The DFC

Here's something worth checking out for the UK folk. The UK has a great tradition of comics, wholly different to what was going on in the US. 2000AD, often total genius featuring wonderful characters like Nemesis the Warlock and, of course, Judge Dredd, is still going but there were so much more - Eagle, the short-lived but fantastic Scream, even fantastic comics for girls like Misty.

Then there were the funny, wacky comics - the Beano, Whizzer and Chips, the (again) short-lived Oink and others. Some really fantastic stuff in all of those.

Well, the DFC is the UK's newest weekly comic and is only available through online subscription. It sounded like a great project and had some really great people involved, such as Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials), so I just had to subscribe. And, as it turns out, it's pretty great. It comes in a bright envelope each week so you can't miss it -

So far, the stories are good. You just get a few pages per story and they are continuous so should reward getting into them, though I did find a few weren't written with that format in mind and had slow intros, which are lost in that format. But a few issues in and some of them are really getting going. There's a real mix here. Some are serious adventure-type stories, others go back to the more silly stuff and this is where it falls down a little. It's not that they are bad, it's just that the silly stuff isn't as strong as the more grown-up stories and, even if they were great, I'm not so sure they'd fit together anyway. It's like this should have been two different comics.

As a result, it's hard to know just what age group this is being pitched at.

But, that aside, most of the content is excellent. The art does its job nicely and there are a few quirky pieces with lovely design. What really comes across is that they let the creators create - each story, while feeling very seperate to what is around it, feels well developed and the story and artwork match. There's a coherence to it and there doesn't seem to be any sense of skepticism. It's good stuff!

So I'd recommend checking it out! www.thedfc.co.uk

If you DFC guys do split into a younger and older comic, give me a shout, I'd love to get in on the younger stuff!