Doctor Who: The Complete History Issue 2

Although not a comic, this publication may be of interest to some of you. The second book in the partwork series of Doctor Who: The Complete History is in the shops now. The 152 page hardback focuses on the Jon Pertwee stories Colony In Space, The Daemons, and Day of the Daleks from 1971/72. (These were the episodes broadcast during the run of Countdown comic so I always associate them with that comic, reading Countdown's Doctor Who comic strip on Saturday afternoon and watching Doctor Who at teatime.)

The books are a co-production between Hachette and Panini UK and are first class productions, both in design and in the information they contain. Published fortnightly, the next one will focus on the Peter Capaldi stories Deep Breath and Into the Dalek, whilst issue 4 will spotlight the first William Hartnell stories 100,000 BC and The Mutants (AKA The Daleks).

Issue 2 is at the special price of £6.99, after which the books will be at their regular price of £9.99. For more info see the official website:
http://www.dwcompletehistory.com/next-issues 

...and don't forget that the Doctor encounters The Daleks again tonight on BBC One!

This week in 1971: COUNTDOWN No.32

It's been a while since I did one of these flashback features so here's a few pages from the issue of a comic that went on sale this weekend 44 years ago. It's Countdown No.32, dated September 25th 1971, which would have been published on Saturday Sept.18th 1971. (Click on images to see them larger.)

Countdown was a glossy 24 page weekly published by Polystyle, which featured strips based on the sci-fi adventure TV shows of the day. The comic tried to be a replacement for the glory days of TV21, to the extent that it had gained the licence to do strips of Gerry Anderson shows after TV21 had dropped them. (By the time this issue of Countdown was published, the ailing TV21 had merged into Valiant.)

The cover of this issue kicks off a new UFO serial illustrated by Gerry Haylock. One of the great things about Countdown was that it credited the artists; something most British comics didn't do back then.

The centrespread of the comic featured Doctor Who. The fantastic artist Harry Lindfield does a fine job of illustrating a very busy script but there's a lot going on to pack into two pages and it does feel like it would have benefited from spreading it over another page or two.

Eight of Countdown's 24 pages were in full colour, and although the content would vary over the comic's run, the Countdown strip itself had its two pages of 
colour every week. This was an originated strip not based on any TV show but it 
did feature spacecraft designs from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. (No spacecraft in this episode though.) Artwork by the always-astounding John Burns. 

Countdown ran a different complete 7 page story every week, and this week it was the turn of Captain Scarlet. Connecting with continuity with the movie Thunderbirds Are Go, the strip saw the return of the Martian Rock Snakes, - this time on Earth as part of a Mysteron plot. A daft story but great art by Keith Watson...

Having the licence for Gerry Anderson strips meant that Polystyle could reprint old strips from TV21, which came in handy when the budget was reduced. Although originally published in full colour, some Stingray and Fireball XL5 strips were reprinted in greyscale. Furthermore, the Fireball strips were reduced and turned at 90 degrees. However, personally speaking this didn't bother me one bit and as a 12 year old I was only too glad to revisit those classic strips I'd read when I was six. 

As you might have guessed from the competition to win a weather station, Countdown liked to mix science alongside science fiction. The back page of this issue featured a cutaway of the Apollo Lunar Module (reprinted from a book called Manned Spacecraft). 

I thought Countdown was an excellent comic, just up my street. No sports or war stories; just science fiction and fact (plus the occasional feature about UFO sightings). Sadly it seems most kids didn't take to it and with issue 59 it changed its title to TV Action, expanding its content to include TV shows such as Hawaii Five-O, and Cannon. Later, it'd incorporate pop pin-ups to compete with Look-In, but it still remained a good TV adventure comic up until its merger with TV Comic in 1973. 

Masterful magazine

I picked up a copy of The Essential Doctor Who No.4 from Sainsburys today. This is Panini's sister publication to their monthly Doctor Who Magazine, although Essential is only published every three or four months.

Every issue has a specific theme and this time it focuses on the Doctor's long-time nemesis The Master. What may be of interest to comic fans is that it includes two short articles on the Master's appearances in Doctor Who comic strips from over the years, such as those in Countdown/TV Action.  

Art: Gerry Haylock.

The rest of the 112 page bookazine is packed with information on the Master's TV appearances and background information on the actors who have portrayed him... or her as the case is now. Well illustrated with loads of production photos, publicity stills etc, it's a must for any fan of the series.

The Essential Doctor Who Issue 4: The Master is out now from newsagents and supermarkets for £9.99.

The new Doctor Who Comic is here!

Today saw the launch of Titan's new Doctor Who Comic in UK newsagents (although so far I've only seen it in WH Smith). I was surprised to see that the format is A4, rather than the US format of the Titan and Panini comics. Also, Smiths are displaying it in the young children's comics section with The Beano, Dora the Explorer, Angry Birds Magazine etc rather than alongside Doctor Who Magazine, 2000AD, and the aforementioned other Titan and Panini comics. I can't help feeling its intended age group may pass it by as Doctor Who Comic is aimed at a more sophisticated reader than the juvenile titles it's sharing its shelves with but presumably Titan have good reasons for doing it. 

The comic itself is a squarebound 84 page publication with exactly the same paper quality that Titan's CLiNT comic had. The content repackages the first issues of the recent individual Doctor Who comics that are sold in specialist comic shops. So we get long episodes featuring the 12th Doctor by Robbie Morrison and Dave Taylor, the 11th Doctor by Al Ewing, Rob Williams and Simon Fraser, and the 10th Doctor by Nick Abadzis and Elena Casagrande. Excellent value for £3.99 considering each story would cost around £3.00 each in its original format. 

