In Review: The Boss

Mix the pupils of a single school year concept in something like Harry Potter plus the control of agents from a command centre from something like NCIS:Los Angeles with the child investigators of, say, Enid Blyton's Five Find-Outers and Dog and you have the latest title from the DFC Library, The Boss by writer John Aggs and artist Patrice Aggs.

The class of year five are on a school trip during they overhear two men plotting to steal something from the castle that they are visiting. One of the kids, known only as The Boss, quickly forms the class into teams covering the main areas of the castle as well as reconnaissance squads to find and then track the criminals.

Castle maps, video cameras with zoom lenses and mobile phones keep the class in touch with the criminals while reporting back to the Boss who tries to keep his fellow students away from the teachers while gathering enough evidence against the men to give to the police. But can a bunch of kids really save the castle's priceless illustrated manuscript from being stolen?

It is to the credit of writer John Aggs that I read The Boss straight through without even considering that it had originally been subdivided into weekly segments in The DFC comic, where this particular Boss story was called The Castle Heist. Scanning back through it again with that in mind I could see where it was split up, a few moved word balloons helping to obscure the splits, but that does not diminish the fact that this is a fast paced and involving story as the children attempt to outwit the criminals while at the same time protecting their own actions from any potential interference by their teachers. To say that this has the feel of a modern take on an Enid Blyton style adventure story may be taken by some people these days as a mark of disrespect to John Aggs, but I say it having read and enjoyed dozens of Blyton's Famous, Secret and Mystery adventure books in my youth.

Patrice Aggs' art impresses in differentiating between a posse of school children all wearing the same coloured uniforms as well as creating a convincing castle where the majority of the action is set and that the reader gets to know their way around over the course of the story. Her choice of angles in her panels keep the story interesting in what could have been a repetitive locale while her reveal of how the class capture the person they consider to be the criminal is startlingly effective.

Why do the children consider one of their number to be 'The Boss'? Who is he and, for that matter, what is his name? How does he know what to do and how are the class so good at all this 'secret agent' stuff? We aren't told and, in fact, it doesn't really matter as the story proceeds at such a fast pace that the Boss himself is onto coping with the next problem without having time for the reader to think too much about the background to the situation.

The Boss is the sort of 'kids outsmarting the adults' adventure story that children love to read, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it as well.

• There are more details of The Boss on on the David Fickling Books website.

• There are more details of John Agg's work on his blog.

• There are more details of Patrice Agg's work on her website.

In Review: Super Animal Adventure Squad

The most junior of the third batch of DFC Library titles is Super Animal Adventure Squad written and illustrated by James Turner.

Agent K (a cat), Agent Irwin (a pelican), Agent Rex (an iguana), Agent Beesley (a rather posh bee) and Agent Bearbot (a robot television, seriously) make up the Super Animal Adventure Squad controlled from a far by their boss, a unicorn with an eye-patch. The book covers two of their assignments to help save the world, The Teatime Of Doom and The Case Of The Baboon Bandit.

In the first story Doctor Nefarious, "the world's maddest mad scientist," is stealing all the cakes and pastries from bakeries across the country using mind-controlled ants which of course means that everyone will have to go without a mid-afternoon treat. The Squad raid his headquarters and end up fighting against a gigantic ant.

In the second story pirates steal the world's most valuable treasure, the Jade Baboon Of Rangoon, so that their leader Green Beard can use its secret to win the Battle Of The Spatulas. The fact that he also has all the greatest chefs in the world as his prisoners so that they cannot take part might help him along as well. The Squad are tasked to retrieve the baboon from Pirate's Cove

Turner's naive style of art initially takes a little getting used to but his writing, with its interesting characters, jokes and above all its puns, will soon win you round to the Squad's side. The first tale was single pages when originally published in the weekly DFC and it sets the scene, but it is the second story, which was two pages per week, that allows the plot to thicken as the characters get themselves into a stew. A set of agent profiles at the end of the book, along with a tongue-in-cheek page on how to draw Agent Beesley, round off a rather nice little package for kids.

