Category: Doctor Who

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Doctor Who Graphic Novel #21: The Eye of Torment


By Scott Gray, Mike Collins, Jacqueline Rayner, Martin Geraghty, David A. Roach & various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-673-1 (TPB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Timely Seasonal Treat… 8/10

Today is the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who. Here’s another Timey-Wimey treat to celebrate a unique TV and comics institution in a periodical manner …

We Brits love comic strips, adore “characters” and are addicted to celebrity. The history of our comics includes an astounding number of comedians, Variety stars and television actors: such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Askey, Charlie Drake and so many more I’ve long forgotten and you’ve likely never heard of.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows like Ace of Wands, Timeslip, Supercar, The Clangers and countless more. If we watched or listened, an enterprising publisher made printed spectacles of them. Hugely popular anthology comics like Radio/Film Fun/TV Fun, Look-In, TV Comic, TV Tornado, and Countdown would translate light entertainment favourites into pictorial joy. It was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed strip property…

Doctor Who debuted on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with episode 1 of ‘An Unearthly Child’. Months later in 1964, TV Comic began a decades-long association, as issue #674 began ‘The Klepton Parasites’ – by an unknown author with the art attributed to illustrator Neville Main.

On 11th October 1979, Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. Turning monthly in September 1980 (#44) it’s been with us – via various iterations – ever since: proving the Time Lord is a comic star of impressive pedigree, not to be trifled with.

Panini’s UK division ensured his comics immortality by collecting all strips of every Time Lord Regeneration in a series of graphic albums – although we’re still waiting for digital versions. Each time tome focused on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer, with this one gathering almost a year’s worth of stories plucked from the annals of history and the Terran cover dates August 2014 to August 2015. These yarns all feature The Twelfth Doctor as played by Peter Capaldi in a collection of full-colour episodes all given hues from James Offredi and letters by Roger Langridge.

It all kicks off with eponymous shocker ‘The Eye of Torment’ (Doctor Who Magazine #477-480, October-December 2014). Written by Scott Gray and drawn by Martin Geraghty – with inks from infallibly rewarding David A. Roach – it finds a newly-minted incarnation of the Time Lord and capable companion Clara Oswald fetch up inside a spaceship traversing the surface of the sun.

With inescapable flavours of Armando Iannucci’s 2020 comedy sci fi vehicleAvenue 5, the good ship Pollyanna is manned solely by women working for gigajazillionaire Rudy Zoom: a rich, over-achieving narcissist in love with his own legend. Surprisingly, he’s not the actual problem: that would a semi-sentient predatory alien infection imprisoned eons ago by Sol’s gravity. “The Umbra” mimic humanoid form: magnifying and feeding on despair. Once the horror broaches Pollyanna’s invulnerable hull, it/they start picking off the crew until the newcomers find a way to stop it/them and escape…

The epic yarn leads directly into the ‘The Instruments of War’ (DWM #481-483, January-March 2015) wherein writer/artist Mike Collins, ably assisted by Roach) deposit the time travellers in Earth’s Sahara just as German General Erwin Rommel is preparing to finish the Afrika campaign. Sadly, that’s when an agent of the Rutan Horde finally disinters a world-reshaping weapon long lost by their eternal arch-enemies The Sontarans…

Forced to ally with a few of the Sontaran clone-warriors, assorted Germans of various philosophies, righteously rebellious Tuaregs and the living enigma of an honourable warrior fighting for the wrong side, The Doctor and Clara are initially separated but soldier on to save everyone with a degree of success…

Skipping #484, we next arrive as south as we can get for some ‘Blood and Ice’ served up by Jacqueline Rayner, Geraghty & Roach, with actual schoolmarm Clara and the tall, rude one claiming to be Ofsted inspectors giving a college at the bottom of the world a cautious once-over. It’s 2048, the Antarctic Treaty protecting the polar continent from resource exploitation is about to expire and something strange is happening at Snowcap University: something Dr. Patricia Audley is very unhappy to acknowledge and a situation she is working very hard to remedy. However, even with fatal accidents, mutants appearing and students vanishing, both our heroes are a bit off their game. Fans will recall that on TV, Clara had been splintered into a million alternate versions scattered throughout the timestream and finding one of herself at Snowcap has truly unsettled her. The Doctor also has qualms: last time he was here it was a military base filled with cybermen and resulted in the death of his first generation (First Doctor William Hartnell, keep up, keep up!) and first re-generation…

The disorientation doesn’t stop them solving the riddle of the place, but not before a lot of people are dead or worse…

The dramas conclude in fine style and traditional form as a holding pattern allowing the TV Doctor’s debut to catch up with his print incarnation allows DWM #475-476 to deliver a Gallifreyan-adjacent sidebar saga from Gray, Collins, Roach, Offredi & Langridge. Set during London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 ‘The Crystal Throne’ is an untold adventure of “The Paternoster Gang” (Silurian Madame Vastra, her human wife Jenny Flint and their butler Sontaran Strax) who – with assorted associates – oppose weird terror, scurrilous sedition and deranged genetic meddler Lady Cornelia Basildon-Stone for rule of the British Empire. The battle at “The Crystal Palace” is made harder by their ruthless foe, who remakes men into insectoid monsters; employing stolen Silurian technology…

Supplemented with fascinating insights from all the creatives involved in each tale and augmented by tons of sketches and other pre-publishing artwork in the Commentary section, this is a splendid book for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics another go…
All Doctor Who material © BBCtv 2015. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. All other material © 2017 its individual creators and owners. Published 2015 by Panini. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Who Graphic Novel 24: Emperor of the Daleks


By Dan Abnett, Paul Cornell, Warwick Gray, Richard Alan, John Ridgway, Lee Sullivan, Colin Andrew & various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-807-0 (TPB)

Somewhere in time, it’s always that moment just before the TV got turned on and the Time Lord was born. This year is the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who. Here’s another Timey-Wimey treat to celebrate a unique TV and comics institution in a periodical manner …

We Brits love comic strips, adore “characters” and are addicted to celebrity. The history of our comics includes an astounding number of comedians, Variety stars and television actors: such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Askey, Charlie Drake and so many more I’ve long forgotten and you’ve likely never heard of.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows like Ace of Wands, Timeslip, Supercar, The Clangers and countless more. If we watched or listened, an enterprising publisher made printed spectacles of them. Hugely popular anthology comics like Radio/Film Fun/TV Fun, Look-In, TV Comic, TV Tornado, and Countdown regularly translated light entertainment favourites into pictorial joy. It was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed strip property…

Doctor Who debuted on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with episode 1 of ‘An Unearthly Child’. Months later in 1964, TV Comic began its decades-long association, as issue #674 began ‘The Klepton Parasites’ – by an unknown author with the art attributed to illustrator Neville Main.

On 11th October 1979, Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. Turning monthly in September 1980 (#44) it’s been with us – via various iterations – ever since: proving the Time Lord is a comic star of impressive pedigree, not to be trifled with.

Panini’s UK division ensured his comics immortality by collecting all strips of every Time Lord Regeneration in a series of graphic albums – although we’re still waiting for digital versions. Each time tome focused on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer, with this one gathering stories plucked from the annals of history and the Terran recording dates November 1992 and July 1995. These yarns all feature Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy in a collection offering both monochrome and full-colour episodes. It all kicks off with sinister espionage thriller ‘Pureblood’ (from Doctor Who Magazine #193-196: November 1992 to January 1993) by writer Dan Abnett & artist Colin Andrew. Here the devious Time Lord and his formidable companion Benny save the last survivors of the Sontaran race from extinction at the hands of their immortal enemies the Rutan – despite hostage humans and a spy in the embattled clone-warriors’ midst. Why save a deadly enemy? Ah well, The Doctor has a rather convoluted plan…

The epic yarn leads directly into the ‘Flashback’ (Doctor Who Winter Special 1992, by Warwick Gray & John Ridgway) as we glimpse First Doctor (William Hartnell, keep up, keep up!) having a potentially universe- shattering falling out with his best friend: a proudly arrogant young Gallifreyan called Magnus (any guesses who he regenerates into?)

