A Review by Finn Clark 17/5/03
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is about three pages of a book. Giving that much weight to every frame of DWM's comic strip seems a little excessive, but one could reasonably call it the equivalent of a full comic strip page. The strip is a quicker read, but they're pretty much on a par when it comes to story content. If that's so, then a year of the DWM strip should have about the same weight as a novel or an audio. DWM's Izzy-is-a-fish story arc ran for 197 pages and two years, but received less attention than any comparable comics era I can remember. Five years ago Big Finish didn't exist and the BBC Books were languishing, which allowed DWM's headline-grabbing antics to take the limelight. But today? They've vanished under the radar. Admittedly seven pages of comic strip isn't much, but keep churning it out every four weeks and it soon adds up.
The arc started with Ophidius (DWM 300-303), a story which at the time seemed like a gaudy, tedious mess. The switch from black-and-white wasn't being handled well and the story felt like an empty runaround with cartoonish aliens in a cartoonish environment. However if reread today, it feels far more significant. Everything here is important set-up for later stories, with return visits scheduled for the Mobox, Destrii and the Ophidius ship itself. It's still dialogue-heavy and not very dramatic, but what happens between Destrii and Izzy fuelled the upcoming two-year story arc and nearly gave Izzy a personality.
The one-off that followed, Beautiful Freak (DWM 304), was a great improvement and the best episode of these two years. Emotion is wrung from these seven pages. This is a genuinely character-based story arc - a rare thing in Doctor Who and doubly so in the comic strip - and here we get an intimate glimpse of Izzy and the Doctor coming to terms with Izzy's new condition. Robin Smith outdid himself with the inks and colours too, giving us luscious blacks that practically dripped from the page and a more restrained palette than the technicolour excesses of Ophidius.
The Last Word (DWM 305) was Gareth Roberts's nod to the Virgin NAs in a DWM tribute issue. It's vaguely diverting, but not as funny as it thinks it is (though I laughed at the pisstake of New Ace) and not the olive branch to disaffected book fans that it could have been due to its parodic nature. Gareth Roberts is undoubtedly a very gifted writer, but I'm not a fan of his comic strips. However it's a refreshing mini-break from the story arc and inoffensively light-hearted.
The Way of all Flesh (DWM 306,308-310) came next. Its high points involve Izzy's character development and some of the best-looking aliens of the series, both the Torajenn and Susini the Necrotist. (I also liked the bit where the Doctor criticises Susini as an artist.) Its low points are... well, the plot. It's too long, as usual, dragging out a passable three-parter into four episodes spread over five months. (A production hiccup meant that the second episode was held back from DWM 307 to 308 and afterwards Martin Geraghty took a one-year break from pencilling duties.)
Character Assassin (DWM 311) was a strange fill-in, reminiscent of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with its use of Moriarty, Hyde, Griffin, Dr Moreau, H.G.Wells's Martians and more. Again it's a fun break from the regular adventures, but no more. However it uses Delgado's Master well and it's always nice to see Adrian Salmon back again.
Next came Children of the Revolution (DWM 312-317). With humanised Daleks. Dear oh dear. I've made this complaint before, but humanised Daleks are boring! Scott Gray was going for that "robot=innocence" motif we've seen before in the comics, recently in The Autonomy Bug, but it doesn't work here. Why didn't these Daleks build themselves non-Daleky casings? If they looked like any old random cybernetic organism, no one need have ever known what they were. And besides, they're not true innocents - they've already fought a war with their brethren on Skaro and they're far too clever, capable and well-equipped for us to feel truly sorry for them. Alpha manages to evoke a little pathos, but that's about it.
For my money this is the worst story of the two-year arc. Despite a good start, it has too many episodes and not enough menace. Though in fairness Lee Sullivan's art is lively and he creates a good character in Julius.
Me And My Shadow (DWM 318) is another one-episode fill-in and as simple as they come, but satisfying. Fey Truscott-Sade and Shayde may be a blast from the (relatively recent) past, but they're cool, dangerous and blessed with an interesting relationship. The other good thing about the story is its artist, John Ross. I really like this guy. It's not complicated art, but it's clean, dynamic and serves the storytelling. This guy makes a script look good. If you ask me, he's the best thing to come along since Roger Langridge.
