Comics have too often been dismissed as unsophisticated, popular culture texts or as a phase of reading which children are encouraged to move out of towards more ‘worthy’ literary fare. Mel Gibson, in exploring the recent comics-book initiative by David Fikling, The DFC, defends the attraction and value of comics culture and the complexity of its multimodal narratives

Gibson, Mel

English

Northumbria University Research Portal

Inis 33 page 19HEN adults in Irelandand Britain thinkabout comics forchildren, they typically draw on a rich set of memories of a largenumber of titles, covering a rangeof genres from humour to action.In some cases those rememberedtitles were divided into nichemarkets according to age andgender, which meant that onewould look to what slightly olderreaders than oneself were readingwith longing, whilst others wereseen as having an appeal to bothboys and girls and across ageranges. Narratives were oftenongoing and the sense ofanticipation, the urge to find outwhat happened next, was asignificant motivation to keepreading, something furtherincreased by having to wait forthe next edition. These werepublications young readersowned as well, and often titlesthey chose themselves, generatingan intense affection and loyalty.Another component of the powerof comics was that this wasmaterial that wasdisapproved of by someadults and professions(indeed, some childrenwere not allowed comics).This disapproval helpedmake them a valued partof children’s culture andalso made the medium asignificant source ofreading for pleasure acrossa number of generations ofreaders.‘We Don’t Need Just The DFC,We Need Lots of Comics. And What’s More, We CanMake Them. Let’s Get to It!’David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Library Mel GibsonComics have too often been dismissed as unsophisticated,popular culture texts or as a phase of reading which childrenare encouraged to move out of towards more ‘worthy’ literaryfare. Mel Gibson, in exploring the recent comics-book initiativeby David Fikling, The DFC, defends the attraction and value ofcomics culture and the complexity of its multimodal narratives. Comic storytelling,words and picturestogether, should bea natural right for all our children““WInis 33page 20David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Librarya number of generations ofreaders.Yet, in the 1990s and onwards,were one to look for periodicalsfor children, while there might bea section in a shop thatlooked like it offeredsimilar material, if onewere to look closer onewould discover thatthe vast majority wereactually magazinesfocused on a specificfranchise, or set ofproducts, sofunctioning asadvertising. Inaddition, one wouldfind that they generallycontained very fewcomic strips or othernarratives (and evenfewer ongoing ones).The slowdisappearance of thechildren’s weeklycomic market, to bereplaced by magazines, is partlydue to the fact that publishingperiodicals which focus onproducts is cheaper thandeveloping and supporting thosecreating ongoing narratives. Further, far from beingmarketed to children and adults(a challenging balancing act thatcomic publishers took on board),the primary target for most recentchildren’s periodical publishing isclearly adults, framing periodicalpublishing either as a way ofentertaining the bored child on acar journey (an occasionalpurchase), or as an educationaltool (thus tied to ‘test’ culture,rather than ‘reading’ culture). Thelack of comic books for childrenremoves one way in which thechild can have a powerful senseof ownership. It also removes themotivation to read from the joy ofengaging with an engrossingserial narrative. In cultures wherethere were once over fifty titlesfor girls, the most popular ofwhich circulated 800,000 to 1million per week, never mindthose published for boys or thosethat appealed to all, this could beseen as a crime against readingfor pleasure and as short-changing children. It was partly as a response tothis contemporary paucity ofweekly publications for childrenthat David Fickling embarked oncreating The DFC, an anthologycomic, in 2008. Kate Brown,creator of The Spider Moon, one ofthe first DFC Library titles, saysof the original comic, ‘I hadimmense faith in The DFC, and Istill do. I would have sawn myhands off to get something likethat when I was a kid! Myunderstanding was that it was tobe like a children’s TV channel …a variety of things that wereeither stand-alone strips or thingsthat a child could follow episode-by-episode over the months. Itwas to be pure storytelling,serious quality goodness. Itsounded wonderful to me!’ It was, as this suggests, a titlecreated primarily from a love ofthe medium of comics and anurge to foster a similar loveamongst others. It drew togethera terrific group of creatorsengaged with the medium. Davidis a passionate advocate forcomics, arguing that:David Fickling Books is a storyhouse first and foremost. That iswhat drives us. It is not devotedto the book per se, it is devoted tothe story, and narrativeexcellence in all its forms. Comicstorytelling, words and picturestogether, is a tradition as old aswriting itself. This combinationof words and pictures should bea natural right for all ourchildren. We threw away ourhugely successful comic industryin the UK, not because childrendon’t like comics but for veryshort-sighted commercialreasons. With The DFC weweren’t trying to restore the oldcomics. It wasn’t a nostalgia trip.We realised that the UK andIreland are the odd ones out inworld culture, in that we areIt was partly as a response to thiscontemporary paucity of weeklypublications for children that David Ficklingembarked on creating The DFC““Inis 33 page 21David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Libraryamongst the few cultureswithout a proper comic culturefor our children and I believe it isenormously to their detriment.The DFC was just a brand newcomic to say we have some of themost talented comic storytellersin the world.The DFC drew on anddeveloped the growing numberof creators who wanted to makecomics and graphic novels whichappeal to all readers, butparticularly younger ones.During the 1980s and onwardsthe graphic novel, typicallycreated for adult or older teenagereaders, grew to become asignificant aspect of the mediumas published in English. Herenarratives couldunfold over one,or more,volumes, somebeing originallyenvisaged as asingle story arc,whilst othersdrew togetherwhat had beenmonthly editionsof a comic into a bound volume.Like the prosenovel, thegraphic novelcovers a hugerange of themesand genres.However, whilstthat market isnow wellestablished, the focus on material for older readers has sometimes meant thatmaterial for younger readers hasbeen given less emphasis. Combined withthe disappearance of weeklycomics for children, this hascreated a situation where, asAdam Brockbank, one of thecreators of MeZolith, states ‘weare in danger of having ageneration of children who areunfamiliar with the language ofcomics’. This is significant in that,in a world where competency inmultiple literacies is consideredimportant and people need to beskilled readers of images andtexts that combine in a range ofways, comics offer an effectiveway of developing the ability toread both words and pictures, aswell as the grammar of the comicitself (through page layout andthe use of speech balloons, forinstance). In essence, comics offerboth the joy of reading forpleasure and a thoroughunderstanding of how complextexts drawing on a range ofliteracies work and are soimportant for several reasons.David Fickling, in developingthe DFC Library, the first threevolumes of which have just beenpublished (with another threedue in autumn 2010 which have aslightly younger ‘feel’), is, then,drawing on wider Europeanmodels of comic and graphicnovel publishing and marketingin gathering together the storiesfirst published in the weeklycomic into albums formatted likethose of Asterix. This aspect of theoverall DFC project is going well,with very positive responses tothe books, suggesting that thechanging perceptions of graphicnovels may have created a newunderstanding of the value andpotential of the medium. As DaveComics offer aneffective way ofdeveloping theability to read bothwords andpictures, as well asthe grammar of thecomic itself““Inis 33page 22David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC LibraryShelton, creator of DFC Librarytitle Good Dog, Bad Dog, argues:‘With the medium enjoyinggreater acceptance among adultsnow, it only makes sense to caterfor the younger generation too.’The first three volumes offer aclear picture of the intended diversity of the DFC Library. GoodDog, Bad Dog contains threestories, the first setting the sceneregarding the establishing of thepartnership of Detectives McBooand Bergman, the latter focusingon two of their cases ‘The GoldenBone of Alexandria’ (with FazChoudhury colouring) and ‘TheDogs’ Dinner’. The