The main meat of this massive collection is eponymous epic ‘Emperor of the Daleks’ (DWM #197-202) reuniting the time meddler with his deadliest foe and their deadliest foe: Abslom Daak, a deranged maniac in love with a dead woman and determined to die gloriously exterminating Daleks…

Written by Paul Cornell and John Freeman with art from Lee Sullivan (and a chapter in full-colour courtesy of Marina Graham), the sprawling saga shows civil war between the murderous pepperpots’ creator Davros and their current supreme commander, with the Doctor (two of them, in fact) and a motley crew of allies stirring the bubbling mix and nudging the feuding megalomaniacs in a certain direction…

When the dust settles, Richard Alan & Sullivan provide a salutary epilogue in ‘Up Above the Gods’ (DWM#227, July 1995) as The Doctor explains his actions to Davros – or so, at least, the deluded devil believes…

Warwick Gray & Colin Andrew introduce a universe where The Doctor perished in his Third Regeneration: leading to a cross dimensional incursion by ours – plus Benny and Ace – to foil the ‘Final Genesis’ of Silurian/Sea Devil renegade Mortakk (from DWM #203-206) before full-colour fun returns in ‘Time & Time Again’ (#207, Cornell, Ridgway and hues-smith Paul Vyse) with all seven incarnations of the Gallivanting Gallifreyan in action to retrieve the Key to Time and stop the Black Guardian recreating the universe in his own vile image…

Abnett & Ridgeway return to the black & white days of 1840s Kent for ‘Cuckoo’ (#208-210) as Ace and Benny understandably revolt when The Doctor seeks to steal the limelight from the first woman palaeontologist Mary Anne Wesley. His motives are quite pure: what the young scientist has found is not a missing link in human evolution but something alien that its descendants are prepared to kill for…

The dramas conclude in fine style as Gray & Ridgway expose the ferocious spleen of the Doctor in full indignant mode when he is an ‘Uninvited Guest’ (DWM #211) delivering judgement and punishment to a soiree of indolent and callous timeless beings who enjoyed making sport and playing games with “lesser” creatures. They soon painfully learn that such valuations are all a matter of perspective…

Supplemented with commentaries by the original creators, this is a splendid book for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics another go…
All Doctor Who material © BBCtv 2014. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. All other material © 2017 its individual creators and owners. Published 2017 by Panini. All rights reserved.

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Doctor who Graphic Novel #23: The Highgate Horror


By Mark Wright, Jonathan Morris, Steve Lyons, Roger Langridge, Jacqueline Rayner, Scott Gray, David A. Roach, Mike Collins, John Ross, Adrian Salmon, Martin Geraghty, Dave Gibbons, John Ridgway, Dan McDaid & various (Panini Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-749-3 (TPB)

Somewhere in time, it’s always that moment just before the TV got turned on and the Time Lord was born. This year is the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who. Here’s another Timey-Wimey treat to celebrate a unique TV and comics institution in a periodical manner …

The British love comic strips, adore “characters” and are addicted to celebrity. The history of our homegrown graphic narratives includes an astounding number of comedians, Variety stars and television actors: such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Askey, Charlie Drake and so many more I’ve long forgotten and you’ve likely never heard of.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows and properties like Ace of Wands, Timeslip, Supercar, Pinky and Perky, The Clangers and countless more. If folk watched or listened, an enterprising publisher made printed spectacles of them. Hugely popular anthology comics like Radio Fun, Film Fun, TV Fun, Look-In, TV Comic, TV Tornado, and Countdown readily and regularly translated our light entertainment favourites into pictorial joy every week, and it was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed strip property…

Doctor Who debuted on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with the opening episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’. Mere months later, in 1964 a decades-long association with TV Comic began: issue #674 heralding the initial instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’ by an unknown author with the art attributed to illustrator Neville Main.

On 11th October 1979, Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. Turning monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) it’s been with us – via various iterations – ever since. All proving the Time Lord is a comic star of impressive pedigree, not to be trifled with.

Panini’s UK division ensured the immortality of the comics feature by collecting all strips of every Time Lord Regeneration in a uniform series of over-sized graphic albums – although we’re still waiting for digital versions. Each time tome focused on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer, with this one gathering stories originally published in Doctor Who Magazine #484 and #489-500. Spanning March 2015 to July 2016; they star Peter Capaldi’s irascible old chrononaut the Twelfth Doctor and saucy sidekick/Impossible Girl Clara Oswald in action across the universe and every Elsewhen imaginable.

The adventures of the Grumpy Gallifreyan are – as always – described and delineated by a rapidly rotating roster of British creators who also provide a treasure-trove of background information in the Commentary section at the back. These comprise story-by-story history, background and insights from authors and illustrators, supplemented by scads of sketches, roughs, designs, production art and photos.

None of which is relevant if all you want is a darn good read. Thankfully, all imagineers involved have completed the ultimate task of any artisan – to produce engaging, thrilling, fun work which can be enjoyed equally by the callowest of neophytes and most slavishly dedicated and opinionated fans imaginable.

That feast of fun – coloured throughout by James Offredi and lettered by multi-talented Roger Langridge – opens with Mark Wright, Mike Collins & David A. Roach’s ‘Space Invaders!’ as The Doctor and Clara fetch up at an orbiting storage facility just as the owners start their latest sell-off of unclaimed items. Typically, the time-travellers are not quite quick enough to stop avid bargain-hunters opening a container of just hatched planet-eating monster eggs…

Following smart social satire is a multi-part action romp. ‘Spirits of the Jungle’ – by Jonathan Morris & John Ross – finds our stars joining an extraction mission to recover lethal intelligent weapons-tech before apparently walking into trap on a planet where the forests have their own definition of World Wide Web…

Gothic horror and vintage thrills permeate Wright, Roach & Collins’ superb chiller ‘The Highgate Horror’ wherein Clara, her immortal straight man and neophyte Companion Jess Collins experience the 1970s London cemetery by hunting vampires and satanic covens and encounter a race of ancient predators who want far worse than mere blood…

As conceived and realised by Steve Lyons & Adrian Salmon, ‘The Dragon Lord’ was a radical activist attempting to save magnificent saurians from human fun-seekers killing them for sport on a medieval-themed fantasy resort world. However, by the time our turbulent troubleshooters turn up, things have turned decidedly lethal and it looks like nobody is getting out alive…

Roger Langridge then offers an all-him treat as Harry Houdini sends out a distress call and his old chum The Doctor dutifully answers. Sometimes even fakers and charlatans have power and really resent being de-bunked by upstart human escapologists playing in the ‘Theatre of the Mind’…

A new time-bending miscreant debuts in Jacqueline Rayner, Martin Geraghty & Roach’s epic tale of persecution and justice when temporal prankster Miss Chief infiltrates Clara’s workspace. After causing havoc at Coal Hill School, said trickster drops Miss Oswald in the vicious clutches of Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, leaving The Doctor to either participate in a time duel or somehow search the whole 17th century for his missing school ma’am in a ‘Witch Hunt’ with potentially fatal and final consequences…

Our temporal tintinnabulations conclude with a splendidly appropriate anniversary party get-together of old friends – and foes – that will delight lifelong devotees without bewildering or baffling newbies or casual readers.

Written by editor Scott Gray, ‘The Stockbridge Showdown’ returns the Time Lord to the alien-beleaguered British village just as cosmic corporate conqueror Josiah W. Dogbolter thinks he’s finally leveraged the keys to time itself.

