DWM comic stories

Comic stories have appeared in all but two issues of Doctor Who Magazine. Since its earliest days as Doctor Who Weekly, the publication has been home to many types of strips, but the most durable has been the one featuring the then-current televised Doctor. This "main strip" has usually been told in a multi-part format. Beyond these continuing adventures of the Doctor, the magazine has at different times printed comic adaptations of classic science fiction stories, reprints of original science-fiction stories from American comic book anthologies, reprints of strips originally printed in Polystyle or City Magazines publications, and original strips not featuring the Doctor which were nevertheless set in the Doctor Who universe.

Overview

In 1979, Marvel UK wrested control of the license to produce Doctor Who comics from Polystyle. Editor Dez Skinn immediately changed the style of the comic strip by hiring youngsters who were principally comic book artists, rather than the cartoonists and illustrators who had been in charge of Polystyle's output. With soon-to-be-luminaries like Dave Gibbons, Pat Mills and John Wagner working on the main strip and Alan Moore, Steve Moore, Steve Dillon and Steve Parkhouse initially handling the back-ups, Skinn instantly brought modern — and more American — sensibilities to the comic Doctor Who world.

At the same time, those early issues of Doctor Who Weekly brought American comic strips in front of British eyes by having a long series of reprints taken straight from Marvel's long line of American science fiction anthologies. Called variously Tales from the TARDIS and Dr Who's Time Tales, the non-Whoniverse backup strips of those early issues involved a few panels of the Fourth Doctor framing a Marvel US adaptation of a classic science fiction story or an original strip taken from a Marvel US science fiction anthology of the 1950s or 1960s. Borrowed as they were from Marvel US, they featured the talents of Marvel legends Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Chris Claremont, and even Stan Lee himself. Skinn also resurrected the long-out-of-print Dalek Tapes stories that had originally appeared in TV Century 21. For a time, Doctor Who Weekly regularly had three or four different strips in each issue.

Skinn's successors rather quickly ended the non-Whoniverse material, and made reprints of 1960s material increasingly sporadic. But the non-Doctor original back-ups remained well past the time the magazine became Doctor Who Monthly. These backups, however, dried up at about the time the Sixth Doctor debuted. By the end of the 1980s, the magazine generally ran only the main Doctor Who strip. However, there were rare instances when a Polystyle comic made its way into print during the 1990s. These occasional reprints ended entirely by the dawn of the 21st century. In 2017 a reprinted collection of the Polystyle comic strip *Sub Zero was included free inside the polybag of the 1970s themed issue 508, but this was an additional entity to the magazine issue itself.

In the 1990s DWM temporarily ran a series of comic strips featuring past Doctors in lieu of the then-current Seventh Doctor, but from 1996 it once again nearly exclusively featured the current Doctor; the Eighth Doctor was current in DWM's comic strip from 1996-2005, followed by the Ninth Doctor in 2005; the Tenth Doctor from 2006-10; the Eleventh Doctor from 2010-14 the Twelfth Doctor from 2014-18; and the Thirteenth Doctor in 2018. From 2005, the magazine also more regularly featured the Doctor travelling with their contemporary companions on TV with the likenesses of their respective actors. The comic adventures of Rose Tyler in the pages of DWM were published from 2005-06; Martha Jones from 2007-08; Donna Noble in 2008; Amy Pond from 2010-12; Rory Williams from 2011-12; Clara Oswald from 2013-16; Bill Potts from 2017-18; and Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair, and Yasmin Khan in 2018.

Since 2017, Doctor Who Magazine has published the main eight-page comic strip, along with a three-panel parody called The Daft Dimension, the latter of which since 2014 was usually printed in the pages of the magazine's Galaxy Forum feature. The main comic had previously run to as many as 12 pages, with the 500th issue story The Stockbridge Showdown being 20 pages long.

In issue 455 in 2012, the sole comic strip other than the three-panel Doctor Whoah! was a Doctor-less story (apart from a doll with the Eleventh Doctor's likeness) called Imaginary Enemies. This story featured a pre-TARDIS travel Amy and Rory, along with their time-travelling daughter Mels, and was set during a twelve-year narrative gap in the 2010 episode The Eleventh Hour. It was published after the final comic story in the magazine where Amy and Rory were travelling with the Eleventh Doctor.

