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The announcement of IDW's Doctor Who comic means we'll soon have four Doctor Who strips at the same time. Doctor Who Magazine, Doctor Who Adventures, Doctor Who Battles in Time, and just plain old Doctor Who.
The new comic looks in safe hands with telly script editor and well known Who author/former Big Finish supremo Gary Russel at the helm and the format of complete issue stories could be a great strength. Works for Jonah Hex.
I'm a big Who fan and the comics have a special place in my heart. It is, as we're often reminded, the longest running spin off comic strip of all time starting in 1964 (or was it 65? No, I think it's 64) and has been in continuous production ever since, clocking up a much longer run than the show that started it.
I'm very fond of the early sixties whimsy of Doctor Who and his grandchildren John and Gillian Who travelling through time and space with a magic bag solving dilemas for odd creatures. By the late sixties the comic became even odder with a Doctor who revelled in destroying ugly monsters because the ugly ones must be evil. There was a sudden upswing in quality in the Seventies with the well remembered TV Action strips that are as lush as you could possibly want.
The mid seventies were a low point, with Tom Bakers head pasted over Jon Pertwees body but come the day of Doctor Who Weekly and the arrival of John Wagner, Pat Mills, and Dave Gibbons and things looked up. The Roman Empire that never ended, emotional revolutions, and gloriously Beep the Meep heralded a great run, culminating in the Peter Davison starring strips that were better than the contemporaneous telly adventures.
The Sicth Doctor and Frobisher the Penguin are seen as starring in some of the best and though the Seventh Doctor stories went down the creative dead end of tying in with the New Adventures the Eight Doctor strips with Martin Geraghty art are some of the best Who and some of my favourite comics. Grand, sweeping, emotional arcs that celebrate Who, move the characters forward, surprise, amuse and a couple of times made me sniffle manfully.
Panini have collected the Fourth, Fifth and Eight Doctors advantures in some nicely produced graphic novels. I can whole heartedly recommend the later volumes. There's a wealth of behind the scenes material (covering in The Flood the story of why the DWM team turned down RTDs offer of showing the regeneration of Eight into Nine) and splendid reproduction.
So, any fans of sequential art Who? Any memories of Iron Legions, villainous Trod, or Sharon? Any speculation of what you'd like to see in the Who comic? |
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) which has snazzy John Ridgeway art if I remember rightly. I also picked up a 'special edition' magazine last year apparently containing all the Ecclestone stories.