range ofreferences here goes far beyondcomics, including, as Dave says,‘Laurel and Hardy, noir films andBilly Wilder’. This combination ofdetective thriller and gag stripwith anthropomorphic charactersis very funny and also builds in arange of references for the readerto discover at their leisure. AsDave says: The references to things likeEdward Hopper’s 1942 paintingNighthawks in the stories aren’tjust for adult readers, they’realso for the future selves ofyoung readers. There were a lotof references in things in my ownchildhood comic-reading, instrips like Judge Dredd, that passedme by at the time but that Ieventually twigged to in later life.So it’s not just for the parent now,it’s for the 8-year-old in five or tenyears’ time, discovering Hopperfor the first time and having adim recollection of where he’sseen something like it before. Thus, like all good writing, itoffers space for the reader togrow and rewards rereading. The second of the titles is TheSpider Moon by Kate Brown,which is a beautiful fantasyadventure in one long story arcthat will unfold over severalvolumes. Kate says ‘when I wasdrafting The Spider Moon, Iwanted to try and make sure itworked as a weekly chapter-basedpiece, and would also work as apiece to be read in one go’. Shegoes on to add:Basically, when it was suggestedthat I try making an adventurestory, and I had to try and thinkof a way of doing it, I thoughtback to the things that I lovedwhen I was a kid. Television wasmy main source of inspiration asI wanted to recreate anatmosphere similar to MysteriousCities of Gold, Belle & Sebastian,Ulysses 31 andWilly Fogg. Theywere a massive part of why Ibegan to love storytelling and so,in a way, The Spider Moon was anhomage and my way of sayingthank you to the things thatinspired me as a child. Kate’s explanation of hermethod when working isspecifically to support others intomaking their own work and sheincludes a short piece on creatingthe cover, thus offering the reader an insight into the way she works. The final book is by BenHaggarty and Adam Brockbank.MeZolith can be briefly, ifinadequately, summarised asStone-Age horror. Here, theoverarching narrative featuringthe young hero, Poika,incorporates a number ofelements including some of themyths of his tribe, the Kansa, wholive on the western shores of theNorth Sea Basin. These myths aresignificant, for, as Ben says: ‘I amby practice an oral storyteller butmy passion is content driven.First and foremost I lovetraditional narratives – folktales,fairy tales, epics and myths – andam happy to try to tell them well– or help others to tell them well –in any medium.’ Whilst the othertwo books are by author-illustrators, this is the work oftwo people. Adam, the artist, intalking about working with Bensays that ‘there is a lot of backand forth, it’s very collaborative,and these meetings are one of themost enjoyable parts of theprocess.’ The art Adam creates,which provides a terrific sense ofplace to the book, ‘takes anaturalistic direction. The palateis very naturalistic, which is rarein comic books. Although it ispainterly, I wanted to maintain agraphic quality, so as not to loseclarity’. Summarising the book,Ben says that ‘MeZolith isintentionally operating on manylevels – as historical fiction, as astudy of questions around malechildhood and adulthood, as aliterary study of the archaeologyof the imagination and the historyLike all goodwriting it offersspace for thereader to grow and rewards rereading““Everyone wholoves comicswants to see themreturned to asignificant place inour children’sculture““Inis 33 page 23David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Libraryof traditional motifs and as apolitical reminder that we wereall tribal peoples once’.Whilst the DFC Library willcontinue to grow, The DFC doesnot currently exist as a weeklytitle, having been closed after 43issues; a casualty of the economiccrisis. David says: ‘We still getletters and messages fromchildren who loved it over a yearafter it closed. At the Comic Exporecently a little girl, Agnes, camerushing up to buy all the issuesshe had missed. Agnes waskeeping all her precious copies ofThe DFC safely in cellophane andshe told me she and her friendcried when it closed. She was alsokeen to offer her help to bring thecomic back again.’However, this closure does notmean that The DFC is unavailable.The 43 comics can be bought assets and are proving verypopular, for instance, in schools,where a new comic