The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

This May David Fickling – publisher of the successful David Fickling imprint, part of Random House’s highly regarded children’s range – will be doing something fairly unusual in contemporary Britain – launching a new weekly comic for younger readers. “I still remember the heart pounding excitement of receiving my very own comic on the doormat every week and now the DFC can bring that to every child in the land. But this isn’t a revival. For today’s children it is almost a brand new form of entertainment. Only completely original material will be published in the DFC. No advertising, just 100% storytelling delight. Joy in an envelope,” David Fickling.

Fickling went on to note the influence comics had upon him: “I’m a book editor but I reckon a lot of my story sensibility came from reading comics. They are great story carriers. And you want to read, you don’t even think of it as reading, it’s far too much fun. I’ve always wanted to publish comics, or at least books like Tintin or Asterix. This is a truly international product, anyone wherever they are in the world can receive the DFC, with just a simple click on the website.” And with Garen Ewing onboard telling the tale of Charlie Jefferson and the Tomb of Nazaleod, I’d say that spirit of Tintin and Asterix is likely to be fulfilled. Other contributors for the first issue include another name familiar to regular readers of the blog, Neill Cameron, who will be bringing kids Mobot High, Patrice Aggs (The Boss), David Shelton (Good Dog, Bad Dog) and the Etherington Brothers (Monkey Nuts).

(Robot Girl image from the DFC site – it was uncredited, but I’m wondering if this could be the work of Neill Cameron, perhaps?)

Another strip will be The Adventures of John Blake by John Aggs and a writer new to comics but a name I suspect most of us will recognise – a certain Mr Philip Pullman: “I’ve always loved comics, and when I first heard about the DFC, I leapt at the chance of being involved. The chance to work in this wonderfully fluid and exciting form was too good to miss. I’ve had a lot of fun with the story of John Blake, and I hope readers will enjoy it as well as all the other great things in the DFC.” There is a website up although so far there is little to see, although those signing up are promised some interesting goodies to look forward to in the near future.