The DFC
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Above: Nick Abadzis and David Fickling at the launch of The DFC
This week, 15th May 2008, The DFC was launched at the BFI Southbank. The DFC is a new children’s weekly comic that features original characters in all-new adventures. I’ve been working on it for the past year as editorial consultant: that’s a fancy name for being the chap who gives advice about comics grammar and putting a weekly publication together. The brains behind the project are David Fickling, Ben Sharpe and Will and Peter Fickling.
David is, of course, the award-winning children’s book editor and publisher of great and deserved repute, and doesn’t, of course, need advice when it comes to storytelling per se as anyone who is even vaguely aware of his track record will already know. In fact, I took the job on to see what I could learn from him. What he wanted from me was my experience in both creating and setting up children’s magazines and my insider's knowledge of the grammar of graphic narrative.
One of the (initially) most nerve-wracking moments for me during the past year was meeting Philip Pullman and advising him on the comic scripts he was writing for my friend, cartoonist John Aggs. Philip is, of course, one of the finest storytellers in the world and, being something of a fan, it did feel a little strange offering him some tips on how to construct a fluid comic strip script. Being in conference with David and Philip was, indeed, an extraordinary, livewire affair where the ideas seemed to jump in a triangle between the three of us: Philip’s sense of humour, generosity and curiosity about comics and the way they work created an almost tangible crackle; an engine of inventiveness. It was a privilege to be there and see it happening, to be a part of that.
That Philip, and many other children’s authors are so interested in the language of comics and want to tell stories that way is important (and you can read the text below this blog entry of the speech I made at The DFC launch party for my thoughts on that). Philip and David have always loved comics, but the fact that David has managed to get a new children’s weekly up and running signals, I hope, a sea-change in the way UK publishing thinks about the medium. About time too, I say.
I’d also like to pay tribute to the tirelessness and hard work of Ben Sharpe and Will Fickling, who I’ve thrown so many ideas at in the past year. It's been a lot of fun working with these fine gentlemen. We haven’t got absolutely everything perfectly right yet, but this is the great thing about a weekly; it has its own life and its readers will, to a degree, dictate the changing shape of it over the times to come. Gents, I did tell you that putting out a weekly comic is akin to being trapped on a runaway rollercoaster, didn’t I? Well, here’s where the fun really begins. The DFC, once launched, will be like a song performed: it won’t belong to a select few authors any more. It’ll mean new things to thousands of readers out there. And with each new performance, with every new issue, things will evolve.
On Friday May 30th, the first of the subscriber-only DFC issues lands on the doormats of children across the UK. (And, indeed, the world. You can subscribe from anywhere.) If you’d like to find out more or subscribe to The DFC, go here.
At the launch, David and Philip both made speeches and I was honoured to be asked also to speak. For anyone who is curious, the full text is below.
Thanks and kudos also to the mighty Catherine Stokes, Tiffany Burgess, Lindsey Mooney and Louise Stothard in organising the launch do. And thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed the party.
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Nick Abadzis' DFC Launch Speech
Kids love comics. My mum understood this when I was growing up. She never made any distinction between comics, storybooks and children’s novels – she just somehow understood what good storytelling was, and she didn’t care through what medium that story arrived, as long as it kept us kids quiet.
I remember her buying me The Dandy, my first comic. The Dandy taught me to read. Mum gave us the Moomin books, Winnie the Pooh, Stig of the Dump, Tintin, Asterix, Doctor Who books, Roald Dahl, Peanuts, Rupert the Bear and The Beano. She sent us to the library or put all the childrens’ classics in front of us, and all the great children’s’ comics too (at least the ones that were available in English. My aunt gave us the ones in French and my Dad the ones in Greek, but that's another story). Novels, storybooks or comics – to Mum, it was all reading, and all part of a wider heritage of children’s storytelling.
So it was natural enough for me to decide that the best job in the world surely had to be that of being a storyteller – specifically, in my case, a comic strip cartoonist. It was a lot harder than I imagined it would be. Like many people I thought, at first, how hard can it be? Surely you just string a few words in some balloons, add the pictures and bob’s yer uncle, there’s a comic!
