Above: Mobot High, drawn by Neil Cameron
downthetubes:
You're several weeks in with "live publishing" of The
DFC. How is
everything going with the project?
David Fickling: It's going very well indeed. We're
getting the most wonderful response from children. I think it takes time
for a weekly story to be intelligible, actually, so I'm more than delighted
with what's happened.
downthetubes:
We appreciate that you can't go into detail on sales, but how are they
going? Are you on target?
David:
It's doing well, and we're getting more subscriptions every
day. It's
just a question of making it known. It's a small miracle it exists
at all, and the miracle is really performed by the artists and storytellers,
the Makers, who've
given their
time.
We're a little clearing house for all their
work: that's the advantage of an outworking system. It's all very, very exciting.
downthetubes:
How far in advance do you work?
David: I suppose you want to be about three
months ahead. We started off a little bit close, but we're pulling away. We're
probably getting up towards that, about eleven or twelve weeks ahead now.
When we started we were just seven weeks ahead, which was tight.
We're really like a small television station, or a film studio,
with aspirations and ambitions to be a big one. You commission material and
you sort of have an envelope, a commissioning envelope stretching out in
front of you and you want enough material to balance with what you're doing
and deliver.
Obviously, we're
investing in people's work and that's the big give, the expenditure, that
we have to deal with, and you have to balance that with not doing things
too quickly to maintain quality.
Where we are now is down to a lot of hard work from the
comics team – Ben
Sharpe, my deputy, who's really doing the work of an executive editor, Will
Fickling,
designer Peter and Anthony and other people. It's a very special team.
downthetubes:
A special team -- and a very creative one...
David: Yes, they have to be. We've started something
new, or rather a restoration of a natural right
for children.
downthetubes:
Assume our readers – savvy though they are about comics – know
nothing about The DFC (Trust us, despite all the publicity you folk
have done there will still be people out there to whom the launch of a
brand new comic will be a surprise!). How would you sell it to them?
David: I just think it's a delight to receive an ongoing story and have
the ability to tell longer narrative, longer stories, longer, exciting stories
with more depth, more adventure, by receiving the comic week on week. It's
the perfect form for that.
A weekly comic lends itself to both short and
long storytelling and I don't think we've had that for some time. If you
like exciting stories, buy The DFC!
downthetubes:
When was the idea of the weekly comic conceived and how long did it take
to get the project off the ground?
David: It's taken about three years to launch, but I've wanted
to make a comic all my life!
I was lucky to read a lot of comics in childhood.
I work as a children's editor
and I think a great deal of any ability that I might have or sensibility
I might have came from reading comics in my own childhood, and realizing
that that weekly form was deeply exciting. It literally thrilled me and I
remember that very clearly, and I don't think that's something that belongs
to the past, it's just as vital now. It manifests itself in shows such as 24, The
Sopranos or Battlestar Galactica.
It's the same sheer enjoyment, coupled with a grasp of the world that comes
with the comics form.
downthetubes:
What comics did you read as a child?
David: I read practically everything, but I particularly
enjoyed a comic that was later taken over by the Eagle, Boy's World and I loved Valiant.
Then there was Beano, Dandy, Topper, Beezer, Hotspur,
Victor, Swift, a comic called Harold
Hare, War Picture
Library... the list goes on!
And all the American comics – Green
Lantern, Flash, Justice
League of America – any comics I could get my hands
on, really, any that offered those delights of the storytelling form, the
sheer wonder of the flexibility of it all, which I think you're particularly
open to in childhood.
downthetubes:
So the main reason for wanting to publish a comic was that you'd always
wanted to publish a comic?
David. Absolutely! I felt the form could be made as thrilling
and as exciting now as it was for me then.
Professionally, as a publisher,
I'd always wanted
to publish things like Tin Tin, as well. But
publishing of that kind of material in books form is actually hugely risky
and expensive for both the artist and the publisher because such an outlay
has to be made in terms of work before you get a full-length book. So I investigated
things further and realized that things like Tin Tin had
started off as or in weekly publications too.
