Sunday 24 November 2013

FIFTY YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO - WITH FIRST-EVER COMIC STRIP...

Dr. Who copyright BBC TV.  Daleks copyright BBC TV & the Estate of Terry Nation

Doctor Who & the Daleks, Morecambe & Wise, Abbot & Costello, and, er... Fish & Chips... are name pairs that somehow seem to belong together.  Don't ask me why - they just do. Never was that more true than in the good Doctor's case, as - if it hadn't been for the sensation created by the metal-cased mutants - Doctor Who's popularity probably wouldn't have survived for anywhere near as long as it has.

And I was there when it all started.  I sometimes think that the '60s were the best-ever years in which a child could grow up.  Just think of all the Gerry Anderson and Hanna-Barbera programmes that kids were privy to back then, to say nothing of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mission Impossible, Batman and Star Trek.  Were we lucky or what?  And then there were the comics, chief amongst them TV Century 21, which, along with strips based on the afore-mentioned (and recently departed) Mr. Anderson's puppet programmes, also featured the dreaded and deadly despotic demons known as The Daleks!

The Daleks were everywhere; on mugs, badges, games, jigsaws, toys, models - you name the merchandise and the Scions of Skaro had lent their name and shape to it.  Apparently, Christmas of 1964 was christened 'Dalek Christmas', so popular was the Louis Marx 'tricky action' (bump 'n' go) Dalek, as well as every other kind of plaything in which the mutated Kaleds' appellation and image could be cast. 


The Doctor, along with his two grandchildren John and Gillian, appeared every week in TV Comic, published by Polystyle Publications.  The grandkids (exclusive to the comic in place of Susan) had disappeared into limbo by the time the Doc had moved over to another comic in the Polystyle stable, Countdown (later to be retitled TV Action), in adventures aimed at slightly older readers than its predecessor.  However, eventually the Time Lord and his first periodical were reunited (when TV Action fell victim to declining sales) and remained firm friends until Dez Skinn lured the Guardian from Gallifrey over to Marvel U.K. with the promise of his very own weekly publication.

I had occasionally read the Doctor's adventures in TV Comic around 1964-'65, but - truth to tell - they were nothing special and failed to exploit the 'unlimited budget' uniquely available to the comic strip medium.  After all, whatever fantastic premise the writer can dream up can potentially be portrayed as realistically as anything the artist is capable of drawing, so the sky's the limit.  Not in TV Comic's case, alas, but the full-colour Daleks strip on the back cover of TV Century 21 was something else entirely.  Here, the incredible came to life, and the 104 episodes which ran for the first two years of the comic's span are still fondly remembered today by readers who devoured them at the time.

And, as I said, I was one of them.  I still remember making my way to school some mornings as a mere six-year old boy, oblivious to everything around me as I lost myself in the photogravure pages that depicted the exploits of the metal-clad mutants bent on universal domination of all sentient life-forms.  I'm not sure why, but I don't think I ever regarded the Daleks as the bad guys in these tales; I always took their side and wanted them to win.  If I should ever find myself up in court someday, accused of some anti-social act, I'll be sure to blame the insidious influence of the good Doctor's diabolical adversaries for corrupting me.  (I knew that Fredric Wertham's theories would come in handy some day.)


You can imagine my delight when, years later (as a professional lettering artist), I was invited to work on a few strips for Doctor Who Magazine, the first issue of which (in its weekly incarnation) I had purchased back in October of 1979.  As it happened, one of the strips I lettered was published in an issue which also featured a full-colour reprint of a TV21 Daleks page, and it gave me a strange-but-welcome sense of reconnection to my childhood.  By some odd quirk of fate, my name was appearing in a magazine which had pierced the veil of time and space and plucked a page from my past - a page that I particularly recalled reading on one of my trips to school nearly 27 years before.  For a moment I was a kid again, wishing my life away until the next exciting chapter in the mysterious, white-haired stranger's Saturday evening adventures on BBC TV.

