Spronky does. These are supplemented by developing character arcs like Anxiety Donut going on a life & attitude changing extended adventure, with shocking repercussions…

Other items on view include ‘Legends of the Origins of Chalky the Ghost Donut’, new arrivals like Daddy Donuts (the Donut who is Maybe TOO Rich), The Donut Mysteries and Extreme Donut Eating. These accompany a flurry of new (and even New World!) taste sensations – like the ‘Danger Nuts’ – Spikynut!, Explodonut! & Regular Donut (contains a higher level of saturated fats than is optimal for Heart Health!) – or international embassages Matcha Comin’ Atcha!, Takoyakinut!, Double Ultimate Chili Cheese Corndog and/or Medicinut.

As well as the launch of culinary pastime ‘Danger Donut Roulette’, other premiering attractions comprise New Season British Classic Flavours (Rhubarb Crumble!, Jam Roly-Poly! & Toad-in-the-Hole Donuts) and other themed delights; Legends of the Dark Donut; semi-regular outbursts of enigmatic tragicomedic experimental drama Waiting for Godonut and seldom seen sightings of Jean-Pierre and Albert: French-Canadian Vampire Donuts…

Underpinning regular and fresh features is an eponymous saga of vast cosmic import. Peppering the unfolding nonsense is a series of episodes in an overarching plotline inserting itself across sixteen fearful-future feuilletés designated ‘Destiny of the Donuts’. Here we will see how foolish, health-conscious humans will imbue smart gadgets like fit-bits and heart monitors with ruthless sentience and an programmed compulsion to eradicate unhealthy eating and the weaklings who do it or comprise it.

This will lead/has led to a war of extinction across the ages, with mean, nasty robots stopping the consumption of tasty snacks until human civilisation collapsed. Now with the last humans living in the ruins of what they wrought, the final dregs of indulgent humankind strikes back down the timelines, steered by our sugar sweet stalwarts and ferocious saturated fatties in rather random temporal assaults on the already triumphant terror mechs…

The galvanising sweet survivor who has lived through it all and intends to go back and fix all that horrible healthy history is a grizzled veteran warrior who used to be called Anxiety… and he’s brought the chewed up and spat out leftovers of his old squad who will make themselves known in good time…

Whether this is your first bite or a just another heaping helping, please be warned that although the main enemy of Donut Squad are bready brutes the Bagels, the timey-wimey shenanigans of these tick-tock fit-bit terrors are hard to suppress and – even after the regular activity features – the peril has not parked nor gone into reverse. Thus, Cameron’s ‘Phoenix Comic Club’ art classes on How to Draw Donuts are insidiously infiltrated by the old foe and manifest here as ‘How to Draw Bagels’ (including ‘How to Draw Platoon Commander Poppyseed’; ‘…A Sesame Seed Bagel’; ‘…A Plain Bagel’ and ‘…A Slightly Smaller Bagel’ before an anachronistic Bonus Comics section unleashes manic wildcard mild card Spronky to bizarrely interact with Time, bun/bakery mechanics and the page-count of reality one last bunch of times…

Smart, witty, laugh out loud weird and totally bonkers, the seemingly piecemeal treats contained herein define what kids love without knowing why. They also completely bewilder us oldsters and keep us in our place. Devious, eccentric and captivating, sugar rush all round is guaranteed and if you get toothache it’s from laughing not chronal confabulations…

Moreover, just like cucumber, DONUT SQUAD WILL RETURN…
Text and illustrations © Neill Cameron 2026. All rights reserved.

Neill Cameron’s Donut Squad: Destiny of the Donuts! is scheduled for UK release on 10th September 2026 and is available for pre-order now; or wait until next year and get it yesterday while walking off all those donuts and bagels…

Posted on

Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey Book 11: Intergalactic Monkey Business! TPB


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Paul Duffield & Armin Roshdi (The Phoenix Comic Books/ David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-362-t (TPB), 978-1-78845-416-2 (Tesco Exclusive Edition), 978-1-78845-417-9 (WHSmith Travel Exclusive Team Monkey Edition)

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the first issue back in 2012: cataloguing a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but increasingly with a cerebral cosmic crescendo in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember, Find Chaffy; Megalomaniacs), these trendsetting, mindbending yarns have been wisely retooled as multi award-winning, bestselling graphic albums available in digest softcover such as this one hardback and sponsored special editions and even as an AUDIOBOOK. Just let that one last one sink in…

All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT?

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible forest resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and good breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-causing, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or tagalong useless “henches” Metal Steve & Action Beaver…

Daily wonders and catastrophes were exacerbated by a broad band of unconventional Crinkle creatures, none more so than aforementioned monochrome mad scientist Skunky, whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life presents as a propensity for building dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons. He is, at his core, a dangerously inquisitive thinker and tinkerer…

Now the Graphic Novel of the Year of the British Book Awards 2026 is out in time for the summer hols in a nifty paperback edition and will keep everyone stuck in the car or waiting to pass customs suitably amused. Best get a couple though – kids, dads and grandmas do not like to share…

So, what’s going on?

Here, with artistic fiddling about from design deputy Sammy Borras, the unending war of nerves and mega-ordnances resumes as if nothing cosmic or multiverse-changing had ever happened, or any hint of a restart after a cosmic culmination. See, that’s what happens if you let books pile up and don’t read them immediately! Go check out Bunny vs Monkey: The Great Big Glitch! and then come back and we’ll chat some more…

Okay then, new day, new start, same old mega mecha meta nonsense as ‘Clouding Over’ sees a suspiciously low-lying cirrus formation start dumping rain and then increasingly more noisome and noxious substances on the woods-folk in what appear to be targeted strikes. Could there possibly be some kind of intelligence behind the atmospheric attacks?