My feeling was that the reason we didn't have weekly comics any more was
nothing to do with people not wanting them or children not liking them, it
was much more to do with a failed business model and, rightly or wrongly,
I didn't see that there was anything we could do about that until the Internet
came along.
Often these things are a matter of decisions in order
to get things made. It's not a question of right or wrong, it's a question
of making things happen.
downthetubes:
So why does the internet make a difference?
David: The Internet makes the difference because initially,
when starting off something like this in bookshops or newsagents, there
is an enormous pressure by the publisher to promote the work – obtaining discount,
buying shelf space, spending an awful lot on marketing – which means
that the project has to carry a great weight of expectation and success so
early on when it's least able to do that.
So the amount that's spent on marketing is much more than what's spent on
content and I don't think that's the right way round. I wanted the money
to go the commissioning of new material.
By using the Internet, you can market and reach everybody,
more or less, and to enable your potential audience to receive the product
directly and spread word of mouth about it in a very natural and experience-based
way. It's a good way to reach people.
This
doesn't mean I'm not interested in selling it The
DFC in shops: far from
it. I'd love to sell it in shops and it will, eventually, it's
just the order in the way things have to be done to make this work. It's
a more practical way of starting the comic
off, in way that's sustainable.
The
DFC is also a primer for something bigger in many
ways, which for me is the restoration of the form. It's not about being
clever and being Internet only as a gimmick. It's a river down which
we can flow.
downthetubes:
And of course if it works then other publishers are going to say, 'Hey,
why aren't we doing this?'
David: Yes they will, and that's all for the good. Again you
see, my enthusiasm for it is in the story form. I've worked as a publisher
for years and it's just a delight to work with stories... That's what I really
enjoy.
[The financial success] is not the most important thing. Of
course, I want to be as rich as the next man – I'm not very wealthy – but
financial reward will come if people like it, if they like the stories,
just as people liked JK Rowling, so lots of people bought her stories. The
most important thing to me is the transmission of
the stories, the narrative and making available the work of some fantastic
comic artists in the country.
Our bank of creative talent, frankly, is a match for
the world. We just weren't producing it. I was interested in changing that,
or at least hoping to change that.
We're not the only people publishing comics and we've got a lot to learn
from people who are doing it already,. We're just
trying a different way – but it's not an exclusive thing.
I would welcome lots of people producing comics again and I think they will.
downthetubes:
When you pitched the idea for The DFC to Random House I assume there
must have been some market research about
the state of the British comics market and if so, what were your findings?
David: The finding was that we produced a dummy issue
and the research company went out and reported that it was the most well
received thing they'd ever
tested, which was great to hear.
The
Internet was also important to this part of the process. There’s a
modernity to it. The DFC is not a revival of something
we used to have, it's something for the here and now.
downthetubes:
Well, as cartoonist Lew Stringer often points out, comics have always
evolved for new markets and times, haven't they?
David: Of course they have. I'm not saying we have all the answers [to making
comics publishing a success]. It's juts hugely exciting to be involved in
that and joining in with everybody making comics already.
downthetubes: How
many creators do you have contributing to The
DFC?
David: I suppose about 40 altogether, off the top of my head, but more and
more all the time and that will grow with the success of the The
DFC,
that goes hand in glove.
I am incredibly grateful to the people who have stepped forward and are
working with us. They are the real Makers.
downthetubes:
Makers like Kate Brown, Garen Ewing, Neil Cameron, the Etherington Brothers...
David: ... and David Shelton, absolutely brilliant, all
of them.
downthetubes:
Of the strips that have been running which have proven the most popular?
David: We're getting a very good reaction to all of them, actually.
We've done a lot of research in schools as well and we've found that when
you go to schools with a pile of the comics, different children like different
things -- which is just what you'd expect.
