The DFC - Comes To An End

As you may have noticed, the subscription button to the DFC website has been removed from the blog, the sad news is that the comic will end at issue 43. The current financial situation hits everybody, even big publishers like Random House. I'm sad but not completely surprised, it's always a big risk trying something new and different, and starting up a new children's comic in the UK is not an easy path especially if you avoid the shiny plastic toy with free comic TV tie-in mentality that is all pervasive in children's comics these days.

I'm sad that the Dead Pets won't get to appear in the comic itself, I was looking forward to being in there along with all my fellow DFC buddies. On the positive side, I was lucky enough to get to write and draw my own twenty-four page comic strip, have it published in the Guardian and get paid for it! I'm very lucky to have had that opportunity.

I think that everybody involved should be proud to have put out a weekly comic, with no ads and all original material for the best part of a year. Anybody that's ever been involved with something like that will know how much work it involves and how difficult it is to do. There's a lot of juggling and planning and dealing with artistic temperaments involved for the editorial team. I'd like to thank David Fickling for making it happen, Ben Sharpe, my editor, who was been an absolute joy to work with, he was incredibly patient and helpful even when I'm sure I pushed him to hair-pulling frustration at times. I don't know if he's aware of this but he is known as 'Lovely Ben' to me and many others. Thanks to Will Fickling and all the other people in the office that worked so hard on making the DFC what it was.

Laura 'Bloody Mental' Howell - Strip-A-Day

Oh, just remembered I wanted to point you in the direction of fellow DFCer, Laura Howell, who has embarked on her second Strip-A-Day Spectacular! Go see!

(Of course, she's chosen the shortest month of the year to to do it in! Sheesh...how lazy can you get?)

Dead Pets Society

I've hinted at it before now but here's the skinny...my strip, Dead Pets Society, produced for the DFC, will be appearing in the Guardian newspaper's Family section beginning on Saturday 27th December. Should you be outside the UK and unable to obtain a copy of the newspaper then you can usually read it online here, after publication. It's weekly, there's eight episodes and I hope you enjoy it!

GDBD

Take that, secrecy and intrigue! The cat's...no wait that should be the dogs have been let out the bag a little over on Dave's blog. Sorry to anybody coming to this site via Dave's posts on the subject only to find my posts linking back to his. It's just our plan to have people sucked into a never-ending loop of surfing between my site and his. Mwah-hah-hah!

Well, better get back to keeping those naughty little monkeys in line, comic strips don't colour themselves you know. Have you ever had to remove a crayon from a monkey's nose? Tricky.