Corpse Talk

Story

What would happen if you dug up famous historical figures and put them on a chat show? Host Adam Murphy interviews Marie Antoinette, Vlad the Impaler, Harriet Tubman, and lots of others in this comic strip from Oxford-based weekly comic The Phoenix.

Why we chose it

Imaginative interviews with famous historical figures, a mix of history and fiction in comic form that has delighted children since it first appeared in the Phoenix comic.

The Phoenix Comic is a much loved and very successful weekly comic aimed at 7-14 year olds.

Where it came from

Adam and Lisa Murphy are a husband and wife duo, and Adam has been writing and drawing for Phoenix Comics since its inception in 2012. As a child he loved Tintin and Asterix. The subjects of Corpse Talk are all real-life people – some well-known, others less so. They love to get suggestions from their readers about who they should interview next, and have incorporated many of these into their strips.

Where it went next

Corpse Talk was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award in 2015 (and again in 2018), and it was the first ever comic to be shortlisted. It has been collated into seven volumes. Corpse Talk 1 and 2 are mixed collections from the comic, and there are also several Ground-breaking issues, focusing on, among others, women, rebels, and storytellers. There are currently over 230 instalments.

Associated stories

Adam and Lisa have also written Lost Tales, a reinterpretation of folk tales from around the world. It won the British Comic Young People’s Award in 2016 and was nominated for the Blue Peter Book Award in 2017.