Phoo Action

Phoo Action Official Account Celebrating the Upcoming 25th Anniversary of Jamie Hewlett’s GET THE FREEBIES & PHOO ACTION

19/04/2026

LAST ORDERS FOR THE FUTURE (THAT WAS THEN)

Right, good news. The show’s been extended.

The Future Was Then at the Cartoon Museum is now running until 17 May. So if you thought you missed it first time round, or meant to go and didn’t because… life… this is your last chance before it disappears back into the timeline.

This reel’s a little walk-through where Phoo sits in all this.

Phoo Action started as ‘Get the Freebies’ in 1996 - 30 years ago - imagining a future set in 2004. Which is now 22 years in the past. Make that make sense.

Alongside Terry and Wh**ey’s kung-fu, pop culture meltdown, you’ve got a couple of brief glimpses of other futures here: from the war-torn madness of 2000AD’s Bad Company (shout out Peter Milligan and Brett Ewins, a direct line back to Deadline Magazine where all this all got started), to the icy, all-too-plausible dystopia of Maragert Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) as reimagined by Renee Nault.

That’s the point of the show.

Different periods. Different creators. Same question: What did they think the future would look like, and how close did they get?

Over 80 pages of original comic art, spanning everything from Tank Girl to Judge Dredd, from space operas to authoritarian nightmares. Some of it got things wildly wrong. Some of it - uncomfortably right.

And in the middle of it, Phoo, a mid-’90s fever dream about celebrity, power, and chaos, accidentally predicting more than it probably should have.

If you haven’t seen it yet, go.

If you have, go again before it’s gone.

Ends 17 May.

The future doesn’t hang around.

11/12/2025

🎅 MERCH ALERT from the FUTURE (that was then):

I dropped by The Cartoon Museum last week to sign some Phoo postcard sets, so if you grab one now, you’ve got a solid 50/50 shot of landing a signed pack. Like a scratchcard, but classier. Link in bio Phoo Action

Better yet: pop in, scoop a definitely-signed set and treat yourself to the gloriously retro-futurist comics exhibition The Future Was Then. It’s a total banger, Phoo, Tank Girl, Dredd, V for Vendetta, Dan Dare, Flash flipping Gordon… all shoulder to shoulder, imagining tomorrow via yesterday.

Christmas double bubble, no squeak. I dunno what that means, but I said what I said.

19/11/2025

PHOOTURE POSTCARD PANDEMONIUM

Right, after a truly epic printer fail (cheers, lads/lasses), the official Future Was Then postcard set has finally landed through my letterbox. Too late for the exhibition opening at the Cartoon Museum, but just in time for… me to have a small breakdown with a butterfly knife and a box that absolutely did not want to be opened.

These beauties were designed by yours truly to accompany the show - not the book - so no enlarged panels, no CMYK motifs, and none of the Silver Jubilee treatments. Just raw, unretouched comic artwork and pre-colour linework from Get the Freebies and Phoo Action, plus some filthy archive gems with proper Freebies skidmarks in their leotard gussets.

Strictly limited to the Cartoon Museum.
Once they’re gone, that’s it.
No reprints. No do-overs.
Just cardboard, ink, and Wh**ey as the crowned QR code queen.

Unboxing reel above.
Butterfly knife skills, questionable.
Language, even more so.

Link in bio to exit through the Cartoon Museum gift shop.

One last thing, Columo style, with the Standard Edition delay, this’ll likely be my last semi-regular post for a while. I’ll no doubt chuck something festive out into the ghost of Christmas present, but for now, I’m mothballing socials production and maybe even flirting with a full-blown social detox.

CREDITS
Thanks to for editorial chutzpah, to , the ghost of Jamie past, for all Germ Warfare imaginings, and to myself for design and general dickheaderisms.

05/11/2025

Time flies! 10 months ago the mighty (aka the brilliant Sasha Wood) took a deep dive into Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee, and over 32,000 views later, it’s still introducing Phoo to new readers.

Sasha absolutely nailed it, tracing Phoo’s punk DNA from Get the Freebies through Tank Girl and on to Gorillaz, then back again via BBC pilot weirdness, mid-’90s style mag meltdown, and kung-fu pop-cop carnage. A proper trip through Brit comicbook counter-history, with Terry and Wh**ey doing donuts in the Phoomobile front and centre, finally. 

Here’s a quick clip, but do yourself a favour and watch the full review over on here brilliant YouTube channel. Sasha gets it. All of it.

The book’s still available in Deluxe and (if you can find one) Super Deluxe editions. Full Freebies run, the Phoo Action series, unaired pilot art, new prose, rare archive material, and enough behind-the-scenes mayhem to shake a cyclops maraca at.

Thanks again to Sasha for giving Phoo the spotlight and for introducing us to her audience.

🚨 WELL, PHOOK MEIf this doesn’t take the p**s biscuits. Back in August, I took to this very platform to trumpet the upc...
03/11/2025

🚨 WELL, PHOOK ME

If this doesn’t take the p**s biscuits. Back in August, I took to this very platform to trumpet the upcoming release of the Standard Edition of Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee. We were all set for an October rollout. Horns were tooted. Hype was hyped. But it’s now November, and - in case you hadn’t noticed - the book is nowhere to be BLOODY seen.

In fact, it won’t be seen until next bloody summer. That’s right - nine more goddamn months. I'd love to tell you some fun and fascinating behind-the-scenes factoids about how this came to pass, but quite frankly, it's just a f**k up. Another joyful hoof to Terry’s Christmas crackers.

If you know anything about Phoo’s history, you’ll know this kind of dilly-dalience and delay is practically tradition. False starts, hold-ups, hangovers and heartbreaks, it's Wh**ey’s legacy. Still, I wasn’t expecting this one. And I had to break the news not only to you lot - now - but to the brilliant artists who won the Phan Art competition and feature in the all-new chapter of the Standard Edition. Massive love and massive apologies to them all - again.

Silver lining? The Deluxe Edition - and yes, the ridiculously lush Super Deluxe too- is still available, and it’s still as hot as Bill and Elanor’s super-powered, furniture-destroying, shag-fest AND, if you’re quick, you can grab yourself the £79.99 RRP Deluxe for £44 quid and change from a certain bald overlord’s mega-corp. Stocking filler? Crisis gift? Guilty indulgence? Go wild. Shopping links in bio.

Sorry again if you were hoping to find the new edition under your tree or up your festive sweater this Christmas. Phoo lives… just not on schedule.

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