List of Doctor Who comic stories

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Doctor Who comic stories are a range of comic strips featuring the offscreen adventures of the Doctor, the protagonist in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.

History

The comic-strip adventures of the Doctor appeared almost from the beginning of the television series, first in the 1960s publication TV Comic and then during the 1970s in the mainly Gerry Anderson-related comic Countdown, later renamed TV Action. After TV Action ceased publication, the strip returned to TV Comic until 1978. Both the First and Second Doctors were, for a time, shown travelling with two children named John and Gillian who were identified as the Doctor's grandchildren. Their place within established continuity has challenged fans ever since, although various spin-off fiction venues have attempted to reconcile their existence.

The regular Doctor Who Annuals from World Distributors published comics most years from the first annual until they ceased publication in 1985.

A comic strip also regularly appeared in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. This began as a Marvel comic under the name Doctor Who Weekly in 1979 (soon changing to Doctor Who Monthly), and the magazine continued to be published after the programme ceased production in 1989. The comic strip has usually featured the current Doctor in a series of adventures independent of the novels and the audios, and with another companion, though several crossovers with the worlds of the audio and literary Doctor Who and the comics have occurred. Creators who have worked on the DWM strip include such notables as writer Alan Moore and artists Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon, and John Ridgway. Selected stories were reprinted in North America by Marvel Comics, which was also the publisher of Doctor Who Magazine at the time. When DWM was published by Marvel, some characters occasionally crossed over between the Doctor Who comic and other titles published by Marvel UK; these include the froglike Venusian businessman Josiah Dogbolter and the robotic bounty hunter Death's Head. In the "Flood Barriers" feature in the trade paperback Doctor Who: The Flood, it is revealed the comic strip was given the opportunity to show the canonical regeneration of the Eighth Doctor into the Ninth Doctor.

The publishers of Doctor Who Magazine have also produced a number of special issues, annuals, and other publications containing comics.

Two short-lived spin-off series, Miranda from Comeuppance Comics and Faction Paradox from Mad Norwegian Press, have also appeared, both featuring characters who had debuted in Doctor Who novels.

Doctor Who Magazine, which is now owned by Panini Comics, continues to produce new comic-strip adventures. Panini has also begun to reprint the early DWM strips in trade paperback format.

At the height of "Dalekmania" in the 1960s, a comic strip featuring the Daleks written by David Whitaker but credited to Terry Nation appeared in the Gerry Anderson TV Century 21 comic magazine.[1] The BBC also published a number of Dalek annuals, written by Whitaker and Nation, that contained a mixture of comic strips and short stories. Although much of the material in these strips directly contradicted what would be shown on television, some concepts, such as the Daleks using humanoid duplicates and the design of the Dalek Emperor, were later adapted into the television programme. The strip also featured the Mechonoids seen in The Chase, and one annual featured Sara Kingdom and the Space Security Service.

In 2005 a webcomic called The Forge: Project Longinus, written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright and illustrated by Bryan Coyle was produced as a spin-off from Scott and Wright's Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio dramas, and contained a number of unofficial references to the Doctor Who universe.[citation needed]

Stories

See also

References

  1. Haining 1988, p 182