It's a good question, but it's the same question as asking
the BBC or Sky what are your most successful shows, it's never going to be
any one thing. The whole suite of different stories is being well received,
and in that sense again, we're like a little film studio making a lot of
films. I hope that we'll become a film studio with the reputation of Paramount
or Ealing, but I'm extremely excited by the whole range and the sort of deep
originality of everything.
There's nothing in The
DFC that is a commercial
tie in, because that was the other thing that I wanted to avoid at this stage.
Monkey Nuts by the Etherington Brothers
downthetubes:
Well that's good isn't it? Because then you're building your own brand
rather than depending it on licensed material...
David: Exactly, which was part of why we also came up
with contracts that shared with everybody. That was hard, because it hasn't
often been done in comics in this country before.
downthetubes:
No, some comics publishers are notorious for claiming all rights almost
as soon as a creator puts pen to paper...
David: We deliberately didn't want that to happen. I
wanted every single Maker who joined in with The
DFC to always have a proper
share in their rights to the very end of time, or as long as copyright
can be made to last.
downthetubes:
And I assume, with you coming from books publishing that seems only natural?
David: yes. It's proper, decent, right and fair. But
it was quite difficult to set up, because of natural worries and suspicion
on the part of the illustrators and the money, which is why things have
often gone wrong in the past.
I think when The DFC flowers as it will do
this policy will be borne out by encouraging a lot of other people to come
forward to contribute, I think it could be a career changer.
We're already getting interest from film
makers and Hollywood, because it's all original material and this
time, if a film is made it's all the creators who will do well, not just
the publisher.
downthetubes:
Why did you decide to make The DFC subscription only, besides the obvious
economic practicalities (such as printing several issues at once and not
having to buy expensive retail schemes to promote the title)?
David: It was just down to the economic practicalities and
the need for it not to have to go out and be this huge smash and grab and
a banging of people on the head with pressure which puts great commercial
pressure on the content and stops really lovely things happening. So it is
to protect it in its early growth.
The growth so far is very very good but I don't
mind it being steady and of course, I'd much rather
that than for it to go up like a rocket and then come down again with a bang.
downthetubes:
I'm sure you've had one eye on the sales for comics that were released
last month by ABC and the drop in news stand sales...
David: It doesn't surprise me. The high street is a very pressured place.
Also I knew from book publishing how pressured it was, and we've had big
successes in book publishing. But I prefer I suppose, what you might call
organic growth. Look at Phillip Pullman, or Jacqueline Wilson who have grown
over years and it's reader response that's driven
sales [not marketing spend].
downthetubes: Since The DFC is subscription only, how else are you marketing
it besides the Internet?
David: I particularly want
to market it via schools, I want parents to know about it, I want it to
be much more known. It's still
relatively unknown, we've still only reached a
tiny fraction of the people who are going to make it work.
We've had a lot of shops come forward who want to sell The
DFC and I think we can make that happen – the independent and particularly
the comic shops. We should be coming in an giving
them packages that help them sell the title and support them. I'm trying
to work out the best ways of doing that.
downthetubes: So you're looking at going through Diamond (the comics direct
sales distributor) for example?
David: Yes, we're exploring everything. The thing for me
is to make something and then see where you can sell it. This is a much
better way of doing something than forcing it into places where people
then forget about it. I didn't want the title to be taken up by anybody
and then dropped, like supermarkets.
For instance, we're just about
to go on to Amazon, which is an example of how we're developing
sales outlets, and once we've rolled that out we'll look at similar ways
of distributing.
And different ways of sampling,
too - that's one of the disadvantages
of subscription, people haven't got it in their hands, and we've got to
take that on the chin and work out ways to make the title available so
people can sample copies... but of
course we couldn't do that until we'd made the thing.
downthetubes: The school subscription is a particularly clever idea, has
that been a success?
David: Yes we're getting a really
lovely response to that and we're widening that out as well, magazines like
Junior Education want to put us on the front
cover.
