New Weekly Comic Launches - By Paul H Birch

David Fickling Books was founded in 1999 and is the publishing house for a number of distinguished children's book authors, including Philip Pullman. In 2004 Fickling himself was the recipient of the British Book Award for Editor of the Year, and word has it that he's been very hands-on with the development of The DFC.

"I'm a book editor but I reckon a lot of my story sensibility came from reading comics." Fickling stated. "They are great story carriers. And you want to read, you don't even think of it as reading, it's far too much fun. I've always wanted to publish comics."

The comic's weekly schedule is a welcome and much overdue return of a great British tradition. More importantly, ironically in these cynical times, it makes sound marketing sense again.

The youth of today, or so we are "reliably informed", have a cornucopia of entertainment choices available to them, being quite literally so spoilt for choice that they get bored with things easily. If attention spans are really less than they were, then waiting every four weeks for something like Spectacular Spider-Man when every Friday you can get 36 pages with a whole cast of characters could be a no-brainer situation as far as the kids are concerned.

"I still remember the heart pounding excitement of receiving my very own comic on the doormat every week and now The DFC can bring that to every child in the land," Fickling continued. "But this isn't a revival. For today's children it is almost a brand new form of entertainment. Only completely original material will be published in The DFC."

While there's no doubt a degree of hyperbole involved in what he says, when you meet the man in person you can't help but believe its based on sincerity.

The DFC is also a return to the type of anthology comic that features a variety of genres, both in the adventure and humour mould. In other words, something that offers the literary equivalent of flicking through the channels on the TV remote control. Only this time kids will actually be reading so educationalists have no reason to complain.

Personally, I think kids have more about them than the media and those with vested political interests would have us believe, but if we continue in a facetious manner: if the little tykes are too bushed out from playing computer games all night, they won't have to worry about walking to the newsagent the next day because, at least initially anyway, the comic will be available exclusively by subscription, and they can sign up by going online to the comic's website.

For doing that, with parents' approval, every Friday from the 30th May, they will be receiving something that David Fickling claimed: "Has more words than your average children's book" and "No advertising, just 100% storytelling delight. Joy in an envelope."

With subscriptions only we're talking about copies of The DFC being printed as limited editions. Now that might mean big things to comic dealers in the future, but it also means the financial outlay and risk to the publishers will be restricted too. Not that there's a get rich quick agenda here, fortunately, because, Will Fickling, son of David and part of the editorial team, told me: "Random House are backing this. It has time to grow".

Possibly in the future The DFC may become available on the newsstands (or at least selected supermarkets as has been happening of late). Regardless, The DFC has cast its net of influences further than just the traditional British comic and towards the European model too.

In France, Italy and elsewhere the most popular strips in anthologies are collected into books, or albums, of their own, and sold quite literally everywhere from little newsstand kiosks to major bookstores. They are also syndicated and translated into foreign language editions.

Think about it, we've happily been buying English versions of Tintin and Asterix for at least three decades: isn't it time we started doing the same with our homegrown talent? Well, apparently that's also part of the long-term agenda for The DFC and those strips that become favourites and/or have international appeal are likely to be collected as books of their own.

Some people have criticised the fact that in having to subscribe to The DFC parents have to invest a chunk of money in advance. With the price of games being what they are and the amount that kids buy, I can't see that reason being a valid reason. And anyway, the worst it could do would be to bring back another British comics tradition: that of kids passing round and sharing the comics they read. That might not help The DFC's sales initially but through word or mouth (or texting!) the comic's popularity could grow from it. I think it's going to be a constant game of needing to promote this comic throughout its first year and what better than from a grassroots level.

Naturally, there are detractors to the comic before it has even gone on sale. Some of them from the traditional periodical distribution route some from people working in the comics industry itself.

They will tell you that you need a licensed character to sell comics these days and that you need to put a free gift on the cover. I'm sorry but those are just lazy pre-proscribed statements. Those marketing methods were novel for their time and did a good job for longer than was expected but new initiatives are needed now. And subscriptions available online aren't something completely new either; many self-publishers have been going that route for years and the Best of Look & Learn children's magazine has been in business for quite long enough for us to declare it, if not a raging success, one that's ticking over quite nicely, thank you.

What counts are the contents inside.

Some people have quibbled and commented that so far the work looks on the "safe side". I think there's this fear that it may be a little old fashioned with a rather Enid Blyton feel to it, and that the most excitement you'll get is some Dan Dare rip-off. Well, forgive me while I commit sacrilege and declare I've never been that enamoured of the classic Dare stuff I've seen anyway, but if people are concerned that nice guys don't make it as leading characters anymore they're forgetting some kid called Harry Potter!