As the universe nears a shocking “Going Out of Business” sale, the wily Gallifreyan and many allies from the past 500 issues unite to teach the richest man in creation the paucity of his resources and the lesson of his life in a tale crafted by artists past and current, including Dave Gibbons, Langridge, Salmon, Dan McDaid, Ross, Collins, John Ridgway, Geraghty and Roach.

Another marvellous chronicle for casual comics readers, this is also an unmissable shelf-addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our art-form to anyone minded to give comics a proper go.
All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and used under licence. Licensed by BBC Worldwide. Tardis image © BBC 1963. Daleks © Terry Nation. All commentaries © 2016 their respective authors. Published 2013 by Panini UK Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Who Graphic Novels volume 15 – Nemesis of the Daleks


By Richard Starkings, John Tomlinson, John Freeman, Paul Cornell, Dan Abnett, Steve Moore, Simon Jowett, Mike Collins, Andrew Donkin, Graham S. Brand, Ian Rimmer, Tim Robins, Lee Sullivan, John Ridgway, Steve Dillon, David Lloyd, Geoff Senior, Art Wetherell & Dave Harwood, Andy Wildman, John Marshall & Stephen Baskerville, Cam Smith & many and various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-531-4 (TPB)

Despite the strangely quarked variety of entangled quantums, if you prefer your reality in a sequential manner, this year will always be the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who. Thus there is/has been/will be a bunch of Timey-Wimey stuff on-going as we celebrate a unique TV and comics institution in a periodical manner …

The British love comic strips, adore “characters” and are addicted to celebrity. The history of our homegrown graphic narratives includes an astounding number of comedians, Variety stars and television actors: such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Askey, Charlie Drake and so many more I’ve long forgotten and you’ve likely never heard of.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows and properties like Whacko!, Supercar, Pinky and Perky, The Clangers and literally hundreds more. If folk watched or listened, an enterprising publisher made printed spectacles of them. Hugely popular anthology comics including Radio Fun, Film Fun, TV Fun, Look-In, TV Comic, TV Tornado, and Countdown readily and regularly translated our light entertainment favourites into pictorial joy every week, and it was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed strip property…

Doctor Who debuted on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with the premiere episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’. In 1964, a decades-long association with TV Comic began: issue #674 heralding the initial instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’.

On 11th October 1979, Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. Turning monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) it’s been with us – via various iterations – ever since. All proving the Time Lord is a comic star of impressive pedigree, not to be trifled with.

Panini’s UK division ensured the immortality of the comics feature by collecting all strips of every Time Lord Regeneration in a uniform series of over-sized graphic albums – although we’re still waiting for digital versions. Each time tome focuses on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer, with this one gathering stories originally published in Doctor Who Magazine #152-156, 159-162, The Incredible Hulk Presents #1-12, Doctor Who Weekly #17-20, #27-30 and Doctor Who Monthly #44-46 communally spanning 1980-1990) and nominally starring Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy.

Also on show are awesome ancillary stars from the monolithic Time Lord “Whoniverse” including the eponymous trundling terrors of the title, legendary cosmic crusaders The Star Tigers and the long-revered tragic, demented antihero Abslom Daak, Dalek-Killer.

Delivered beauty-contest style in reverse order, the magnificent magic opens with the cataclysmic ‘Nemesis of the Daleks’ (DWM #152-155) as Richard and Steve Alan – AKA Richard Starkings & John Tomlinson – deliver a definitive and classic clash between the nomadic chrononaut and the ultimate foes of life, wherein deadly Daleks enslave a primitive civilisation. This is done by driving the pitiful, primitive Helkans to the brink of extinction in forced labour to construct a Dalek Death Wheel armed with the universe’s most potent and toxic Weapon of Mass Destruction.

Grittily illustrated by Lee Sullivan, the blockbuster opens with the valiant last stand of stellar champions the Star Tigers, before the peripatetic Doctor accidentally arrives in the right place at the wrong time – no surprise there then – joining death-obsessed Abslom Daak in a doomed attempt to stop the Emperor of the Daleks from winning supreme power.

Filled with evocative do-or-die heroics, this is a battle only one being can survive…

In a complete change-of-pace, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ (#156 from January 1990, by John Freeman, Paul Cornell & Gerry Dolan) takes a wry, merrily murderous poke at modern art and the slavish gullibility of its patrons that still holds true now – and probably always will…

The Incredible Hulk Presents was a short-lived reprint weekly from Marvel UK that launched on September 30th 1989. It targeted younger readers with 4 media-fed features. As well as the Big Green TV sensation, it also reprinted American-produced stories of Indiana Jones and GI Joe/Action Force, but the mix was augmented by all-new adventures of the Gallant Gallifreyan crafted by a rotating roster of British creators.

The plan was to eventually reprint the Who stories in DWM – thus maximising the costly outlay of new material at a time in British comics publishing where every penny counted. It didn’t quite go to plan and the comic folded after 12 issues, with only a couple of the far simpler – though no less enjoyable – offerings making it into the mature magazine publication.

It began with ‘Once in a Lifetime’ by Freeman & Geoff Senior, wherein an obnoxious alien reporter learns to his dismay that some stories are too big even for the gutter press, after which issues #2-3 saw Dan Abnett & John Ridgway depict ‘Hunger From the Ends of Time!’ as the Doctor and Foreign Hazard Duty (the future iteration of UNIT) save the Universal Library from creatures who literally consume knowledge.

‘War World!’ by Freeman, Art Wetherell & Dave Harwood finds the irascible time-traveller uncharacteristically fooled by an (un)common foot soldier, whilst in Abnett & Wetherell’s ‘Technical Hitch’ the Doctor saves a lonely spacer from unhappy dreams of paradise…

Freeman & Senior concocted a riotous monster-mash for ‘A Switch in Time!’ whilst ‘The Sentinel!’ (Tomlinson & Andy Wildman) finds the Time Lord helpless before a being beyond the limits of temporal physics. Claiming to have created all life in the universe, he still needs a little something from Gallifrey to finish his latest project…

Another 2-parter in #8-9 declared ‘Who’s That Girl!’, as the Doctor’s latest regeneration apparently results in a female form just as the Time Lord is required to stop inter-dimensional war between malicious macho martial empires. Of course, there’s more than meets the eye going on in a silly but engaging thriller by Simon Furman, John Marshall & Stephen Baskerville.

Simon Jowett & Wildman offered a light-hearted salutary fable as ‘The Enlightenment of Ly-Chee the Wise’ proves some travellers are too much for even the most mellow of meditators to handle, after which Mike Collins, Tim Robins & Senior prove just how dangerous fat-farms can be in ‘Slimmer!’, before The Incredible Hulk Presents ended its foray into time-warping with the portentous ‘Nineveh!’ by Tomlinson & Cam Smith.