And that brings me to the Doctor himself.  Doctor Who?  Yes, that's right.  Sure, it's an old 'joke', but it illustrates an important aspect of the character.  The Doctor was originally an enigma; a mysterious stranger who nobody knew anything about.  Who was he?  Where did he come from?  Was he good, bad, or simply amoral?  No one was quite sure, and I have to be honest and say that I thought the Doctor was all the more interesting for this approach.

Anyway, as the 50th anniversary of the Doctor's '60s debut on television and in comics is celebrated, long may he reign - and may the dastardly (but loveable) Daleks never be far behind him.

  
******

As an added bonus, here's part one of the very first Doctor Who comic strip, featuring William Hartnell, ever published.  Originally presented in black and white in TV Comic #674, dated November 14th 1964, and reprinted in colour in Doctor Who Classic Comics #2, dated January 6th 1993.  The art is by Neville Main.  Enjoy!


10 comments:

Rip Jagger said...

Nice.

The "Day of the Doctor" was a pretty big and a pretty neat event. I enjoyed the episode, though I have to admit the ones which feature multiple Doctors leave me a tad cold, too much nostalgia crowding out the story. But this one was a fine, though as with many of these world shakers the ending was a bit meh. I did thoroughly enjoy the ride as I most often do with the Doctor, both older and newer.

Rip Off

Kid said...

I thought aspects of it were enjoyable, Rip - but Moffat, being a Dr Who geek himself, tends to write for other geeks, as opposed to a more mainstream audience.

Unknown said...

I ve not seen that episode yet as I was out on Saturday with friends (but its repeated on BBC3 tonight so will try and catch it then ). However I did watch "An adventure in time and space" - I'm not a massive Dr Who fan so not sure how it was received by fans, or if it had any inconsistencies but I thought that was the BBC at its best, brilliant stuff and very engaging (for a non fan at least). I do think growing up in the 60s was brilliant although like all things Its pretty subjective (and no doubt viewed through rose tinted glasses ) for example folk my age seem to look back on the old HB cartoons with wonder but to me they were pretty awful with poor character design , basic backgrounds repeated scenes corny scripts etc (I exclude Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes as these were excellent but mostly made for the movies). But I loved the comics of our time and still think the 60s - 70s stuff is 100 times (in general) better than anything done today. But hopefully its always good being a kid no matter the decade (but ours was best and we were allowed to be children and have fun) - McS

Kid said...

As you say, McScotty, hopefully it's always good being a kid, but, unfortunately, the duration of actual childhood seems to be far shorter these days. They're behaving like 20 year olds at 11 years of age nowadays, it seems to me.

Regarding 'An Adventure In Time And Space', it was good to see BBC TV Centre being used as a backdrop. It should never have been sold.

baab said...

'An adventure in time and space' was really good.
'The Day of the Doctor' was entertaining enough.

My kids,aged nine, and their friend are running around the neighbourhood dressed as their versions of the Doctor as I write this.

Waistcoats,coats, cravats, bow-ties and sonic screwdrivers.

Kid said...

What? No Daleks, Baab? Or are you keeping that part for yourself?

John Pitt said...

Now then, just how did those 2 original Daleks get to the bus stop without a black saucer on their backs? They can only travel on metal! I see Blakey's there , saying, " I 'ate you, Daleks! "
Like yourself, I too was on the Daleks' side and it always made me cringe whenever any were destroyed on screen! " I could have had that!", I would scowl! It's also true that they made DW - case in point, as a kid I saw "An Unearthly Child" & after only a few minutes ,got bored and stopped watching. It wasn't until other kids told me about the Daleks that I went back to the programme.
Thanks for the first ever comic strip, hadn't seen this one and DIDN'T know that the reprints had been coloured in Classic Comics. Next stop - Ebay!!

Kid said...

There are 27 issuea, JP - plus an Autumn Holiday Special. Some nice stuff in them.

John Pitt said...

The Daleks at the bus stop.- my missus brought me a Christmas card of this! ( even though she hadn't seen your post ). I might have it framed & hang it up!

Kid said...

I've also got it as a card, JP - but I think it's a Valentine's card. I'll have to check. Think I'll go and listen to my Dalek Christmas single by the Go-Go's.



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