Again, I
didn't want to flood the world with free copies and so spend all our money.
This is kind of like we know we're producing something really good, we're
confident in what it is and we will tell as many people as we can about
it and work out ways to get them to sell it for us.
It's about creating partners, nobody should be excluded –
but we don't want people to get it on the cheap, either!
downthetubes: Of course the most obvious partner is The
Guardian...
David: They came in very
early and have been hugely helpful in pushing the title, but of course
it's not the only sector we want to
reach and neither do we think The DFC is just for Guardian readers.
Working with The
Guardian has been
hugely successful in making known the comic is available, I'd be just as
happy to see DFC comics in The
Sun, for example.
I'm also very interested in local newspaper distribution.
We're getting an interesting reaction to that both here and in other countries.
There's an international dimension to something you produce on the Internet,
which is really important. It's available worldwide.
downthetubes: Have you had sales overseas?
David: Yes we have. As
you can imagine, I haven't really
had time to think about, for example, the American market. We're really
at the stage where we're having to carefully consider
what we do next.
downthetubes: ... and has there been interest
in foreign language editions
of The DFC?
David: Yes, and that was part of setting up the contracts
with the creators, to be able to sell rights to the whole DFC to
a foreign publisher. Obviously, people have shown interest in bits and
pieces – there's
been massive interest in Phillip Pullman's strip and I love his work, but
the DFC isn't, it can't be dependent on just
that. It mustn't be.
John Blake by Phillip Pullman
downthetubes: You've mentioned The DFC is a 'primer'. Are you going to
be collecting some of the material that's going into the comic?
David: Absolutely. That
was always part of it, but it wasn't
included in the business plan so it becomes an added extra for the contributors.
The plan is to make graphic novels of as much as we can, firstly of course
of those things the children say they like most. I definitely want to collect
Good Dog, Bad Dog, John
Blake, Mobot High...
I want to do a DFC annual... Again, we've only got limited woman and manpower
and we have to plan carefully what we do next.
Good Dog, Bad Dog by David Shelton
downthetubes: A DFC annual? That wouldn't be for this year...
David: No, that would really
stretch us beyond our ability and I think one of the things we want to
adhere to, whether we're right
or wrong, is that anything connected to The DFC should be of high quality,
and that is again where I want to spend the money. To me as a publisher,
concentrating on the content is where I want to be, not on hype.
Creating a comic like The DFC is
not controllable, in many ways. It also takes time to build it. But that's
actually a wonderful, positive strength to it, because we are learning all
the time and I want to do other weekly things like this, which is why, for
me, this has been the most wonderfully exciting story making process, a real
experience.
downthetubes: The only British comics that really made a big
impact were the ones which were radically different from anything else
at their respective times: Comic Cuts, Dandy/Beano, Eagle, 2000AD, Viz.
Those titles are all known by the general public and have become synonymous
with the style of comics that each title represents. What makes The
DFC unique?
David: I think that's more of a question for the reader.
It's down to the content, what we choose to put in it and the reaction
of the children who are reading it, who are beginning to be very, very
excited to receive their DFC. They and the creators are the makers of its
character.
Obviously Ben and I are choosing but what is coming forward
is often choosing itself.
downthetubes: What sort of feedback do you want to get from
your readers?
David: Actually, we want more reader response to what we're
publishing and that's where the web site will come in.
We've still got lots to learn and we're happy to listen
to what people have to say about the comic. We just need to keep doing!
Questions
from Bambos Georgiou, Jeremy Briggs, Paul Eldridge, John Freeman, Martin
Gray, Andrew J. Standish, Lew Stringer.
Our thanks to David for taking
the time to tak to us, and The DFC team for helping with visuals and other
information. Discuss
this feature on the downthetubes forum
Robot Girl
Earlier this year, David Fickling Books and Random House
launched The DFC, a new weekly comic in the UK, the first of its
kind in terms of the levels of originated, new characters for many years. 