can be‘released’ on a weekly basis, thusoffering that sense of anticipationthat develops passionate readers.There are hopes to revive theweekly comic, having learnt thelessons around marketing and thesubscription model that the firstrun of the title offered. As Davidstates:If we see The DFC as a little ship,it has just put back into port fora refit but will set sail in a yearor so more seaworthy, and moreexciting and happily, with manyof the same crew. After the joy itbrought to readers, probably themost exciting thing that The DFCdid was to bring UK comicdrawing and writing talenttogether. The artists and authorshave been so enthusiastic andinvolved and have certainlybeen an inspiration to me. The enthusiasm of allinvolved, both readers andmakers, has also been revealedin the amount of fan art andwriting it generated, along withManga, which has similarlyinspired fans to become creators.Given this, Davidargues that thereis another way ofseeing comics,that is, asinspiring andgenerating newstories and art.He says ‘comicworkshops arehugely popular,especially if thereis a storytellingartist actuallypresent. Katewent into asecondary schoolthe other day andwowed them.They’d neverseen anythinglike her work andshe made themfeel as if they too could join in’. – The passion and enthusiasm tocreate new stories in the mediumfor younger readers and inspirenew creators is also visible inmany other places, making thisan ideal time to create agenuinely diverse collection foryounger readers in libraries andelsewhere. The DFC Libraryshould form a key element inthese collections. As David says,everyone who loves comics wantsto see them returned to asignificant place in our children’sculture and wants to see themexcite young readers as well asolder ones. For more information on the DFCLibrary, go toMel Gibson is based at NorthumbriaUniversity where she lectures in childhoodstudies. Her extensive research andpublications have focused predominantlyon comics and their audiences. Her website on comic studies is athttp://www.dr-mel-comics.co.uk/

We don’t need just the DFC, we needs lots of comics, and what’s more, we can make them. Let’s get to it!

Northumbria Research Link

Northumbria Research Link
Citation: Gibson, Mel (2010) We don’t need just the DFC, we needs lots of comics, and what’s more,  
we can make them. Let’s get to it! Inis Magazine (33). pp. 19-23. 
Published by: Children’s Books Ireland
URL: 
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Inis 33 page 19
HEN adults in Ireland
and Britain think
about comics for
children, they typically draw on 
a rich set of memories of a large
number of titles, covering a range
of genres from humour to action.
In some cases those remembered
titles were divided into niche
markets according to age and
gender, which meant that one
would look to what slightly older
readers than oneself were reading
with longing, whilst others were
seen as having an appeal to both
boys and girls and across age
ranges. Narratives were often
ongoing and the sense of
anticipation, the urge to find out
what happened next, was a
significant motivation to keep
reading, something further
increased by having to wait for
the next edition. These were
publications young readers
owned as well, and often titles
they chose themselves, generating
an intense affection and loyalty.
Another component of the power
of comics was that this was
material that was
disapproved of by some
adults and professions
(indeed, some children
were not allowed comics).
This disapproval helped
make them a valued part
of children’s culture and
also made the medium a
significant source of
reading for pleasure across
a number of generations of
readers.
‘We Don’t Need Just The DFC,
We Need Lots of Comics. 
And What’s More, We Can
Make Them. Let’s Get to It!’
David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Library 
Mel Gibson
Comics have too often been dismissed as unsophisticated,
popular culture texts or as a phase of reading which children
are encouraged to move out of towards more ‘worthy’ literary
fare. Mel Gibson, in exploring the recent comics-book initiative
by David Fikling, The DFC, defends the attraction and value of
comics culture and the complexity of its multimodal narratives. 
Comic storytelling,
words and pictures
together, should be
a natural right for 
all our children
“
“
W
Inis 33page 20
David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Library
a number of generations of
readers.