With propriety and good taste under attack (and soon in full retreat), the sensorial assaults resume in ‘Guts n’ Butts!’ as Monkey & Skunky debate the appalling assets and proposed “improvements” to the weaponised flatulence engine they call Bungamungus with no consideration of those in its path prior to the simian unleashing his own worst nightmare…

The giant ‘MonkeyBot 5000’ is supposed to make life hell for his fluffy white foe, but it appears Bunny can find plenty of uses for a mechanised personal organiser that can bench press trucks, topple buildings, file and colour co-ordinate…

Reality is rocked all over again when Monkey’s ‘Mum and Dad’ pop by for a visit and nice bit of tea, but nature’s innocents Weenie and Pig Piggerton are too busy having adventures with ‘Frogs!’ and their mystical king to really notice, whereas ‘Lucky… The Unluckiest Red Panda in the World!!’ stumbles into unbridled chaos (she’s used to it by now) when Skunky & Monkey decide to go through the forgotten inventions bin. Worried about declining productivity, the sinister science sinner then uses his 3D printer to unleash a horde of ‘Fun-Size Skunkies’ who are anything but, before Bunny learns where all the wreckage, rubbish and remains go when the latest catastrophe has finished unfolding. Sadly, there are good reasons nobody wants to see ‘Binbag Sam’ carry out his nasty but necessary job…

Always seeking peace and serene contemplation, mysterious Le Fox has found a wilderness to dig in, but when Monkey comes by and discovers gold in ‘Them Thar Hills’ that’s another dream dead, but only prelude to planet-shaking events when Skunky’s new signal array test coincides with Monkey’s latest eating challenge. ‘Message in a Butthole’ reveals how – after, inevitably – a monumental foofie erupts across the universe, the consequences will be appalling… but not at all unexpected.

In a fabulous tribute to Chuck Jones cartoons, ‘Monkey vs Ai’ sees the annoying ape test a bunch of inventions that should work “in theory”, before going back to stinky basics with a cheese cannon. Sadly, the anticipated “Cheesepocalyse” is definitively derailed by ‘The Turning of the Pig’ as pacifistic Piggerton reaches a limit and shows the monkey miscreant just what it all feels like…

‘Buzzing Off’ sees Skunky testing ways to end the really annoying fly suit he built for his partner in chaos and then hiding along with everyone else in ‘Who’s Afraid of the Monkey’ when the simian simpleton gets really, really hungry. Eventually sated, the little sod resumes pranks & pestiferations with a giant robot in ‘Close Encounters of the Bird Kind’. Remember that olfactory beacon blasted across infinity? This is the moment something answers that unique clarion call…

Suddenly, in ‘You Looking at Me?’ Crinkle Woods are alive with alien weirdoes, but it’s just Skunky messing about with quantum physics and nothing to do with Monkey, because he’s currently hurtling to the other side of the Universe, testing to destruction the super-high-tech toilets of the extraterrestrials who abducted him…

He can’t be blamed for the astonishing void discovered by Pig and Weenie prompting the chilling question ‘What Lies Inside… the Hole?!’ or sensible but naïve robot Metal E.V.E.’s attempts to balance out Lucky’s cosmic misfortunes in ‘What Luck Befalls’, or even Metal Steve’s crisis of confidence and inexplicable desire to ‘Destroy’ because Monkey is currently spreading his brand of chaos while ‘Hitching a Ride’ on the ship of judgemental civilisation-eradicating superior being Grand Master Nexus…

Meanwhile on Earth, Skunky discovers the missing co-miscreant has left his life unfulfilled and dissatisfied and switches to a copy to serve his unsuspected emotional needs. ‘Little Monkey’ is feral, bitey, uncommunicative, un-potty-trainable and disgusting… such an improvement on the original! Enjoying his fresh start the evil inventor unleashes ‘A Clever Endeavour’ in the compulsive form of a malign puzzle box that baffles and bamboozles everyone – except the mini monkey who might just be the smartest thing in the woods now…

Pig’s penchant for peculiar pets sees the adoption of an odd avian Blue-bummed Bimblebug. Inappropriately dubbed ‘Parpy’, the critter’s 24-hour lifespan brings near-instant woe, and leads to the advent of colossal hermit savant Capybara 5000 whose answers to all the ‘Big Questions’ are unexpectedly violent. That search for truth culminates in sage advice ‘Run!’ before calm returns as Pig explores wild water rafting and Le Fox confronts increasingly sinister Little Monkey in ‘The Happiness of the Kitsune’.

Far away in another beleaguered solar system, Monkey is slowly wearing down Nexus and his minions, before accidentally warping them all back to Earth to enjoy a spontaneous battle of ‘Rather Big Lasers’ with Skunky. When that eradicates the fuzzy mastermind’s secret underground lair all Skunky can think of is ‘Revenge’. With Little Monkey in tow the genius goes ‘On the Hunt’ in a unique battleship, pursuing ‘Space Wars’ even as his hirsute former best baddie buddy seizes control of the Nexus craft and drives it into ‘A Hella Interstellar Yeller’…

Marooned on a muddy morass world, Monkey establishes his dream dictatorship. Sadly, ‘Chutneyopia’ is right next to the equally barren planet Skunky crashed on and war is declared as the newcomer demands an apology that will never be forthcoming. Moreover, when Skunky took off after Monkey, most of Crinkle Wood went with him and as Bunny ruminates on ‘The Intergalactic Adventures of Weenie and Cinnamon Bun Pig!’, plans are underway to terraform the barren planetoid into ‘A New Home’. Unfortunately that’s being undertaken by ‘Even More Skunkies’…

With the enemy busy converting Chutneyopia into his other, better dream of Monkeyopia, ‘A New Plan’ is needed, but the still-active Grand Master finally concedes that its superior mentality and firepower are no match for the annoying Earth ape. With its minions in revolt and resolved to blow up Earth, there nothing left for Monkey to worry about ‘Apart from the Bomb’ that’s going to end his grotty mucky dream world…

What better time for a reconciliation with Skunky?