There and then, the Tardis is ensnared in the deadly clutches of the Watcher at the End of Time – an impossibly mythical being who harvests Time Lords after their final regeneration…

For most of its run and in all its guises the Doctor Who title suffered from criminally low budgets and restricted access to concepts, images and character-likenesses from the show (many actors, quite rightfully owning their faces, wanted to be paid if they appeared in print! How’s that work today?) but diligent work by successive editors gradually bore fruit and every so often fans got a proper treat…

Crafted by Andrew Donkin, Graham S. Brand & John Ridgway, ‘Train-Flight’ ran in DWM #159-161 (April to June 1990), benefitting from slick editorial wheeler-dealing and the generosity of actor Elizabeth Sladen (who allowed her Sarah Jane Smith character to be used for a pittance) in a chilling tale of alien abductions. Here, a long overdue reunion between The Doctor and his old Companion is derailed when their commuter train is hijacked by marauding carnivorous insects…

‘Doctor Conkerer!’ (#162 by Ian Rimmer & Mike Collins) terminates this tome’s Time Lord travails in a humorous escapade describing the unsuspected origins of that noble game played with horse chestnuts so beloved by British schoolboys (of 40 years or older), assorted aliens and, of course, Vikings of every stripe…

There’s still plenty of high quality action and adventure to enjoy here, however, as the complete saga of ‘Abslom Daak, Dalek-Killer’ follows. A potent collaboration between Steve Moore and artists Steve Dillon & David Lloyd from Doctor Who Weekly #17-20 (February-March 1980; Doctor Who Weekly #27-30 (April 1980) and Doctor Who Monthly #44-46, (December 1980 to February 1981) the epic fills in the blanks on the doomed defenders of organic life everywhere…

In the 26th century the Earth Empire is in a death struggle with voracious Dalek forces, yet still divided and focused on home-grown threats. One such is inveterate, antisocial killer Abslom Daak, who – on sentencing for his many crimes – chooses “Exile D-K”: being beamed into enemy territory to die as a “Dalek Killer”. As such, his life expectancy is less than three hours – and that suits him just fine. Materialising on an alien world, the madman eagerly expects to die but finds an unexpected reason to live until she too is taken from him, leaving only an unquenchable thirst for Dalek destruction…

The initial ferociously action-packed back-up series led to a sequel and ‘Star Tigers’ found the manic marauder winning such improbable allies as a rebel Draconian Prince, a devilish Ice Warrior and the smartest sociopath in Human space, all willing to trade their pointless lives to kill Daleks…

As always, this compilation chronicle is supplemented with lots of text features, and truly avid fans can also enjoy a treasure-trove of background information in the 17-page prose Commentary section at the back: story-by-story background, history and insights from the authors and illustrators, supplemented by scads of sketches, script pages, roughs, designs, production art covers and photos.

This includes full background from former DWM editor/scripter John Freeman on the stories, plus background on the guest stars in ‘Tales from the Daak Side’ by John Tomlinson.

More details and creator-biographies accompany commentaries on The Incredible Hulk Presents tales. and there’s a feature on ‘Hulk meets Who’, explaining that odd publishing alliance, plus reminisces from editor Andy Seddon and even more info on the legendary Dalek killer and his Star Tiger allies to pore and exult over.

None of which is relevant if all you want is a darn good read. However all creators involved have managed the ultimate task of any artisan – to produce engaging, thrilling, fun work which can be equally enjoyed by the merest beginner and the most slavishly dedicated and opinionated fans imaginable.

This is another marvellous book for casual readers, a fine shelf-addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics one more go.

All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. Licenced by BBC Worldwide. Tardis image © BBC 1963. Daleks © Terry Nation. All commentaries © 2013 their respective authors. Published 2013 by Panini Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Who volume 11: Cold Day in Hell


By Simon Furman, Mike Collins, Grant Morrison, John Freeman, Dan Abnett, Richard Alan & John Carnell, Alan Grant, John Ridgway, Kev Hopgood, Tim Perkins, Geoff Senior, David Hine, Bryan Hitch, John Higgins, Lee Sullivan, Dougie Braithewaite & Dave Elliott, Andy Lanning, Martin Griffiths & Cam Smith & various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-410-2 (TPB)

Despite the volatile vagaries of quantumly entanglementation, if you generally experience reality in a sequential manner, this year remains the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who. Thus there is/has been/will be a bunch of Timey-Wimey stuff on-going as we periodically celebrate a unique TV and comics institution…

The British love comic strips, adore “characters” and are addicted to celebrity. The history of our homegrown graphic narratives includes an astounding number of comedians, Variety stars and television actors: such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Askey, Charlie Drake and so many more I’ve long forgotten and you’ve likely never heard of.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows and properties like Whacko!, Supercar, Thunderbirds, Pinky and Perky, The Clangers and literally hundreds of others. If folk watched or listened, an enterprising publisher made printed spectacles of them. Hugely popular anthology comics including Radio Fun, Film Fun, TV Fun, Look-In, TV Comic, TV Tornado, and Countdown readily and regularly translated our light entertainment favourites into pictorial joy every week, and it was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed strip property…

Doctor Who premiered on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with the premiere episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’. In 1964, a decades-long association with TV Comic began: issue #674 heralding the initial instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’.

On 11th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17th), Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. Turning monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) it’s been with us – in various names and iterations – ever since. All of which proves the Time Lord is a comic star of impressive pedigree and not to be trifled with.

Panini’s UK division ensured the immortality of the comics feature by collecting all strips of every Time Lord Regeneration in a uniform series of over-sized graphic albums.

Each concentrates on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer and this one gathers stories originally published in the early 1990s (from Doctor Who Monthly #130-150): a time when regular illustrator John Ridgway gave way to a succession of rotating creators as part of the company’s urgent drive to cut costs – although there’s no appreciable drop in quality that I can see.

These yarns feature the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy): an all monochrome compendium that kicks off with the eponymous ‘Cold Day in Hell!’ by writer Simon Furman, Ridgway and inker Tim Perkins: a 4-part thriller featuring an attack by Martian Ice Warriors on a tropical resort planet, which leads directly into the moody, single story ‘Redemption!’ care of Furman, Kev Hopgood and Perkins.

At that time and in this book Marvel sanctioned some controversial crossovers with other Marvel UK characters. The first of these is Death’s Head: a robot bounty hunter from the Transformers comic guest-starring in Furman & Geoff Senior’s ‘The Crossroads of Time’ (DWM #135), before it’s back to sounder stuff with freak-filled 3-part Victorian Great Exhibition epic ‘Claws of the Klath!’ (Mike Collins, Hopgood & David Hine).

Fresh-faced scribe Grant Morrison wrote of charmingly different ‘Culture Shock!’ for equally neophytic ascending star Bryan Hitch to draw, before John Higgins limned Furman’s ‘Keepsake’: a classy space opera about an indigent salvage man. John Freeman & Lee Sullivan started a long association with the magazine in 2-parter ‘Planet of the Dead’ (DWM #141-142), featuring an ambitious, spooky team-up of all seven Time Lord regenerations, on a world filled with Companions who had died in their service…

Dan Abnett & Ridgway delivered ‘Echoes of the Mogor!’ (DWM #143-144) – an eerie chiller set on a mining planet where Earth workers are mysteriously dying, whilst ‘Time and Tide’ by Richard Alan & John Carnell, illustrated by Dougie Braithewaite & Dave Elliott (DWM #143-144), maroons the Doctor on a drowning world amongst aliens who don’t seem to care if they live or die…

Carnell wrote the other crossover previously mentioned, a far less well-regarded romp with imbecilic detectives The Sleeze Brothers. ‘Follow that Tardis!‘ was illustrated by Andy Lanning, Higgins, Braithwaite & Elliot, before the strip content concludes with Alan Grant’s 3-part ‘Invaders from Gantac!’, wherein a colony of alien torturers invade 1992 London by mistake in a tale as much comedy as thriller, drawn by Martin Griffiths & Cam Smith.

Supplemented with tons of text features, pin-ups, creator-biographies and commentaries, this is a grand book for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics one more go…
All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British broadcasting corporation and are used under licence. Death’s Head and The Sleeze Brothers © Marvel. Published 2009. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Who volume 7: The Flood


By Scott Gray, Gareth Roberts, Roger Langridge, David A. Roach, Mike Collins, Robin Smith, Adrian Salmon, Anthony Williams, Martin Geraghty, Faz Choudhury, Daryl Joyce, John Ross & various (Panini Books)
ISBN 978-1-905239-65-8 (TPB)

This year is the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who so there is/has been/will be a bunch of Timey-Wimey stuff on-going as we periodically celebrate a unique TV and comics institution…

The British love comic strips and they love celebrity and they love “characters.” The history of our homegrown graphic narratives includes a disproportionate number of radio comedians, Variety stars and television actors: such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Flanagan & Allen, Arthur Askey, Winifred Atwell, Max Bygraves, Jimmy Edwards, Charlie Drake and so many more I’ve long forgotten and you’ve likely never heard of.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows and properties like Whacko!, ITMA, Our Gang, Old Mother Riley, Supercar, Thunderbirds, Pinky and Perky, The Clangers and literally hundreds of others. If folk watched or listened, an enterprising publisher would make printed spectacles of them. Hugely popular anthology comics including Radio Fun, Film Fun, TV Fun, Look-In, TV Tornado, TV Comic and Countdown readily translated our light entertainment favourites into pictorial joy every week, and it was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed strip property…

Doctor Who premiered on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’. In 1964, a decades-long association with TV Comic began: issue #674 heralding the initial instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’.