These are top quality stories by top people in the comics industry, most of whom are based in the UK. I'm reluctant to call this publication a 'reprint comic' in the same way that, say, The Mighty World of Marvel is because the strips have only very recently appeared in their original format a few months ago, also by the same publisher. I'd rather consider this a 'British edition' than a reprint, in the same way that books have editions in different countries. But I suppose most will still regard it as a reprint comic so each to their own of course. 

In any case it's good to see another comic on the UK newsstands. Let's hope it proves to be a success! If you have trouble finding it in newsagents you can subscribe to it here:
http://titan.subscribeonline.co.uk/subscriptions/doctor-who-comic?offerCode=DWC1TM

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By the way, to correct an assumption a few have made, this new comic does not replace Doctor Who Magazine or Doctor Who Adventures, nor does it feature the same strips. They're three different publications by three different publishers. 

Titan to publish new Doctor Who Comic for UK newsagents

London based Titan Comics have been producing three seperate Doctor Who comics for the American direct-sale market for several months now, featuring the 10th, 11th, and 12th Doctors in their own titles. However, on February 26th, the company will be launching Doctor Who Comic, a chunky 84 page monthly repackaging those stories into one comic, which will be on sale in WH Smith and other newsagents. 

Each issue will cost £3.99, and will feature three stories, which is quite a bargain considering the individual Doctor Who comics cost around £3 each in Forbidden Planet. 

To find out more, follow this link:
http://www.doctorwho.tv/whats-new/article/titan-launches-doctor-who-comic-in-uk/

In case you were wondering, no this does not replace any current Doctor Who publications. This new comic is in addition to the ongoing titles Doctor Who Magazine, The Essential Doctor Who, and Doctor Who Adventures. Sounds like WH Smith might soon need its own Doctor Who section! 

Christmas Comics: TV COMIC (1970)

Published on the very same day as the issue of Tiger I showed in the previous post, here's TV Comic No.993, being the Christmas issue for 1970. Tom and Jerry had taken over the cover position in the previous year and remained there for a long run. Artwork by Bill Titcombe, with the story continuing on page 2...

TV Comic featured several strips that were not TV shows and which were created specially for the comic. Mighty Moth was one such strip, enjoying a very long run drawn by Dick Millington...

Catweazle was a popular children's tv show at the time, starring Geoffrey Bayldon. The strip version in TV Comic was illustrated by Bill Lacey, father of humour artist Mike Lacey...

Texas Ted was another strip originated just for TV Comic, and was stylishly drawn by Frank McDiarmid...

Running across the top half of the centre pages at this time was Basil Brush, the popular TV puppet. The strip expanded the theme, setting Basil in his stately home and giving him a butler. Artwork by Chas Sinclair...

The comic often featured newly drawn strips of American cartoon characters. Here's The Bugs Bunny Show, again with art by Bill Titcombe I believe...

This doesn't have a festive theme to the story but I thought you might like to see that week's episode of Doctor Who, drawn by John Canning. Within a few weeks the strip would transfer over to Polystyle's new weekly, Countdown, who would give the Doctor a more sympathetic and sophisticated treatment...

On the back page, Popeye, drawn by Bill Mevin. It could have been easy for TV Comic to reprint the American Popeye strips (and they did, in the Popeye Holiday Specials) but to their credit they originated brand new pages for the weekly. 

The final festive flashback is tomorrow! See you then. 

Retro Who!

Remember when The Daleks had their own American comic book? No, me neither, because it never happened. However, a new calendar for 2015 features excellent 'comic inspired art' with a mock up retro Doctor Who comic cover for every month of the year!

The artwork is by Mike Collins who is a regular contributor to the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip as well as being known for numerous other comics work over the past three decades. You can see his website at http://www.freakhousegraphics.com 

The retro style Doctor Who art has also been used on other merchandise. Some of which you can see here:
http://www.freakhousegraphics.com/news


Really nice work from one of the best in the business. The Doctor Who calendar is published by Danilo Promotions and is available at many shops and calendar stalls at shopping centres etc. at £9.99. If you can't find one and need to order it, give your bookshop the ISBN 978-1-78054-583-7 for the UK, or ISBN 1-78054-583-5 for the USA.

The Unseen Daleks!

As I covered in a blog post a few weeks ago, in 1997 Doctor Who Magazine ran a brand new six-part Daleks comic strip by John Lawrence and Ron Turner as a sequel to the strips that had appeared in TV21 in the 1960s. What I then learned, thanks to a comment left by John, was that he and Ron Turner had pitched another Dalek series after that but it had been turned down.

Thanks to John's generosity, he's sent me scans of the two unpublished pages of the new series that never was. Sadly, Ron Turner passed away in 1998 so these were the only two pages completed, but artist Lee Sullivan has stepped in to complete the six part story which will finally appear in Gareth Kavanagh's Doctor Who tribute magazine Vworp! Vworp! issue 3.  

Until then, here are the two unseen pages, written by John Lawrence, art by Ron Turner. Excellent stuff! (Thank you John.) Click the images to see them larger. The story continues in Vworp! Vworp! No.3, out soon! https://twitter.com/VworpVworpZine 

This week in 1971: Dr.Who

Yes, 'Dr.Who', not 'Doctor Who'. That was often how licensed BBC merchandise and comics had it back then. Even the Doctor Who TV series itself listed the character as 'Dr.Who' in the end credits for a while in the early days. And no one cared. 

Here's the Dr.Who strip that appeared on the covers of Countdown comic this week in 1971. Part of The Celluloid Midas serial illustrated by Harry Lindfield. Very nice artwork by one of the top comic artists of the day.

This of course was back in the days when The Doctor was a tall middle-aged grey-haired chap dressed in black with a red lining to the outfit. Wouldn't it be great to have a Doctor looking like that now? Oh, hang on...

Doctor Who returns to our TV screens on Saturday August 23rd! Don't miss it!