During the success of the new Doctor Who when it returned in 2005, I spoke with the Daily Mail, who were keen to run a daily strip of the Doctor.
The right folk at the BBC agreed and I asked Steve Parkhouse to come on board as illustrator. The first story written and three day’s worth drawn when the BBC had an about-turn when a committee decided that what with the launching of their Doctor Who Adventures, plus the ongoing strip in Doctor Who Magazine, a daily strip would only confuse readers.
Personally I can’t imagine that the readers of Adventures also read the Daily Mail but what do I know. And so another mighty project binned. I think I see a theme developing here…
Doctor Who fans will recall this wasn’t the first attempt to get a newspaper strip based on the show off the ground. Back in the 1990s, John Freeman (he of this parish), then editor of DWM, pitched a strip drawn by Gerry Dolan to the Daily Express, who’d shown interest during a meeting at an Angouleme Festival, but the show’s declining ratings and apparent cancellation dampened their ardour.
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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 - Newspaper Strips, Doctor Who, Featured News, Other Worlds, Television