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

A Comic Convention Returns to Glasgow

It has been some 15 years since Glasgow hosted a comics convention with the last of the GlasCACs, the Glasgow Comic Art Conventions. Since then Scotland has had 2 Oxfam Comics Days in Edinburgh, 3 Hi-Exs in Inverness, 4 Dundee Comics Days as part of that city's Literature Festival and 5 Moniaive Comics Festivals near Dumfries.

While Moniaive has faded into history and Hi-Ex is taking a well deserved break, Oxfam and Dundee are both due back in 2011 in the summer and autumn respectively. However to tide Scottish comics fans over until then the organisers of the twice yearly Glasgow Comic and Toy Fair, Sha Nazir and John Farman, have taken the plunge and announced the new Glasgow Comic Con.

The convention will take place on Saturday 18 June 2011 in Glasgow's Mackintosh Church Arts and Heritage Centre at Queen's Cross with the doors open from 10am to 6pm. The first guests to be announced are V For Vendetta artist David Lloyd and local lads, artist Frank Quitely and writer Mark Millar (at his fourth comics event in Glasgow in five months). Tickets are priced at £7.50 and went on sale at the Glasgow comic and toy fair held last Saturday. They will be available to the rest of the country when the event's website goes live soon.

The convention will be run in partnership with the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society with half of all profits going to the arts education and outreach work undertaken by the charity.

There are more details about the convention on its Facebook page.

There will be more details about the convention on its website when it goes live.

STRIP Magazine editor at Lancaster comics event on 19th March

Lancaster's Storey Creative Industries Centre will host a comic and science fiction fair on Saturday 19th March.

A must for all collectors of Doctor Who, Marvel and DC Comics, film posters, trading cards and toys, along with an appearance by Star Wars robot R2D2,  John Freeman, editor of the upcoming STRIP Magazine and downthetubes.net will be at this event - and we're sure some local Lancaster-based comic creators will also be putting in appearance, too.

The Fair opens at 12 noon, admission £1.

• For enquiries about exhibition stalls contact mse.events@yahoo.com

•  Click here for a Google Map of the location

Sneek peek of 2000AD Lawgiver prop at National Space Centre's BritSciFi event

TV legend Gerry Anderson is to join the crew of Leicester's National Space Centre on 19th - 20th March for a celebration of British science fiction that also includes an appearance by Blake's 7's Gareth Thomas and a sneek peek look at the new Judge Dredd Lawgiver replica.

2000AD will be giving fans a world exclusive and allowing you a never before seen “sneak peek” at the new licensed replica Judge Dread Lawgiver MkII, made by Jon Scott of Great Scotts Props.


Gerry Anderson MBE, British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his shows such as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Fireball XL5, Space: 1999 and Joe 90, to name but a few, will be making a rare appearance next month as he joins the crew of the National Space Centre to celebrate all things science fiction and British.

Appearing on both days of the event, visitors will be able to meet the man who created the Supermarionation technique, that made the series he produced so ground breaking.

Anderson will be joined by a whole host of guests and characters from the past 50 years (with more to be announced), including Gareth Thomas who played the lead role of Blake in the iconic TV series Blake’s 7.

Alongside these guests will be displays and talks by Mat Irvine and Mike Tucker on the launch of their new book that charts their amazing careers leading the teams in the BBC Visual Effects Departments.  Between them they have worked on hundreds of shows including Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and Rentaghost.

An amazing display of original props and costumes will be guarded over by an invasion force of Daleks, who are out in force to raise money for Children in Need… and you thought they had no heart!

The original K9 will be joining Doctor Who, Torchwood, Spooks and Primeval writer James Moran, for some cozy chats on writing science fiction. James will not be alone as the Primeval team also be there to talk about the series.

Talks are still ongoing with more guests and participants, so all eyes should be on the sky as you never know who could be dropping in next!

The National Space Centre is the UK's largest visitor attraction and research facility dedicated to space. It opened to the public in June 2001 and was co-founded by The University of Leicester and Leicester City Council.

More info: www.spacecentre.co.uk/Page.aspx/324/BritSciFi/