Back on Earth, other Crinkle Wood critters have briefly but wholeheartedly enjoyed a time of growth and limelight in ‘Not Bunny vs Monkey’ but the likes of Stan Stoat and Randolph Raccoon are helpless when the minions start blasting. As Monkeyopia becomes a vast spaceship, Skunky begins his ‘Race to Save the World’ with his secret weapon Little Monkey, but the outcome is never certain and our heroes all decide they’re ‘Best Off Out of It’, leaving a monumental deus ex machina to sort everything out…

Wrapping up these sidereal shenanigans and cosmic bum gags are related activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and yourself to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Jamie Smart & Armin Roshdi detailing ‘How to draw King Frog!’, ‘A Bungamungous!’, ‘Capybara 5000!’ and ‘An Alien!’ before closing with an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website, complete with instant access via a QR code, plus previews of other treats & wonders to be seen in The Phoenix to wind down from all that cosmic kerfuffle…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, Bunny vs Monkey: Intergalactic Monkey Business! is weird wit, wild invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning all crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.

Today in 1923 comics artist and strip cartoonist Dan Barry (Airboy, Doc Savage, Tarzan, Flash Gordon) was born, with British whiz kid Phillip Bond (Wired World, Angel and the Ape, Kill Your Boyfriend, Vimanarama) turning up in 1966 and artist Eric Battle (Kobalt, Hardware, The Spectre) born in 1967.

Today in 1975 author and cartoonist Crockett Johnson (Barnaby, How to Make an Earthquake, Harold and the Purple Crayon) died.

Posted on

Jess Bradley’s Squid Bits! : That’s a Nice Hat!


By Jess Bradley with Emily Kimball, Kate Brown & various (DFB/Phoenix)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-395-0 (TPB)

The Phoenix has been the shining saving grace of traditional British kids’ comics since 2012, regaling rabid readers with anthology strips for girls, boys and all points between, offering humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Although pretty strong in its action and mystery yarns, the publication is probably best known for its award-winning comedy stylings, and has always offered perplexing pages of puzzles, fun facts and info downloads in cartoon form.

And then there’s Squid Bits.

Concocted by Jess Bradley (Comic Strip Science series, Super Dweeb, A Day in the Life of…), the composite self (un)help feature offers advice, suggestions, recipes, style tips, listicles, little snippets of information and much more by dredging up (more like making up!!!) countless tips from all human knowledge: history to astrology, science to economics, baking to nonsense and beyond. These articles are all purportedly supplied by mystery cartoonist The Squid and THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED!

At the height of the Ritalin* Generation and after years of periodical dis, mis and even hiss information (there’s lots of stuff on lizards and reptiles) across many pages of octopoidal excess, the mix-&-match wonderment and sheer randomised inventiveness – undoubtedly sparked by an excess of imagination and too much tea and confectionary – has been compiled and curated into an almanac of absurdity, unleashed upon the reading public as Jess Bradley’s Squid Bits: That’s a Nice Hat. The perpetrators even have the temerity to threaten more books coming!

The seemingly utilitarian assemblages of pictorial bric-a-brac are manipulated and wrangled on-page by a Greek chorus of stick-figure doodles called “The Doodles” (individually Dog, Cat, Lizard, Rabbit, Mouse & Goat) seeking to please, placate and ingratiate their multi-tentacled Master/Benefactor/Employer. However, as the graffiti gang introduce themselves in an introductory chapter, old rivalries emerge and the linear sextet are consumed by millinery madness. From this point onwards all six lie, cheat, create, purloin, commandeer, otherwise obtain and steal – especially steal – a succession of staggering titfers and chapeaus to impress their unseen overlord.

Amidst and in between all bouts of hat madness and 2-dimensional personal quests for validation, a vast selection of exemplary, data-drenched drawings from the Squid Bits feature bombards your-ever-expanding brainpan, technically making you smarter, but absolutely no use at all in any kind of crisis…

Recurring features within the strip include the life of ‘Red Panda – Nature’s Jerk!’; the lectures of piscine critic ‘Art Shark’; the indescribable ‘Banana!’; ‘The Amazing Lizard Bros!’; ‘Werewolf Problems!’; ‘President Dog!’; ‘Undercover Pigeon!’; ‘Dr. Bacon, M.D.’; ‘Cecil P. Wombat – Expert on Everything!’;‘Adventures in Opposite Land!’ and so very much you never needed or wanted to know about slugs, shopping, fighting, monsters, ghosts, flatulence, vampires or other staples of modern childhood.

Also incrementally improving reader’s lives are such perennial favourites as ‘Totally Real Nature Guide’; ‘Squid Bits Horoscopes’; ‘In the Olden Days’; ‘Squid Bits Weather Report!’ ‘That Escalated Quickly…’; ‘For Sale!’; ‘Squid Bits Homework Help!’; ‘Job Interviews!’; ‘Monster Fashion!’; excerpts from ‘The Adventurer’s Guide’ and the ever-topical and handy “Check List!” of things you probably don’t need for a far better life.