Happily John Ross stuck around for the next story, Uroboros (DWM 319-322) and we got to see his entertaining take on the 8th Doctor. This is quite a deceptive story. On the surface it's a merry runaround that returns to Ophidius and the Mobox, but there's some cool character stuff for the regulars. The Doctor is a hoot, for once uninterested in interfering as he hunts for Izzy but unable to stop himself from being sucked into an adventure anyway. Destrii is funky and her scenes with the Doctor are everything we could have hoped for, and more. Fey+Shayde are great too. Under-rated.
Then, finally, came Oblivion (DWM 323-328). After some gaudy Ophidius-related visuals, the story arc ends by going outright into Lewis Carroll territory. (Count Jodafra even makes this explicit with a Jabberwocky quote: "Callooh! Callay!") Fortunately the cartoon animals are mitigated, somewhat, by existing alongside a nasty, scummy underworld populated by starving wretches. This goes some way towards grounding the story, as does an in-story explanation of why the aristocracy look so goofy. It's a reasonable climax to the arc and has enough story (both event-based and character-based) to justify its six episodes. Everyone meets up again, including the girls whose body-swap initiated this whole mess. That's pretty good too.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised. The story arc works much better if read en bloc, though that's not necessarily a good thing since that's not how it was published. For once that old SF standby of the body-swap (even seen before in Who) gets wheeled out for more than a comedy one-off. It's a heavily character-based arc, which is rare and praiseworthy. And hot damn, Destrii is one sexy fish!
There's a dating curiosity. We visit November 1941 three times (The Way of all Flesh, Me and My Shadow & briefly in Uroboros) and I believe Ophidius, Uroboros and Oblivion are all set in 1996. We see a comparison of Destrii and Izzy's childhoods and they're watching the same episode of Star Trek, implying (I think) that they're watching the same transmission. Count Jodafra could perhaps have been playing a video recording, but Destrii's dialogue is full of 20th century Earth pop culture references, e.g. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Avengers. Despite growing up on different planets, I reckon Izzy and Destrii are contemporaries.
And then there's Izzy.
It's been six and a half years, but at last Izzy's gone. She was a nice girl, but at the end of the day she was one of the Clone Army that was unleashed when the McGann Doctor hit the merchandising spin-offs after the TVM. Charley from Big Finish has a little too much personality to fit into this category, perhaps because she's more recent, but in 1996-7 there were three ongoing McGann stories (DWM, BBC Books and the Radio Times) each with their own deliberately generic girl companion.
The similarities between Sam and Izzy are uncanny. Both are teenaged English girls from a familiar Earth location (Coal Hill School and Stockbridge respectively) who've run away from their parents but are eventually returned by the Doctor to the very same point in space-time from which they departed. (With Izzy that's 19th December 1996, while Sam came along a few months later.) Both are lesbian or bisexual [1]. Sam Jones got the Dark Sam revelations of Alien Bodies et al, whereas Izzy got a subtler throwaway that appears to have been swept under the carpet.
Xanti (The Final Chapter) said: "You're just like me, you know. I get glimpses of the future here. Oh, Izzy, you mustn't be sad." Xanti was a genetic template for Luthor's stormtroopers, cloned using material extracted from the Eye of Harmony to make him the key element of Luthor's evil masterplan. Whereas Izzy was adopted. Hurm. I could be wrong, but that feels as if something was planned but didn't eventually happen. However I suppose one could argue that Xanti had been a brain-fried nutcase by that point, so we needn't put too much weight on his pronouncements.
[1] - whereas Gary Russell's Stacy married an Ice Warrior.
These weren't the best two years of the comic strip, not by a long stretch, but they're much better than they seemed at the time. Much of the character work only became clear in this reread. Under-rated.
A Review by Richard Radcliffe 23/7/03
There has been a fabulous arc running through the DWM Comic Strip from issue 300. Possibly the longest arc that DW has ever employed it has been with us 2 years. The recent issue of DWM (328) saw it finish. It's been a glorious ride, and I would recommend it to everyone. Here's the respective stories that comprise it (non-arc stories included for completist reasons):-
Ophidius (300-303)
The most striking thing about this strip is that from Issue 300 DWM finally decided to give the comic strip colour. And so in Technicolour brilliance (which must have had the same impression on me as the early colour TV sets had on their watchers) I sat down for the 4-part Ophidius - and what a treat it was.