On 11th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17th), Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. Turning into a monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) it’s been with us – under various names and iterations – ever since. All of which only goes to prove the Time Lord is a comic star not to trifled with.

Panini’s UK division ensured the immortality of the comics feature by collecting all strips of every Regeneration of the Time Lord in a uniform series of over-sized graphic albums.

This is actually the forth – and final – collection of their strips featuring the Eighth (Paul McGann) Doctor. Whether that statement made any sense to you largely depends on whether you are an old fan, a new convert or even a complete beginner.

None of which is relevant or pertinent if all you want is a darn good read. The creators involved have managed the ultimate ‘Ask’ of any comics creator – producing engaging, thrilling, fun strips that can be equally enjoyed by the merest beginner and the most slavishly dedicated fan.

Writer Scott Gray provides a smart script for Roger Langridge & David A. Roach’s potent art with ‘Where Nobody Knows Your Name’ as the errant Time-Lord fetches up at a bar and meets some old friends, before Gareth Roberts spoofs the entire British Football comics industry in ‘The Nightmare Game’. Pictorial fun and thrills in equal measure are provided by Mike Collins & Robin Smith on this nostalgia-drenched 3-parter.

Gray writes everything else in the book, starting with a short adventure in ancient Egypt. ‘The Power of Thoueris!’ is stylishly illustrated by Adrian Salmon, and is followed by an extended Victorian romp illustrated by Anthony Williams & Roach concerning ‘The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack’.

‘The Land of Happy Endings’ is a touching and engagingly heartfelt tribute to the days of the TV hero’s earliest strip outings. Writer Gray, penciller Martin Geraghty, inkers Roach and Faz Choudhury with painter/colourists Daryl Joyce & Salmon all tip their collective hats to Neville Main (illustrator of the first graphic adventures of the Doctor beginning in 1964 in TV Comic) in a charming retro-romp, which clears the palate for a horror-fest set in 1875 Dakota.

‘Bad Blood’ has werewolves, shamanism, ghost-towns, cowboys, George Armstrong Custer and Sitting Bull as well as the requisite aliens and evil technology rioting through its five chapters, all ably illustrated by Geraghty, Roach & Salmon in an enthralling thriller leaving the Time Lord with brand new Companion Destrii.

Drawn by John Ross and coloured by Salmon, ‘Sins of the Fathers’ deals with the aftermath of that conflict. The severely wounded Destrii must be rushed to a deep-space hospital just in time for it to be attacked by Zero-G terrorists. Both this 3-parter and follow-up epic ‘The Flood’ have extended endings that had never been published before.

The latter is the real gem of this book; a huge, 8-chapter saga originally intended to conclude the McGann Doctor adventures and bridge the gap to the new TV series with incoming Christopher Eccleston as the new resurgent Time Lord. Just how that all worked out makes for fascinating reading in the wonderful text section at the back, but Gray, Geraghty, Roach, Salmon & Langridge go out with a bang as Cybermen invade Camden on their way to world domination. This is an absolute joy, full of action, suspense, humour and the kind of cameos all fan-boys die for.

We’ve all got our little joys and hidden passions. Sometimes they overlap and magic is made. This is a great set of strips, about a meta-literally immortal and timeless TV hero. If you’re a fan of only one, this book might make you an addict to both.

All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. Death’s Head and The Sleeze Brothers © Marvel. Published 2007. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Who volume 2: Dragon’s Claw


Illustrated by Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon & Adolfo Buylla, scripted by Steve Moore & Steve Parkhouse (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-904159-81-8 (TPB)

It’s the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who so there is/has been/will be a bunch of Timey-Wimey stuff on-going as we periodically celebrate a unique TV and comics institution…

The British love comic strips and they love celebrity and they love “characters.” The history of our homegrown graphic narratives includes a disproportionate number of radio comedians, Variety stars and television actors: such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Flanagan & Allen, Arthur Askey, Winifred Atwell, Max Bygraves, Jimmy Edwards, Charlie Drake and so many more I’ve long forgotten and you’ve likely never heard of.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows and properties like Whacko!, ITMA, Our Gang, Old Mother Riley, Supercar, Thunderbirds, Pinky and Perky, The Clangers and literally hundreds of others. If folk watched or listened to something, an enterprising publisher would make print spectacles of them. Hugely popular anthology comics including Radio Fun, Film Fun, TV Fun, Look-In, TV Tornado, TV Comic and Countdown readily translated our light entertainment favourites into pictorial joy every week, and it was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed strip property…

Doctor Who premiered on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with the premier of ‘An Unearthly Child’. In 1964, a decades-long association with TV Comic began: issue #674 heralding the initial instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’.

On 11th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17th), Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. Turning monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) it’s been with us – under various names and iterations – ever since. All of which only goes to prove the Time Lord is a comic star not to trifled with.

Panini’s UK division has ensured the immortality of the comics feature by collecting all strips of every Regeneration of the Time Lord in a uniform series of over-sized graphic albums. Originally published between July 10th 1980 and January 1982, these monochrome yarns are mainly by Dave Gibbons: spanning #39-57 and 60, plus a fill-in yarn in #58-59.

This was drawn by Mike McMahon (Judge Dredd, Sláine, Alien Legion, Tank Girl, The Last American,) and inked by Spanish veteran Adolfo Buylla AKA Adolfo Álvarez-Buylla Aguelo. He worked internationally on strips like Diego Valor, Yago Veloz, Inspector H. Diario de un Detective, G.I. Combat, House of Mystery, Creepy, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Twilight Zone, Space: 1999, Knights of Pendragon and others.

These were amongst the last regular comics work the artist created for the British market before being scooped up by the Americans as part of the Eighties’ “British Invasion”.

The comics kick off with a wry romp written by Steve Moore (Rick Random, Dan Dare, Axel Pressbutton, Tharg’s Future Shocks, Father Shandor, Tales of Telguuth, Fortean Times). Set in China circa 1522 AD, ‘Dragon’s Claw’ (DWW #39-45) carried the periodical from weekly to monthly schedule, with the Fourth Doctor – as played by Tom Baker – and companions K-9 and Sharon Davies (from 20th century English town Blackcastle) uncovering old enemies bending history by providing alien ordnance to a Shaolin monk with big dreams.

