The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Issue 614, on sale now, features a very special comic strip, “Dance ‘Til You Drop”, written by me, John Freeman, with Jason Quinn and Mike Collins, with art by Mike – the culmination of a Doctor Who Monster Competition organised by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in partnership with the long-running magazine.
Children aged eight to twelve were challenged to design a Doctor Who monster of their very own, the winning designs to be featured in a special comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine, the official magazine about the long-running SF show, which features in this very issue.
The challenge aimed to celebrate 60 years of Doctor Who comic strips, the first published in TV Comic back in 1964, and was inspired by a similar competition in 1972, in TV Action. Back then, the winner, Ian Fairnington, dreamt up the Ugrakks, who appeared in a one-off strip that put the Third Doctor in peril, written by Dennis Hopper and draw by Gerry Haylock.
Needless to say, there were plenty of inventive – and scary! – entries for this latest Doctor Who-inspired drawing competition. After much discussion, the judges, led by DWM editor Jason Quinn and artist Mike Collins, joined by me, a former editor, and the Festival’s resident Who expert, Archie Phillips, chose “Beatie”, a dance-inducing character created by Emily Page, and “The Hypnotising Cat”, created by Ethan Faulkner, as perfect foils to appear alongside The Fifteenth Doctor in a special comic strip, with “Septalone” by Aubreigh Sanders a deserving runner up.
The top entries in the Monster Competition featured in an exhibition at the Festival alongside a gallery of carefully chosen pages of Doctor Who strips charting 60 years of the Time Lord’s adventures in comics.
Creating the strip was the focus of a special event at last year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Bowness-on-Windermere. Fielding ideas from the audience, Jason and John threw ideas at Mike Collins as he came up with possible scenes for a short strip to appear in DWM, some initial sketches featuring new TV companion Belinda Chandra.
In the end, it was decided to have The Doctor flying solo, giving more space to feature The Hypnotising Cat, who proved something of a hit with everyone involved.
It was a joy to see the pages coming in from Mike Collins on this fun project, and a delight to see the final strip in the new issue, lettered by Roger Langridge, with gorgeous colour from James Offredi. It’s always a hard task making one-off stories like this work, but Jason did a cracking job on the script combining the characters, taking on board input from Mike and me, and if The Hypnotising Cat doesn’t become a star in its own right, I’ll be very disappointed!
Here’s a few carefully-chosen teases from the story…
Along with Ethan’s original design for The Hypnotising Cat, Mike’s stepson Robert’s feline companion, the wonderfully and appropriately named Cosmic, was used as a model for the character.
Congratulations to Emily Page and Ethan Faulkner for their winning designs, and to everyone who entered the competition. Enjoy the strip!
Doctor Who Magazine Issue 614 is on sale now from all good newsagents and comic shops | Buy a copy direct from Panini
A print version of this article also appears in Doctor Who Magazine 614
• There’s a brilliant new interview with Mike Collins on Geek Retro-spective over on YouTube, talking about drawing “Doctor Who” and much more
Inside Doctor Who Magazine 614
- Doctor Who Magazine has an introductory chat with Varada Sethu, alias new companion Belinda Chandra.
- Back to terrorise the universe: Sacha Dhawan on finding hidden depths to the Master!
- DWM celebrates the 20th anniversary of the return of Doctor Who in 2005 with Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Rob Shearman and Paul Cornell
- A very personal interview with Doctor Who’s first director Waris Hussein…
- …DWM also takes a look at missing story “Marco Polo”, which was also directed by Waris.
- Stephen Wyatt and Richard Unwin on Me and Him and Who – a play that reflects on the life and legacy of eighties producer John Nathan-Turner.
- Actor Paul Grist speaks about playing Bill Filer in The Claws of Axos.
- DWM visits the Propstore to see the Doctor Who costumes and props that are being auctioned in aid of BBC Children in Need.
- Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are among the guests at an anniversary screening of 1985’s Vengeance on Varos.
- DWM investigates the strategies of the Doctor’s plastic antagonists – the Autons.
- Gary Gillatt takes us on a voyage to the fiery surface of the planet Venus…
- Back to 1997… DWM reflects on the mystique of New Adventures novel, Lungbarrow, by Marc Platt
- Sorting fact from fiction in Twelfth Doctor adventure Robot of Sherwood!
- Join Beatie and the Hypnotising Cat in this issue’s comic strip!
Regular features
- Gallifrey Guardian – the regular news round-up including the announcement of new adventures for the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler.
- Shelf Life – featuring reviews of the latest home video and audio releases.
- Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe.
- Prizes to be won including Blu-rays of The Collection – Season 7!
Doctor Who Magazine Issue 614 is on sale now from all good newsagents and comic shops | Buy a copy direct from Panini
- About the Author
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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.
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