Watching Doctor Who

(Erik, my Evil Twin, Convention partner, and frequent commenter here, was kind enough to write a review of the two Doctor Who Comic Books that are out there now. I haven’t had a chance to read them yet, you see. All hail Erik! Enjoy.)

Our good Doctor has made his long awaited return to the world of comics in not one but two forms. Let’s take a look, shall we?

First, we have the original stories based upon the adventures of the 10th Doctor and Martha. These are written by Gary Russell who has written so much regarding the Doctor and his chums that if you don’t know who he is, look on your Who related bookshelf or Big Finish CDs. The first issue is a stand alone story with a foe familiar to fans of the new series popping in. It begins with a brief recap of the Time Lords for the uninitiated but quickly drops you into a story that is already in progress. This is a technique that I enjoy as it lets you know these characters have been living before you turn the first page, although it does sometimes create a little confusion on the first read (which could be the case here). He has a good grasp of the voices of the Doctor and Martha and I could easily hear them saying all their dialogue in my head. He is also able to fit the stories into a single issue without making them feel rushed or like you’re skipping over bits. The art by Nick Roche is also very good. It is caricaturist and unique, but also very sharp and you have no problem recognizing who is who and the panels are never boring to look at.

The second issue is also a stand alone story, but is also the beginning of a longer serial with a mysterious “Big Bad� causing havoc. Both of the issues have scattered about nice little winks for us relating to the Doctor’s past, actors and even pop culture, but in a good way (as in fleeting references to “A Clockwork Orange� and “Monty Python,� not Paris Hilton and American Idol). This is also something I always enjoy, as if they are little Easter eggs left for those who will love them, but not getting in the way of those who won’t get them. Still, including the Bay City Rollers among the Best of British Pop, not so sure about that one…

The physical comics themselves are of superior quality. These are not the tissue paper covers and newsprint pages you remember as a kid. The covers are of good, stiff stock and the pages themselves are high quality, glossy paper. Another nice thing is, being as they are being released by an independent press (as in not DC or Marvel), there are no ads breaking up the story, they are all at the end of that issue’s adventures. This is something that makes me very happy. Sadly, they are a bit on the pricey side at $3.99 each. This may come as a shock to those of you who last remember buying a comic when they were $.25 and issue, but I must say, you do get quality for the price you are paying.

All in all, I highly recommend these to the seasoned Whovian as well as the newcomer or simply a fan of good comics. I do wish they had begun these earlier, though, so we could have had Rose involved. No offense, Martha, I love you to bits but…well…its Rose.

The second title out now is collections of the old strips that used to appear in the Doctor Who magazines starting with the 4th Doctor. They would always feature the Doctor currently on the telly, but his current companions…not so much (more’s the pity). They were first packaged together in comic book form and “colorized� back in the ‘80s by Marvel. Then, they began at the very beginning and the coloring was sometimes suspect…as was the art. Back in the day when I was gobbling them up as soon as the were released, even my mother (who was far from either a Doctor Who or comic book aficionado) would look at them, scrunch her eyes and say “that sure doesn’t look much like Tom Baker,� and then get back to knitting my scarf. Thanks, mom.

This time they started a little further along into the strips history when the main artist had a firmer grip on his take on Mr. Baker. They also have completely recolored them, also much for the better. The main creative forces behind this were also the main creative forces behind the wonderful and very popular “2000AD� comic series in Britain. Among other things, this is where “Judge Dredd� came from. And the stories especially reflect this as they feel very “2000AD�-ish. This is not necessarily a bad thing as those comics were filled with so much fun and imagination that I wish Pat Mills and John Wagner had gotten the chance to write for the series proper. Of course, they were able to write here with no worries about budget and took full advantage of giving the good Doctor quite amazing worlds and adventures to run around in. That said, it also gives them a very definite feeling of being outside the normal Doctor Who universe, which not having a familiar companion (or in the case of the first four issues any companion) accentuates.

The artist, however, would damn near be worth getting them for alone. It is the Kirby award winning Dave Gibbons. He is one of the true legends of comics and would be even if all he had done was be Art Director and artist with “2000AD� and “Dan Dare�. However, when you also throw into the mix his work at DC like “Green Lantern� and the seminal (if, in my opinion, horribly overrated) “Watchmen� series, we’re talking a comics god here. The fact that he also did the artwork for Jethro Tull’s “To Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die� album is a wonderful cherry on top. These comics are a chance to see his work before he came to DC and became the comic book-household name he is today.

There was one story not done by this team, a brief two-parter, in issue four that takes place completely in the TARDIS and shows us his former selves in a very clever way. They story, great fun…the art, not so much. It was rather sloppily done by a fellow who obviously either copied or traced existing photos and/or artwork for each panel. In fact, it’s kind of fun to place what each image is (Ooh, the cover of the Hand of Fear Target novelization! Ooh, a still from An Unearthly Child!), so you can make a little game of it!

On the negative side, there is the fact that this is the third time these stories have been in print and if you have the previous two versions, unless you are a mad completest like myself, having new color may not be worth plunking down the $3.99 an issue. Also, due to the four page format they were originally in, the stories feel rushed and repetitive as they had to end each issue with a cliffhanger and then begin not only with the cliffhanger resolution, but a recap of what had been going on previously so you almost have only two pages worth of flowing story. Not a problem for a weekly/monthly magazine, but kind of annoying for a comic book collection.

All in all though, I must say I recommend picking these up as well, especially for those of you who have never read them before. They give you a fun look back at past Doctors, new adventures outside of the TV before they started writing them out in book form, and an opportunity to see one of the comic world’s greats in action.

- Erik

Doctor Who, Comics