In Britain, little Philip read morally edifying comics, such as the Eagle... It was edited by the Reverend Marcus Morris and was absolutely full of stuff about being a good chap and helping others. Boys of my age loved it because of Dan Dare [the stirringly British sci-fi space pilot]. Adults liked it because of the moral tone.”
Heh, Dan Dare is such a British thing. I recall reading somewhere that Capt. Jack Harkness from Doctor Who was originally described as having "the jawline of Dan Dare, the smile of a bastard" before they cast John Barrowman.
He learned from them fast cutting between scenes, fantastical milieux, spare dialogue, quickfire narrative momentum – not to mention how to discombobulate readers by shifting times and introducing characters elliptically.
You know, now that they mention it now, the His Dark Materials trilogy actually does have a very similar kind of pacing to comics.
I ask this former teacher if he’s looking forward to all state schools becoming academies outside local authority control, in line with government policy (although this has recently been watered down). “I think it’s a disturbing idea.” Why? “Education and health were always matters of charity. You educated children and you helped the sick because they were good things to do, not because you were going to make money out of them. If you let the money-making principle, the profit-seeking motive, anywhere near education and health, things go bad.
When a state service is run more for profit than actually providing the service they're supposed to an efficient and effective manner, they're something very wrong.
They’re going to insist that every child is taught in exactly the same way.
While I'd argue setting some standards in education are worth striving for, some children certainly need to have the curriculum adapted to their needs so as to maximize their ability to learn.
The Book of Dust is Pullman’s long-awaited volume in the His Dark Materials sequence. It’s not a prequel or a sequel, he explains, but a long book that will feature some old and some new characters. Do you have a date to hand in the manuscript? “I never do. The publisher’s given up expecting that from me.”
Hell, I'm still waiting, and it's been 8 years since Once Upon a Time in the North was released!
He concedes that writing the John Blake comic slowed the progress of writing the novel. “It was bit of an interruption, but it doesn’t take up much of my attention any more.”
Hey, I liked reading The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, so if he's still writing, there won't be any complaints from me.