There’s a lot more to it than that: a lot of planning, a lot of design, an understanding of character, of nuances of dialogue; you must choose which moments and actions to portray so that the words and pictures can weave their ways around each other to create a little continuum of pretend-time, a pocket world that’s as believable and real as the one that the reader inhabits.
It’s words and pictures! Pictograms! It’s the most flexible communications medium humankind ever invented. If that sounds like a grand claim, then look around you – we’re entering an age where pictograms – iconography – is everywhere; on your computer or your phone, on the TV; it’s how we disseminate information now.
Kids already know this – kids love comics.
It’s us adults, if we’re close-minded, who try to divest them of that desire, usually around the time they hit the age of 11. Things are changing, but there are still plenty of people who think that words and pictures working harmoniously together in a graphic narrative are somehow unsophisticated when actually exactly the opposite is true. It’s a language, and children, especially teens who are now bombarded with visual imagery from all directions innately understand this and they nurture their own visual vocabularies.
We should be aware of this because, if we can harness that appetite and give our children great stories, then their visual imaginations will be nourished and encouraged alongside their literary imaginations. (Didn’t do me any harm.)
We actually have many of the best and brightest comics creators in the world living in Britain. But many of these cartoonists have had something of a raw deal in the past fifteen or so years. For a variety of reasons, we let our comics industry flounder and vanish and, for a while there, our great heritage of British comics seemed almost forgotten. Apart from a couple of worthy holdouts, the march of licensed characters took over what remained of the British comic industry.
With no comic industry of our own to speak of, many of us had to find work elsewhere, as writers, childrens’ authors, editors, as games designers, as newspaper or magazine illustrators. Or we sought work further afield, looking across to the twin Meccas of the Franco-Belgian or American comic book industries. Indeed, Blighty became a kind of comics ghetto, where you had to work three times as hard to get the kinds of opportunities that came to our European, Japanese or American counterparts. It was tough.
So, enter David Fickling. David reminds me of my mum, in all the best possible ways. He doesn’t make any distinctions between different media as long as the stories they tell are good. He understands storytelling whether it springs from a literary or visual source, and he loves it. If there was a way of harnessing enthusiasm as a power source, we could just hook David up to a reactor and we could power London for a year, so we’re very fortunate that this is the man who spotted that there was a generation or two growing up without a decent comic of their own.
David asked me to help him and his excellent team put together The DFC, and it’s been my honour to work with him and many of the contributors as a consultant editor over the past year, teaching them what I know about the grammar of comics. I’ve learned in that time, if it’s not too august a term, that David is a visionary. Like me, and like the distinguished company I stand here with, like many of the excellent cartoonists and storytellers who are here tonight, he wants to feed children’s imaginations. They already have voracious visual appetites – don’t feed ‘em junk food.
We’ve waited a long time for this. Not just us cartoonists – the kids too. Call ‘em graphic novels, manga, bande dessinée, whatever you want, they’re all comics. And kids love comics. And, ladies and gentlemen, I give you The DFC.
Nick Abadzis
May 2008
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Name:: Sarah
Monday, May 19th, 2008 - 15:26
It was great to see you at the launch, thanks for all your hard work!
Sarah xx
Sarah xx
Name:: Emma vieceli
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 - 16:39
Hi Nick! I wanted to drop a line and say how lovely it was meeting you at the launch. Your speech was very inspiring, and you're so right: Viva la revolution of UK comics! ^_^
Name:: Nick
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 - 09:37
Thanks friends! Feel that we should celebrate every victory that the Brit comics scene has, whether large or small. It was a long, slow haul for me to get where I am, and I wouldn't want another generation of cartoonists to go through what mine went through, so viva comics!
great speech! Very pleased to get a chance to read it, as I couldn't hear anything at the back. I've done a post over at Comix Influx about the launch as well (http://www.comixinflux.com/influx/blogpost/22).
Take care!
Stephen.