These are counterbalanced by occasional or one-off events such as ‘5th Annual Nudibranch Festival!’, ‘Cut ‘n’ Keep Gentle Reminder!’; a visit to ‘The Evil Forest!’; ‘Stick Insect Romance!’ and ‘Time Travel Foibles’; ‘Too Many Guinea Pigs’ and ‘What Were You Before the Experiment?’…

As always, wrapping up these multi-pronged life-lessons and graphic shenanigans are opportunities to get creative and construct your own Fake News. This timely opportunity appears as activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils, a ruler, no respect for rules and especially You to a compact online course (QR code provided!), Alternatively, do it in the ancient ways as all aspects of comic strip creation are presented and supervised “in-book” by Bradley herself. The section details ‘How to Draw the Squid Bits Way!’ and individual lessons and topics include the draughting delights of Red Panda, Banana & Art Shark.

Also in view are ‘How to Draw Expressive Doodles’, ‘How to Draw Expressions’, ‘Have Fun With Hairstyles’, ‘Let’s Talk Body Language’, ‘Bringing it All Together’, ‘Lost in a Haunted House’, ‘Blowing Bubbles’, ‘Tentacle Attack’, plus extension specialisms ‘Guinea Pig Balancing Champions’ and – most crucially of all – ‘Sulky Pie Dropper’. Won’t get nowhere sketch-wise without knowing that one, Just ask Art Shark…

Hugely funny, infinitely (for a given value of infinite, of course) inventive and addictively, daftly and deftly drawn, Jess Bradley’s Squid Bits: That’s a Nice Hat is a wondrous “dipping book” and another item that your kids will have to explain to you. Thus, you’d be ill-advised to let your kids have a copy if you’re driving anywhere with them in the back. Otherwise, it’s great and worth your keenest attentions. I tip my hat to it, of course…
Text and Illustrations © Jess Bradley, 2026.

*Other forms of Methylphenidate are available, but should not be considered as a an alternative to study and diligent parenting.

Today in 1949, British all-rounder comics creator John Higgins (Judge Dredd, Watchmen, World Without End, Dr Who, Batman: The Killing Joke, Razorjack) was born, sharing the date with both Underground Commix star Bobby London (Dirty Duck, Air Pirates, Popeye) and writer-turned-producer & Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson (The Mask, Star Wars, Aliens, Predator, Cravan: Mystery Man of the 20th Century, Deep Gravity) in 1950. In 1951 Dean of Disney Duck delights Don Rosa arrived, as did realist comics artist Bo Hampton (Greylore, Viking Glory, Batman: Castle of the Bat) in 1954 and Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Young Avengers) in 1967.

1985 today saw the last published edition of UK comics bastion Jack and Jill after more than 1640 weekly issues.

Today in 1888, American cartoonist turned Comics pioneer Frank Bellew died, as did immortal legend Steve Ditko in 2018.

Posted on

Pandora in Puzzlevale: (volume 2) Call of the Crow


By Paul Duffield, Poqu, Siobhan McKenna & various (DFB/Phoenix)

ISBN: 978-1-78845-3769 (TPB)

These days, kids are more likely to find their formative strip narrative experiences online or in specially tailored graphic novels than the anthological, pick ‘n’ mix of pictorial periodicals that defined my long-dead youth. Such was not always the case, but at least comics like The Phoenix are still plugging away, blending the best of the old days with modern appurtenances of all types, just like this splendid sequel saga, culled from the sagacious periodical’s pages.

Pandora in Puzzlevale: The Secret Town debuted a comic strip mystery that progressed as our plucky protagonist solved assorted tests and conundra to recover the parents who had vanished from her side as they all enjoyed a little road trip.

It began as the aspiring crimebuster and Detective Crow C fan was dragged from her comic long enough to realise the tedious drive to their holiday home had been paused. Although the route to the much-anticipated “secrets-themed” village seemed straightforward, the road was long, winding and confusing. When heavy mists descended and the satnav packed in, Mum & Dad pulled up at a petrol station for directions. Engrossed in reading, Pandora eventually looked up to discover she was all alone. Her parents were gone…

Her catalogue of confusion and casebook of ratiocinative deduction filled up quickly as she was drawn into a schema apparently designed to test her physical and mental abilities. That meant taking up precarious residence in a strange hamlet with all odd cons: somewhere everyone had a secret that they wouldn’t share unless Pandora played their games…

In case you’re still wondering, this book – like its predecessor – is all about active participation. By accessing these pages and selecting an action at a critical moment in each episode, you/Pandora are directed to another page to experience the ramifications of that choice. The final objective is still to find the folks uncover the nested truths of the village… and escape Puzzlevale… but it’s you who will be doing the work.

In-world, seemingly helpful people are plentiful in the mist-shrouded village – like fortune tellers, tea shop staff, rambling bystanders and potential witness/gossip Granny Garnett and enigmatic rhymer Rita Idyll, but most welcoming and useful is a were-wolfly hotel clerk. Max/Monster Max is positively friendly but in truth everyone’s motives and accounts are unverifiable and not to be trusted, so Pandora is ultimately left to fend for herself.

