“…This is not good night for DFC. We are coming back. We are going to come back next year independently,” publisher David Fickling talking to the Federation of Children’s Book Groups in Sussex. There aren’t any details yet, at this stage it looks more like a declaration of intent rather than a firm plan, but I’m pretty sure we’d all wish him the best with continuing the DFC comic if at all possible – not an easy task at any time and probably much harder in the current climate, but hey, let’s all think some positive energy in his direction. (thanks to Jayne Howarth for the info)
April 8th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I do wish him well, but I read somewhere else that the subs base was only around the 3000 mark. Maybe it moved up from there. At that I would have thought the print cost was pretty substantial for each issue + mailing envelopes + post (even this may not be that cheap as an option like mail sort 3 wouldn’t guarantee the Friday deliveries).
I would have thought those things ate 30% of the selling price alone (possibly more) – leaving something like £6,000 per issue or £72K a year profit. From that you have to pay for 360 pages of art and story and at least one full timer to run it. Even if other costs are being spread elsewhere at David Fickling and not counted as real costs that sounds to me like it is going to be mighty tight on the present model to make any money or even not to lose to much. Still if he can make it work – good on him – I can imagine it as a breakeven concern if the spin-off books and potential merchandise that might come from the strips (do the creators own their work?) might make it worthwhile if you can keep going until you find that break out hit.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
That 3000 figure comes from the Jayne Howarth blog post that Joe cites above. I’m the eternal optimist and hope he manages to work out a way to bring it back – but I don’t think it will be happening anytime soon.
Steve Holland also has a DFC post today:
http://bearalley.blogspot.com/.....e-dfc.html
“David Fickling, founder of The DFC, has said that he is exploring different options for the comic’s future. “It’s a special creation that should come back and needs to come back in some way.”"
I’d have thought that the graphic novels would be coming out from David Fickling Books as a way for Random House to recoup some of their costs and wouldn’t have thought that he be allowed to do that independently. But time will tell.
Fingers crossed for something anyway.