Published in DWM 17-20, 27-30, 44-46, 152-155, 197-202 and 227
Written by Steve Moore, Richard Alan, John Tomlinson, John Freeman &
Paul
Cornell
Drawn by Steve Dillon, David Lloyd & Lee Sullivan
A Review by Finn Clark 30/6/04
Abslom Daak doesn't fit into Doctor Who. He's never completely gone away, but no one since Steve Moore has seemed to know quite what to do with him.
His reappearances in Nemesis and Emperor of the Daleks were less than stellar, but that's not the character's fault. In back-up strips, he's a god. The man has star quality. Unfortunately he sucks as a supporting character in Doctor Who, which can't tolerate Daak's kind of behaviour in its heroes. The man's a criminal and a mass-murderer... and what's more, originally he lived down to this character description. He shoots and chainswords his way through a crowd of innocents in Star Tigers because they're between him and his target. Later in that same episode he cuts off the Draconian Emperor's ear for a joke.
He'd fit perfectly into Terry Nation's 1970s Dalek Annuals, but Doctor Who could hardly do him justice without making him the villain. Unfortunately Nemesis and Emperor of the Daleks turned Daak into a companion and thus, inevitably, a joke. Nemesis of the Daleks is a mindless runaround that unintentionally makes Daak a buffoon. Emperor of the Daleks was only slightly better and deliberately made Daak a buffoon, though admittedly that's in line with Peter Darvill-Evans's vision of the character in Deceit. The 1990s weren't a good decade for Daak.
Essentially he's a 2000AD character, a child of the late seventies British comics industry. His spiritual kin are the likes of Judge Dredd and Dirty Harry, i.e. a million miles away from the self-mocking humanism of Who. Even now there's no one quite like him. Unfortunately after what happened to him in the nineties, that's not quite a compliment.
The complete Daak-ography to date is:
Abslom Daak Dalek Killer (DWW 17-20)
Star Tigers (DWW 27-30, 44-46)
Nemesis of the Daleks (DWM 152-155)
Emperor of the Daleks (DWM 197-202) plus its sequel Up Above the Gods (DWM 227)
...with a cameo in Party Animals (DWM 173) and a few text appearances. Peter Darvill-Evans used him in Deceit, you'll glimpse him in one of the Decalogs and of course there's Between The Wars: A Slow Night in Paradise. That's the short story which was written for Marvel's 1990 graphic collection, collecting everything up to Nemesis of the Daleks and adding filler pages to bulk out 76 pages of strip into a 96-page volume. I'll say more about that book later.
Daak's original 16-pager is a classic. That's an overused word, but here it fits. Abslom Daak Dalek Killer (DWW 17-20) is one of the best stories I've read in the comic strip medium, not just in Who, and comes from that short-lived era when Doctor Who Weekly was the playground of some of the UK's greatest comics creators. Steve Moore defected to Fortean Times (though he's returned to comics in recent years) but Doctor Who was some of the earliest comics work of an artist you might have heard of... Steve Dillon. Ring any bells? Try Preacher, Hellblazer, Punisher, etc.
Star Tigers (DWW 27-30, 44-46) is really a four-parter followed by three episodes of an ongoing series. It assembles Daak's crew: Salander, Harma and Vol Mercurius. The opening four-parter dumps Daak on Draconia and shows him at his most brutal, then after that he's more like a galactic tourist. These episodes are fine - not all-time classics like the original, but decent stories that keep you wanting more. Steve Moore was still writing 'em, but David Lloyd replaced Steve Dillon halfway through the run. If you've never heard of David Lloyd, go away and re-educate yourself in comics! (V for Vendetta, anyone?)
At this point, some history creeps in. In the early eighties Steve Moore (writing as Pedro Henry) wanted to take Daak to a new British comic that was starting up, called Warrior. Marvel refused. Thus Steve Moore wrote The Strip That Might Have Been Daak, called Axel Pressbutton. Axel as drawn by Steve Dillon was almost entirely cybernetic, with a meat cleaver for a hand, a pathological hatred of vegetables and two bloody enormous feet. Abslom Daak even gets a cameo in a story called Oasis, which was reprinted in Axel Pressbutton 2 from Eclipse Comics. (Daak gets bought a drink by Pressbutton after being knocked flat by Mysta Mystralis, Axel's co-star aka. Laser Eraser.)
If anyone's interested, issue five of those Eclipse reprints has a gigantic history of the Pressbutton universe, from the 2800s to the year 5111. Daak's Doctor Who strips are set in the 26th century and his Warrior cameo was circa 5090, but Axel Pressbutton continuity isn't really compatible with Doctor Who.
Thus Daak's story was abandoned for nearly a decade. Eventually DWM renegotiated the use of the Daleks in the comic strip and Daak returned for Nemesis of the Daleks (DWM 152-155), which is dumb fun that practically turns Daak into a comedy character. In fairness, though, at least it tries to treat him respectfully. Emperor of the Daleks (DWM 197-202) deliberately makes Daak an idiot, juggles too many plot elements to give him much to do and in its final episode practically pisses on the character. (In my opinion, I hasten to say.) Frankly, I see a return for Daak (albeit a respectful return) as more important than it was after Star Tigers!
That wasn't the end of things, though. Daak's stories have a history of getting altered years after publication - and usually for the better. Let me go through the list...
Incidentally, an eighth page exists for Up Above The Gods for which there wasn't room in DWM 227. The strip's first page is actually its relettered second page. If Daak's stories ever get reprinted again, I'd love to see that page resurrected.
Despite his nineties hiccoughs, I'm still a huge fan of Abslom Daak. However given the difficulties inherent in the character, I'd be nervous about seeing him brought back again. For instance I wasn't wild about what happened in 1999-2000 with Cyberleader Kroton, a much more Who-friendly character. Nevertheless there's huge untapped potential in Abslom Daak, albeit dark enough to make those 1970s Dalek Annuals look like Malibu Barbie. If the opportunity arises, I want first dibs on the character! If DWM people are reading this, give me a call! I have big plans! With the new TV series on its way, maybe you could revive Doctor Who Classic Comics and include some original strip pages or something...