At least in this very strange and mutable place, she increasingly has Magically Real Detective Crow by her side and steering her path, and relative stability in a room at local hotel The Veil. Pandora’s methodology includes clue finding, location identification, map-making, maze-defeating, symbol deciphering, wordsearch weaving, witness statement verifying, code-breaking, rune reading, message translating, riddle-solving, character assessing, crossword completing, key & lock retrieving, object unearthing, back-story compiling and comparison testing as well as frequent odd behaviour explanation, with facts meticulously forming a working hypothesis and dictating her plan of action: all jotted down in her trusty, ever-present notebook. She needs all that and more, this time…

After a moody recap, the next morning sees Pandora and her crow companion reviewing the case and wishing the ever-encroaching mists would let up, before a querulous, decision-loaded morning learning the hotelier’s secrets from Max’s sister ensues. This belatedly occurs in The Grand Gardens of Blatherwick Manor. However, getting to the silent sibling means foiling snooty question master/butler Reeves, and steadfast truth obstacle/fount of knowledge Lord Blatherwick…

As unceasing enigmas unfold. Pandora and former fictional detective Crow Boy join new ally (or is she?) Aunty Amethyst in overcoming intellectual and physical challenges, but there are so many! She still hasn’t solved the old ones, like why do the buildings shift, and why do so many wear masks and all-concealing costumes? It isn’t long before she decides “when in Rome…”

Pandora’s quest is divided into 25 sequential ‘Mysteries’ undertaken across four chapters – ‘Trapped in Puzzlevale’, ‘A Family Secret’, ‘Bridging the Divide, and ‘To Raven City’ – each with its own set of tests and challenges contributing to a Big Picture solution, but even after Pandora completes them, she’s left with more to solve and another weird path to follow…

Now with an abrupt hard-earned elevation to official status, magical transformation and the end in clear sight, how can this be anything but To Be Continued…

Pandora in Puzzlevale: Call of the Crow is the second in a serialised sleuth-fest offering a dazzling display of cartoon virtuosity and brain-busting challenges co-composed by writer/art director Paul Duffield, graphic staging scenarist Poqu & illustrator Siobhan McKenna. Their compelling blend of Story! Games! & Action! offers beguiling mystery to be unravelled in the manner of multiple-choice decisions and all there in the irresistible shape of entertaining pictures. How much cooler can a book get?

Well, quite a lot actually, since this tome devotes posterior pages to related activities and features offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Here are tips by Duffield & McKenna on ‘Drawing Crow Boy’, ‘Building blocks’ to ‘Final details’ as well as how to craft puzzles, whilst Poqu shares constructing ‘Secret woodland’, before we conclude with a full list of solutions, clues and hints in closing glimpses at ‘The Final Mystery’ and ‘Pandora’s Notes’…

Bring paper, pencils and your intellectual A-game, and have the time of your life…
Text and illustrations © The Phoenix Comic, 2026. All rights reserved.

Today in 1893 Josette Frank was born. Go look her up now. She earned it. In 1901 Carl Barks was born. Absolutely him too.

If you’re not all worthied out, Hy Eisman (who walked in giants’ footsteps on Popeye and Katzenjammer Kids) arrived in 1927 as did writer/entrepreneur/ publisher/agent Mike Friedrich in 1947.

We lost attorney, psychologist and Wonder Woman co-creator Elizabeth Holloway Marston today in 1993 – so look her up too – as well as Dick Giordano who died in 2010. Italian spaghetti westerner Leone Cimpellin AKA “Ghilbert” (Red Carson, Casey Ruggles, Jonny Logan) bit his last bullet in 2017.

In 1982 Eagle relaunched in Britain. It was pretty good, had lots of cool contributors, but just wasn’t the same…

Posted on

Stuff about Sex for Guys Who Are Not Like, Total Idiots


By David Mellon (Top Shelf Productions)
No ISBN ASIN: B01BMV519A (pamphlet)

Utterly unavailable – and how like most men today is THAT? – here’s a tiny treat that’s educational and well worth tracking down. You might even agitate for its revival and expansion and return…

Whilst not actually a graphic novel, I couldn’t resist adding this outrageous little comic book essay to my St. Valentines Day celebrations, and wholeheartedly recommend it to any oldster who likes a gentle, knowing laugh or any young man in need of an understanding non-judgemental pep talk before setting out to find a mate… either for a night, a little while or a lifetime.

In the manner of a relatively non-judgemental older sibling, David Mellon (The Boogieman, Silent) expresses, frankly and in the most simple of terms, how to start having sex. He covers the onset of adult relationships; dispelling myths, addressing if not positively coddling neuroses and especially bestowing actual useful advice (yes, really! Wash often and wear clean clothes!) to help nervous neophytes meet women (or consensual alternatives) and not nauseate them.

Beautifully rendered in accessible monochrome cartoons, Mellon takes us through the initial obstacle of ‘Shame!’, arguing that ‘It’s the Same for Everybody’ and claiming ‘Everybody Wants to Drop that Mask!’…

Nothing is held back as the author sensibly deals with ‘Personal Hygiene’ and tackles issues such as ‘Premature Ejaculation’ and ‘Masturbation’, the pros and cons of ‘Virginity’ and even asks the big question…‘What’s Love Got to Do With It?’

Even the great imponderables get a look in as we examine ‘Normal’ and discuss ‘What Women Want’…

Smart, sensible, unflinching but never harsh or mean, Mellon’s mature approach to an age-old traumatic experience and rite of passage should be mandatory reading in schools (but won’t be because of all the naked men and women he’s drawn here) as a serious and earnest contrition to sex education.
Stuff about Sex™ & © 2012 David Mellon. All rights reserved.

Today in 1865 Henry creator Carl Thomas Anderson was born, and so was civil rights champion/political cartoonist Oliver Harrington in 1912, followed four years later by writer/editor/MLJ and Archie Comics co-founder John Goldwater. In 1967 the world became a better place with the birth of New Zealand’s greatest comic export Roger Langridge.

In 1962 we lost Korky the Cat creator James Crighton, the world bid adieu to comics star turned Hanna-Barbera animator Alex Lovyin 1992 and in 2007 Germany said farewell to artist/animator Willy Moese.