After stymying the star conquerors, the garrulous Gallifreyan resumed his self-appointed task of getting Sharon home in shorter sagas better suiting monthly outings. DWM #46 found the travellers accidentally ensnared by a cosmic anthropologist and his bored and lonely robot companion before generating a deadly alternate reality in ‘The Collector’…

Two-part tale ‘Dreamers of Death’ (#47-48) then sees a world of oneiric escapism imperilled by telepathic infiltrators and close to ruination. The spectacular solution saves lives but ultimately sunders the Time Lord’s connection to Sharon forever…

Spanning #49-50, ‘The Life Bringer!’ takes The Doctor and K-9 far into the past where they liberate Prometheus from godly punishment and clash with beings who think themselves gods. The prisoner’s “crime” was scattering seeds of life throughout the universe and he will do it again now, but what The Time Lord really needs to know is has he intervened before or after Prometheus reached Earth…

‘War of the Words’ (#51) sees the TARDIS “vwoorp” into a space conflagration over library planet Biblios. The clash between Vromyx and Skluum has been raging for eternity and the fed-up Gallifreyan thinks he has a way to end it all forever…

Those pesky arrogant Earthlings pop up again in DWM #52’s monster mash ‘Spider-God’ as Terran Survey Vessel Excelsior lands on an unknown planet and immediately jumps to a wrong conclusion about the relationship between idyllic idealised humanoids and the six-legged beasties that apparently prey on them. Even the doctor can’t stop the humans making the same tragic mistakes they have always made…

Steve Parkhouse signed on as regular scripter with #53 as ‘The Deal’ as the TARDIS materialises amidst the madness of the Millennium Wars and tragically becomes a target of all sides, before ‘End of the Line’ (#54-55) sees the usually-happy wanderer lost on a ruined world – beneath it, actually – fleeing cannibal gangs hunting for unwary sustenance on the still-running underground train system…

Luckily there’s a few ninja-like “Guardian Angels” on patrol, saving lives and planning their exodus to the dream-inspiring “countryside”. Or is it lucky?

At the annual Festival of Five Planets, The Doctor meets many fellow cosmic voyagers in what became the backdoor pilot for a spinoff comics series. Whilst enjoying the convention’s many attractions, the Gallifreyan is conned into a race contest, testing the TARDIS against the star vehicle of mercenary/stunt pilot team the ‘Free-Fall Warriors’.

Encompassing DWM #56-57, the wild ride intersected a sneak attack by marauding Rebel Raiders which meant all bets were off and there was hell to pay…

McMahon/Abylla fill-in ‘Junk-Yard Demon’ (#58-59) follows as the Time Lord’s trusty vessel comes to the attention of space salvage ship Drifter. Captain/builder/pilot Flotsam, and crew-beings Jets and Dutch think they’ve scored big. They’re most apologetic when The Doctor affably introduces himself and really, really sorry when the Time Lord’s presence activates a presumed broken Cyberman…

Things get really tense when it then tries compelling them to repair its legion of shattered comrades. Thankfully, the man with the scarf has a plan…

This epic onslaught of wonders ends on a prologue as Gibbons returns to realise the first sally of a proposed ambitious multi-part Parkhouse saga. On a futuristic world, civilisation falls to barbarism as it always does, with ‘The Neutron Knights’ (DWM #60) butchering each other with highly advanced primitive weapons. Plucked from the time stream by a mysterious wizard, The Doctor watches helplessly as the old story unfolds once more. Reawakening back at his point of origin, the baffled Gallifreyan is forced to accept the incident as real when Merlin reappears, warning these are portents and they will meet again…

Sheer effusive delight from start to finish, this is a splendid book for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics another shot…

All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who, the Tardis, Dalek word and device mark and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. Dalek device mark © BBC/Terry Nation 1963.All other material © its individual creators and owners. Published 2004 by Panini. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Who Graphic Novels volume 14: The Child of Time


By Jonathan Morris, Mike Collins, David A. Roach, Roger Langridge, Martin Geraghty, Dan McDaid, Rob Davis, Geraint Ford, Adrian Salmon, & James Offredi (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-460-7 (TPB)

Multimedia monolith Doctor Who launched on television with the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ on November 23rd 1963. Happy 60th Anniversary, Time Lord!

Within a year, a decades-long run in TV Comic began in issue #674: and the premier instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’. On 11th October 1979 (but adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system, so it says 17th), Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly, which regenerated into a monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) and has been with us under various names ever since.

All of which only goes to prove that the Time Lord is a comic hero with an impressive pedigree…

Marvel UK – and latterly Panini – spent a lot of effort (and time!) compiling every strip from its archive into a uniform series of oversized graphic albums, each concentrating on a particular incarnation of the deathless nomad of infinity.

This one gathers stories short and long which, taken together, comprise a 2-year extended epic. From Doctor Who Magazine (or DWM) #421-441 (originally published in 2010-2011), this run details the strip debut of Matt Smith’s incarnation of the far-flung, far-out Time Lord as well as his capable companion Amy Pond as played by Nebul Karen Gillan.

None of which is relevant if all you want is a darn good read. All involved have successfully accomplished the ultimate task of any comics creator by producing engaging, thrilling, fun stories which can be equally enjoyed by the merest beginner and the most slavishly dedicated – and opinionated – fans imaginable.

Written by Jonathan Morris (with liberal input from editors Scott Gray & Tom Spilsbury), coloured by James Offredi and lettered by Roger Langridge, the time trek kicks off in ‘Supernature’ (illustrated by Mike Collins & David A. Roach), as first espied in DWM #421-423 (May-July 2010).

Arriving on a jungle paradise world, The Doctor and Amy soon discover Earthling colonists in the midst of a terrifying plague. The humans – all convicts press-ganged to turn the planet into a suitable home before being abandoned – are transforming into uncanny mutant beasts, and even the Time Lord and his new companion are “monster-ised” before the crisis is solved. However, when they depart they take part of the problem with them…

A rare but welcome illustrative role for regular letterer Langridge delivers a bizarre yet wonderful spoof on ‘Planet Bollywood!’, when warring factions of an ancient empire – and a romantic leading man – jointly struggle to possess a sexy humanoid device. The bewildering tool compulsively compels all who hear it to break out in song and dance routines…

On the go again afterwards, a trip to Tokyo finds fresh horror for the travellers in the metamorphosis of innocent – if educationally lacking – children being converted into a deadly fifth column in ‘The Golden Ones’ (Martin Geraghty & Roach in #425-428). This is a grand old-fashioned blockbuster invasion saga with a huge body-count, valiant armed resistance by dedicated UNIT soldiers, a classic villain’s return, brilliant scientific solutions and a slew of subtle clues to the greater saga unfolding. And just who is that strange little girl who keeps popping up everywhen?

From #429 comes literary fantasy-homage ‘The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop’ (Rob Davis & Geraint Ford) as our heroes meet a reclusive writer and evacuee children whilst Amy – and hubby-to-be Rory – encounter a strange man in an infinite shop which can travel anywhere…

It’s back to Paris circa 1858 for Dan McDaid’s ‘The Screams of Death’ when aspiring but hopeless singer Cosette is taken under the wing of impresario Monsieur Valdemar, and develops a voice that could shake the Opera House to its foundations. Of course, this Svengali-like Fugitive from the Future has far grander plans for his many captive songbirds …until Mam’selle Pond and M’sieu le Docteur turn up to foil another mad scheme to rewrite history…

The over-arching storyline takes a big step forward in #432’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night’ (offering a welcome full-art outing for the splendidly gifted David Roach) as the Tardis turns up in an old people’s home staffed by robots, haunted by children and plagued by a rapidly diminishing roster of residents. Adrian Salmon then gets his freak on in trippy terror-tale ‘Forever Dreaming’ (#433-434) as Amy is apparently trapped in a 1960’s seaside town with a dark secret, a phantom octopus and a legion of psychedelic icons who really should be dead…

The saga swings into full acceleration with ‘Apotheosis’ (DWM #435-437 and limned by McDaid) when the Doctor and Amy land aboard a derelict space station and walk into the closing act of a galaxy-spanning war between humanity and their scheduled replacements: the awesome autonomous androids of Galatea.

Aboard the station, a cadre of warrior Space Nuns seek an ultimate weapon to tip the scales of the conflict, but with lethal sanitation robots everywhere and rogue time-distortion fields making each step a potential death-march, their hunt is hard going. With everybody – even the Time Lord – hyper-aging at vastly different rates, and the Tardis mutating into something impossible, the stage is set for the spectacular nativity of a true threat to all of creation…

Of course, before the big finish, Machiavellian, monstrously manipulative and atrociously amoral creature Chiyoko must carry out a number of crucial appointments in Eternity to ensure the existence and consolidate the celestial dominance of ‘The Child of Time’ (art by Geraghty & Roach from DWM #438-441 spanning August to November 2011).

