Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Bugger

Just seen that Random House has decided to pull the plug, so unless someone decides to buy it The DFC will be no more. The DFC was a wonderful comic, getting in from work on a Friday and seeing it on my table gave me a nice comfortable feeling that I'm really going to miss.
On a personal level this sucks as I had a strip, Astrodog, ready to go with them, it's pretty much fully penciled and I'm incredibly proud of it.
I don't suppose it'd hurt now to post some of the older version of Astrodog. Here's page one from when I'd been asked do do it as a half page comic. I don't usually pimp myself on here, but if anyone likes it and has any ideas who'd be interested in publishing it let me know.

8 comments:

thekelvingreen said...

You know that I loved Astrodog, so I hope he does find a home!

There are other options beyond online publication too. The print-on-demand services seem to be getting better, and don't seem to have been hit too badly by the financial meltdown happening elsewhere, so that's an option. Of course, that doesn't help from the perspective of packing in the day job.

How about the people who published Best New Manga? Is there anything that can be done in that direction perhaps?

Jim Tyson said...

Bad news about the DFC. I too looked forward to seeing it arrive through my letterbox every Friday. UK anthology comics were such a huge part of my life as a kid- the DFC was a contemporary weekly fix- equivalent of those halcyon days.

Loving the look of Astrodog, by the way. He must find a home! Genuinely gutted its likely I won't be seeing him in the DFC. Fingers crossed for a new buyer.

Incidentally, I discovered your work through the Best New Manga collections, and have been occasionally visiting this blog and appreciating your work. I too have humble comic artist aspirations (nowhere near as far along the path as yourself, however), so it was with some surprise that I discovered the other day that we share the same employers! I work just up the road from you in Kendal.

Anyway, keep up the excellent comic work, and all the best for the future.

Cheers,

Jim

Nik Holmes said...

Hi Paul, its been a while since I visited your blog so it's great to see your illustration work continue to move onwards and upwards, however it's such a shame to hear about the DFC. Here's hoping AstroDog does indeed find himself a good home.

Danny said...

This, it goes without saying, is spectacularly awful... Like kelvingreen I've been extremely fond of Astrodog for a long time. Was especially looking forward to seeing him in print in a national comic.

Really hope you can find a new outlet soon. Online would be good, but I think this deserves a life in print...

Presumably there'll be no wrangling over rights or anything?

(PS Apologies in advance - this may be a double post - Blogger wasn't being very nice to my first attempt...)

Faff said...

Oh bugger. Sorry but this is just complete crud. All I can say is Astrodog has to find a home and if you're not prepared to pimp yourself I will.

Send me decent PDF's of the actual item and I will bloody well chase every potential market for Astrodog that I can think of.

You're a fantastic artist and writer and you really need to start believing that and selling yourself.

So don't waste your time with depression, get fired up and do something with this.

shane oakley said...

what a bummer! so sorry about that, paul.
you know i'm in love with ASTRODOG, think it's got charm, style and wit to spare, wonderful stuff.

try TOP SHELF. then SLAVE LABOUR, putting it out as a landscape comic. try HARPER COLLINS, or just push it to IMAGE and do it that way, i can help with a contact if need be.
don't just waste it online, it deserves to be on paper, on shelves, in hands.

and soldier on, got that new TOXIC comic coming soon, if that's a hit, y could be a regular contributor, and there's that guy oakley, always after getting you a gig or two(not much, i know, but it counts).
don't lose sight of your goals, do what you do best, you'll find a place, or a place will find you!

Gary Crutchley said...

I'm with the rest, Paul,really sorry to hear about the DFC.
As well as Shane's suggestions there's "myebook" on line,
and blue line pro website have just started an online publishing biz.
"ComicsXP".
Small consolation I know and I'm sorry I can't offer more suggestions.

paulhd said...

Kelvin - Constable & Robinson (BNM pubs) pretty much only do anthologies when it come to comics. POD would be a possibility, and I have considered for a temporarily shelved project.
Jim - Thanks for commenting, I checked out your work on LJ, really nice stuff. DFC certainly appealed to the nostalgia for British weeklies, probably unrealistic to hope that they could've spearheaded a movement, but didn't stop me hoping. Weird you working just down the road for the same place, possbile we've even bumped into each other.
Nik - Welcome back Nik! Pleased you think my stuff's progressing. Hopefully losing DFC as a home for Astro is just a stumble.
Danny - Yeah, I think print would be nicer than online, but I'm cool with both. Can't see there being any rights problems, I never got to that stage. Although I have no idea what The DFC bods intend to do with the work they;ve been running. WIll there be collections and some strips going straight to collections? Dunno, be nice though.
Peter - Yeah, it does suck, but don't worry, I will pimp Astro out. Depression is indeed an utter waste of time, and never welcome, unfortunately it tends to invite itself!
Shane - Astro gets his charm, style and wit from me! Going with a book publisher like Collins is interesting, someone metioned Walker books to me, which is odd as they saw a couple of Astodog pics back when it was a picture book idea. A regular Toxic gig would be great, looking forward to seeing the finished comic in a couple of weeks. The Oakley scripts definitely count! Weirdly I think the DFC/Astrodog thing is helping me think more seriously about my goals.
Dribbs - There's some great online comics, but I'm thinking Astrodog as online as an addition to a print version. I guess I just originally saw him as being on paper so have a hard time re-adjusting.