In 1904, Jimmy Swinnerton’s strip Little Jimmy debuted while UK comics changed forever in 1976 when Fleetway’s astoundingly controversial weekly Action launched.

Posted on

Neill Cameron’s Donut Squad: Make a Mess! (Book 2)


By Neill Cameron & various (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-358-5 (Digest TPB Standard edition), 978-1-78845-408-7 (Waterstones edition)

Had enough to eat yet? Do You Like Donuts?

Only you can truly answer that question, but if you’re undecided, and dangerously unaware of the ramifications of indecision, then rowdy raconteur and inestimable art fiend Neill Cameron has another batch of artisanal, edibly-edifying arguments you might want to consider before deciding, all jam-packed into a manic new compendium of strips, activities and artificially-sweetened exploits starring a bargain box of comics champions cherrypicked from modern British periodical treasure trove The Phoenix.

Since debuting in 2012 and just like Beano, Dandy and other perennial childhood treasures, the wonderful weekly has masterfully mixed hilarious comedy with enthralling adventure serials… and frequently in the same scintillating strip. Everybody braced in? Got your snacks? Napkins? Right then, let’s go…

Crafted by Cameron (Mega Robo Bros, Freddy, Tamsin of the Deep, How to Make Awesome Comics, Pirates of Pangea), a unique team of toothsome adventurers reconvene here in world much improved by an absence of bagels. As enny fule kno, bagels are the arch enemy of Donuts and probably all Life…

Moreover, there are fresh additions to the team we met in volume 1 (Donut Squad Take over the World! May 2nd 2025) besides commander-in-chief Sprinkles, accident prone Jammyboi, Chalky (the ghost of a murdered Victorian Donut), violent vigilante Justice Donut, nerve-wracked Anxiety Donut, piratical Caramel Jack! (he’s a little bit salty!), Dadnut & Li’l Timmy, and utterly unknowable and incomprehensible Spronky! who will make themselves known in good time…

First though we indulge in some ‘Fun Times with Sprinkles’ and the rest, prior to a passionately resolute ‘No Bagels.’ Public Service Announcement, leading us all into an extended exploit in ‘The Great Outdoors’ involving camping, campfires and being eaten by bears…

Ruggedly individualistic, the assorted flavourites (said it. Not proud.) generally work in solo vignettes that combine to make a full package but all pitch in for regular features such as the ads for merch like the ‘Official Donut Squad Camping Gear!’ which here include Tents, Backpacks and High-Power Bear Tranquiliser Guns, and are sensibly, accommodatingly backed up by ‘Hot New Donut Flavours for Summer!’ How about Piña Coladonut!, Choco Banana! or Sweat and Suncream! – or even Cool Cool Mango!, Watermellon Baller and Seagull Beaks!?

If you don’t mind me asking, how big are your nuts? Are you man enough to handle Omega Gargantunut, Gargantunut Titan, Extinction Level Gargantunut, Gargantunut: Nemesis? Steve thinks he is but significant other Janet just thinks he’s full of himself…

No matter how rich they might sound they are as nothing compared to Daddy Billions! – The Richest Donut in the World! If you’re not sure we can direct you to ‘Ask your Mother!: with Mumnut & Li’l Timmy’ episodes before meeting the new guys. These ‘Meatynuts!’ include ‘Spicyboi!’, ‘Beefychunks!’, ‘Crazy Mayonnaisey!’ and ‘Ham Alan’, who shares his extensive backstory before we explore ‘Sweet-Meat Fusion Donuts’ like ‘Chocolate-Frosted Beef’, ‘HAMnJAM!’ or ‘Caramel Sausage!’

A barrage of parental queries season ‘Great Moment’s in Donut History’ and ‘Classic of World Donut Cinema’, and intermittent silhouette games commence with ‘Name That Donut’, supported by more merch such as Donut Squad Caps!, Water Bottles!, Plutonium Enrichment Plants!, Hoodies, Cushions and Autonomous Humanoid Robots!, prior to everyone from Beefychunks to the entire afterlife getting a go at answering dear Timmy’s questions…

Regular features like ‘Donut-Related Conspiracy Theories!’ and ‘It’s Spronky!’ vie for attention with new treats like ‘Do You Like Cheese Donuts? Introducing Tasty Bob!, Nordic Helga and Camemboi!’ and ‘The Life of Michael’ plus ‘Donutiquette – DOs and DON’Ts of POLITE DONUT EATING’, ‘Extreme Donut Eating!’ and ‘Great Figures of History Who Were Secretly Donuts’..

Of course all this is fine but – following the lengthy saga of ‘The Totally Normal Humans’ – things get a bit weird and very nasty as all the long-banished Bagel Battalion break free of their extradimensional jail in THE VOID and attempt to take over the book by invading its gutters!

They succeed too…

Having whetted your appetite you’ll need to buy the book to see what happens next, but be warned, the bready brutes broke out by infiltrating the activity section at the rear, with Cameron’s ‘Phoenix Comic Club’ art classes on How to Draw ‘Sprinkles!’, ‘…Anxiety Donut!’, ‘…Justice Donut!’, ‘…Caramel Jack!’, and all the others caught up in the conflict…

Smart, witty, laugh out loud weird and utterly bonkers, this seemingly piecemeal treat cunningly connects a whole bunch of stuff kids love without knowing why, but which totally bewilders us oldsters and keeps us in our place. Devious, eccentric and captivating, the sugar rush is guaranteed and if you get toothache it’s from laughing not quantum confessions…

Moreover, as all the best books and movies say: DONUT SQUAD WILL RETURN…
Text and illustrations © Neill Cameron 2026. All rights reserved.

