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Somewhere Off The Coast Of Somalia… Philip Pullman's New Comic Is Out

Published Sat, 14 May 2016 04:08:35 -0500

Last updated Sat, 14 May 2016 06:08:16 -0500

It arrived yesterday morning, as it always does on a Friday. The new copy of Phoenix Weekly for my eight year old daughter. I get to read it on a Saturday, which is where I notice that Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials trilogy has written a new ongoing comic strip for it, returning to a character of his from 2008, The Adventures Of John Blake: The Mystery Of The Ghost Ship, with artist Fred Fordham.

This information is hard to avoid.

It begins off the coast of Somalia, a modern day tanker ship in the fog. And something about eyes one mustn't look into. It is slow, it is sparse, somewhere between manga and Raymond Briggs. Little happens, much is promised. It's all a big, big tease…

The comic is also full of Tamsin And The Dark, Bunny Vs Monkey, Squid Squad, Doug Slugman PI, Von Doogan and more – Phoenix is one of today's true comic book delights.

And now it has Phillip Pullman contributing. The Guardian writes,

As we chat in Pullman's publisher's offices in Oxford, we compare the first few pages of The Mystery of the Ghost Ship with classic British comic strips like Billy Bunter and Lord Snooty. The most obvious difference is how the speech bubbles of the latter are stuffed with text. In contrast, Pullman's John Blake story has frame after frame without words, letting the pictures tell the story. What dialogue there is is as terse and snappy as it would be in a comic instalment of a Batman serial. That 60-year-old exposure to corrupting US comics is still paying dividends.

And he told The Bookseller

The thing about a ship that travels through time is that an infinite number of adventures can take place. I find that thrilling. And anyone could write a John Blake story so if Fred wanted to write one that would be fine. I could swan in and make a few comments then go away again.

A page from a future issue. The story will be told in 30 weekly installments. Subscriptions made by Monday will get a free copy of the new issue with the first chapter. I've stated before that parents with children who don't at least offer to buy them The Phoenix on a weekly basis don't love their children enough. I stand by that.

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