Woodrow Phoenix
British
Cartoonist, Writer, Penciller, Letterer
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.