DWM backup comic stories

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In the early days of Doctor Who Magazine, short backup comic stories appeared in addition to the issue's main story. These strips typically did not include the Doctor other than as a "presenter", and tended to focus on other characters within the wider Doctor Who universe. Most backup comic stories were published prior to 1982, and so were printed in issues that otherwise featured the Fourth Doctor.

The term "DWM backup comic story" does not actually designate a formalised series. There was never a masthead featuring the term, and there was no particular consensus as to which strips could be considered "backups".

On this wiki, the term means any strip appearing in any issue of DWM or its predecessors which:

• is set in the DWU
• doesn't feature the Doctor, or at least doesn't use them as the main protagonist
• isn't clearly a part of the main strip's narrative
• has no other series name
• is original to the pages of DWM

Therefore, strips under the Tales from the TARDIS banner or Dalek Chronicles reprints are not covered by this article. Also not considered here are the occasional stories which are integral to the main strip's narrative, like Darkness, Falling, Me and My Shadow and Unnatural Born Killers, or the various long-running series of three-panel comic strips such as Doctor Who? and The Daft Dimension.

Early history

Because the format of Doctor Who Weekly originally included a greater concentration of comic strips, the magazine's comic staff was initially comprised of two creative teams. One group — Dave Gibbons, Pat Mills and John Wagner — was assigned to the "main" strip. This was the strip that was often featured on early covers and involved the Fourth Doctor.

It then fell to another team — initially Alan Moore, Steve Moore and David Lloyd — to make strips that didn't involve the Doctor. These tended to feature well-known villains, such as the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans and others. During this period, the Doctor often served as "host" of the stories, appearing in the opening and closing frames as a kind of narrator. Though many of the individual characters slipped into obscurity, the series did produce at least a couple of stand-outs. Both Abslom Daak and Kroton originated in the backups, but went on to be used in the main strip.

Appearing regularly through issue 59, the strip was initially absent in DWM #60, and was effectively cancelled after The Fires Down Below in DWM #64. Secondary stories that appeared thereafter were not original, but rather reprints from TV Century 21 or, more rarely, TV Comic.

Latter day "backups"

Disregarding "special issues" of DWM, non-Doctor stories were incredibly rare after 1982. In fact, the next time a non-Doctor story appeared in a regular issue of DWM was in issue 183's Conflict of Interests —with the next occasion over a hundred issues after that.

These latter-day stories generally didn't fit the mould of a "backup story", however, in that they were the only comic story in the issue. Thus, they weren't so much "backups" as the main story of the issue. Nevertheless, because there are so few of this kind of story, this wiki has simply elected to consider them the thematic heirs of the early 1980s stories.

List

DWM	Title	Writer	Featuring	Collected In
1-4	The Return of the Daleks	Steve Moore	Daleks	Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection	The Return of the Daleks
5-7	Throwback: The Soul of a Cyberman		Cybermen, Kroton	The Glorious Dead Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
8	The Final Quest		Sontarans
9-11	The Stolen TARDIS		Gallifreyans
12	K-9's Finest Hour		K9
13-14	Warlord of the Ogrons		Ogrons
15-16	Deathworld		Ice Warriors, Cybermen	Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
17-20	Abslom Daak... Dalek Killer		Abslom Daak, Daleks	Nemesis of the Daleks Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
21-22	Twilight of the Silurians		Silurians
23-24	Ship of Fools		Kroton	The Glorious Dead Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
25-26	The Outsider		Sontarans
27-30, 44-46	Star Tigers		Abslom Daak, Star Tigers, Daleks	Nemesis of the Daleks Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
31-34	Yonder... The Yeti		Robot Yeti		Black Sun Rising
35-38	Black Legacy	Alan Moore	Cybermen	Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
40-43	Business as Usual		Autons
47	Star Death		Rassilon, Time Lords
48	The Touchdown on Deneb-7	Paul Neary	K9
49	Voyage to the Edge of the Universe		Azal
50	Crisis on Kaldor	Steve Moore	Kaldor androids
51	4-D War	Alan Moore	Time Lords
56	The Greatest Gamble	John Peel	Celestial Toymaker, Gaylord Lefevre
57	Black Sun Rising	Alan Moore	Time Lords
58, Winter 1981	Skywatch-7	Maxwell Stockbridge	Zygon
59	The Gods Walk Among Us	John Peel	Sontaran
61	Devil of the Deep		Sea Devil
64	The Fires Down Below		UNIT, Dominators, Quarks

Other comics

These are comics that do not feature the Doctor and were not published as backup comics in DWM regular issues.

DWM special issues

DWM	Title	Featuring	Collected In
Winter 1981	Minatorius	Time Lords	Black Sun Rising
Summer 1982	The Fabulous Idiot	Ivan Asimoff
Summer 1982	A Ship Called Sudden Death	Freefall Warriors
Holiday 1992	City of Devils	Sarah Jane, K9, Silurians

DWM Main Comics

The following served as the main comic story in the issues they were published. However, the Doctor was not present, making them akin the earlier backup stories.

DWM	Title	Featuring	Collected In
183	Conflict of Interests	Sontaran	Evening's Empire
277	Unnatural Born Killers	Kroton	The Glorious Dead Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
311	Character Assassin	The Master	Oblivion
318	Me and My Shadow	Feyde
455	Imaginary Enemies	Amy, Rory, Mels	Hunters of the Burning Stone
475-476	The Crystal Throne	Paternoster Gang	The Eye of Torment