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.