The colour is everywhere and everything seems to come alive. The TARDIS control room with it's many books, metal struts and panaromic view through the ceiling, is tremendous. When the TARDIS gets swallowed by a gigantic metallic lizard in space, so the insides of that craft leap off the page. The fact that this dragon-ship is full of passageways and caverns as far as the eye can see really enhances the new colourization effect - this is wonderfully energetic story-telling.
At the top of their game are the usual contributors to the comic strip - Scott Gray (script) and Martin Geraghty (artwork). Ophidius really shows how great an artist Geraghty is, and how superbly he has the 8th Doctor and Izzy down on paper. Robin Smith is the colourist, and he deserves a special mention of course.
When the Doctor and Izzy arrive on the Ophidius they are confronted by some very strange aliens. There's the Mobox, rock like creatures who seem intent on destroying everything. There's half robotic, half biological spiders who repair the ship. There's the Ophidians themselves, strange massively brained dwarves, who shuffle around on portable disks. There's also Destrii, a blue fish-like woman, with a love of action and Earth sci-fi (apparently, so she gets on with Izzy well at first).
It is Destrii who has the biggest impact on this comic strip. The Ophidians have developed a method of mind transference. They can transfer their minds into another's body, which will help them invade the planet they are on their way too. It the effect of this thought-transference on Izzy and Destrii that gives the story its lasting image.
We've been with Izzy for a long time now - I've grown mighty fond of her, and her relationship with the 8th Doctor. To see such a massive thing happen to her, leaves me wondering where the strip goes next. Clearly here we have a companion that rivals the Doctor in popularity in the strip, and they are about to put her through hell.
Marvelously drawn and coloured, a lively story too, Ophidius really stands out from the rest. A splendid start to the new colour strip - as DWM takes yet another side-turn in their marvelous comic strip saga! 9/10
Beautiful Freak (304)
This is all about Izzy.
How will she react to this new body she has. It's not even human for goodness sake - will she ever recover? There needed to be a pause after the traumatic transformation that occurred to Izzy in Ophidius - the comic thrives on such character building, and this 1-part interlude focusing on Izzy is the result.
Scott Gray and Martin Geraghty continue their impressive work, and choose to set this character piece within the TARDIS. This is a suitably dark place, and there are sufficiently dark matters to mull over. The Doctor is trying so hard to be sensitive, but all Izzy sees is the non-human she has become. It's heart-wrenching material - even moreso after we have spent so long (5 years) with this companion in the strip.
Going into the belly of the TARDIS provides Geraghty with a chance to show us the gothic masterpiece that now is the TARDIS. Much of the strip panels though are shrouded in darkness though, as befits the subject matter. What we do see of the TARDIS interior though is well done, and in keeping with the TV Movie TARDIS (one of the real standouts of that production). The colours are darker all round, and it's nice to see the swimming pool return, if in a different guise than its predecessor.
We see the Doctor and Izzy come together, and forge their alliance further - it will be fascinating to see where we go from here - and I for one, am intrigued where they will now take Izzy and the Doctor. Very impressive. 9/10
The Last Word (305)
DWM with issue 305 was celebrating the New Adventures. Thus Gareth Roberts was recalled (someone whose previous strips had largely been a massive disappointment) to pen a New Adventure pastiche. Lee Sullivan was the guest artist.
It's a one-off story, and as such not that substantial. All the New Adventure slogans are there, the Doctor's manipulative persona intact. With the 7th Doctor is Benny and Ace. There the characters straight from the NA's. Benny joins a New Romantic band in the early 80s. Ace goes off to kick some alien butt (the author's own Chelonians actually) on some farflung planet. The Timewyrm is the baddie and that wonderful image of the 7th Doctor in an armchair from The Also People is used.
This is a homage to the New Adventures. But the NA's were long and often highly detailed. In 7 pages they were never going to touch upon that aspect. What we are left with is a tiny window into that world. The 7th Doctor, in fact, is seen to be writing a New Adventure himself.
