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.

DFC Preview Site

I've always firmly believed the DFC needed to have some of the comics strips available to read online, and now they have! Go, see! If you like what you see, subscribe! The DFC is a good thing for children's comics and the UK comic book industry in general. They're trying something brave and new and I think it deserves to do well. Of course, I'm biased, but now you can make up your own mind.

Blurby info bit:

"We've put a new previews site up! There are flashbook versions of some of the strips now up, at our fantastic new previews website! There's one episode of some of the strips, in most cases (but not all!) the first episode, to give people a taster of The DFC. We didn't want to put up all the strips at once so as not to blast people with too much content, but the plan is to cycle the strips round, so that it isn't always the same content. If a strip isn't up now, rest assured it will be appearing in the near future! First episodes of new strips will also be going up, a certain amount of time after first appearing in the comic."

I think this is an excellent move and the previews, though in a Flashbook form, look good and work very well indeed.

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!

Step right up! For one week only, folks...

...the DFC will be in Tescos throughout the land from Wed 26th Nov to Tues 2nd Dec. They're making it available for the one week only as a marketing exercise. Here's a pic of the cover, featuring a Mo-Bot from Neill Cameron's Mo-Bot High...





This is an opportunity to take a look at this subscription only, weekly children's comic without having to commit to a subscription. There's a great variety of comic strips in the DFC and I think it's worth investigating and supporting. It's all original material, nothing licensed, nothing based on already existing cartoons, toys or brands and its mixture of silliness, adventure and fun is a refreshing change from most of what's out there already. I should mention that I've had some involvement with the DFC, I coloured the first Good Dog, Bad Dog, strip by my good and hugely talented friend, Dave Shelton and I continue to be involved but I don't think I can say much about that just yet.

As much as I might like to.