Comics UK

Certainly seems both David Fickling and Philip Pullman are working 'behind-the-scenes' to re-launch the comic "next year" independently... See this link for further details..

http://jaynehowarth.wordpress.com/2009/ ... elaunched/


Fingers crossed!

Interesting it had 3000 subscribers..

hope the lesson of DFc will improve the comic from the start...what worked..what didn't..

Peter Gray wrote:Interesting it had 3000 subscribers..

hope the lesson of DFc will improve the comic from the start...what worked..what didn't..

3,000 subscribers is incredibly low. It's almost small press levels! That's lower than 5% of some newsagent comics' sales.

Some of the content was a bit weak and lacking an edge for 21st Century kids, and it was somewhat unfocused in its age range, but the main problem IMHO was with the unreliable subscription service. Not great for a comic that relied solely on subscriptions.

Also, if they insist on going that route, it might be handy to allow readers to use PayPal rather than having to submit credit card details that are open to fraud.

Lew

We both had problems on that front Lew...
I missed a few issues because they got my address wrong then sent me the wrong missing issues...
I agree paying for it was not straight forward..

Peter Gray wrote:Interesting it had 3000 subscribers..

I wonder if that's the number of subscribers it had when it folded or the cumulative amount? I had a 6-month sub but let it lapse at Christmas.

FWIW I never had any problem with the subsription serivice - it was there on my doormat every Friday, which is saying something given the GPO these days...

George

ogtec wrote:

Peter Gray wrote:Interesting it had 3000 subscribers..

I wonder if that's the number of subscribers it had when it folded or the cumulative amount?

That's the final amount. In November I heard it was around 8,000.

Lew

Looks like David Fickling is quite serious about this with a 'late 2011' re-launch planned. Also looks like they will try for newsstand distribution if it gets the go-ahead.

All from John Freeman's brilliant blog 'Down The Tubes' - full story here : http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/ ... again.html



Fingers crossed (again!)

"Responding to a general concern from some comic creators that the content of The DFC was too broad, in that some of it was for children and some of it was more suited to young teenagers, David said that choice was a conscious decision, as he wanted a title that appealed to a broader range of readers.

However, he accepts that this might have been detrimental, and in the revision, he said he would be narrowing the scope of the stories."

It's not really rocket science that it'd divide and lose readers by making the contents too broad for different ages. Still, at least it looks like he may now learn from his own history even if he didn't learn from the mistakes of comics that preceded his.

It'll be interesting to see who his target audience will be. 4 to 7? 7 to 11? 11 to 15?

It'll be on the newsstands this time... 4-7 has a fair amount of competition, and 7-11 would be directly competing with The Beano. 11-15 doesn't have much competition, but how many teenagers buy comics these days? The majority of those that do probably buy the American superhero stuff. Pros and cons to all age groups it seems.

The subscription thing might have worked better if it was advertised better! As it was likely the parents doing the subscribing a few ads slipped in the papers or the TV Times wouldn't have gone amiss. And also into the Beano (not as wierd as it sounds, i remember an ad for 2000AD in the Beano in the 90's! By then the two titles hardly had much of a crossover audience) and Dandy to persuade children to nag thier parents for it.

Teenagers that are into superhero comics may have been into them from the start and know virtually nothing about British comics, at least in my limited experience. A comic aimed at-or-just-above the top range of Beano and Dandy readers ought to provide readers of those with an alternative outlet to "grow into". There's that other one that was mentioned on here a few weeks back too... somebody said it sounded like "the new Valiant". So that's two companies taking the risk! There must be at least a little confidence that the audience is out there.

That was kind of my point, there isn't anything like the Beano aimed at an older audience.... so most of their readers probably simply stop buying comics at some point. It's only a minority, like myself, who continue buying them into adulthood. In fact, 2000AD is the only one I can think of aimed at an older audience but not related to DC or Marvel. If DFC goes for that audience, they'll have a hard time because there's no proof that an audience exists, due to no humour comics currently targeting that group. The people who buy superhero comics probably got into them via the various movies that have appeared in the last decade, and the cartoons. Their comics aimed at a younger audience are a recent thing as well, so the always been into them argument will be stronger a decade from now. The "know nothing about British comics" thing is quite frankly, because there's not many non-licensed ones left. Beano, Dandy, Toxic, 2000AD, and their spin-offs. That's pretty much it.

Jamie Smarts 'Fishhead Steve' is being made into an animated television show. The pilot (I assume) is being shown at this years Cartoon Forum where it will be pitched to buyers and distributers and whathaveyou.

I don't know if the DFC people have the rights to this or if Jamie Smart will be buying a solid gold house out of the lunchbox and other merchandise sales? The DFC seems to be living on in whatever form.

Digifiend wrote:That was kind of my point, there isn't anything like the Beano aimed at an older audience.... so most of their readers probably simply stop buying comics at some point.

There's The Simpsons, which presumably is read by all ages (hence its high sales) and no doubt some kids read Viz round the back of the bikesheds but you're right, there's no humour comic specifically aimed at 11-15 year olds.

It's a difficult age to get it right for. That age group has always liked oddball comedy, from Monty Python to Little Britain, but that sort of humour is too adult for a comic for 11 to 15 year olds. A comic called Acne tried it years ago, but that eventually fizzled out.

I suppose it comes down to what UK publishers are used to pitching at, and it's generally been young children. Manga sells very well to 11 to 15 y.o. but that's not really in the humourous style.

The Panini Marvel reprints sell well to that age group too but from comments I've read those readers don't really like work they consider "too cartoony". Perhaps they associate that style with The Beano and feel they're too mature for anything that looks similar (unless it's rude like Viz)?

Steve Henderson wrote:Jamie Smarts 'Fishhead Steve' is being made into an animated television show. The pilot (I assume) is being shown at this years Cartoon Forum where it will be pitched to buyers and distributers and whathaveyou.

I don't know if the DFC people have the rights to this or if Jamie Smart will be buying a solid gold house out of the lunchbox and other merchandise sales? The DFC seems to be living on in whatever form.

Seems he owns the rights himself, judging by this post on his blog.
http://www.fumboo.com/blog/fish-head-st ... ds-for-tv/

Alas no, none of the DFC artists kept their rights, the deal was a little complicated but that's the nub of it. So while it would be wonderful to see FHS become a show, it'd be for the love of it rather than the percentage royalty. As any artist who develops work for tv, draws comics or creates books will agree, you certainly don't do any of it to get rich :p

But the relaunch of The DFC would be a wonderful thing for comics. I spoke to David Fickling about his plans just last week and his enthusiasm for comics and storytelling is something we need to bring back to british culture again.

Jamie