Over issues 475 and 476 in 2014, the sole comic strip other than Doctor Whoah! in issue 475 was a Doctor-less story called The Crystal Throne. This comic story was published after the Eleventh Doctor's final comic strip in the magazine and before the Twelfth Doctor's DWM debut, and instead featured Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax, who appeared in several episodes of the Doctor Who TV series between 2011 and 2014.

As has been the case since 1979, most stories in the main strip are serialised and told over the course of several issues, with the occasional single-chapter standalone. Originally published in black and white, the comic strip has been published in colour since DWM 300 in 2001.

Reprints

Many of the comic strips have been reprinted a number of times in, or as, various publications, including as colourised and edited-down versions given away free in multi-packs of crisp snacks.

Doctor Who Magazine material was first reprinted in America via the Marvel Premiere anthology series in the early 1980s. When sales proved favourable, a new title, Doctor Who (1984), was launched. Though cancelled just shy of its two-year anniversary, the title managed to reprint almost all of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors' DWM runs. It also offered some prominent American artists, such as Dave Cockrum and George Roussos, an opportunity to offer pinup and cover artwork of Doctor Who subjects. Like many DWM reprints, Doctor Who (1984) presented its reprints in colour.

From 1992 to 1994, Marvel UK began reprinting colourised reprints of DWM comics in Doctor Who Classic Comics alongside earlier strips by Polystyle Publications, Ltd.

Towards the end of 2007, IDW Publishing picked up the option to again reprint colourised versions of DWM comic strips in a monthly American series entitled Doctor Who Classics, reprinting stories up to the early Seventh Doctor era, plus a two-volume standalone, Grant Morrison's Doctor Who, reprinting Morrison's output from DWM. IDW also published several omnibus trade paperbacks featuring DWM strip reprints. The reprints ended with IDW's loss of their license to publish Doctor Who comics.

As a result of being colourised by separate reprint publications, a handful of stories have been colourised differently up to three times, namely: Doctor Who and the Star Beast, Timeslip, Spider-God, The Neutron Knights, The Tides of Time, Stars Fell on Stockbridge, The Stockbridge Horror, The Shape Shifter, Voyager (parts 4-5), Once Upon a Time Lord, and Revelation! / Genesis!.

In the UK, Panini undertook a long project to digitally restore all Doctor Who Magazine comics, and faithfully reprint the comics from their original masters. In most cases, this has meant the first monochromatic reprinting of most DWM strips. It has also offered the creative teams an opportunity to add explanatory notes and original concept artwork. These large-format volumes have to date covered most of the history of DWM from 1979 onwards.

Doctor Who Magazine's comic strips have also been a key feature of hardback publications like the series of Doctor Who Yearbooks, Doctor Who annuals and Doctor Who Storybooks, as well as numerous special, seasonal issues of DWM itself.