It's self-referential, it's nostalgia for the NA supporters. It's not that bad, but it's not that great either. 6/10
The Way of all Flesh (306, 308-310)
Depositing the reader straight into the action is a novel way for the strip to operate. Thus we are introduced to Frida and Diego, a quiet Mexican couple, intent on enjoying Halloween and the upcoming Day of the Dead. Izzy, in her new fish-like body gets knocked down by them and is taken into their home. The 8th Doctor meanwhile has detected some strange readings in a nearby park. Aliens have invaded Mexico in 1941, and they are intent on claiming as many bodies as they can, for their "aethestic quality".
This is art gone mad, at least in the case of Susini and the Torajens (what a great name for a band!). This uneasy alliance between the necrotist artist (must have something to do with death, she does take graphic pleasure in exhibiting death in all its gruesome forms) and a race after their own bodies back - is a strange one. Nonetheless it allows for the Torajens to appear as the dear deceased for this Mexican Community - and give the story its death laden atmosphere.
It's atmosphere is shared with that Lloyd Rose masterpiece - City of the Dead. Both take a specific setting (here near Mexico City, there New Orleans) and focus in on its macabre trappings. The strip is supremely visual (helped massively by the new colour now employed since DWM 300), and tells a great story.
There's quite a bit of material for Izzy, especially relating to her new body. How we clamour for something that has gone, that is in the past. How we should move forward with the land of the living. These concerns are very poignant, and they are treated with sensitivity by the strip's production team. Scott Gray is the scribe, Martin Geraghty the artist - this team being now probably the most prolific of all on the strip. They certainly know too how to tell a rattling good yarn. Both story and artwork in this are superb.
Of particular note are the 2 supporting characters Diego and Frida. It would have been easy to slip into stereotype here, but they really come alive here. Diego teams up with the Doctor, the former saving his life. Frida teams up with Izzy, the former saving her life. It's 2 supporting characters that are the best the strip have seen for some time.
At 4 parts it's just about the right length too. The strip really has been excellent since it switched to colour, and this is yet another wonderful DW production. 9/10
Character Assassin (311)
We're back on the one-off strips now. Whilst the ongoing story between the 8th Doctor and new Izzy is brilliant, it's good to side-step once every 4-6 months and do something different. This DWM was a Master Special, and Character Assassin has the Roger Delgado Master as the main star.
He arrives at a house out of Hammer Films. It is populated by many of the fictional villains that have so enlivened our reading and watching. Thus the Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Dr Moreau, Moriarity and many others are given form - and the Master strives to become their leader.
Scott Gray writes this little side-step, and Adrian Salmon gives the artwork. Salmon is very distinctive in his drawing, and very clever too. This strip has a Batman Animated feel to it. Bold colours clashing with dark interiors. Exaggerated characters with striking movements. It's more a visual feast than anything else really. The story is, by definition of it's length, not a substantial one. But it provides some great moments for the Master. As he bounces off the other villains, he is seen to be the best, and the one who is really in control. There's a moral in there about fact and fiction too, which I just about got.
Visually stunning, it's great to see the strip branching out and not sticking to one specific story-type. Quite surreal, but with a message too. Not bad at all. 7/10
The Children of the Revolution (312-317)
We're back to epic comic strips from DWM here. Since the Glorious Dead indulgence (10 parts, massive story) DWM had stuck with 1-off strips and 3-4 part stories. Arguably they work best. But sometimes ideas come along that demand that you spend more time with them. This is one.
The 8th Doctor and Izzy are aboard a high-tech submarine named the Argus. It explores the seas of Kyrol, and contains very clever marine biologist (Alison Lavelle) who the Doctor wants Izzy (in her, as she calls it, "Creature From the Black Lagoon" body) to meet. The Argus is Captained by friend of the Doctor's, Julius Otago - a laid-back explorer-type. Scott Gray, through Izzy's diary, sets the scene beautifully - and story quickly goes beyond the scientific, into the murky caverns that are strewn on the bottom of the sea of Kyrol's oceans.
Izzy's character is great. When she was changed to a fish a year ago, I wondered if this was going to be the last hurrah of her character. But we got the usual crisis of identity stuff out of the way quite quickly - and the emphasis has been on stories, and in this the strip under Scott Gray excels. The 8th Doctor is better portrayed throughout the strip than the ongoing BBC books, and Scott Gray is the main reason. They are simply excellent stories, backed up by marvelously imaginative artwork.