Neill Cameron’s Donut Squad: Take Over the World! is scheduled for UK release on January 1st 2026 and is available for pre-order now; or wait until next year and get it tomorrow while walking off all those donuts and bagels…

Today in 1956 Nexus co-creator and Kirby fan Steve Rude was born. In 1965 Dirty Plotte auteur Julie Doucet arrived, but the day also commemorates major losses. In 1978 graphic genius Basil Wolverton went to his long-anticipated reward, and in 2005 inimitable Maurice (The Perishers) Dodd told his last joke. While talking of newspaper strips that changed lives, December 31st 1995 also saw Bill Watterson’s final Calvin and Hobbes episode. Sigh.

You know where to look by now, so perhaps do that between all the “auld lang synes” and dry white whines.

Posted on

A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent


By Isabella Rotman with Luke B. Howard (Limerance Press/Oni Press-Lion Forge Publishing Group)
ISBN: 978-1-62010-794-2 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-62010-815-4

I’ve constantly argued here that comic strips are a matchless tool for education: rendering the most complex topics easily accessible and displaying a potent facility to inform, affect and alter behaviour. Here’s another superb example of the art form using its great powers for good.

The Quick & Easy Guide series has an admirable record of confronting uncomfortable issues with taste, sensitivity and breezy forthrightness: offering sound solutions as well as awareness or solidarity. Here, Maine-based cartoonist Isabella Rotman (Wait What?: A Comic Book Guide to Relationships, Bodies and Growing Up; You’re So Sexy When You Aren’t Transmitting STIs) and New Orleans colourist Luke Howard collaborate on a cogent, compelling primer covering the irrefutable basics When, Where, Why and most especially What can be taken as Consent. This is such a charged issue that the light, informative lecture is preceded by a very clear and well thought out Content Warning defining terms and the specifics of situations, with firm regard to gender, scope and even an Informational Disclaimer – that’s how hot a topic this still is…

Terms are examined and situations explored during a tenuous first encounter between two healthy young adults. However, as things heat up, a phantasmal guide pops in to steer the participants and give voice to their suppressed concerns, through chapters such as ‘What is Consent?’, ‘Consent is Simple’, ‘What is Sex?’ and ‘Consent Must be Freely Given!’, all emphasised through sidebars like ‘Tell Them What Turns You On!’ and an enumeration of what definitively ‘Have Nothing to do With Consent!’…

The dialogue and comics show-&-tells are punctuated by quotes from professional Sexual Consent Educators, augmented by role plays, quizzes and a section outlining and defining current (US only) ‘Age of Consent’ laws, before asking ‘Is Everyone Fully Informed?’ This last is primarily about all the many factors – physical and emotional – potential partners should always be apprised of, but also broadmindedly enquires ‘What About Kink?’, and even tackles the ever-present – and potentially devastating – ‘Fear of Rejection’…

In closing, the convivial confrontation offers a list of potential faux pas in ‘So Don’t…’; a summation ‘In Review…’ before providing a ‘Yes. No. Maybe So Checklist’ as well as a selection of ‘Safer Sex: Contraception’, ‘…STI Risk Reduction’ and ‘…Activities’ suggestions.

Being wise beyond her years and probably acutely aware of how inventive humans are, the author closes with sagacious questionnaire ‘Anything Else?’, plus a fulsome Bibliography and list of Resources to contact including Sex & Relationship Education, appropriate Hotlines and online Checklists… although considering how hostile most parents, many governments and all organised religions are to such dangerous knowledge in the sweaty hands of actual consentors/consentees, these might no longer be of much use…

I hail from (and am a grateful survivor of) a fabulous far-distant era where we happily ravaged the planet without a qualm and believed emotional understanding led to universal acceptance. At the same time, it seems most of us never stopped being greedy cave monkeys obsessively snatching whatever we wanted with no consideration of others or the greater consequences. Then again, some seem (apparently) a little more in tune with the planet now, and finally learning to share and play well with others…

This witty, no-nonsense treatise offers sage advice on becoming our best selves by dealing with our selfish natures – something that really should have been bred out of humanity eons, if not centuries, ago. This should be compulsory reading in every school and college… and pub, and nightclub, and scenic natural beauty spot, and cinema and waiting room and…
A Quick & Easy Guide to Consent™ & © 2020 Isabella Rotman. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Pandora in Puzzlevale: The Secret Town (volume 1)


By Paul Duffield, Poqu, Siobhan McKenna & various (Pheonix Comic Books/David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-349-3 (TPB)

These days, kids are more likely to find their formative strip narrative experiences online or in specially tailored graphic novels rather than the anthological, pick ‘n’ mix of pictorial periodicals that defined my long-dead youth. And yet, once upon a time, the comics industry was a commercial colossus that thrived by producing copious amounts of gaudy, flimsy pamphlets in a multitude of subjects and sub-genres, subdivided into a range of successful, self-propagating, seamlessly self-perpetuating age-specific publications.

These eye-catching items generated innumerable tales and immeasurable delight, designed to entertain, inform and educate tightly-defined target demographics including Toddler/Pre-school, Younger & Older Juvenile, Girls, Boys. General and even Young Teens, but today Britain can barely maintain a few paltry out-industry licensed tie-ins and spin-offs for a dwindling younger readership. Where once cheap and prolific, strip magazines in the 21st century are extremely cost-intensive and manufactured for a highly specific niche market, whilst all those beguiling and bombastic genres that originally fed and nurtured comics are more immediately disseminated via TV, movies and interactive media. There are a few venerable, long-lived holdouts like The Beano & 2000 AD, but overall the trend since the 1970s has been downwards and declining.