There is an animated series on heavy rotation on the Disney TV channels at the moment called Phineas and Ferb in which the humans are all drawn as grotesques and there is a secret agent in the form of a platypus. Kids love it and this reminds me of it.

So this Christmas if you have to buy presents for kids who enjoy Phineas and Ferb then you could do a lot worse than giving them a copy of Super Animal Adventure Squad.

• There are more details of the Super Animal Adventure Squad on their Facebook page and on the David Fickling Books website.

• There are more details of James Turner's work on his blog.

Phoenix: a new British comic rises from the ashes of The DFC

A new British comic is in the offing, edited by former The DFC editor Ben Sharpe.

Contrary to earlier reports on Lew Stringer's blog, bleedingcool.com and elsewhere, Ben says The Phoenix is not a revival of The DFC, although its editorial team will include Will Fickling, who was heavily involved in that weekly subscription title.

"The Phoenix isn't affiliated to David Fickling Books or any other publisher," says Ben, who clearly enjoyed his time on The DFC, which gave him the chance, we gather, to look at wonderful artwork all day, and have vital conversations like 'how many nipples is it appropriate to show on strips about 30s-era crime-fighting dogs', 'do sheep really have the lung capacity to master the tuba' and 'does super-strength make a schoolgirl super-fast or actually a little bit ponderous'.

There's scant details of what format the title will take but it does seem that several DFC contributors will be involved, including Gary Northfield and Emma Vieceli.

They will be looking for submissions: Ben says he will post info on what they're particularly looking for as soon as the comic's main website goes live.

More news as we get it!

UPDATE 5 MARCH 2011: The Phoenix comic now has a website.

On a related note, three more books based strips from The DFC are due to be published in late 2011 from the David Fickling Library: Baggage from the Etherington Brothers; The Boss by John and Patrice Aggs; and Jame's Turner's marvellous Super Animal Adventure Squad.

• If you'd like to be on the early mailing list for The Phoneix, DM Ben Sharpe on Twitter

• Track news of The Phoenix comic on Twitter: http://twitter.com/search?q=thephoenixcomic

In Review: Mo-Bot High

Collected from the pages of the weekly DFC comic, Mo-Bot High is Neill Cameron's take on secondary school girls, their mobile phones and giant battle robots, all collected together into one multi-coloured hardback by the DFC Library.

Asha has moved to from London to Middleford with her father and on her first day at Midford High School as she walks into the playground, even before she has spoken to anyone, her mobile phone is downloading an app that she has not requested. Discovering that everyone is behind the bike sheds watching two giant robots battle it out as if it was an everyday event, she quickly learns that the DMC app gives her phone the ability to create a Digital Mobile Combat-Suit that she can control. Picked on by the school bullies, Asha has to quickly learn the controls of her Mo-Bot to both defend herself and to fit in with the rest of the school girls. While the teachers and parents seem oblivious to the robot battles in the school, one cleaning lady seems to be taking rather a lot of interest in the new student and her newly learned abilities.

This is very much a girls school story for the 21st century with the girls not just running the battles, whether for strength or speed, but also customising their Mo-Bots like accessories - flower patterns are an option. Yet there is no 'jolly hockey sticks' about it despite one Mo-Bot, amusingly, using a hockey stick as a weapon. Boys are around but they are sidelined in the story by the simple expediency of them preferring to use their Mo-Bots to play football. The teachers are blissfully unaware of the battles going on in the school as they are kept at arms length either by the girls hiding the Mo-Bots from them or by the sinister cleaning lady and her dinner lady associates misdirecting them. Since the DMC app does not work outside of the school grounds there isn't a problem with parents discovering them and, apparently, any battles go on out of public view.

