It’s Even Bigger on the Inside, a collection of Doctor Who? strips and cartoons largely published in Doctor Who Magazine or other Marvel UK releases is now available to pre-order from MIWK Publishing.
Due for release 3rd March 2015, the book collects all the Doctor Who? Strips that ran regularly in Doctor Who Monthly and Doctor Who Magazine from Issue 64 until Issue 225, created by Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett – plus more besides. It also features new art from Dicky, persuaded out of cartooning retirement for this project.
An early Doctor Who? strip as it originally appeared in Doctor Who Monthly, now Doctor Who Magazine.
For over a decade Tim and Dicky created a regular comic strip Doctor Who? For Marvel UK (now Panini) in Doctor Who Magazine. Now, for the first time, all their strips are collected here, together with strips from various specials, annuals and Year Books as well as their two previously published books It’s Bigger on the Inside and The Doctor Who Fun Book.
How this Doctor Who? strip appeared in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 156…
— and how it appears in the new collection. “We weren’t able to do this for all of them,” says editor Matt West, “but certainly every strip has been cleaned up and all look better in the book than they ever did when they were printed.”
Each strip has been lovingly restored by Robert Hammond and where possible scanned from the original artwork to present them, many in full colour, as never before and the book includes commentary from Tim and Dicky.
The team at MIWK have also carefully cross checked the original art with the strip’s appearances, and it seems have gamely coped with the editorial interferences inflicted upon the two creators by the beastly editor of DWM for part of the humour strip’s run, John Freeman.
(Hey, wait a minute — that’s me! What was I thinking?)
Doctor Who? from Doctor Who Magazine Issue 144
Tim Quinn should need no introduction to British comic fans. A writer, editor and raconteur, he started his career as a Ringboy/clown at Blackpool Tower Circus, then leapt back in time to work on BBC TV’s The Good Old Days music hall series where he started writing scripts for top comedians. It was a small jump into the world of comic books where he spent many happy years as scriptwriter, illustrator and editor on such noted titles as The Beano, The Dandy, Sparky, The Topper, Buster, Whoopee!, Bunty, Jackie, TV Comic, Doctor Who Magazine and Whizzer & Chips and served as an editor at Marvel UK on numerous titles before heading Stateside to work for the mighty Marvel Comics Group on the world famous Spider-Man, X-Men and the Incredible Hulk.
Tim has also worked as a writer for the Guardian newspaper, editor for United States’ oldest publication The Saturday Evening Post and producer for LWT’s The South Bank Show (amongst others, producing a show on the history of Marvel Comics). These days, he gives lectures on the humour and nostalgia of comics, runs a management company for recording artists including the up and coming Mona Lisa Twins and conducts workshops on cartooning.
Secrets of the Daleks revealed
Dicky Howett pursued a lifelong love fascination for television technology by working for BBC Television in the film department·at Ealing Studios, as well as cartooning for Marvel UK and other companies for many years, working on titles as diverse as the Daily Mirror, Men Only and . He’s broadcast his own short stories on local radio and has written many articles on media developments, including a book, Television Innovations: 50 Technological Developments, published back in 2006.
Although he retired from cartooning for cash over 15 years ago, Dicky is still busy, running Golden Age Television Recreations, a large classic camera prop store whose equipment has featured in shows such as Doctor Who: An Adventure in Space and Time, in which he made a cameo as a walk-on technician.
“The Doctor Who? strip was our very own idea,” recalled artist Dicky Howett in an interview by Chris Williams back in 2013. “We were both working together on several Marvel ‘humour’ strips at the time. The editorial set up at Marvel UK (Kentish Town office) was very cosy and each magazine editor seemed to take just about anything we suggested. Those were the days! A strip in every Marvel weekly. Three- framers, full-pagers. I almost made a fortune!”
Unable to secure the original art, Robert Hammond stripped the original It’s Bigger on the Inside cover back to black and white line art and re-coloured it from scratch.
The book looks terrific based on the small amount I’ve seen so far – a silly and long overdue title you should consider for your Doctor Who collection, as long as you’re not some kind of po-faced Time Lord. Or the Master. He might not like it either. (We don’t know about Missy, she wasn’t around back then, or if she was, she was up to something very naughty and wasn’t saying).
It’s Even Bigger on the Inside is Available as an A4 hardback, MIWK Publishing will be donating £1 for every copy sold to Giggle Doctors – Theodora Children’s Trust.
• To pre-order It’s Even Bigger on the Inside (and buy other great MIWK books such as Jamie “Baxter” Lenman’s Woah! right now) visit www.miwkpublishing.com/store
• MIWK Publishing main site: www.miwkpublishing.com
• Check out Tim Quinn’s official web site here
• Check out Dicky Howett’s YouTube Channel here
• Read an interview with Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett published in Vworp Vworp
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “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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