DWM comic stories

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
RealWorld.png

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 from 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 from 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.

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

New Comics

DWM Title Doctor Featuring Collected In
1-8 Doctor Who and the Iron Legion 4th The Iron Legion
9-16 City of the Damned
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 K9, Sharon, Daleks
35-38 Doctor Who and the Time Witch K9, Sharon
39-45 Dragon's Claw K9, Sharon, Sontaran Dragon's Claw
46 The Collector K9, Sharon
47-48 Dreamers of Death
49-50 The Life Bringer! K9
51 War of the Words
52 Spider-God
53 The Deal
54-55 End of the Line
56-57 Doctor Who and the Free-Fall Warriors
58-59 Junkyard Demon Cybermen
60 The Neutron Knights
61-67 The Tides of Time 5th Sir Justin of Wells, Shayde The Tides of Time
68-69 Stars Fell on Stockbridge Max
70-75 The Stockbridge Horror Shayde
76-77 Lunar Lagoon Gus
78-83 4-Dimensional Vistas Gus, the Monk, Ice Warriors
84,
86-87
The Moderator Gus
88-89 The Shape Shifter 6th Frobisher Voyager
90-94 Voyager
95-97 Polly the Glot
98-99 Once Upon a Time Lord
100-101 War-Game
102-103 Funhouse 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th
104 Kane's Story 6th Peri, Frobisher
105 Abel's Story
106 The Warrior's Story
107 Frobisher's Story
108 Exodus The World Shapers
109 Revelation! Peri, Frobisher, Cybermen
110 Genesis!
111-113 Nature of the Beast! Peri, Frobisher
114-116 Time Bomb Frobisher
117 Salad Daze Peri
118-119 Changes Peri, Frobisher
120-122 Profits of Doom!
123-126 The Gift
127-129 The World Shapers Peri, Frobisher, Jamie, Voord, Cybermen
130-133 A Cold Day in Hell! 7th Frobisher, Olla, Ice Warriors A Cold Day in Hell!
134 Redemption! Olla
135 The Crossroads of Time
136-138 Claws of the Klathi!
139 Culture Shock!
140 Keepsake
141-142 Planet of the Dead
143-144 Echoes of the Mogor!
145-146 Time and Tide
147 Follow That TARDIS! The Monk
148-150 Invaders from Gantac!
152-155 Nemesis of the Daleks Abslom Daak, Daleks Nemesis of the Daleks
156 Stairway to Heaven
159-161 Train-Flight Sarah Jane
162 Doctor Conkerer!
164-166 Fellow Travellers Ace The Good Soldier
167 Darkness, Falling The Brigadier
168 Distractions 7th Ace
169-172 The Mark of Mandragora Ace, the Brigadier
173 Party Animals Ace
174 The Chameleon Factor
175-178 The Good Soldier Ace, Cybermen
179 A Glitch in Time Ace
180 Evening's Empire (Part One only) Evening's Empire
183 Conflict of Interests Sontarans
185-187 The Grief 7th Ace
188-190 Ravens
191 Memorial Ace
192 Cat Litter
193-196 Pureblood 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 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 Ground Zero
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 Izzy
250 A Life of Matter and Death
251-255 Fire and Brimstone Izzy, Daleks
256 By Hook or By Crook Izzy
257-260 Tooth and Claw Izzy, Fey
262-265 The Final Chapter Izzy, Fey, Shayde, Rassilon
266-271 Wormwood 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!
284-286 The Company of Thieves Izzy, Kroton
287-296 The Glorious Dead Izzy, Kroton, the Bruce Master
297-299 The Autonomy Bug Izzy
300-303 Ophidius Izzy, Destrii Oblivion
304 Beautiful Freak Izzy
305 The Last Word 7th Ace, Benny
306, 308-310 The Way of All Flesh 8th Izzy Oblivion
311 Character Assassin The Master