Story-wise Mo-Bot High comes across as The Matrix as done by The Sarah Jane Adventures team with the visuals being a mix of Transformers and Tron. With the real world represented in traditional comic line art, the impressive Mo-Bots and their dynamic battles are all CGI style graphics, motion lines and bright colours - even the book's end papers are in a dazzling dayglo pink. Yet despite the apparent incongruities, Neill Cameron is able to get it to all hang together with the sinister cleaning lady always watching the children adding an air of menace in the early part of the story and her importance being revealed towards the end. Indeed the story works very well as a book and does not have the obvious weekly segments that some of the other DFC Library titles display.

Mo-Bot High is a colourful action adventure for girls with enough of an interesting back story and intriguing ending to leave me hoping for a second book.


• There are more details of Mo-Bot High including sample pages at the DFC Library website.

• There are more details about Digital Mobile Combat-Suits at Neill Cameron's Mo-Bot website and more about him on his blog.

In Review: Vern And Lettuce

Of all the books in the DFC Library already released or scheduled, Vern and Lettuce is aimed at the youngest audience so far. Written and illustrated by Sarah McIntyre, it follows the humorous antics of Vern the sheep and Lettuce the rabbit that were originally published in the first 40 issues of the DFC comic beginning in 2008.

Living in the town of Pickle Rye, Vern works in the local park keeping the grass short and attempting to control the moles who live under the ground, while Lettuce is the older sister of five young bunnies whom she regularly has to bunny-sit for (her parents obvious breed like... well you get the idea). They both live in a tower block along with an assorted array of goats, cows, pigs and even a family of polar bears.

The book begins with a series of single page stories that introduce the main characters, their friends and neighbours and which generally set the scene for the rest of the book which is the ongoing story of Vern and Lettuce deciding to enter a Britain's Got Talent style TV contest and their journey to London which inevitably doesn't go quite to plan.

In reviewing Mezolith, the most adult of the DFC Library titles so far, I described Vern and Lettuce as sweet and having read the full book in one go I stand by that description. Although aimed at younger children it is by no means sickly sweet and while the start of the book can be a little up and down depending on how funny you find each page's punchline, it sets the scene well with Vern's ongoing battle against the destructive moles and Lettuce's attempts at entertaining her unruly siblings. This then leads into the ongoing story of the duo's trip to London to get onto the TV show Barnyard Talent.

While Sarah McIntrye's other credits are as the illustrator of children's story books, as the writer as well as the illustrator of Vern and Lettuce she takes the talent show storyline that you expect to go in one simple and rather inevitable direction and twists it in a totally unexpected way into what could almost be described as an anthropomorphic Tintin or Blake and Mortimer plot. Even without this plot twist, while never blatant, there are smiles available to the more adult reader with the polar bears only moving to Pickle Rye because of global warming or Vern being worried about his carbon hoofprint.

If you are wondering why a group of the most voracious land predators on the planet are sharing a block of flats with a varied group of prey animals, or why the rabbit wears a dress while the sheep only wears a smile, then this is really not the book for you. If however you are looking for something to give the younger members of the family for their birthday or Christmas, then this comes highly recommended for them and well worth a read of yourself before you wrap it up.

• There are more details of Vern and Lettuce on the DFC Library website (along with sample pages) and also on the David Fickling Books blog.

• Sarah McIntyre also has more details of the book on her website and her blog.

Mad Scientists storm Caption 2010

(cross posted from Bugpowder with the kind permission of Daniel Fish): The Mad Scientists have retired back to their mountain core fortresses following another successful Caption in Oxford this past weekend.

I had a fun time, meeting up with the usual crew, plus a few I hadn't yet met, and attempted to create my own Frankenstein's monster with a mixture of Beer, Burgers and Comics, using my by then ink-stained fingers.

On arriving Saturday morning, after a quick browse, and depositing my new Trevor the Ant minicomic on the freebie table, I drew a page of stickers with the Dino-Saw-Us crew (Tim Winchester, Philippa Rice, Lizz 'Lizz' Lunney et al), then took part in Jeremy Day's (formerly Jeremy Dennis) apocalyptic jam comic workshop.

