That’s kind of all I got to say about that…! Thank you for taking a look, and I hope it succeeds!!!

I neglected to take a camera, which was pretty stupid of me, but you can see photos from the event at Sarah McIntyre’s journal here!

The comic itself is absolutely beautiful. It was lovely to see kids (and adults) sitting round and reading it from cover to cover! One little guy got really squealingly excited when he realised he would be getting a new issue every weekend (“Every weekend?! EVERY weekend…?!!”). If you never got your hands on one of the Issue Zero preview Phoenixes (Phoeni?) then now you can, by the way! It’s up here: https://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/free-digi-phoenix/ And please do consider supporting the comic by subscribing or getting your issues every week in Waitrose stores and selected children’s bookshops (with more outlets to follow!) The comic itself houses many diverse storytelling and art styles from many UK creators and buying it is a good way to a) support the UK industry and b) have some fun.

Here’s a quick teaser panel from Episode One of The Lost Boy…

I’ve finished thumbnailing it now, so all I have to do is draw the rest of it! Woo! I hope those who will be following the story as it unfolds will enjoy it. I have definitely enjoyed making it…! For those who are following along, you MIGHT have guessed by now that a large part of The Lost Boy revolves around a map. Or, more specifically, map pieces. If you keep an eye on the TLB page on the Phoenix site, you can print out the map chunks as the hero finds them, and put them together with him as he goes along! :D The first one is up now…

Happy printing and arranging! ;D

Here’s a button to press whilst you peruse these pics: instantboss.org

Cakes! :D~

Some guy who might have been a bit important at the launch party (that’s John Aggs, DON’T YOU KNOW) and a spectacular furry thing atop his shoulder… what IS that!?

There he is again!

Well… he likes the comic! Gentle readers: this is Bob. He used to belong to Sonia Leong, who passed him to Emma Vieceli, who passed him recently to me! His full name is Floppy Genghis-Bob (on account of having three mistresses and three different personas, haha) and he’s accompanied me to all recent comic events. He might also have his own Facebook page… (even I don’t have a Facebook page!)

So yeah, dates! The private view evening is from 7pm-9pm on Saturday 30th April, and both Paul and I will be there. It’s a free event with drinks and nibbles, so do come along! It would be nice to see you all! If you are unable to make the evening, the exhibition is open to the public from 1st May – 29th May, and of course both Paul and I will be in the Comic Village at MCM Expo.

I keep any events I’m definitely attending up-to-date on the bottom of the front page of my site, so check them out and I hope to see you there! :)

Click to embiggen…

So. This is: DFC presents – The Phoenix. It will be very much the same familiar style and presentation of comic as before: a weekly aimed at a similar audience of 8 – 12 yrs (though as we saw last time, anyone and everyone should enjoy something inside!) It aims to launch First Quarter 2012.

DFC (David Fickling Comics) is its own company now, with its own new sparkly office. Once again we have The Lovely Ben Sharpe and The Wonderful Will Fickling at the helm. David himself is not directly involved this time. It is no longer a part of Random House and has its own funding. We had the rug ripped out from under us last time, and rest assured it will not happen again.

As a further note: The DFC Library is also a separate entity and, like The Phoenix, sits independantly. Perhaps we can consider them cousins or siblings…? ^_^

No holding page on the internets as of yet, the old DFC page redirects to David Fickling Books… but I’m sure we’ll get one soon, and will link here when we do! Any more info as and when anyone can confirm. I will post it. I’m sure I don’t need to explain how much The DFC meant to a lot of people… I *PROMISE* The Phoenix will rock you all once again!

For now, GET EXCITED FOR THE PHOENIX! And spread the word!

Please give all your support to this comic!

We raffled off a large print of one of the original DFC covers of The Spider Moon, and also of course we had the auction… I was VERY happy with the result! We raised a lot of cash for Mind and also, in a rather cool twist, the winning bidders turned out to be the lovely folk at The Story Museum, which is about 10mins walk from our flat! If you live nearby you should keep an eye on this place. It certainly looks awesome. Oh, I love Oxford so much :D

Lots of my most favourite people were able to come along, so it was just such a cheery event! In a total surprise, some friends from Devon drove all the way up for the evening. It was super-awesome as I’ve not seen those guys for such a long time. My editor for The Spider Moon (a.k.a. Lovely Ben) was able to come as well, which was super-awesome too!

Here’s some pics that Paul took under the cut…

Setting up! I love how Blackwell framed the images. The Bekka-sitting-on-the-moon cover was the raffled image. It went to a lovely family home :D

Books!

All the DFC Library books together! It was great seeing them like this. Please do look out for Vern & Lettuce by Sarah, Mo-Bot High by Neill, and Monkey Nuts by Bob & Lorenzo out later this year! They’ll make great Christmas presents, won’t they? Eh? Eh? *nudge*

Crowd! (Including Philip Pullman! He’s just this guy, you know? somebody I admire a huge amount, so I was totally overwhelmed to meet him. We spoke about a few things, including my boots. I hope that I did not make a fool of myself.)

We had sketchbooks and drawing materials out on the tables! They were well-used! (Would like to point out here that David Fickling was making bowties cool long before Doctor Who ;p)

Paul is probably making a masterpiece! ;D Or could he be drawing a certain shining knight…? ;D

Also! Please do check out my friend Lisa’s collection of photographs from the event. She’s very talented! :D

The rest of the weekend was spent with friends playing video games and MtG and watching silly things on YouTube and eating nice things and talking about comics and books and films and basically everything we all love. Couldn’t be better! :D