Comix Influx Blog: The DFC
I was lucky enough to attend the launch of a brand new UK comic, The DFC, on Thursday night. The DFC is the first homegrown children’s comic – that isn’t a TV tie-in – launched in the UK in, ooh, absolutely ages. As such, there’s a real pioneering spirit, of venturing into the unknown, about the project.
The DFC is aimed at 8-12 year-olds, and is the brainchild of children’s publisher David Fickling (as detailed in The Times). The initial roster has a good mix of established professionals (such as Nick Abadzis, who also functions as Consultant Editor on the magazine), talented newcomers (such as Sarah McIntyre), and big names (like Philip Pullman, who writes “The Adventures of John Blake”, illustrated by John Aggs).
In order to keep costs down in the early stages, the comic will be subscription only, which has necessitated a lot of promotion by Fickling and his team. Some of the comics have been previewed in The Guardian (Nick Abadzis’ strip, Cora’s Breakfast, is running everyweek in The Comic), and Philip Pullman appeared on the Today programme to promote the comic (I’m sure there have been many more child-oriented promotions as well, but they’ve passed me by!).
The launch itself was held in the Film Café at the BFI Southbank. Apparently, there were about 400 people there including many cartoonists, excited to have a domestic outlet (other than 200AD) for their talents. David Fickling and Nick Abadzis both gave speeches, which were unfortunately inaudible at the back of the café (Nick has included the text from his speech in his post about the launch party – it’s well worth reading). Then a whole load of DFC balloons were released over the Thames, carrying free DFC subscriptions wherever the wind took them.
The party was great fun, with a really striking enthusiasm pervading the event. Clearly there’s a huge will for The DFC to succeed, and also a lot of curiosity about whether it can; there are a lot of people in the industry watching to see whether Fickling can pull this off. If he does, and the subscription figures hold up, hopefully it will lead to more comics being published in the UK.
This could have truly transformative effect on the UK Comics scene. As John Aggs said to me, the long-term aspiration is that the real impact of The DFC will only really be felt in 10 years time, when some of the kids initially reading The DFC become the new wave of comics creators. With all the false dawns within the UK comics industry it is easy to be cynical about such grandiose proclamations, but with The DFC there is a genuine optimism, a real sense of attempting the extraordinary.
