Doctor Who #1
This review written by Seb Patrick on Mar.13, 2008.
Alright, so we’re a bit late with this one. But given that licensing restrictions have meant that UK comic shops aren’t actually supposed to stock this series, depriving us of yet another comic that we’d surely appreciate far more than our American cousins (just file alongside The Black Dossier), I’ve had to resort to slightly more underhand methods of getting hold of it.
Although, to be honest, I sort of wish I hadn’t bothered. I, like many Who fans, have been waiting patiently for a proper, grown-up, direct market comic ever since – or even long before – the Russell Davies era began. I even wrote about my dream series a while back – published by Marvel, written by Paul Cornell, drawn by Bryan Hitch. It’d be great, I tells ya. Anyway, to those who have been waiting for a great Who comic – this, sadly, isn’t it.
The thing with IDW is that, for all their skill at snagging film and TV licences, they’re not exactly the best at turning out decent comics to go with them. And they simply can’t attract the sort of established talent that would be needed to do something like Doctor Who justice. Writer Gary Russell has plenty of Who pedigree, of course – former Doctor Who Magazine editor, author of many books, former producer of the Big Finish audio adventures and currently “in” with the Cardiff team – but here he turns in a story that’s merely a passable, by-the-numbers romp, rather than anything particularly engaging. It’s nice to see the Sycorax show up again, but there’s a disappointing lack of reference to The Christmas Invasion; and Russell doesn’t yet seem to have learned to tailor his writing style to comics, with a quite cringe-inducing third-person narration in the opening couple of pages (one which also suffers from grammatical errors, reflecting badly on the editor).
But it’s Nick Roche’s art that really cheapens this. Apart from a nice replication of the Gallifreyan Citadel (as seen in The Sound of Drums), it looks absolutely rotten. The character design is all over the place – Martha’s head changes shape from panel to panel, never actually alighting on anything remotely resembling human, never mind Freema Agyeman’s loveliness; while the Doctor contorts left, right and centre in an almost Liefeldian disregard for the laws of anatomy. I don’t particularly relish being so critical of up-and-coming British or Irish talent, but this just isn’t good enough.
If you want simplistic adventure fodder, and don’t mind it being clumsily drawn, then this is fine. But if you do want that, then you can already get it quite easily – the comic strips in DWM have been like this ever since the relaunch, and there’s even more kid-orientated fare in the weekly Doctor Who Adventures. But there’s absolutely nothing for the older, discerning, comics-reading fan – and as such, IDW’s series feels like a massive wasted opportunity.
And okay, so they can’t attract A-list talent, but why not a quick phone call to Alan Barnes and Martin Geraghty? They did some excellent Paul McGann strips for DWM in the ‘90s, and have already shown their adeptness with Tennant’s Doctor courtesy of a recent story that was head-and-shoulders above the rest of the new series comics. They’d almost certainly have come up with something more compelling – and better-looking – than this lightweight, inconsequential fluff. In fact, you half wonder if the reason why it hasn’t made it across the pond is simply that the BBC caught a glimpse of some preview pages…
March 13th, 2008 on 4:23 pm
They’re not? That’s odd, since FP Liverpool had a copy proudly displayed in their window less than three hours ago… I didn’t buy it, because I use Worlds Apart as my LCS [and that explains why they didn't have it], plus I also acquired a copy via… alternative means.
I rather liked the issue, and felt both art and dialogue did a good job of capturing the essence of Ten, the manicness mixed with underlying power and darkness. I wasn’t expecting anything massive, so I wasn’t disappointed with the finished product. One thing, Seb – I think I’m right in saying that DWM and DWA aren’t easily obtainable in North America, so I don’t think it’s all that easy to get this sort of thing over there… probably one of the reasons why IDW went for the licence in the first place.
I feel that IDW has followed their licences up with good comics – their Angel issues have been enjoyable, especially now with After the Fall; and their Trek stuff has come on in leaps and bounds: this year’s forthcoming “Second Stage” releases are all looking brilliant, with top notch writers lined up. It has taken them a little while to get things working well in both cases, but I see that as simple evolution.
Oh, and was there ever an explanation as for the delay? If I remember rightly, #1 was originally supposed to be out in early January (alongside the Classics line), not late February…
March 13th, 2008 on 5:01 pm
I get what you’re saying – and we’ll have to agree to disagree on IDW, I’m not a Buffy fan, and my main experience of them has been the disappointing Shaun of the Dead comic – and it does strike me that, yes, it’s aimed at a different market, one that can’t readily get the DWM strips. But the DWM strips are a few pages in a magazine where you get a lot more for your money – so it matters less if they’re a bit lightweight. This issue, to me, felt a lot like a DWM strip – but one costing the same as a regular 28-page American comic. Because, well, that’s what it is. In that respect, I just didn’t feel it offered value for money – and, like I say, I think it’s a waste of putting the franchise into a format that’s capable of so much more.
