Comics UK

I think The DFC could have worked if a) it hadn't tried to appeal to different ages within one comic - thus putting off both ends of the spectrum, and b) it hadn't had to solely rely on subscriptions that required parents to shell out £30 or more at a time.

It was a brave venture though and I don't know how it could have survived on the newsstands. I often see parents in my local newsagent/off license loading up with booze but never see them treating their kids to anything other than a packet of sweets. The easy availability of alcohol on estates now (three off-licenses in my vicinity - and no, I don't drink at home) has produced a generation of p***-head parents who can barely read The Sun, never mind encouraging their kids to read anything beyond a crisp packet. In fact I seem to be the only person who buys comics from my local newsagents, - and 90% of the time I'm standing in line with The Beano or 2000AD behind parents reeking of booze who have come out for a "top up". And that's only during daylight hours.

I like your idea of Street Comic Kev. I'm just wondering how today's paranoid parents would react to someone trying to sell comics to kids in the street. Sounds like a nightmare, - and then presumably you'd have to get a street trader's license, and permission from each town council, who would probably want to vet each issue before you sold it - in meetings that would inevitably be postponed ('cos it's "only a comic" and other matters would take priority) thus ruining the momentum and losing readers.

Perhaps we'd be better off pooling our ideas to invent a time machine and go back to 1890 and set up Comic Cuts ? It's deja-vu all over again.

Lew

Street Comic would have the same hurdles The Big Issue has, and I wrestled with the morality of whether it would be better to have it sold by clean pretty young people rather than the homeless.

As someone who flyers on the street for his Edinburgh Fringe shows, stops people at busy exhibitions to draw their caricatures, and once roamed the streets of provincial towns as part of the Malibu Anti-Seriousness Squad, offering drinks vouchers to (possibly underage) kids, I feel that people will buy things on the street, and it needn't be a problem if it's done well.

I've also been told, on another forum, that the DFC didn't "bomb" and that it may still return. So apologies if I seemed to be dissing a fine effort, and I hope it does return.

Looking at today's Guardian I was appalled to find that the *Free* Dandy comic failed to contain the *Free* sweets promised on its cover. This sounds like a clear case for the Press Complaints Council to me - then, when they get round to presenting a copy of the first combined issue of Valiant & Knockout next year they'll have to include a '2d Bar of Sharps Super Kreem Toffee'! Yum!

- Phil Rushton

They should've put a disclaimer on the front of the Guardian! Free bubblegum not included.

kevf wrote: I've also been told, on another forum, that the DFC didn't "bomb" and that it may still return.

With sales down to 3,000? Sounds like a bomb to me! Creatively it was magnificent, saleswise a disaster.

I've also heard that it may return in some way next year. Something of such high quality certainly deserves another chance.

Lew

A letter in todays Guardian.

"For over 30 years I have carried the emotional scars of a censored childhood.
My mother refused to let us read Bunty on the grounds that it was trash, so thanks for putting me out of my misery. She was right"

Miserable cow

She's ungrateful for the free comics - I can't believe they actually published that!

No, she's grateful for the freebies, she's just stuck up about comics.

She's the enemy people. The Bookish. The Radio 4 listeners who think comics are just for kids (just because 99.9% of them are, and most are insulting to the intelligence of 8 year olds, but that's beside the point). These are the people we can only defeat through education. And by making comics that are great.

And in her instance by going back in time to 1972 and making Bunty slightly better than it was.

Do you think they have any intellectual snobbery about comics in France? I always labour under the notion that everyone there respects all bandes dessinees, but be honest, am I making that up?

kevf wrote: Do you think they have any intellectual snobbery about comics in France? I always labour under the notion that everyone there respects all bandes dessinees, but be honest, am I making that up?

When I was in Angouleme nearly 20 years ago the whole town seemed to be barmy about comics, with every shop window advertising the comics festival in some way. (Were you there for that event Kev?)

There are also library type places where you can go in and read comics / albums, so they seemed pretty keen on the form to me.

Lew

Also in today's Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... ook-heroes

And did you follow the embedded link to all the Guardian's recent articles on comics? Quite a few it turns out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/comics

Actually I hadn't realized there was such a bias towards female readers in The Guardian until I noticed that three of this week's free comics were specifically aimed at girls (Jackie, Bunty, Tammy) and only one (Roy of the Rovers - or two if you count W&C ) at boys.

In the case of the letter writer, it just seems to prove Oscar Wilde's observation that it's 'every woman's tragedy' to grow up to be their mother!

- Phil Rushton

The way I see it, the promo is three girls (Jackie, Bunty, Tammy), three unisex (Beano, Dandy, W&C) and one boys (ROTR). Let's hope they redress the balance next time (if they ever do a similar promotion again that is).

I'm going to email The Guardian and ask them to produce one comic a week.
Surely it doesn't cost much for them to do it.

In the case of the letter writer, it just seems to prove Oscar Wilde's observation that it's 'every woman's tragedy' to grow up to be their mother!

good one made me laugh...