Then PJ Holden, who's currently working on 2000AD and the new STRIP Magazine, gave an informative interview with Matt Badham, which was followed by Lost Girls co-creator Melinda Gebbie's revealing conversation with Jenni Scott.

Paul Gravett hosted the Webcomics panel next, with PJ, Tozo creator David O'Connell, Philippa, Lizz, and Sydney Padua, making her comics convention debut (creator of the excellent Lovelace and Babbage webcomic, which I'll be catching up on as soon as I've written this).

John Miers gave a talk next, which I missed, but heard was excellent, and would have been right up my street. You can buy his book online, its beautiful stuff.

The art auction followed, then Atomik Burgers for dinner, closing with Tony Hitchman's Mad Science quiz, then back to the B and B for cocktails and dancing girls.

The next DFC Library books, out in September 2010

Sunday followed (as is traditional), starting with the DFC Library panel - Sarah McIntyre and Neill Cameron showed off the first six DFC Library books (I still can't decide which is my favourite), and shared reminiscences of the much-missed DFC Comic.

(I had the pleasure of looking over Sarah's shoulder while she sketched Melinda Gebbie - See her page for the results, )

Paul Cornell chatted about his work (Knight & Squire from DC Comics sounds great), then Sydney Padua clued us in some more on her webcomic, and her work on animation for films including Clash of the Titans and Iron Giant ("Suuupperrrrrrrmaaaaannnnnnn!!!!").

Wrapping the event off was Darryl Cunningham, who discussed his experiences which inspired his Psychiatric Tales book and other work, then the 'Comics as Mind Control' panel followed, and we all shuffled off to find our ways home.

I haven't seen those dancing girls since...

Web Links

• Official Caption web site

• Sean Azzopardi
"I was only attending the Saturday this year, but had a good time. There was a good range of talks, and a better variety of guests this year...."

• Caption 2010 By Matthew Badham


• Darryl Cunningham at Caption 2010

• Caption 2010 Report - Part 1 - by co-organiser Selina Lock

• Sarah McIntyre's CAPTION write-up

• Jenni Scott
"Mostly mellow, definitely fun, great guests and panels..."

• There's also a growing set of photos from the event on Flickr.

In Review: Good Dog, Bad Dog

It was the first of the DFC Library books to be released and Good Dog, Bad Dog is perhaps the most complete book of the three released so far. Written and illustrated by Dave Shelton, this is a fun ride through a Hollywood gangster world inhabited by anthropomorphic dogs, and the odd cat.

Containing three different tales - Dog Meets Dog, The Golden Bone Of Alexandria and The Dog's Dinner - it sets up the situation of grizzled Detective Bergman and his enthusiastic but naive partner Detective McBoo of the the Muttropolis police department. Dog Meets Dog tells of them meeting for the first time as well as setting up the world that they inhabit before the book moves on to the more substantial Golden Bone Of Alexandria with its many film noir overtones as they attempt to relocate the antique of the title. It concludes with The Dog's Dinner which is a slightly more over the top tale of hidden identities, kidnappings and lemon cake.

Dave Shelton shows off his love of old movies as well as some wild puns through the three stories. His choices of breeds of dogs for his characters are amusing and while the femme fatale is inevitably a French Poodle and the goons are bulldogs the "most dangerous dog in the city" looks anything but.

Of the three DFC Library books released so far this is the one that shows off best what the DFC comic was like. Unlike Spider Moon, which needs a follow-up to progress the story, or Mezolith, with its more mature themes, here is a book that will suit the adult purchaser either for themselves or their children but also can be given as a standalone present for young or old that doesn't require prior knowledge of the story or for the recipient to have to buy more to find out what happens.





Yet with its fun artwork, twisty plotlines and often groan inducing puns, while Good Dog, Bad Dog doesn't need a sequel, it certainly deserves one.

• There are more details of Good Dog, Bad Dog including sample pages on the DFC Library website.

• There is more information about Good Dog, Bad Dog on Dave Shelton's website.