312-317 Children of the Revolution 8th Izzy, Daleks
318 Me and My Shadow Feyde
319-322 Uroboros 8th Feyde, Destrii
323-328 Oblivion Izzy, Feyde, Izzy, Destrii
329 Where Nobody Knows Your Name Frobisher The Flood
330-332 Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game
333 The Power of Thoueris!
334-336 The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack
337 The Land of Happy Endings John and Gillian
338-342 Bad Blood Destrii
343-345 Sins of the Fathers
346-353 The Flood Destrii, Cybermen
355-357 The Love Invasion 9th Rose The Cruel Sea
358 Art Attack
359-362 The Cruel Sea
363-364 A Groatsworth of Wit
365-367 The Betrothal of Sontar 10th Rose, Sontarans The Betrothal of Sontar
368 The Lodger Rose, Mickey, Jackie
369-371 F.A.Q. Rose
372-374 The Futurists
375-376 Interstellar Overdrive
377 The Green-Eyed Monster Rose, Mickey, Jackie
378-380 The Warkeeper's Crown The Brigadier
381-384 The Woman Who Sold the World Martha The Widow's Curse
385 Bus Stop!
386-389 The First
390 Death to the Doctor!
391-393 Universal Monsters
394 Hotel Historia Majenta The Crimson Hand
395-398 The Widow's Curse Donna, Sycorax The Widow's Curse
399 The Time of My Life Donna
400-402 Thinktwice Majenta The Crimson Hand
403-405 The Stockbridge Child Majenta, Max
406-407 Mortal Beloved Majenta
408-411 The Age of Ice
412 The Deep Hereafter
413 Onomatopoeia
414-415 Ghosts of the Northern Line
416-420 The Crimson Hand
421-423 Supernature 11th Amy The Child of Time
424 Planet Bollywood
425-428 The Golden Ones Amy, Axos
429 The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop Amy
430-431 The Screams of Death
432 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
433-434 Forever Dreaming
435-437 Apotheosis
438-441 The Child of Time
442-445 The Chains of Olympus Amy, Rory The Chains of Olympus
446-447 Sticks & Stones
448-450 The Cornucopia Caper
451-454 The Broken Man 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 Clara The Blood of Azrael
465-466 Welcome to Tickle Town
467 John Smith and the Common Men
468-469 Pay the Piper
470-474 The Blood of Azrael
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 Clara, Sontarans
484 Space Invaders! Clara The Highgate Horror
485-488 Blood and Ice The Eye of Torment
489-491 Spirits of the Jungle The Highgate Horror
492-493 The Highgate Horror Clara, Jess
494-495 The Dragon Lord Clara
496 Theatre of the Mind
497-499 Witch Hunt
500 The Stockbridge Showdown Max, Sharon, Frobisher, Izzy, Destrii, Majenta
501-503 The Pestilent Heart Jess Doorway to Hell
504 Moving In
505-506 Bloodsport
507 Be Forgot
508-511 Doorway to Hell Jess, the Master
512-514 The Soul Garden Bill The Phantom Piper
515-517 The Parliament of Fear
518 Matildus
519-523 The Phantom Piper Bill, Fey
524-530 The Clockwise War Bill, Fey, Shayde The Clockwise War
531-534 The Warmonger 13th Graham, Ryan, Yaz Mistress of Chaos
535-539 Herald of Madness
540-542 The Power of the Mobox
543-548 Mistress of Chaos

Reprints

DWM Title Doctor Featuring Originally Printed In
85 Skywatch-7 Zygon DWM 58, DWMS Winter 1981 (backup strip)
157-158 Hunger from the Ends of Time! 7th The Incredible Hulk Presents 2-3
181 The Fires Down Below DWM 64 (backup strip)
182 Spider-God 4th DWM 52
184 Business as Usual Autons DWM 40-DWM 43 (backup strip)
307 Flower Power 2nd John and Gillian, Cybermen TV Comic 832-836

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 The Clockwise War
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