Talented creatives, playwright Alisdair Shaw and artist Jim Wilkins, have announced the impending end of their partnership creating the marvellous “In Print” Doctor Who fan strip.
The strip itself will continue in some form, but without Alisdair’s very much appreciated involvement, as he focuses on his play writing.
For those unfamiliar, “In Print” is a fun fan comics project that has its origins back in 2011, and launched online in April 2012.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens to the Doctor’s past selves when he regenerates, Alisdair and Jim posit that, in the world of “In Print” they get saved into the Doctor’s own personal Matrix.
All the previous models are in there, although their strip focuses mostly on the Seventh and Eighth Doctors as they were the highest profile Doctors during the Doctors run ‘In Print’.
There’s not much to do when you’re a merely a memory stored in a post temporal psycho construct housed within the Doctor’s mind, so Seven and Eight tend to fill their time by snarking about the current incarnations adventures.
(Oh, and not talking about Series 24).
Aided by “Ness Head”, The strip is great fun, with guest appearances from various other Doctors, guest strips, a lot of positive fun poked at Doctor Who stories and the series many creators. An absolutely joyous diversion, in fact, and if you haven’t read it before and have a couple of hours or more, I thoroughly recommend digging around the strips’ official website.
There’s a reading order page here, but the site navigation is pretty easy to navigate, with some Easter Eggs along the way.
The news was broke recently that the final couple of runs of the main “In Print” strip and that “Infinites” will be the last from Alasdair Shaw.
It’s going to be quite a wrench for the creative team involved: the strip has been running for 15 years this year, and has been a huge part of Alisdair, and Jim’s ever since its beginnings back in 2011.
“This strip has been part of my life for quite a while and not writing for it anymore is a little daunting,” Alisdair admits in a recent strip post, also explaining there’s been no fall out, “I’ve not put a bounty out on Jim’s head; it’s just time.
“I’ve struggled to get strips to Jim and Ness the last few years, I’ve also been writing plays and I think it’s time to focus on that.
Last year, Alisdair, a founding member of Threeman Films and The Jackson Writers’ Group, was longlisted for The David MacLennan Award at A Play, a Pie and a Pint. His work has been performed at various venues, including The Centre for Contemporay Art, Cottiers, The Old Hairdressers, GMAC, and Theatre 118.
“Jim’s been doing a decent number of animations and there’s not an awful lot I can contribute to that, so I’m passing the reins over.”
Jim and Ness have some ideas to continue the project after Alisdair’s last strip and he hopes the strip’s loyal fans – and there are plenty of those! – all stay on to see where they go.
“We’ve still lots of strips coming over the course of the next few months to entertain you all with, while in the background we’ll decide how and what formats we will continue with after Alasdair leaves,” says Essex-based Jim. “But rest assured whatever direction we go in, it will honour that fantastic shared universe, and unmistakable iconic style that Alasdair built with such care.”
In the meantime, I think all Doctor Who strip fans should join us in thanking Alisdair for writing such a fun strip, and wish him well in all his future endeavours, yes? Yes!
• Check out the Doctor Who-inspired “In Print” strip here
• Alisdair Shaw is online at writtenbyalasdairshaw.weebly.com
• Jim Wilkins is online at jimwilkinsartwork.com
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, Digital Comics, Doctor Who, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Science Fiction, Television
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