March 13th, 2008 on 7:18 pm
FP London also sells this, you should check out the mail order service. However even they can’t get hold of The Black Dossier:(
March 13th, 2008 on 10:38 pm
I actually like the contortionist depiction of Tennant- it captures the spirit of his character quite well, although I agree with you about Roche’s Agyeman. My issue with his pencilling is first apparent in the last panel of page three, which contains the worse take on the Tardis exterior I’ve seen from a professional artist. Some of his drawings of the police box are decent, but a fair few are dire, and it’s not as if there’s any shortage of reference material about.
March 13th, 2008 on 11:11 pm
I actually mentioned the TARDIS thing originally, but cut it out – yeah, that first pic is awful. Not only does he not even bother to write POLICE BOX on it, but it breaks even the most basic rules of perspective. He does improve it on the last couple of pages, but then, it’s inconsistency that’s really the problem throughout.
March 27th, 2008 on 3:31 pm
OK, I don’t often do this but I feel I should clarify somethings and give you a bit of an inside scoop on this book.
First, let me introduce myself. Not only did I work on this book as the colorist but I’m a huge American Whovian. I’ve been a fan ever since I was in day care and they began running the Tom Baker episodes here in the early 80s.
What I wanted to clarify about this book is that while it was in production Nick fell ill and was not able to finish it without help. So it was necessary to get help at the last minute. Notice that on the credit page there is credit for art and ink assists. So, on page three, Nick only drew the closeup heads, the rest was done by Joe Phillips (so, thats not Nick’s TARDIS). Joe Phillips also drew all of pages 9, 10, and 21. Nick drew the rest but pages 5, 17, and 19 were inked by German Torres.
I’m just saying this because I don’t want Nick to be taking the wrap for someone else’s art. Personally I think Nick has done a fantastic job and I thought it was sad that he won’t be doing anymore interiors for awhile.
Oh, and I should also point out that the BBC isn’t trying to keep these comics out of UK stores because they saw preview art. In fact, the BBC approves ever detail of these books before they can be used and they have no qualms about rejecting material. And just so you know, I’ve seen a few of the product approval sheets from the BBC and they adore Nick’s art and seemed disappointed when he couldn’t continue.
The reason its not distributed to the UK is because Panini Publishing has the UK print rights for these stories. From my understanding, that means after it has been out here for awhile then Panini has the option to put out their own edition of these stories for the UK market.
But the future is looking bright for the IDW range of Who books. Production has already began on the next series and from what I’ve seen it’s very different from the first and I think it has something for fans new and old. Plus it will feature interior art by Y: the Last Man artist Pia Guerra.
From what I’ve been told, each series will be a little different so that the fans get a little bit of everything. So the ones that like the fun romps will get that and the ones who lit the more dramatic stories will get that. Keep in mind that these are meant to have the same feel as the current TV series so you probably won’t see stories that are very adult like some of the NA novels used to be.
And if I don’t think that IDW is delivering the variety enough, I’ll be bugging my editor about it. So, if there seems to be too much romp and not enough drama (or vise-versa) I’ll petition for a change.
March 27th, 2008 on 5:18 pm
Hi Charlie,
Thanks for the comments, I appreciate your taking the time to make them. I hope you can appreciate that, while I wasn’t particularly enamoured by the issue, I meant no personal slight against anybody involved (I reserve those for Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld!) – and I must admit that your comments about Nick add a lot of context to the problems that I had with the inconsistency in the art. Certainly, had I known about Nick’s situation, I’d have been more aware of the reasons behind some of the problems with the art, and thus been a bit more forgiving in my comments. It certainly explains why things didn’t look hugely consistent, and I am glad that I didn’t draw attention to the TARDIS thing in my review now, as I would clearly have been off the mark (it did actually look a lot better in those later panels that Nick drew).
It doesn’t change the fact that I was disappointed with the book as something of a missed opportunity in my eyes (particularly as I know that Gary Russell is a good writer with a lot of DW pedigree), nor that Nick’s style for the characters wasn’t to my taste (although, going by Julian’s comment above, that’s certainly more of a personal taste issue than a comment on his ability). But I do accept that I was perhaps a little harsher than necessary, and I’m glad that you’ve been able to give a bit of background to the situation. And also that, you know, you didn’t just slag me off for giving the comic a bad review ;-) I’ll certainly be keeping my eye on the rest of the series, as I’m enough of a Who fan to actually WANT there to be a comic that I enjoy, rather than just having a go at something for the sake of it!
As for the BBC comment at the end… well, that was just me attempting to be smart-arsed, really, and it was probably a bit mean. I know that it’s licensing issues that have prevented UK shops getting any copies in – although the Panini comment is interesting, as surely they also have reprint rights to various DC/Marvel titles, but we still get the original versions through the direct market? Although I guess the fact that there are *original* Who strips also being printed over here probably gets in the way. Anyway, yeah, you can ignore that bit, that was just me being snidey…