Phoenix Catch Up: Emilie’s Turn

Sat, Nov 24, 2012

Comics and cartoons, Comics For Children

I have been awful in my coverage of various things over the past few months, simply a time/sleep/work problem (not enough/not enough/too much – in that order).

And perhaps the worst casualty of this has been the Phoenix Comic. I always intended to at least give it a quick going over every week or so, pretty much the same as I do with 2000AD. But it got missed a couple of times. Then it’s a month. Then two, then more…. and eventually….

Oh dear….. that’s my pile of Phoenix Comic to tell you about.

So, faced with this, I have to catch-up in some way. Part of me says just not tell you about some of the magnificent stuff in the last 30 plus issues I haven’t talked about. But I can’t do that. There’s simply too much really good stuff you’ll need to tell your kids (or someone else’s kids) about.

Instead I’m going to do a catch-up thing, focusing on a strip or series at a time, hopefully every couple of weeks, hopefully from now if I get my bottom into gear.

But this week I figured it would be nice to get right up to date with the comic that landed on the front mat on Friday: The Phoenix Issue 47:

Because from the moment I opened the subscriber’s envelope, the cover had me. I was intrigued. Beautiful lines and colours from Kate Brown, and ballet comics? Looks magnificent.

The Phoenix could hardly be accused of being a boys-only zone, and many of the strips in here are relatively gender-neutral, but sometimes it’s easy to forget the girl readers, especially those girls who do like pink, and dance, and ponies, and fit the same sorts of stereotypes as the boys who run around, perma dirty-kneed, making guns with anything that comes to hand.

The story inside is Emilie’s Turn by Neill Cameron and Kate Brown, one of the great Phoenix 4-page complete tales. It’s absolutely packed with sentimentality, and the grown ups may well work out exactly where it’s going very, very quickly, but frankly that doesn’t matter, not one little bit.

Because gushing sentimentality and the pulling of heartstrings can be infuriating and annoying when done badly, when it comes out as overly mawkish nonsense. But when it’s done right, when it’s well observed, when it tugs those heartstrings perfectly …. oh, then those tears will flow and they will be wonderful.

Maybe it caught me in just the right moment, maybe I’m just soppy. But I loved Emilie’s Turn. Four pages that felt like a perfect summation of everything a girl’s comic could be, and actually felt very much like some of the better girl’s comics from decades ago.

Frankly, it was a perfect moment. And yes, there was a little tear. I’m hopeless. I know.

Now, hopefully neither Neill, Kate, or the editorial team at The Phoenix will mind, but I wanted to share a little of this very special strip. Here’s page 1 and 2 of the 4-page Emilie’s Turn by Neill Cameron and Kate Brown. For the rest, you’ll be needing to get a Phoenix subscription, or pop into a local stockist for a copy.