This is excellent – a free 36 page comic aimed at kids by 40 artists with the intent of promoting unique characters with non-brand tie ins to a new young audience. Anyone with small kids will know that there aren’t that many weekly comics out there for the under 10s that don’t tie in to some sort of franchise whether that be a computer game, a toy line, a film or TV show. The days of weekly creator-owned comics for kids are largely a thing of the past save for The Beano which struggles on and The Phoenix which has gone from strength to strength over the past two and a half years.

Jamie Smart is one of the regular contributors to The Phoenix and has put together Moose Kid Comics as a statement about what British kids comics can be with the intent to open up a debate and introduce new audiences to the medium. Read more about their intent here and download the first issue free here. I’ve not read it yet but had a quick flick through and it looks excellent with a Young Tank Girl strip written by Alan Martin and work by Mark Stafford standing out immediately. All I know is that my kids are going to freak when they see this.