Posted in: Comics | Tagged: HRL, Phoenix Comic, scholastic, The Phoenix

Scholastic To Publish A Phoenix Comic, With Jean Grey Nowhere In Sight

Another new Phoenix comic is hitting stores, but this one doesn't star the red-headed Marvel hero — it's a collection of the British anthology comic.

Published Fri, 10 Nov 2017 13:45:17 -0600

by Jude Terror

Last updated Fri, 13 Sep 2024 06:56:55 -0500

Comments

Another new Phoenix comic is hitting stores early next year! Joining the ranks of Phoenix: Resurrection at Marvel and its followup, X-Men Red, Scholastic is getting into the Phoenix comic game with The Phoenix Colossal Comics Collection: Volume One, hitting stores in March. But this one doesn't star the red-headed Marvel hero. Instead, it's a collection of the long-running British weekly anthology comic.

Phoenix Weekly recently hit 300 issues, which makes it way overdue for a reboot by U.S. comics standards, but they do things differently over there. That's good news for U.S. readers, because it means there's plenty of back issue to catch up on via Comixology now that Scholastic has put them there. You can even download the first two issues for free. But if digital comics don't float your boat, Scholastic plans to continue with their Colossal Comics Collections twice a year, putting the comics into glorious trade paperback form under the Fickling Books imprint

Publishers Weekly has the scoop on this, as well as a quote from Fickling Book's titular publisher, David Fickling:

"The Phoenix is a creative volcano of amazing ideas where brilliant new creators can bring wonderful original stories to young readers everywhere. We are deeply and passionately committed to great story-making."

Well, now we know why Jean Grey isn't involved. "Deeply and passionately committed to great story-making" is never how anyone would describe Marvel comics, even as a joke. Incentive variant covers, super-mega-crossover events, and reboots, yes. Great story-making, that's secondary. Thank goodness for publishers like Scholastic, the future of the medium.

New issues of The Phoenix will be released weekly on comiXology going forward, with Scholastic exec Lori Benton saying:

"As The Phoenix grew in popularity in the U.K., we began exploring ways to bring the weekly issues to North America. Every issue is an exciting surprise of ingenious comics, and we realized that publishing online would be an ideal way to engage kids, on a weekly basis, with a wide range of content and characters. It's also a gateway for us to introduce new talents and grow an even larger audience for The Phoenix."