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Comic stories have appeared in all issues of Doctor Who Magazine in some form. 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. Similarly, in 2020 reprints of the Polystyle comic strips The Glen of Sleeping and Fogbound were included free as two of the reprinted strips in the Past Masters supplement which came with issue 547, but again this was in 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.
In issue 311 in 2001, an issue focused on the Master, the sole comic strip other than a reprint of Part Four of TV Comic strip The Witches was a Doctor-less story called Character Assassin, featuring the Master in the Land of Fiction.
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.
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.
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.
The main strip was forced to take a three-issue break in 2020 due to the difficulty of producing issues remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, with issues 553 through 555 lacking a main comic story beyond the usual The Daft Dimension gag strip. (Previous breaks with no non-gag comic were DWM 163, 261, and 354.) It returned with Monstrous Beauty, a three-issue story running from issues 556 to 558 featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose which tied into the Time Lord Victorious series, before returning to the Thirteenth Doctor afterwards.
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 Comics 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
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 |
| 308-312 | The Witches | 2nd | John and Gillian | TV Comic 837-841 |
Backup strips
- Main article: DWM backup comic stories
Main strips in Special issues
Doctor Who Magazine Specials
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, Menoptera | ||
| Blood Invocation | 5th | Nyssa, Tegan | ||
| 1996 | Star Beast II | 4th | Fudge Higgins, Beep | |
| 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 |
Humour strips
- See: Doctor Who?
- See: Doctor Whoah!
- See: Moments in Time
- See: The Daft Dimension