Oxford SYP Speaker Meeting: David Fickling, The DFC and the British Comic Book Renaissance

Posted on July 18, 2008 in Uncategorized

David Fickling loves stories. His passion for opening up the world of literary fiction to children and young people is so strong that it almost overwhelms everything else he talks about to the Oxford Society of Young Publishers at their monthly speaker meeting, though he continually reminds the audience that it’s important to remain commercially sustainable, to support the creators of these stories in the long term. He loves his new comic project and admits, ‘I’m fifty-five, I have no reason to keep working apart from making books,’ but he has no intention of running his new enterprise at the edge of economic survival. As he puts it, he has one foot ‘in the commercial mire,’ as well as one ‘in literary heaven.’ Both his feet are actually clad in red socks as he stands behind a lectern in a suit and bow tie, holding the attention of the audience as though they were schoolchildren craning for a look at his new comic, the DFC. ‘Of course I wanted to name it after me, but we didn’t intend to call it that – our marketing people tried it out and the kids loved working out what it meant. Deadly Forgetful Crocus? Dracula’s Favourite Cardigan?’

Behind David is a projected image of the maroon-and-yellow-striped comic as though it had just landed on your doormat, with its address ending ‘The World, The Universe,’ in the style of an eight-year-old writing their name on a flyleaf. It’s an attractive package – the DFC has some world-class writers and artists working on it, including Philip Pullman, John Aggs, John Shelton, Neill Cameron and Garen Ewing – but before you even open it, the look of the DFC immediately brings back memories of the Beano or Dandy landing on your doorstep before school; it makes you want to rip into it like a bag of sweets. Some audience members are already clutching copies and showing them to the others in a style strangely reminiscent of the playground.

In a week where Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling have spoken out against plans for ‘age ranging’ books, it seems fitting – and prophetic – that the DFC pays no attention to ‘age-appropriate’ material. The styles range from one-strip jokes starring animals to complex adventures in several instalments. It’s also not a ‘boy’s’ or ‘girl’s’ comic and so far neither have complained about the inclusion of swashbuckling adventure stories or the Manga-style ‘Violet’ cartoon with its huge-eyed, purple-haired heroine. (David read Boy’s Own, The Valiant and The Eagle as a child, but he read Bunty as well: ‘I knew I wasn’t supposed to. I loved the Four Marys. It was great.’)

Comics still come alive for us, it seems – but how accessible are they to children these days, now that D.C. Thompson of the Beano and Dandy have moved on to more profitable enterprises and much of today’s ‘good stuff’ – The Watchmen and 2000 AD – is aimed at mature readers? Japan, America, France – all of them are miles ahead of us in the comic book world. How did Britain fall so far behind and what can be done about it now? David wondered for years, but it was only when the Internet came along that he began to see a way forward. The DFC has a very strong online element, with the children able to play games, create their own comics and watch animated instalments of their favourites; the print and online versions are seen as parts of one unit, with the print comic as the most important part. The main attraction of selling the DFC on the Internet was that it allowed David to bypass the booksellers – ‘If I took it to Tesco, they’d want a discount and we’d be selling at a loss,’ – but now that word of mouth has began to spread, the booksellers are knocking on the DFC’s door, which David is very happy about.

His bid to bring comic books back into children’s lives isn’t so much a revival of the sixties and seventies when comics were abundantly available – to many children this will be a ‘brand new’ way of receiving good stories. It’s clear from listening to David that the feedback he’s received from children so far has been meticulously listened to, and his own memories of being a child strongly inform the decisions he’s made – there are no ads, and it’s a weekly publication, which stuns the audience into mild horror at the thought of the deadlines. Still, he’s adamant. ‘Do you remember how long a week was when you were a child? Think of the summer holidays.’ He’s very excited, and if a project’s worth getting excited about it’s this one – strong, exciting, well-crafted and beautifully illustrated literature for children that’s not commercial, didactic or with any sort of agenda. ‘If there’s any testing of the DFC,’ says David, ‘I shall be furious.’

It’s reassuring to see a comic that has enough of a pick ’n’ mix feeling to open up different, unexpected literary worlds for any child who picks it up; perhaps they’ll grow more into certain strips as they get older and the issues roll by; perhaps they’ll end up loving something they wouldn’t have chosen themselves; and no doubt, they’ll go away with a clearer understanding of what stories should do. That is, if they make it to the doormat before their parents, siblings or random members of the Society of Young Publishers get there.