David Fickling Books, an imprint of Random House, has announced the "DFC," a new weekly comic for youngsters that's beginning in May of this year. We're going to go way out on a limb and postulate that "DFC" might stand for "David Fickling Comics." Call us crazy.

"For today's children it is almost a brand new form of entertainment. Only completely original material will be published in the DFC. No advertising, just 100% storytelling delight. Joy in an envelope," says Fickling. And yes, if you were around to hear David Lloyd at DragonCon last year, there's a very good reason that for British children comics are "brand new."

Anyway, the first writer to be announced to be participating in this is Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass, which had the working title of The Father, The Thing-That-Could-Be-a-Watch and the Very Big Bear. He's writing "The Adventures of John Blake," of which nothing else is known other than it will rock balls, until the final issue, which will make you so angry you'll want to punch kittens.

The DFC's website is here, and it looks like it will open in less than seventeen days from the time I write this.

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