Yet, in the 1990s and onwards,
were one to look for periodicals
for children, while there might be
a section in a shop that
looked like it offered
similar material, if one
were to look closer one
would discover that
the vast majority were
actually magazines
focused on a specific
franchise, or set of
products, so
functioning as
advertising. In
addition, one would
find that they generally
contained very few
comic strips or other
narratives (and even
fewer ongoing ones).
The slow
disappearance of the
children’s weekly
comic market, to be
replaced by magazines, is partly
due to the fact that publishing
periodicals which focus on
products is cheaper than
developing and supporting those
creating ongoing narratives. 
Further, far from being
marketed to children and adults
(a challenging balancing act that
comic publishers took on board),
the primary target for most recent
children’s periodical publishing is
clearly adults, framing periodical
publishing either as a way of
entertaining the bored child on a
car journey (an occasional
purchase), or as an educational
tool (thus tied to ‘test’ culture,
rather than ‘reading’ culture). The
lack of comic books for children
removes one way in which the
child can have a powerful sense
of ownership. It also removes the
motivation to read from the joy of
engaging with an engrossing
serial narrative. In cultures where
there were once over fifty titles
for girls, the most popular of
which circulated 800,000 to 1
million per week, never mind
those published for boys or those
that appealed to all, this could be
seen as a crime against reading
for pleasure and as short-
changing children. 
It was partly as a response to
this contemporary paucity of
weekly publications for children
that David Fickling embarked on
creating The DFC, an anthology
comic, in 2008. Kate Brown,
creator of The Spider Moon, one of
the first DFC Library titles, says
of the original comic, ‘I had
immense faith in The DFC, and I
still do. I would have sawn my
hands off to get something like
that when I was a kid! My
understanding was that it was to
be like a children’s TV channel …
a variety of things that were
either stand-alone strips or things
that a child could follow episode-
by-episode over the months. It
was to be pure storytelling,
serious quality goodness. It
sounded wonderful to me!’ 
It was, as this suggests, a title
created primarily from a love of
the medium of comics and an
urge to foster a similar love
amongst others. It drew together
a terrific group of creators
engaged with the medium. David
is a passionate advocate for
comics, arguing that:
David Fickling Books is a story
house first and foremost. That is
what drives us. It is not devoted
to the book per se, it is devoted to
the story, and narrative
excellence in all its forms. Comic
storytelling, words and pictures
together, is a tradition as old as
writing itself. This combination
of words and pictures should be
a natural right for all our
children. We threw away our
hugely successful comic industry
in the UK, not because children
don’t like comics but for very
short-sighted commercial
reasons. With The DFC we
weren’t trying to restore the old
comics. It wasn’t a nostalgia trip.
We realised that the UK and
Ireland are the odd ones out in
world culture, in that we are
It was partly as a response to this
contemporary paucity of weekly
publications for children that David Fickling
embarked on creating The DFC
“
“
Inis 33 page 21
David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Library
amongst the few cultures
without a proper comic culture
for our children and I believe it is
enormously to their detriment.
The DFC was just a brand new
comic to say we have some of the
most talented comic storytellers
in the world.
The DFC drew on and
developed the growing number
of creators who wanted to make
comics and graphic novels which
appeal to all readers, but
particularly younger ones.
During the 1980s and onwards
the graphic novel, typically
created for adult or older teenage
readers, grew to become a
significant aspect of the medium
as published in English. Here
narratives could
unfold over one,
or more,
volumes, some
being originally
envisaged as a
single story arc,
whilst others
drew together
what had been
monthly editions
of a comic into 
a bound volume.
Like the prose
novel, the
graphic novel
covers a huge
range of themes
and genres.