Two years of cleverly-concocted mystery and imagination then wrap up in a staggering, creatively-anachronistic display of temporal hocus-pocus steered by scripter Morris as The Doctor, Amy and stalwart allies Alan Turing and the Bronte Sisters ward off the unmaking of time, the end of humanity and eradication of all life in the universe before a tragic finale and Happy-Ever-After… of sorts…

Dedicated fans will enjoy a treasure-trove of background information in the 25-page Commentary section at the back, comprising chapter-by-chapter background, history and insights from the author and each illustrator, supplemented by sketches, roughs, designs, production art and even excised material from all concerned.

We all have our private joys and hidden passions. Sometimes they overlap and magic is made. This is a superb selection of supremely satisfying strips, starring an absolute Pillar of the British Fantasy pantheon. And even if you’re a fan of only one, The Child of Time will certainly spark your hunger for the other. A fabulous book for casual readers, this is also a fine shelf addition for devotees of the show, an ideal opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form and the perfect present for the Telly Addict haunting your house…

All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who logo © BBC 2012. Tardis image © BBC 1963. Doctor Who, Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence by BBC Worldwide. Published 2012 by Panini Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Who Graphic Novels volume 13: The Crimson Hand


By Dan McDaid, Martin Geraghty, Jonathan Morris, Mike Collins, David A. Roach, Sean Longcroft, Rob Davis, Paul Grist, Ian Culbard, Roger Langridge & various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-451-5 (TPB)

Doctor Who launched on television with the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ on November 23rd 1963. Happy 60th, Time Lord!

Within a year, his decades-long run in TV Comic began with issue #674 and the premier instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’.

On 11th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17th) Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly, which became a monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) and has been with us under various names ever since.

All of which only goes to prove that the Time Lord is a comic hero with an impressive pedigree…

Marvel/Panini spent a lot of effort – and time! – collecting every strip from its archive in a uniform series of over-sized graphic albums, each concentrating on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer.

This one gathers stories from Doctor Who Magazine (AKA DWM) issues #394 & 400-420 plus The Doctor Who Storybook 2010 (originally published between 2008 and 2010): all featuring the escapades of the recently re-enlisted David Tennant incarnation of the Galloping Gallifreyan.

This is actually the third and final collection of strips featuring “the Tenth Doctor” and whether that statement made any sense to you largely depends on whether you are an old fan, a new convert or a complete beginner.

None of which is relevant if all you want is a darn good read. All the creators involved have managed the ultimate “Ask” of any strip creator – to produce engaging, thrilling, fun yarns that can be equally enjoyed by the merest beginner and the most slavishly addicted fan.

After an effusive introduction from Russell T. Davies, the full-colour graphic grandeur begins with a one-off romp from 2008 entitled ‘Hotel Historia’ by writer/artist Dan McDaid, wherein the Good Doctor fetches up in a spectacular resort for time-travellers.

Here he first encounters pushily obnoxious corporate raider Majenta Pryce and uses her shoddy and slipshod time-technology to counter a threat from the chronal brigands known as the Graxnix.

This is riotously followed by a delightful clash with ‘Space Vikings’ (by Jonathan Morris, Rob Davis & Ian Culbard, taken from the 2010 Christmas Doctor Who Storybook) wherein slave-taking star-rovers prove to be far less than they appear…

The main body of stories here formed something of an experiment as DWM #400-420 were designed as an extended story-arc leading up to the big change on television wherein Matt Smith would replace Tennant as “The Eleventh Doctor”.

Therefore McDaid was tasked with scripting the entire 21-issue run and began by reintroducing scurrilous money-mad chancer Majenta Pryce in ‘Thinktwice’ (#400-402, illustrated by Martin Geraghty & David A. Roach); an intergalactic penal institution with some decidedly off-kilter ideas on reforming prisoners.

Pryce is a prisoner but has amnesia. So does her cellmate Zed and – in fact – most of the convicts aboard. The supposedly cushy debtor’s prison is actually a horror-house of psychological abuse where suicide is endemic, cunningly maintained by creepy Warden Gripton who is messing with inmates’ memories to satisfy the hungers of something he calls “memeovax”…

Luckily, new prison doctor “John Smith” is a dab hand with a Sonic screwdriver…

With her memory far from restored, wickedly entrepreneurial Majenta becomes the unlikeliest of Companions, demanding that the “legally liable” Doctor makes restitution for all the trouble he’s caused by ferrying her to planet Panacea where she can be properly cured.

As we all know however, the Tardis goes where She wants and at Her own pace…

‘The Stockbridge Child’ (#403-405 and illustrated by Mike Collins & Roach) deposits the unhappy partners to that peaceful English village where three different incarnations of the Time Lord have encountered incredible alien incursions.

When the Doctor is reunited with outcast skywatcher Maxwell Edison they uncover at last the ancient horror beneath the hamlet which has made the place such a magnet for madness and monsters, before finally despatching the brooding anti-dimensional threat of the Lokhus…

Meanwhile Majenta’s big secret hasn’t forgotten her, and is rapidly closing in…

DWM #406-407 featured ‘Mortal Beloved’ – limned by Sean Longcroft – wherein the Doctor and “Madge” arrive at a decrepit asteroid mansion on the edge of the biggest storm in creation.

Amidst the flotsam and jetsam lurk poignant clues to Pryce’s past, as tantalisingly revealed by the robots and holograms left to run the place after a far younger Majenta jilted brilliant playboy industrialist Wesley Sparks. Of course, after such an immense length of time, even the most devoted of loves and programs can falter, doubt and even hate…

‘The Age of Ice’ (#408-411, by McDaid, Geraghty & Roach) brings the Last Time Lord and Lost Executive to Sydney Harbour for a fond reunion with Earth Defence Force UNIT, just as time-distortions begin dumping dinosaurs in the sunny streets, and crystalline knowledge stealers The Skith once more attempt to assimilate all the Doctor’s vast and varied experiences. Majenta too finds an old friend in the shape of her long-lost junior associate Fanson, who admits to wiping her memory. When he becomes part of the huge body-count before revealing why, Madge thinks she would lose what was left of her mind…

‘The Deep Hereafter’ (#412, by Rob Davis with above-and-beyond calligraphy from letterer Roger Langridge) is a scintillating space detective story, pastiching classic Will Eisner Spirit Sunday sections, but still succeeds in advancing the overarching plot as Madge and the Doctor complete the last case of piscine P.I. Johnny Seaview and chase down the threat of the reality warping World Bomb…

DWM #413 (Collins & Roach) exhibits ‘Onomatopoeia’ and pits the reluctant pair against space-rats and out-of-control pest prevention systems in a clever and heart-warming fable told almost exclusively without dialogue.

The superb ‘Ghosts of the Northern Line’ (#414-415) follows with Paul Grist working his compositional magic in a chilling yarn of murderous phantoms slaughtering tube passengers in present day London. Obviously they can’t be spirits, so what is the true cause of the apparitions?

This yarn leads directly into the big payoff as the assembled forces of galactic Law and Order suddenly show up to arrest Majenta, plunging the voyagers into a spectacular epic ending as the stroppy impresario at last regains her memory and acquires the power to reshape all of reality. It’s all the fault of the cosmic consortium known and feared as ‘The Crimson Hand’ (DWM #416-420, by McDaid, Geraghty & Roach)…

This blockbuster rollercoaster epic perfectly ends the saga of Majenta Pryce and signs off the Tenth Doctor in suitable style, but dedicated fans still have a wealth of added value bonuses in the posterior text section, which includes a commentary from editor Tom Spilsbury, the origins of the saga from McDaid, Doctor Who Story Notes, the Majenta Pryce “Pitch” and an annotated story background section: copiously illustrated with behind-the-scenes photos, sketches and production art.