Main strips by issue

DWM	Title	Doctor	Featuring	Collected In
1-8	Doctor Who and the Iron Legion	4th		The Iron Legion
9-16	City of the Damned	4th
17-18	Timeslip	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th	K9	The Tides of Time
19-26	Doctor Who and the Star Beast	4th	K9, Sharon	The Iron Legion
27-34	Doctor Who and the Dogs of Doom	4th	K9, Sharon, Daleks
35-38	Doctor Who and the Time Witch	4th	K9, Sharon
39-45	Dragon's Claw	4th	K9, Sharon, Sontaran	Dragon's Claw
46	The Collector	4th	K9, Sharon
47-48	Dreamers of Death	4th	K9, Sharon
49-50	The Life Bringer!	4th	K9
51	War of the Words	4th	K9
52	Spider-God	4th
53	The Deal	4th
54-55	End of the Line	4th
56-57	Doctor Who and the Free-Fall Warriors	4th
58-59	Junkyard Demon	4th	Cybermen
60	The Neutron Knights	4th
61-67	The Tides of Time	5th	Sir Justin of Wells, Shayde	The Tides of Time
68-69	Stars Fell on Stockbridge	5th	Max
70-75	The Stockbridge Horror	5th	Shayde
76-77	Lunar Lagoon	5th	Gus
78-83	4-Dimensional Vistas	5th	Gus, the Monk, Ice Warriors
84, 86-87	The Moderator	5th	Gus
88-89	The Shape Shifter	6th	Frobisher	Voyager
90-94	Voyager	6th	Frobisher
95-97	Polly the Glot	6th	Frobisher
98-99	Once Upon a Time Lord	6th	Frobisher
100-101	War-Game	6th	Frobisher
102-103	Funhouse	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th	Frobisher
104	Kane's Story	6th	Peri, Frobisher
105	Abel's Story	6th	Peri, Frobisher
106	The Warrior's Story	6th	Peri, Frobisher
107	Frobisher's Story	6th	Peri, Frobisher
108	Exodus	6th	Peri, Frobisher	The World Shapers
109	Revelation!	6th	Peri, Frobisher, Cybermen
110	Genesis!	6th	Peri, Frobisher, Cybermen
111-113	Nature of the Beast!	6th	Peri, Frobisher
114-116	Time Bomb	6th	Frobisher
117	Salad Daze	6th	Peri
118-119	Changes	6th	Peri, Frobisher
120-122	Profits of Doom!	6th	Peri, Frobisher
123-126	The Gift	6th	Peri, Frobisher
127-129	The World Shapers	6th	Peri, Frobisher, Jamie, Voord, Cybermen
130-133	A Cold Day in Hell!	7th	Frobisher, Olla, Ice Warriors	A Cold Day in Hell!
134	Redemption!	7th	Olla
135	The Crossroads of Time	7th
136-138	Claws of the Klathi!	7th
139	Culture Shock!	7th
140	Keepsake	7th
141-142	Planet of the Dead	7th
143-144	Echoes of the Mogor!	7th
145-146	Time and Tide	7th
147	Follow That TARDIS!	7th	The Monk
148-150	Invaders from Gantac!	7th
152-155	Nemesis of the Daleks	7th	Abslom Daak, Daleks	Nemesis of the Daleks
156	Stairway to Heaven	7th
157-158	Hunger from the Ends of Time! (The Incredible Hulk Presents reprint)	7th
159-161	Train-Flight	7th	Sarah Jane
162	Doctor Conkerer!	7th
164-166	Fellow Travellers	7th	Ace	The Good Soldier
167	Darkness, Falling	---	The Brigadier
168	Distractions	7th	Ace
169-172	The Mark of Mandragora	7th	Ace, the Brigadier
173	Party Animals	7th	Ace
174	The Chameleon Factor	7th	Ace
175-178	The Good Soldier	7th	Ace, Cybermen
179	A Glitch in Time	7th	Ace
180	Evening's Empire (Part One only)	7th	Ace	Evening's Empire
181	The Fires Down Below (backup strip reprint)	---		---
182	Spider-God (reprint)	4th		Dragon's Claw
183	Conflict of Interests	---	Sontarans	Evening's Empire
184	Business as Usual (backup strip reprint)	---	Nestene Consciousness, Autons	---
185-187	The Grief	7th	Ace	Evening's Empire
188-190	Ravens	7th
191	Memorial	7th	Ace
192	Cat Litter	7th	Ace
193-196	Pureblood	7th	Benny, Sontarans, Rutan	Emperor of the Daleks
197-202	Emperor of the Daleks!	6th, 7th	Benny, Peri, Abslom Daak, Daleks
203-206	Final Genesis	7th	Ace, Benny
207	Time & Time Again	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th	Susan, Jamie, Zoe, Adric, Frobisher, Ace, Benny
208-210	Cuckoo	7th	Ace, Benny
211	Uninvited Guest	7th	Eternals
212-214	Victims	4th	Romana II	Land of the Blind
215-217	The Lunar Strangers	5th	Tegan, Turlough
218-220	Food for Thought	1st	Ben, Polly
221-223	Change of Mind	3rd	Liz, the Brigadier
224-226	Land of the Blind	2nd	Jamie, Zoe
227	Up Above the Gods	6th	Davros	Emperor of the Daleks
228-230	The Curse of the Scarab	5th	Peri	---
231-233	Operation Proteus	1st	Susan	---
234	Target Practice	3rd	Jo, the Brigadier, Benton	---
235-237	Black Destiny	4th	Sarah Jane, Harry	---
238-242	Ground Zero	7th	Susan, Sarah Jane, Peri, Ace	---
243	Doctor Who and the Fangs of Time	4th		---
244-247	Endgame	8th	Izzy, Max, The Celestial Toymaker	Endgame
248-249	The Keep	8th	Izzy
250	A Life of Matter and Death	8th	Izzy
251-255	Fire and Brimstone	8th	Izzy, Daleks
256	By Hook or By Crook	8th	Izzy
257-260	Tooth and Claw	8th	Izzy, Fey