However, whilst
that market is
now well
established, the focus on material 
for older readers 
has sometimes meant that
material for younger readers has
been given 
less emphasis. Combined with
the disappearance of weekly
comics for children, this has
created a situation where, as
Adam Brockbank, one of the
creators of MeZolith, states ‘we
are in danger of having a
generation of children who are
unfamiliar with the language of
comics’. This is significant in that,
in a world where competency in
multiple literacies is considered
important and people need to be
skilled readers of images and
texts that combine in a range of
ways, comics offer an effective
way of developing the ability to
read both words and pictures, as
well as the grammar of the comic
itself (through page layout and
the use of speech balloons, for
instance). In essence, comics offer
both the joy of reading for
pleasure and a thorough
understanding of how complex
texts drawing on a range of
literacies work and are so
important for several reasons.
David Fickling, in developing
the DFC Library, the first three
volumes of which have just been
published (with another three
due in autumn 2010 which have a
slightly younger ‘feel’), is, then,
drawing on wider European
models of comic and graphic
novel publishing and marketing
in gathering together the stories
first published in the weekly
comic into albums formatted like
those of Asterix. This aspect of the
overall DFC project is going well,
with very positive responses to
the books, suggesting that the
changing perceptions of graphic
novels may have created a new
understanding of the value and
potential of the medium. As Dave
Comics offer an
effective way of
developing the
ability to read both
words and
pictures, as well as
the grammar of the
comic itself
“
“
Inis 33page 22
David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Library
Shelton, creator of DFC Library
title Good Dog, Bad Dog, argues:
‘With the medium enjoying
greater acceptance among adults
now, it only makes sense to cater
for the younger generation too.’
The first three volumes offer a
clear picture of the intended 
diversity of the DFC Library. Good
Dog, Bad Dog contains three
stories, the first setting the scene
regarding the establishing of the
partnership of Detectives McBoo
and Bergman, the latter focusing
on two of their cases ‘The Golden
Bone of Alexandria’ (with Faz
Choudhury colouring) and ‘The
Dogs’ Dinner’. The range of
references here goes far beyond
comics, including, as Dave says,
‘Laurel and Hardy, noir films and
Billy Wilder’. This combination of
detective thriller and gag strip
with anthropomorphic characters
is very funny and also builds in a
range of references for the reader
to discover at their leisure. As
Dave says: 
The references to things like
Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting
Nighthawks in the stories aren’t
just for adult readers, they’re
also for the future selves of
young readers. There were a lot
of references in things in my own
childhood comic-reading, in
strips like Judge Dredd, that passed
me by at the time but that I
eventually twigged to in later life.
So it’s not just for the parent now,
it’s for the 8-year-old in five or ten
years’ time, discovering Hopper
for the first time and having a
dim recollection of where he’s
seen something like it before. 
Thus, like all good writing, it
offers space for the reader to
grow and rewards rereading. 
The second of the titles is The
Spider Moon by Kate Brown,
which is a beautiful fantasy
adventure in one long story arc
that will unfold over several
volumes. Kate says ‘when I was
drafting The Spider Moon, I
wanted to try and make sure it
worked as a weekly chapter-based
piece, and would also work as a
piece to be read in one go’. She
goes on to add:
Basically, when it was suggested
that I try making an adventure
story, and I had to try and think
of a way of doing it, I thought
back to the things that I loved
when I was a kid. Television was
my main source of inspiration as
I wanted to recreate an
atmosphere similar to Mysterious
Cities of Gold, Belle & Sebastian,
Ulysses 31 andWilly Fogg. They
were a massive part of why I
began to love storytelling and so,
in a way, The Spider Moon was an
homage and my way of saying
thank you to the things that
inspired me as a child. 
Kate’s explanation of her
method when working is
specifically to support others into
making their own work and she
includes a short piece on creating
the cover, thus offering the 
reader an insight into the way 
she works. 
The final book is by Ben
Haggarty and Adam Brockbank.
MeZolith can be briefly, if
inadequately, summarised as
Stone-Age horror. Here, the
overarching narrative featuring
the young hero, Poika,
incorporates a number of
elements including some of the
myths of his tribe, the Kansa, who
live on the western shores of the
North Sea Basin. These myths are
significant, for, as Ben says: ‘I am
by practice an oral storyteller but
my passion is content driven.
