The new age of the comic

Not content with having put Philip Pullman's best-loved characters in front of millions of youngsters, Mr Fickling has set himself the task of reinventing a form of entertainment that seemed to have crashed-landed with Dan Dare and Desperate Dan.

For the celebrated children's book editor and publisher is having a stab at relaunching that one-time essential part of every childhood, the comic.

These have been dark days for the weekly comic since the golden age of Bunty and Beano, the Victor and the Eagle.

Some will no doubt say good riddance, on the basis that His Dark Materials and Harry Potter are altogether more stimulating for young minds than Minnie the Minx and Corky the Cat.

But Mr Fickling believes comics should once again win a weekly place in young lives, alongside books.

And given that his recent titles have included such gems as Lyra's Oxford, by Pullman and Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, you can hardly put him down as someone dismissive of quality reading.

There is something touchingly romantic about his latest business adventure and regard for the comic.

He will even tell you that comics helped to shape his career.

"I'm a book editor but I reckon a lot of my story sensibility came from reading comics. They are great story carriers," he says. "Stories are the thing that draw children in. Stories are what draws everyone in. "

The project, masterminded from his central Oxford offices, has been shrouded in almost as much secrecy as the contents of Philip Pullman's Once Upon A Time in The North, newly published by the David Fickling imprint (part of Random House's children's range.) "Welcome to comic central control," he beamed, leading me down to the basement, where I was to be introduced to Robot Girl, Good Dog, Bad Dog and Sid the Monkey, some of the colourful characters to be featured in DFC.

"This is something, I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to publish comics or at least books like Tintin or Asterix."

Page one of a pre-publication dummy comic suggests that DFC stands for Dangerously Fragrant Cheese.

Mr Fickling is soon reeling off a list of other options - "Damn Fine Looking, Damned From Conception, my initials - whatever you like.

"I can still remember the heart-pounding excitement of receiving my very own comic on the doormat every week.

"I believe the DFC can bring that to every child in the land."

Casting his mind back 40-odd years, he recalls being A Boy's Own fan. "I used to quite like reading Bunty as well, actually," he confessed.

Before I can admit to enjoying the odd flick through Jackie, he makes clear that DFC is not a throwback to the comic's golden age in the 50s and 60s.

As a successful businessman he knows that nostalgia has no place in the basement of 31 Beaumont Street, where the small team includes his son, Will.

"This isn't a revival. For today's children it is almost a brand new form of entertainment. No advertising, just 100 per cent storytelling delight. Joy in an envelope."

The fact that the man he reveres as our greatest story teller since Robert Louis Stevenson will be contributing a weekly strip certainly gives real weight to his words.

Oxford's own Philip Pullman, who will be working on the weekly strip entitled The Adventures of John Blake, says he is delighted to be involved with the comic.

When you ask Mr Pullman to talk about his influences, you expect to hear about Milton and Blake.

But the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy readily reflected on the impact that the likes of Batman and Superman had on him.

"I have always loved comics since I discovered them as a boy, living in Australia in the mid 1950s. At the time my father was serving in the RAF."

In some parts of the world at that time, Superman and Batman comics were banned, with censors apparently fearful that young minds would be corrupted by caped superheroes in tights.

But the young Pullman managed to get his hands on the precious comics.

"I thought they were the most exciting thing that I had seen in my life," he told me. "What I particularly liked about them was the speed of the storytelling.

"The stories were told quickly and could be understood so easily. When I came back to England there was the Eagle and Dan Dare."

He can still vividly recall the space pilot's great enemy, the Mekon, who was green, with a tiny body and a huge great bald head, and who sat on a little saucer that floated in mid-air.

"When David decided to start DFC, I leapt at the chance of being involved," Mr Pullman said, breaking off from a marathon book-signing session, in advance of his Town Hall appearance in the Oxford Literary Festival.

"The chance to work in this wonderfully fluid form was too good to miss. I've had a lot of fun with the story of John Blake."

Illustrations have always played an important part in Pullman's books. And his John Blake comic adventures will be illustrated by the talented John Aggs.

Mr Fickling is particularly pleased with the illustrators he has enlisted, pointing to the fact that a number of them work in Hollywood as production designers on multi-million-pound films like the Harry Potter series. They, too, needed little persuading, it seems.

"We have some wonderful comic illustrators in this country," he said. "But many of them work for comics published abroad."

He is soon producing examples of their work for him. There are robot girls clutching mobile phones, doggy detectives in pursuit of criminal genius Wah Wah Johnson and a monkey preparing to sort out a moody volcano demon called Boom Boom.

"Only completely original material will be published in DFC," Mr Fickling replies when I mention the absence of any characters from television, films or computer games.

He points out the transfer is traditionally the other way, with many of the highest-grossing movies - Spiderman, Batman and Superman films - moving from comics to the cinema. He sees no reason why the likes of Robot Girl or John Blake should not one day make a similarly lucrative journey to the big screen.

"We want the material to be so good that people will want to buy the film rights."

Some of the content, like the tale of Charlie Jefferson and the Tomb of Nazalod, certainly rekindles the spirit of Tintin and Asterix.

Interestingly, there is no gender distinction that was so evident in the Valiant and Bunty era. The weekly publication will be aimed equally at boys and girls aged from eight to 12.

Mr Fickling is steeped in children's literature, beginning his career with Oxford University Press in 1977, moving on to Transworld and then to Scholastic UK, before starting David Fickling Books. In 2004, David received the British Book Award for editor of the year.

Recalling his involvement with Mr Pullman's books - all too challenging for many adults - it is surprising to hear Mr Fickling voice his fears that parents often put material in front of their offsprings that is simply too advanced. Similarly, early obsession with grammar and spelling can rob children of something that can, and should, be fun.

"Some teachers talk about reading for meaning. It's ludicrous. For me reading is what happens when children want to read.

"This is a story house more than anything else," he said with a sweeping hand gesture. "That is what combines the two things we do here. Comics are the most fantastic story form. For me, comics certainly led to books.

"Children who are equipped with the ability to tell stories are equipped for life.

"They are equipped to explain themselves to others and understand what people are saying to them."

From next month the DFC comic will become available by online subscription, although the company would dearly one day like to see the comic sold over the shop counter.

The first issue will be published on May 30 and subscribers will receive their copies in specially-designed coloured envelopes with "your comic" across the front.

With each 36-page issue (with no advertising) priced at about £3, it will strike many who used to hand over a couple of sixpences, that it is not only the content that has changed since the days of Roy of the Rovers.

The comic will be supported by a website and the content may also be developed into books and annuals.

Mr Fickling knows well enough it will be the toughest of markets to crack, given the gadgets available to children in 2008.

"Who is to say that we've got it right, until the children have read it and decide for themselves?" he pondered.

Random House is backing the project but has not put a figure on its investment. The company said that it hopes to grow subscriptions "steadily".

Random is no doubt reassured that David Fickling appears to be buzzing with the same enthusiasm he displayed when the first Pullman story landed on his desk at Oxford University Press one lunchtime.

"You know I do not want to get to 60 with people saying I was a brilliant businessman," he said. "That is not what I am. I'm a storymaker."