We’ve all got our little joys and hidden passions. Sometimes they overlap and magic is made. This is a superb sequence of strips, starring an undeniable bulwark of British Fantasy. If you’re a fan of only one, this book might make you an addict to both. The Crimson Hand is a fabulous book for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for devotees of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics another go.

If only someone would get around to getting these tales digitised…
All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who logo © BBC 2009. Tardis image © BBC 1963. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. © Marvel. Published 2012 by Panini Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Who Graphic Novel volume 3: The Tides of Time


By Steve Parkhouse, Dave Gibbons, Dez Skinn, Paul Neary, Mick Austin, Steve Dillon & various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-904159-92-6 (Album TPB)

The British love comic strips and they love celebrity and they love “Characters.” The history of our homegrown graphic narrative has a peculiarly disproportionate number of comedians (stage, screen and radio), Variety stars, general celluloid icons and all manner of television actors both in and out of character. This includes such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Askey, Flanagan & Allen, Shirley Eaton (“The Modern Miss”), Max Bygraves, Jimmy Edwards, Charlie Drake, and so many more; all dead and mostly forgotten.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows and properties like Whacko!, ITMA, Our Gang (a British version of Hal Roach’s film sensation by Dudley Watkins ran in The Dandy as well as the American comicbook series by Walt Kelly), Old Mother Riley, Andy Pandy Muffin the Mule, Supercar, Thunderbirds, Pinky and Perky, The Clangers and more.

Hugely popular anthology comics like Radio Fun, Film Fun, TV Fun, TV Tornado, Look-In, TV Comic and Countdown translated our viewing and listening favourites into pictorial joy every week, and it was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed comic property…

Doctor Who premiered on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ and in 1964 a decades-long association with TV Comic began: issue #674 offered the premier instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’…

On 11th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17th), Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. It regenerated into a monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) and has been with us – under various names and guises – ever since. proving that the Time Lord is a comic hero with an impressive pedigree.

Panini’s UK division (formerly Marvel UK until 1995) endeavoured to collect every strip from its tenure as publisher into a compete archive in a uniform series of oversized graphic albums, each concentrating on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer. This particular tome was first released in 2005, collecting strips from Doctor Who Monthly #61-83 and #86-87 plus a bonus story from Doctor Who Weekly #17-18 spanning February 1982 to April 1984 and featuring the complete comics oeuvre of the “Fifth Doctor” as played by Peter Davidson.

With Steve Parkhouse scripting and increasingly in-demand Dave Gibbons still illustrating – albeit not for much longer as America called and global stardom beckoned – ‘The Tides of Time’ opens proceedings with a spectacular epic pulling together threads from previous strip exploits, as multiversal control mechanism The Event Synthesizer is compromised and its attendant guardian The Prime Mover assaulted and ousted by demonic intruder Melanicus.

Built to harmonise the flow of time into a single logical sequence, under the demon’s control the device begins randomising time and wrecking reality…

Meanwhile on Earth in the putative Now, a certain wandering Gallifreyan steps out to bat on a warm afternoon in a village cricket match.

Play suddenly stops when the ball turns into a live grenade halfway to the wicket! Total chaos ensues and the Doctor investigates, incidentally befriending and dragging along displaced medieval knight Sir Justin when irresistibly summoned to a conclave of “higher evolutionaries”: advanced beings such as Gallifrey’s original Master of Time Rassilon, and other sublime and elevated members of the Celestial Intervention Agency who despatch him to deal with the salvo of time-warps Melanicus has unleashed to unmake existence.

Aided – at first unknowingly – by Rassilon’s secondary agent Shayde (a complex program given form to match his function), The Doctor and Justin travel beyond time and reality to encounter bizarre and fantastic things before finally ending the demon’s reign of chaos…

In the aftermath as existence resets itself The Doctor returns to his cricket match and a waiting game…

Doctor Who Monthly #68-69 featured Gibbons’ final work on the feature as seeming standalone tale ‘Stars Fell on Stockbridge’ laid the groundwork for the rest of this Gallifreyan incarnation’s tenure whilst introducing local UFO nut and fantasist skywatcher Maxwell Edison who stumbles across a true alien and shares his TARDIS on the voyage of a lifetime.

Sadly, it intersects with an incredible ancient starship and awakens something incomprehensible before breaking up and raining down as fireworks over the sleepy British town…

Parkhouse pencilled the opening episodes of ‘The Stockbridge Horror’ in #70-75 before his inker Paul Neary was joined by Mick Austin for a dazzling mystery that opened when the local quarry blasted open a sheet of rock five hundred million years old to find a perfect fossilised impression of an old police box…

News of it ruined The Doctor’s breakfast in Stockbridge and precipitated a chase across creation: uncovering the horrifying fact that his TARDIS was increasingly rebellious and dysfunctional due to having been possessed and parasitized. It took a voyage across, between and beyond universes and a total rebuild to fix the problem and demanded a supreme sacrifice from Shayde…

It also brought the wanderer to the attention of Gallifrey’s shamefully opportunistic Military and caused another show trial of the Time Lord before honour could be restored and the parasite – which had gone on to shape all human history – was dealt suitably with. All that was left was to institute a cover-up on Earth, but the Time Lords were to slow and not thorough enough and some details remained in the hands of the UK’s S.A.G.3 unit: a covert squad of super-powered intelligence operatives…

In dire need of a vacation, the Doctor goes fishing in the tropics, but his downtime at the ‘Lunar Lagoon’ in #76-77 (all art by Austin) is marred when he’s captured by a Japanese soldier who doesn’t realise the war has ended. As he gradually befriends confused hold-out Fuji, his gentle therapy is short-circuited by an America warplane strafing the TARDIS before being shot down by Japanese planes!

Due to the Gallifreyan’s misguided interference, confusion follows tragedy as the American flier kills Fuji leading into epic follow-up serial ‘4-Dimensional Vistas’ (DWM #78-83) as the pilot reveals that the date is 1963 and the war never ended. In shock, The Doctor realises he has been on an alternate Earth since the Time Lords released him and offers Angus “Gus” Goodman a chance to escape the conflict forever…

After travelling back to a point when the world was still roiling stardust, the Doctor finally finds “his” Earth, in time to finish the secret mission that first found him playing a waiting game in Stockbridge. In the Arctic, another airliner is brought down and its remnants added to a long-running secret project instigated by Martian Ice Warriors and a hidden ally. Using stolen Gallifreyan technology a traitor Time Lord has been creating an ultimate weapon for the military maniacs, but had not reckoned on a last-ditch assault by the super-agents of S.A.G.3, and more interference from old enemy The Doctor. Although ultimately successful, the brutal battle at the top of the world is only won at great cost…

An era ended and the tone lightened with ‘The Moderator’ in #86-87. Steve Dillon deftly added gritty action and sardonic mirth to the tale of an infallible hired killer commissioned to destroy The Doctor and secure his time vehicle for a new recurring villain…

Ultimate disaster capitalist Josiah W. Dogbolter was the richest man (humanoid frog actually) in creation and believed that Time was Money, further positing that if he had a machine to control time all the money would naturally follow. He was not happy when The Doctor couldn’t be bought…

This stunning, sterling trade paperback concludes with a short story by veteran British comics stalwart Paul Neary (from a plot by Dez Skinn) as an extragalactic chronovore invades the TARDIS, causing continuity to reverse itself and requiring the attention of all four Doctors (and K-9!) to counter the threat of ‘Timeslip’ (DWW #17-18: February 6th – 13th 1980).

Sheer effusive delight from start to finish, this is a splendid confection for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics another shot. The only thing that could improve it would be a digital edition…

All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who, the Tardis, Dalek word and device mark and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. Dalek device mark © BBC/Terry Nation 1963. All other material © its individual creators and owners. Published 2005 and 2014 by Panini. All rights reserved.