First and foremost I love
traditional narratives – folktales,
fairy tales, epics and myths – and
am happy to try to tell them well
– or help others to tell them well –
in any medium.’ Whilst the other
two books are by author-
illustrators, this is the work of
two people. Adam, the artist, in
talking about working with Ben
says that ‘there is a lot of back
and forth, it’s very collaborative,
and these meetings are one of the
most enjoyable parts of the
process.’ The art Adam creates,
which provides a terrific sense of
place to the book, ‘takes a
naturalistic direction. The palate
is very naturalistic, which is rare
in comic books. Although it is
painterly, I wanted to maintain a
graphic quality, so as not to lose
clarity’. Summarising the book,
Ben says that ‘MeZolith is
intentionally operating on many
levels – as historical fiction, as a
study of questions around male
childhood and adulthood, as a
literary study of the archaeology
of the imagination and the history
Like all good
writing it offers
space for the
reader to grow 
and rewards 
rereading
“
“
Everyone who
loves comics
wants to see them
returned to a
significant place in
our children’s
culture
“
“
Inis 33 page 23
David Fickling, The DFC and the DFC Library
of traditional motifs and as a
political reminder that we were
all tribal peoples once’.
Whilst the DFC Library will
continue to grow, The DFC does
not currently exist as a weekly
title, having been closed after 43
issues; a casualty of the economic
crisis. David says: ‘We still get
letters and messages from
children who loved it over a year
after it closed. At the Comic Expo
recently a little girl, Agnes, came
rushing up to buy all the issues
she had missed. Agnes was
keeping all her precious copies of
The DFC safely in cellophane and
she told me she and her friend
cried when it closed. She was also
keen to offer her help to bring the
comic back again.’
However, this closure does not
mean that The DFC is unavailable.
The 43 comics can be bought as
sets and are proving very
popular, for instance, in schools,
where a new comic can be
‘released’ on a weekly basis, thus
offering that sense of anticipation
that develops passionate readers.
There are hopes to revive the
weekly comic, having learnt the
lessons around marketing and the
subscription model that the first
run of the title offered. As David
states:
If we see The DFC as a little ship,
it has just put back into port for
a refit but will set sail in a year
or so more seaworthy, and more
exciting and happily, with many
of the same crew. After the joy it
brought to readers, probably the
most exciting thing that The DFC
did was to bring UK comic
drawing and writing talent
together. The artists and authors
have been so enthusiastic and
involved and have certainly
been an inspiration to me. 
The enthusiasm of all
involved, both readers and
makers, has also been revealed
in the amount of fan art and
writing it generated, along with
Manga, which has similarly
inspired fans to become creators.
Given this, David
argues that there
is another way of
seeing comics,
that is, as
inspiring and
generating new
stories and art.
He says ‘comic
workshops are
hugely popular,
especially if there
is a storytelling
artist actually
present. Kate
went into a
secondary school
the other day and
wowed them.
They’d never
seen anything
like her work and
she made them
feel as if they too could join in’. 
– The passion and enthusiasm to
create new stories in the medium
for younger readers and inspire
new creators is also visible in
many other places, making this
an ideal time to create a
genuinely diverse collection for
younger readers in libraries and
elsewhere. The DFC Library
should form a key element in
these collections. As David says,
everyone who loves comics wants
to see them returned to a
significant place in our children’s
culture and wants to see them
excite young readers as well as
older ones. 
For more information on the DFC
Library, go to
Mel Gibson is based at Northumbria
University where she lectures in childhood
studies. Her extensive research and
publications have focused predominantly
on comics and their audiences. 
Her website on comic studies is at
http://www.dr-mel-comics.co.uk/


http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/249/1/Inis-Magazine-33.pdf

We don’t need just the DFC, we needs lots of comics, and what’s more, we can make them. Let’s get to it!

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