{"id":17741,"date":"2018-01-01T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T08:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=17741"},"modified":"2017-12-31T17:17:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T17:17:12","slug":"tamsin-and-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2018\/01\/01\/tamsin-and-the-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamsin and the Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Neill Cameron<\/strong> & Kate Brown<\/strong> (David Fickling Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-910989-95-1<\/p>\n

In January 2012 Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched a weekly anthology comic aimed at under-12 girls and boys; revelling in reviving the good old days of traditional picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity of style and content.<\/p>\n

Each issue offers humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. In the years since its premiere, The Phoenix<\/strong> has gone from strength to strength, winning praise from the Great and the Good, child literacy experts and the only people who really count – the astoundingly engaged kids and parents who read it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Like the golden age of The<\/strong> Beano<\/strong> and Dandy<\/strong> the magazine masterfully manages the magical trick of marrying hilarious humour strips with potently powerful adventure serials such as the subject of this latest compilation: a wondrous seaside sorcerous saga with intriguing overtones of the darker works of Alan Garner.<\/p>\n

Written by Neill Cameron (Mega Robo Bros<\/strong>, How to Make Awesome Comics<\/strong>, Pirates of Pangea<\/strong>) and beguilingly illustrated by Kate Brown (Manga Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/strong>, Young Avengers<\/strong>, Fish + Chocolate<\/strong>), the eerie tale opens with schoolgirl Tamsin Thomas<\/em> resuming her part-time job as the last Pellar<\/em>: magical protector of Cornwall’s human population from creatures ancient and uncanny\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Tamsin first inherited the sacred duty and oppressive pain-in-the-butt responsibility after her brother Morgan<\/em> was targeted by a malign mystic sea-sorceress who had years previously taken their father. Her newfound power hasn’t come with any extra knowledge however, and being able to fly hasn’t stopped Morgan’s obnoxious new friends from picking on her\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Even sometime mentor and full-time bird King Arthur<\/em> is no use: preferring to let her learn on the job rather than share anything useful\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

After a brief educational interlude detailing the legend of how Mankind and the terrible Cornish Giants came to an accommodation in the Times before Time, Tamsin’s day starts getting ruined when a shadowy monster attacks her dog Pengersek<\/em>. Happily, her apparently all-powerful Magic Lucky Stick<\/em> is able to dispel the horror.<\/p>\n

King Arthur even tells her it was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spriggan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d before uttering mysterious warnings, talking technobabble about her stick and flying off to deal with some supposed crisis elsewhere\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Sadly, any tiny sense of triumph dissipates when bullying neighbour Blake Trescothick<\/em> starts picking on her again and Morgan chooses to side with the jock rather than stick up for his own sister\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

He’s even less keen to help her research the legends of Cornwall: despite what he’s seen and been through, Morgan has no time for magic and fairies\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Later when the school goes on a trip to a decommissioned tin-mine, we learn about the ancient pact between man the miner and the ancient Bucca<\/em> creatures \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and so would Tamsin if Blake and Morgan hadn’t started vandalising the site and accidentally re-opened a pit into the darkest recesses of the Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

When Morgan is teased into climbing down something awful happens and he’s not the same boy when he comes back up\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

And so begins another stunning eldritch thriller blending old-world myth and mayhem with superbly modern and matter-of-fact treatment of properly 21st<\/sup> century kids. Addressing issues of bullying, school-girl pregnancy, and regional job security with primal animosity and terror in a manner suitable and engaging for kids, Tamsin and the Dark<\/strong> reveals how an ancient inimical evil is overwhelmed by good magic and dutiful study, antediluvian bonds and pacts are renewed, old magical allies return to supplement a doughty band of pesky interfering but valiant kids and man’s darkest enemy is repelled. Tamsin even gets to refresh her street cred with the locals mundane and otherwise\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

However, her next crisis has already begun\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

A mesmerising mix of scary and astounding, the latest exploit of the Last Pellar is bombastic, bold and brilliantly engaging: a romp of bright and breezy supernatural thrills just the way kids love them, leavened with brash humour and straightforward sentiment to entertain the entire family. How and why this series hasn’t been optioned for a TV series or movie is utterly beyond me. Read it and you’ll surely agree\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Text \u00c2\u00a9 Neill Cameron 2018. Illustrations \u00c2\u00a9 Kate Brown 2018. All rights reser\u00e2\u20ac\u201cved.
\nTamsin and the Dark <\/strong>will be released on January 4th<\/sup> 2018 and is available for pre-order now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Neill Cameron & Kate Brown (David Fickling Books) ISBN: 978-1-910989-95-1 In January 2012 Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched a weekly anthology comic aimed at under-12 girls and boys; revelling in reviving the good old days of traditional picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity of style and content. Each … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Tamsin and the Dark”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42,102,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-british","category-fantasy","category-older-kids"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4C9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}