Zoom Rockman takes on the world of comics

Zooming ahead - a new force in comics

Move over Marvel, DC and The Beano - Zoom Rockman is in town. His new comic, appropriately titled "Zoom", has been on sale at newstands in the UK since 2009. This award-winning cartoonist has created new characters such as Crasher, Grumpa Grouch, The Nutters, Freezer Man, a Yorkshire terrier called Rocky, and an annoying little brother named Ace. Zoom has an agent, distribution outlets and a growing fan club. But, most surprising of all, Zoom is just 11 years old. Back in 2009 when he published his first comic, he was nine.



All of this is both inspiring and depressing for long-in-the-tooth cartoonists like me. At age twelve I too used to draw comics at school to amuse my friends, and we even had a school mag - The Ruler - going for a while (cover price: 10p), but as a kid I never had the confidence or the entrepreneurial chuzpah to get my work on a news stand.

In 2011 Zoom represented Britain in the children's competition at the Bucheon International Comics Festival in South Korea, where he was awarded an International Kids Cartoonist award. He's business savvy, too. Recently he raised the cover price of his magazine from £0.99p to £1.99. According a recent interview in the Independent on Sunday, Zoom "put more colour on the front and made it bigger.". Also," he added "I wasn't making that much money".

In these times of economic crisis and shrinking margins, it's good to see someone forging ahead and showing the rest of us old dogs how it can be done.

All power to your pencil, Zoom

--- Alex