262-265	The Final Chapter	8th	Izzy, Fey, Shayde, Rassilon
266-271	Wormwood	8th	Izzy, Fey, Shayde
272	Happy Deathday	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th	Izzy	The Glorious Dead
273-276	The Fallen	8th	Izzy, Grace, the Bruce Master
277	Unnatural Born Killers	---	Kroton, Sontarans
278-282	The Road to Hell	8th	Izzy
283	TV Action!	8th	Izzy
284-286	The Company of Thieves	8th	Izzy, Kroton
287-296	The Glorious Dead	8th	Izzy, Kroton, the Bruce Master
297-299	The Autonomy Bug	8th	Izzy
300-303	Ophidius	8th	Izzy, Destrii	Oblivion
304	Beautiful Freak	8th	Izzy
305	The Last Word	7th	Ace, Benny	---
306, 308-310	The Way of All Flesh	8th	Izzy	Oblivion
307	Flower Power (TV Comic reprint)	2nd	John and Gillian, Cybermen	---
311	Character Assassin	---	The Master	Oblivion
312-317	Children of the Revolution	8th	Izzy, Daleks
318	Me and My Shadow	---	Feyde
319-322	Uroboros	8th	Feyde, Destrii
323-328	Oblivion	8th	Izzy, Feyde, Destrii
329	Where Nobody Knows Your Name	8th	Frobisher	The Flood
330-332	Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game	8th
333	The Power of Thoueris!	8th
334-336	The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack	8th
337	The Land of Happy Endings	8th	John and Gillian
338-342	Bad Blood	8th	Destrii
343-345	Sins of the Fathers	8th	Destrii
346-353	The Flood	8th	Destrii, Cybermen
355-357	The Love Invasion	9th	Rose	The Cruel Sea
358	Art Attack	9th	Rose
359-362	The Cruel Sea	9th	Rose
363-364	A Groatsworth of Wit	9th	Rose
365-367	The Betrothal of Sontar	10th	Rose, Sontarans	The Betrothal of Sontar
368	The Lodger	10th	Rose, Mickey, Jackie
369-371	F.A.Q.	10th	Rose
372-374	The Futurists	10th	Rose
375-376	Interstellar Overdrive	10th	Rose
377	The Green-Eyed Monster	10th	Rose, Mickey, Jackie
378-380	The Warkeeper's Crown	10th	The Brigadier
381-384	The Woman Who Sold the World	10th	Martha	The Widow's Curse
385	Bus Stop!	10th	Martha
386-389	The First	10th	Martha
390	Death to the Doctor!	10th	Martha
391-393	Universal Monsters	10th	Martha
394	Hotel Historia	10th	Majenta	The Crimson Hand
395-398	The Widow's Curse	10th	Donna, Sycorax	The Widow's Curse
399	The Time of My Life	10th	Donna
400-402	Thinktwice	10th	Majenta	The Crimson Hand
403-405	The Stockbridge Child	10th	Majenta, Max
406-407	Mortal Beloved	10th	Majenta
408-411	The Age of Ice	10th	Majenta
412	The Deep Hereafter	10th	Majenta
413	Onomatopoeia	10th	Majenta
414-415	Ghosts of the Northern Line	10th	Majenta
416-420	The Crimson Hand	10th	Majenta
421-423	Supernature	11th	Amy	The Child of Time
424	Planet Bollywood	11th	Amy
425-428	The Golden Ones	11th	Amy, Axos
429	The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop	11th	Amy
430-431	The Screams of Death	11th	Amy
432	Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night	11th	Amy
433-434	Forever Dreaming	11th	Amy
435-437	Apotheosis	11th	Amy
438-441	The Child of Time	11th	Amy
442-445	The Chains of Olympus	11th	Amy, Rory	The Chains of Olympus
446-447	Sticks & Stones	11th	Amy, Rory
448-450	The Cornucopia Caper	11th	Amy, Rory
451-454	The Broken Man	11th	Amy, Rory	Hunters of the Burning Stone
455	Imaginary Enemies	---	Amy, Rory, Mels
456-461	Hunters of the Burning Stone	11th	Ian, Barbara
462-464	A Wing and a Prayer	11th	Clara	The Blood of Azrael
465-466	Welcome to Tickle Town	11th	Clara
467	John Smith and the Common Men	11th	Clara
468-469	Pay the Piper	11th	Clara
470-474	The Blood of Azrael	11th	Clara
475-476	The Crystal Throne	---	Vastra, Jenny, Strax	The Eye of Torment
477-480	The Eye of Torment	12th	Clara
481-483	The Instruments of War	12th	Clara, Sontarans
484	Space Invaders!	12th	Clara	The Highgate Horror
485-488	Blood and Ice	12th	Clara	The Eye of Torment
489-491	Spirits of the Jungle	12th	Clara	The Highgate Horror
492-493	The Highgate Horror	12th	Clara, Jess
494-495	The Dragon Lord	12th	Clara
496	Theatre of the Mind	12th	Clara
497-499	Witch Hunt	12th	Clara
500	The Stockbridge Showdown	12th	Max, Sharon, Frobisher, Izzy, Destrii, Majenta
501-503	The Pestilent Heart	12th	Jess	Doorway to Hell
504	Moving In	12th	Jess
505-506	Bloodsport	12th	Jess
507	Be Forgot	12th	Jess
508-511	Doorway to Hell	12th	Jess, the Master
512-514	The Soul Garden	12th	Bill	The Phantom Piper
515-517	The Parliament of Fear	12th	Bill
518	Matildus	12th	Bill
519-523	The Phantom Piper	12th	Bill, Fey
524-530	The Clockwise War	12th	Bill, Fey, Shayde	The Clockwise War
531-	The Warmonger	13th	Graham, Ryan, Yaz	---

