Woodrow Phoenix

British

Trevs Phoenix

Rumble Strip
SugarBuzz!
The Sumo Family

Biography[edit]

Phoenix grew up in Brockley, south London, his parents Joe and Sybil Phoenix having migrated to the UK from Guyana in about 1958.[10][11]


He studied typography at university, and in the 1990s was a letterer for most of the UK's comics publishers, including Escape, Fleetway, Dark Horse UK, Toxic, and Acme Press. 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 humour title they jointly wrote, drew, and edited. Four issues were published by Harrier Comics' New Wave imprint. Phoenix 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, José Muñoz, 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 more than 50 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 known as Detonator with two comics writer/artists, Ed "ILYA" Hillyer and JAKe.

Art style[edit]

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 coloured 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 book Rumble Strip is his most radical departure from previous directions that even dispenses with characters, leaving only backgrounds.

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 (, Tundra Press 1993), with Gordon Rennie, writer

Atomeka Press

No. 2 (Tundra Press 1992), "Goodnight Ladies" pin-ups by D'Israeli, Phil Winslade, Steve Pugh, Woodrow Phoenix, Duncan Fegredo, Garry Marshall and Gary Erskine.

Lazarus Churchyard

in Sonic the Comic No. 2 and No. 5 (Fleetway Editions, 1993); writer: Mark Millar artist: Woodrow Phoenix

Sonic the Hedgehog

in Sonic the Comic #13–18 (Fleetway Editions, 1993); writer & letterer: Woodrow Phoenix (letterer on #13–15 only) Artists: Chris Webster and Steve White

Ecco the Dolphin

in Max Overload No. 1, #2 and No. 3 (Dark Horse UK, 1994); writer: Annie Caulfield artist: Woodrow Phoenix

ToeJam and Earl

Eager Beaver (Missive Device) with Ian Carney (Slab-O-Concrete Publications, 1999),  1-899866-93-0

ISBN

Sugar Buzz! with Ian Carney, 9 issues (SLG Publishing, 1998–)

Sugar Buzz: Live at Budokan! (Slab-O-Concrete, 1999),  1-899866-33-7

ISBN

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),  0-943151-56-2

ISBN

SugarBuzz! Your ticket to happiness (SLG Publishing, 2004),  1-59362-008-X

ISBN

That's a Horse of a Different Colour (The DFC, ongoing weekly, 2008–)

Donny Digits (The Guardian/The DFC, 2008)

She Lives (Artists' book, edition of one, 2014)

Holloway, Lisa (2008), in conversation with Woodrow Phoenix at Castor & Pollux Gallery, Brighton, UK (6 December 2008)

Stangroom, Howard (2003), "Howard Stangroom interviews Woodrow Phoenix", Comics Forum Magazine, No. 25, pp. 31–43

Withrow, Steven (2003), Toon Art: The Graphic Art of Digital Cartooning, pp. 146–47 (Watson-Guptill Publications  0-8230-5378-4)

ISBN

Clarke, Theo (1988), "And then nothing happened", , No. 122, pp. 107–124

The Comics Journal

Official website