Marvel Comics The 1996 Yearbook

Published	1995
ISBN	1 85400 377 1

Starring the first seven Doctors, but fictionally only the fourth

• A Review by Finn Clark

A Review by Finn Clark 13/5/04

This was Marvel's longest Yearbook (96 pages), but I have trouble imagining anyone reading more than twenty pages of it. It's mostly a season-by-season breakdown of Doctor Who which is well composed, well illustrated, contains unfamiliar information and will probably never be read by anyone ever again. As a reference guide it's obviously outclassed by the various Howe-Stammers-Walker books, while if I'm merely looking for something Whoish to read I'll usually turn to fiction. I couldn't bring myself to read this cover to cover and I'm reviewing the bloody thing! It's well produced and I suppose the odd fan might use it for reference from time to time, but frankly I'd be surprised. So what else does this 1996 Yearbook contain? No short stories whatsoever, that's what. We have a couple of comic strips, a breakdown of an unmade story written by Philip Hinchcliffe (The Valley of the Lost), an interview with Mary Ridge (director of Terminus) and a four-page look at Doctor Who in the nineties that stops before the 1996 TVM! This Yearbook was published in 1995, remember? The piece merely ends on: "With the new script under development, fans of the series wait for Fox's decision..."

In other words, for me this chunky hardback is a 16-page comic with eighty pages of filler. I suppose some readers will be interested in Mary Ridge or Hinchcliffe's unused story proposal, but you could pick up similar articles in any random issue of DWM.

So what did I think of those aforementioned comic strips?

Bravely but interestingly, these are explicit sequels to golden age comic strips from Tom Baker's Marvel era. Obviously this invites comparison with better stories... but on the other hand, it could be seen as an attempt to rise above the mundane level of Yearbook comic strips to date. DWM's comic strip of 1979-87 was produced by creators from the world of comic strips rather than Who and in my opinion the results had more zest and fun than just about everything we've seen since. Many esteemed Who writers have failed (in my opinion) with their comic strips in DWM, e.g. Paul Cornell, Gareth Roberts. It's a deceptively difficult medium to master. Comics aren't just short stories with pictures, you know.

So is this 1996 experiment in seventies nostalgia successful? In one of the two stories, yes!

Star Beast II is the one that isn't. Martin Geraghty is no Dave Gibbons, while Gary Gillatt's script is pretty dull. (However it includes a fanwank reference to Nightshade: The Motion Picture, which is surprising from the man who practically led a crusade against the books as editor of DWM.) Beep the Meep would return again after this story, but always to better effect.

However Junkyard Demon II is pretty cool. Adrian Salmon might be the only artist who could have followed Mick McMahon, while Alan Barnes takes the piss out of Lovejoy in an entertaining comedy. Oh, and Flotsam and Jetsam get first names reminiscent of Steptoe and Son. These eight pages of high-impact fun are the reason why I'm glad I paid good money for the 1996 Yearbook.

Comic strips excepted, this book is a waste of trees. It's well produced, but mostly pointless. By all means seek out a copy, but only if you're a completist or a comic strip fan.