That seeming inevitability was happily turned on its head in January 2012 when Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched The Phoenix: a traditional (seeming) anthology comic weekly aimed at girls and boys between 7 and 14, revelling in those good old days of picture-story entertainment Intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and Content. It has been generating fun, fantasy, educational episodes and wild adventure for kids ever since, scoring many impressive results whilst lifting the standards of comics literature and quality of graphic novels. Each weekly issue still offers humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy and, in the years since its premiere, the comic has gone from strength to strength. It is, most importantly, big and bold, totally tuned in to its contemporary readership and tremendous fun.

The powers that be at the company also understand the sheer wonder of the creative urge and spend a vast amount of time and energy getting readers to have a go themselves: honing their own comics storytelling skills and making their own characters and stories via various outlets cumulatively designated The Phoenix Comics Club.

You can run that by your preferred search engine or just buy this book and access their portal via the enclosed QR code…

Moreover, as established comics companies seem to give up the ghost (in this country at least), old-school prose publishers embraced the graphic novels that evolved to fill their vacated niche. With a less volatile and tenuous business model and far more sustainable long-term goals, book sellers have prospered from magazine makers’ surrender, and there have never been so many and varied cartoon and comics chronicles, compilations and tomes for readers to enjoy. Happily, many of The Phoenix’s superb serials and series have joined that market, having been superbly repackaged as all-ages graphic albums. There are comedy adventures Bunny Vs Monkey, Mega Robo Bros, Toby and the Pixies, Evil Emperor Penguin, Donut Squad, Looshkin, Star Cat, Long Gone Don, Corpse Talk and fantasy dramas like No Country, Tosh’s Island, Tamsin, Pirates of Pangaea, Lost Tales, Troy Trailblazer, Tales of Fayt and The Adventures of John Blake.

The comic has inspired factual series like the award-winning Martin Brown’s Lesser Spotted Animals sequence and an entrancing and absorbing range of puzzle/activity books including Von Doogan and the Curse of the Golden Monkey/The Great Air Race, Bunny vs Monkey: The Whopping World of Puzzles! or How to Make Awesome Comics (With Professor Panels & Art Monkey!), and more…

The one we’re looking at today is Pandora in Puzzlevale: The Secret Town, the first of a serial offering a dazzling display of cartoon virtuosity and brain-busting challenges co-composed by writer/art director Paul Duffield, graphic staging scenarist Poqu and illustrator Siobhan McKenna. A comic strip mystery that operates and progresses by solving assorted tests and conundrums, it all begins in ‘Welcome to Puzzlevale’ as aspiring crimebuster and Detective Crow devotee Pandora is dragged from her comic long enough to realise that the tedious drive to their holiday home has been paused. Although the route to the much-anticipated “secrets-themed” village seemed straightforward, the road is long, winding and confusing. Now, heavy mists are falling and the satnav doesn’t seem to work right anymore…

When Mum and Dad pull up at a petrol station to ask directions, Pandora is fully engrossed in her comic, but eventually she looks up and realises she’s all alone. Her parents are gone…

Thus opens the catalogue of confusion and a casebook of ratiocination and logical deduction as the young girl is drawn deeper and deeper into a program apparently designed to test her physical and mental abilities.

For readers the principle is simple: by accessing the book and selecting a choice of action at a critical moment in each episode, you/Pandora are directed to another page to experience the ramifications of that decision. The final objective is to find her folks and learn the nested secrets of Puzzlevale but it’s you who will be doing much of the work…

In-world, there are people in the mist-shrouded hamlet such as fortune tellers, tea shop staff, rambling bystanders and potential witnesses like gossip Granny Garnett and enigmatic rhymer Rita Idyll – but everyone’s motives and accounts are unverifiable and not to be trusted so Pandora is ultimately left to fend for herself. At least in this very strange and mutable place, she occasionally has Detective Crow by her side and leading her on…

Her methodology includes clue finding, location identification, map-making, maze-defeating, symbol deciphering, wordsearch weaving, witness-statement verifying, code-breaking, rune reading, message translating, riddle-solving, character assessing, crossword completing, key & lock retrieving, object unearthing, back-story compiling and comparison testing as well as frequent odd behaviour explanation, with all facts slowly forming a working hypothesis and eventual plan of action in her trusty ever-present notebook…

But there are so many questions, such as why do the buildings seem to shift, and why do so many villagers wear masks and all-concealing costumes?

Pandora’s quest is divided into 26 sequential ‘Mysteries’ undertaken across five chapters – ‘Welcome to Puzzlevale’, ‘The Curious Crow’, ‘The Mysterious Mask’, ‘The Great Escape’, and ‘The Mists of Change’ – each with its own set of tests and challenges contributing to a Big Picture solution, but even after Pandora completes them all, she’s left with much more to solve and a divergent path to follow…

To Be Continued…

Story! Games! Action! Beguiling mystery unravelled in the manner of multiple-choice decisions and all there in the irresistible shape of entertaining pictures. How much cooler can a book get?

Well, quite a lot actually since this premier tome devotes a bunch of pages to related activities in a swathe of features offered under the aegis of the aforementioned Phoenix Comics Club: tips and snippets by Duffield & McKenna on ‘Drawing Pandora’, and how Poqu crafts the buildings, backgrounds and locations of Puzzlevale, as well as how to construct puzzles, draft alphabets and design symbols, before we conclude for now with a full list of mystery solving clues and hints detailing how it all came about in a closing glimpse at ‘Pandora’s Notes’…

Bring paper, pencils and your intellectual A-game, and have the time of your life…
Text and illustrations © The Phoenix Comic, 2025. All rights reserved.

Pandora in Puzzlevale: The Secret Town will be published on June 5th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.