If there is too much of that oh-too-nice stuff in the early issues let's hope that with a weekly turnover those strips will become just a faded memory. However, if we're talking about aspirational characters I say, "Bring them on!" But I also demand that our kids are also allowed to see un-neutered post-new millennium versions of archetypal characters like Dennis the Menace and Bad Penny!

I've seen samples of some of the strips courtesy of various contributors and at the launch party was given a dummy copy, or Limited Edition Teaser as it was titled.

The pages I've read of the humour strips didn't always grab me but that might be ageism on my part. That stated, I was fortunate enough to see several episodes of Sneeky, The Cleverest Elephant in the World a while back, and although I never had chance to read the actual pages (written by Irish author Peadar O'Guilin) I did admire the openly charismatic and sincerely charming cartooning by Laura Howell, and I don't say that just because she happens to live in Birmingham these days. Also, more than worthy of note will be contributions from the multi-talented Nick Abadzis, plus Dave Shelton's Good Dog, Bad Dog series that was introduced by way of the pages of The Guardian newspaper.

Of the adventure strips, the one I'm personally looking forward to first and foremost is Charlie Jefferson by Garen Ewing (remember this name, big things are going to deservedly happen to this talent over the next year or so) and Mezolith looks visually interesting, having been drawn by Adam Brockbank, who's previously worked as a concept artist on Hollywood films, including the Harry Potter series.

However, the series that most people will be ordering The DFC for, and I include adults as well as kids here, is the one that's been written by Philip Pullman. The winner of several book awards, Pullman is justifiably most famous for the His Dark Materials trilogy of books, and last year's hit film spin-off The Golden Compass.

"I've always loved comics and when I first heard about The DFC, I leapt at the chance of being involved," said Pullman. The chance to work in this wonderfully fluid and exciting form was too good to miss." Illustrated by John Aggs, Pullman's The Adventures of John Blake will debut from the first issue of The DFC. "I've had a lot of fun with the story of John Blake, and I hope readers will enjoy it as well as all the other great things in The DFC," Pullman said.

The celebrations for the actual launch took place at the British Film Institute on the Southbank. There were street performances along the River Thames that included a magician, face painting, a samba band and children from Oxford's Pegasus Theatre dressed up as characters from the comic. It was followed by a comic animation workshop and talks, and finally from the early evening onwards the actual launch party featuring around 400 guests, including a number of celebrated children's authors, countless comic creators all surprised that their colleagues and rivals were there (for once the comics industry kept a secret), and even more free booze (which no professional British comics creator can be seen ligging without) and food for the various literary agents present to nibble on while looking about eagle-eyed wondering who they could try and get on their books.

Illness prevented Dame Jacqueline Wilson attending (although her partner, illustrator Nick Sharratt was present), but in his opening, and pretty amusing, speech David Fickling said Wilson had got the concept behind The DFC from the moment he told her about it.

"The DFC is the comic reinvented! It's cool, it's exciting, it's funny - and totally bang up to the minute." Wilson had stated previously. "The story strips are beautifully drawn and subtly coloured. Adults will want to collect The DFC - but children will elbow them out of the way. It's their comic, a specially addressed package arriving through the post, to turn every Friday into Funday".

Well wishes were also sent by others, including Quentin Blake, while both Philip Pullman and Nick Abadzis also made speeches before we all went out to stand at the edge of the Thames as 100 helium balloons with the DFC logo, and some with free subscription forms attached, were let loose to soar above the capital.

As noted, The DFC has been a pretty well guarded secret. Even so, the first public announcement about a new weekly comic being worked on was hinted at by comics historian Paul Gravett on stage at the first Birmingham International Comics Show (BICS), held at The Custard Factory in 2006. Then, when the show moved to The Thinktank last year a couple of representatives from the comic turned up as my guests. They had asked to remain undercover, as it were, wanting to get to know the workings of the industry better, but that didn't stop them picking up a number of new creators for the comic, including Tony Lee and Emma Vieceli.

At the launch party BICS representatives were seen chatting to both DFC and Random House staff, while editor Ben Sharpe, among others, expressed an interest to me in attending, and an email I received from Will Fickling soon after read: "More on Birmingham soon!" I would say that means BICS 2008 is likely to be seeing quite a few young faces come through its doors this October with some interesting guests in store all sitting at a rather impressive stand.

Let's hope The DFC lives up to its lauded intentions, proves to be a success, inspires other publishers and gives kids a damn good read every Friday!

Websites of Note:

To subscribe to The DFC visit: www.thedfc.co.uk

To subscribe to Look & Learn visit: www.lookandlearn.com

To purchase advance tickets for the Birmingham International Comics Show visit: www.thecomicsshow.co.uk