Backup strips

Main article: DWM backup comic stories

Main strips in Special issues

Doctor Who Magazine Specials

DWM	Title	Doctor	Featuring	Collected In
Summer 1991	Seaside Rendezvous	7th	Ace	The Good Soldier
Winter 1991	The Man in the Ion Mask	3rd	The Brigadier, Benton, The Master	---
Winter 1992	Flashback	7th	Benny	Emperor of the Daleks
Summer 1993	Bringer of Darkness	2nd	Jamie, Victoria, Daleks	Land of the Blind
Summer 1994	Are You Listening?	1st	Vicki, Steven	---
	Younger and Wiser	7th	Benny	---
Winter 1994	Plastic Millenium		Mel, Nestene Consciousness, Autons	---
Summer 1995	The Seventh Segment	4th	Romana, K9	---
Spring 1996	Daleks Versus the Martians	Dr. Who	Louise, Susan, Daleks	---

Main strips in Yearbooks

Doctor Who Yearbooks

Year	Title	Doctor	Featuring	Collected In
1992	Under Pressure	3rd, 4th, 7th	Jo, Ace, Sea Devils	---
1993	Metamorphosis	7th	Ace, Daleks	---
1994	A Religious Experience	1st, 7th	Ian, Barbara	---
	Rest and Re-Creation	4th	Leela, Zygons	---
1995	The Naked Flame		Sarah	---
	Blood Invocation	5th	Nyssa, Tegan	---
1996	Star Beast II	4th		---
	Junkyard Demon II		Cybermen	---

Main strips in Storybooks

Doctor Who Storybooks

Year	Title	Doctor	Featuring	Collected In
2007	Opera of Doom!	10th	Rose	The Betrothal of Sontar
2008	Sunscreen		Martha	The Widow's Curse
2009	The Immortal Emperor		Donna
2010	Space Vikings!			The Crimson Hand