Comments on: The DFC up for sale

By: barnaby

barnaby — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:02:54 +0000

save the dfc

By: barnaby

barnaby — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:20:15 +0000

I too would be happy to invest – how about a subscriber takeover?

save the DFC

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:27:17 +0000

I would consider being a small investor, anyone else intrested?

By: Kradlum

Kradlum — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:36:57 +0000

I have to say I haven’t had any troubles with my subscription, except today when I tried to resubscribe (my subscription runs out on issue 41 and I wanted to get the (hopefully not) last 2 issues), but the nice man at Random House sorted it out for me.
It’s a great shame that Random House have decided to give up after not even a year. I’m not sure how well it was marketed. The only marketing I have heard of was in The Guardian (I didn’t see it myself, I only found out about the DFC through word of mouth). Was it advertised at all on kid’s TV or other places?
The quality of the stories, and the quality of the printing, made it a stand-out comic. I hope the stories find another home, but I can’t see anyone coming up with the same quality of printing and paper in the short term.
Perhaps some large comic retailer could step in *hint hint*. After all, it’ust getting people interested in comics sooner. Just think of the merchandising err… I mean children!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:17:27 +0000

Pathetic that Random House could not even keep it going for a full year. They didn’t give it a chance to form.

I liked the comic and renewed after 6 months, and never had any problems with subscription. I wasn’t sure about some of the strips (but then I wasn’t the target audience) but recognised the quality, and it really deserved to succeed. Very sad.

By: Mark Turner

Mark Turner — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:16:28 +0000

Typical! I just get round to subscribing and I realise the comic is up for sale! Someone please buy it. It takes time for awareness to grow and I’ve been waiting for my Son to be old enough to enjoy it… he’s 5 now. Also the new samples in the Guardian Family section caught his imagination and reminded me to get on with subscribing.

By: Dave Morris

Dave Morris — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:39:33 +0000

It’s a very great shame. I feel personally for David Fickling, one of those visionary publishers (all too rare these days) who has the courage and determination to grab a big idea and just run with it. If guts and energy alone could have swung it, the DFC would have been huge.

And of course there are all those fabulous strips that will be left unfinished. At least my own favourite, MeZolith, did reach the conclusion of its first chapter. That one needs to come out in trade paperback as soon as possible – which will, I’m sure, bring it to an audience far wider than could ever have encountered it in the DFC.

Several of my friends said they would have subscribed if they coud have cherry-picked the strips they wanted and had a customized POD comic delivered. I guess the technology to do that affordably isn’t far off, so maybe in future another UK publisher will try resurrecting the subscription model for comics. It would be terrible if the DFC’s failure put them off for good.

By: Lew Stringer

Lew Stringer — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:05:29 +0000

The subscription idea was fine Andy, and I admired them for sidestepping the oppressive retail system, but any negativity came from the subscription dept inefficiency. When that’s the sole method of distribution it should have been more reliable.

Also, they might have gained more subscriptions if they’d set up a PayPal system. I found it incredible that they never did this.

It might have also helped if they’d responded to requests for news. As it was, bloggers had to promote the comic off their own bat.

Lew

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Many people are negative about the subscription model. To sell in shops would require either double the cover price, adverts or half the money spent on content.

Sad that some people had subscription problems though I must say I never did.

As with any new business, as Joe pointed out, time is needed to build up the customer base. To cut a new venture off after less than a year is absurd, particularly considering the potential for fostering new talent and to be more commercially minded, generating book, film and game spin-offs.

If enough people care, maybe a web orgnised co-operative of many small investors could buy the comic? Crazy? Where did Obama’s campaign fund come from?

Andy

By: Mark Clapham

Mark Clapham — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:09:32 +0000

Very sad news. Chalk me up as someone else who didn’t renew after constant subscription glitches sent me chasing missing issues. Three or four missing issues in a twenty-six issue sub wasn’t a good hit rate.

Still, a crying shame as a lot of the content was very good. I liked John Blake, but I can understand why others might not – it didn’t seem ideally paced for the episodic form.

Hopefully JB, The Boss, and others will find homes elsewhere, at least in terms of collections of the existing materials if not for continuations.