A group for fans of British Comics
The DFC Comic - What Does Everyone Think?
Just posted my review of the new DFC comic on the downthetubes blog, but here it is for your views...
The first issue of The DFC - Britain's first, subscription-only weekly comic, combining humour and adventure strips in one smashing package, has just arrived in the post -- and it's a terrific start for the new title.
While an anthology title is always going to engender favourites and not-so-favourites, I'm mightily impressed with the comic as a whole -- and when I say comic, I don't mean the kind of thing you generally find on the UK news stand masquerading as such, with three comic strips and the rest of the title full of cheap features and puzzle pages. The DFC is the kind of comic I grew up with -- pretty much cover to cover comic strip action, combining some great looking adventure material with equally enjoyable humour pages. Where there are "puzzle pages", they're all geared to encouraging drawing, which is definitely a good thing.
The DFC never forgets its audience, either -- two of the initial strips, The Boss (by John Aggs & Son) and Mo-Bot High (Neill Cameron) are set in schools, while the adventure stories set up or feature young protagonists, including the eagerly-anticipated Philip Pullman story The Adventures of John Blake, which is a really stunning looking first chapter. Neither have the editors forgotten this is a weekly comic, even though it's inevitable many of these strips will be collected into books at a later date -- all important "cliffhanger boxes" are used to talk up next week's episode for example.
As a long time fan of James Turner's Beaver and Steve webcomic, I was delighted to discover he's one of the contributors, delivering a hilarious one page Super Animal Adventure Squad, who are starting out on a mission to prevent the "Teatime of Doom". David Shelton's Good Dog, Bad Dog is another lively gem.
Some of the strips are inevitably slower than others, such as Kate Brown's gorgeous looking Spider Moon -- but that said, it provides a "breather" sandwiched between strips that are positively frenetic in comparison.
The editorial also comes with a sense of fun, including a challenge to readers to come up with what DFC means (this issue it's Dracula's Favourite Cardigan). There's a frisson of excitement to the introduction that definitely reflects the excitement I'd hope readers will have on receiving their copy.
My criticisms are really, really minor as an editor: the designer isn't using the "I" in the comic font editorial pages correctly and I think the strips should perhaps have more of a border to them than they do at present as there's a danger the pages can merge into one.
For someone who grew up reading comics that combined humour and adventure strips it's great to see that format being given another try in The DFC. I'd say it is well worth while signing up for a subscription, especially when they're offering quite reasonably priced "starting points".
Oh, and the web site is one of the best complements to a print comic so far, and titles like The Beano and TOXIC have set that bar quite high.
With so much incredible British talent packed into its pages you'd be mad not to give The DFC a go -- so subscribe now!
• Visit The DFC web site
• Subscribe to The DFC Comic
The first issue of The DFC - Britain's first, subscription-only weekly comic, combining humour and adventure strips in one smashing package, has just arrived in the post -- and it's a terrific start for the new title.While an anthology title is always going to engender favourites and not-so-favourites, I'm mightily impressed with the comic as a whole -- and when I say comic, I don't mean the kind of thing you generally find on the UK news stand masquerading as such, with three comic strips and the rest of the title full of cheap features and puzzle pages. The DFC is the kind of comic I grew up with -- pretty much cover to cover comic strip action, combining some great looking adventure material with equally enjoyable humour pages. Where there are "puzzle pages", they're all geared to encouraging drawing, which is definitely a good thing.
The DFC never forgets its audience, either -- two of the initial strips, The Boss (by John Aggs & Son) and Mo-Bot High (Neill Cameron) are set in schools, while the adventure stories set up or feature young protagonists, including the eagerly-anticipated Philip Pullman story The Adventures of John Blake, which is a really stunning looking first chapter. Neither have the editors forgotten this is a weekly comic, even though it's inevitable many of these strips will be collected into books at a later date -- all important "cliffhanger boxes" are used to talk up next week's episode for example.
As a long time fan of James Turner's Beaver and Steve webcomic, I was delighted to discover he's one of the contributors, delivering a hilarious one page Super Animal Adventure Squad, who are starting out on a mission to prevent the "Teatime of Doom". David Shelton's Good Dog, Bad Dog is another lively gem.
Some of the strips are inevitably slower than others, such as Kate Brown's gorgeous looking Spider Moon -- but that said, it provides a "breather" sandwiched between strips that are positively frenetic in comparison.
The editorial also comes with a sense of fun, including a challenge to readers to come up with what DFC means (this issue it's Dracula's Favourite Cardigan). There's a frisson of excitement to the introduction that definitely reflects the excitement I'd hope readers will have on receiving their copy.
My criticisms are really, really minor as an editor: the designer isn't using the "I" in the comic font editorial pages correctly and I think the strips should perhaps have more of a border to them than they do at present as there's a danger the pages can merge into one.
For someone who grew up reading comics that combined humour and adventure strips it's great to see that format being given another try in The DFC. I'd say it is well worth while signing up for a subscription, especially when they're offering quite reasonably priced "starting points".
Oh, and the web site is one of the best complements to a print comic so far, and titles like The Beano and TOXIC have set that bar quite high.
With so much incredible British talent packed into its pages you'd be mad not to give The DFC a go -- so subscribe now!
• Visit The DFC web site
• Subscribe to The DFC Comic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joe Gordon on
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Hehe, you can tell we are all excited about a new Brit comic, Kenny just sent me his review to put up on the FPI blog as John was sending this out! http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=7685. Then again, why not be excited, not every week we see a new comic being launched in Blighty, is it?
Joe
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Permalink Reply by Garen Ewing on
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I think it's completely marvellous - I kept looking out the window for the postman then telling myself to grow up and be patient, then I'd be looking out the window again. So I very much liked that feeling of anticipation. I don't think there's a strip in it I don't like - all enormously enjoyable and the level of talent is very high, with terrific variety.
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Permalink Reply by MooreReppion on
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Very encouraging to see something like this happening in 2008 (congrats to the Etherington brothers especially).
Now then, who do we get in touch with about submissions I wonder?
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Permalink Reply by Graeme Neil Reid on
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I'm thinking I still don't have my copy of the first issue :(
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Permalink Reply by John Freeman on -
Did you not know DC Thomson run the post offices north of the border and any sassenach comics are always intercepted? :)
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Aye, must be living so close to Beano Town that does it!
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Permalink Reply by John Freeman on
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I'd be having words with that Walter if I were you. He's a bit of sneak!
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John - did anything come of that interview you were going to do with Ben Sharpe? Will it be appearing somewhen?
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Permalink Reply by John Freeman on
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David Fickling stepped up to the plate to answer the questions, but he wanted to do it on audio. I'm waiting for a copy of the audio from DFC. That's been delayed because they're doing something like launching a comic, apparently...
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Pesky comics! Looking forward to it though, cheers.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Harrison-Davies on
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Fantastic first issue, with even better to come. Not a bad strip in it, feels wrong to single out one as a favourite as each one had something different to offer. Can't wait for the next issue, tomorrow mornign hopefully!
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Permalink Reply by John Freeman on
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Oh, I'm going to single out James Turner, but then, I've been raving about Beaver and Steve for ages!
But the others are good too!
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