The usual 8th Dr artist, Martin Geraghty, has passed the baton to Lee Sullivan for this major strip. The artwork is brilliant and fully makes use of its unusual and magical setting. It is all set underwater, and in this kind of environment the strip will always win out over TV - you just can't show this kind of stuff on TV, but the strip (especially now it is in colour) excels in it.
The big surprise is the Dalek involvement. The other big surprise is that this in fact is a sequel to Evil of the Daleks. The back story that provides us with these unusual Daleks is cleverly recalled by way of Black and White Panels featuring the 2nd Doctor, and the events after his meddling. Daleks with individual characters is something that I never thought I'd see. At least I never expected it to be pulled off so convincingly.
These more human Daleks are excellent. They have names, they have their own very nice community. The actual aggressor is elsewhere - and it's interesting to find out what that is. There is also the uneasy alliance between the Daleks and the Crew of the Argus. There's plenty of mistrust and the Doctor, as always, is caught right in the middle trying to sort out the mess. That the mess came from his own actions, I half expected to see the 7th Doctor, not the 8th there.
The 8th Doctor sort of stumbles through this strip though. His character is just fine, as is Izzy's - but events are well above his power to control. And indeed the resolution sees the Doctor as a spectator, rather than a contributor. The ending also surprised me, showing that they plan to continue with Izzy for some while to come yet.
Children of the Revolution is a sequel to a TV story, and a continuation of the comic strip arc. But thanks to some very impressive artwork and a fantastic story, it goes beyond its source material, and swims very elegantly on its own. The strip has been consistently better over the last year or so, than at any time in its existence. It is worth buying DWM for the strip alone - it is that good. 9/10
Me and my Shadow (318)
With Izzy taken away by unknown aliens at the end of Children of the Revolution, this was a good idea. Let's bring back a comic strip companion who can help the Doctor find her. Fey was in the strip way back 4 years ago, and I always felt she had more material in her. The way the Doctor left her, in The Final Chapter, certainly seemed to indicate she had the potential to return. Nice then to see her back.
We're back to World War Two here, the haunt of many Doctor Who stories. Fey is undercover, helping out a nice old chap. She's become a protector of the innocent. And World War Two is just about the best place for that sort of thing. But this is an outpost of the Reich, a cold vicious sort of place. It has an X-Files feel to it, with all the dark woods and intrigue. The artwork is crisp, the colours darker than usual, but alive.
The Doctor is nowhere to be seen, this is simply about re-introducing Fey - and I'm glad they have done that. Where we go from here will be revealed next month. It's good to regroup every now and again. Too often in Who things happen far too quickly. The Doctor and companions have a traumatic event in their lives, and we're slap bang into another adventure - the TV was always like that, there was very little time for reflection - so it's nice for the pause button to be set before the next challenge.
Like Beautiful Freak (the 1 parter that showed Izzy struggling to get used to her new body) this was needed. Once again the comic strip is spot on with its continuing story and the pacing of it. 7/10
Uroboros (319-322)
Ever since the comic strip went to colour with DWM 300, it has been on an terrifc arc. Scott Gray has shepherded the strip for a long time, but his imagination shows no sign of abating. Companion Izzy has gone through a traumatic change, and now has been kidnapped too. Enter Fey and Shayde (inhabiting Fey's body) to help the Doctor find her.
Scott Gray gives a recap of the last 2 years issues, for the beneift of Fey (but cunningly for the benefit of any whose missed it too). This bringing up to speed allows the strip to move on to its next chapter, and what a ride it is. The Doctor retraces Izzy's kidnappers back to Ophidius - the giant dragon ship from previous stories. The Mobox have captured it, spoils of war, and taken it back to their home planet. The Doctor is caught by the Mobox himself, and manages to escape onto the planets surface. There he encounters a face from his past. Fey, meanwhile is taking control of Ophidius. But it seems C'Sorr, an ancient Mobox, has a masterplan all of his own.
This saga continues to surprise with its twists and turns. No sooner are we reconciled to the loss of one character, than they miraculously appear again. It all fits together so well too - it's quite an epic that Scott Gray is putting together here.
The art of this story is provided by new boy John Ross, and he continues the great work of Martin Geraghty and Lee Sullivan. The 8th Doctor has been consistently drawn well, but rarely have his emotions been captured so effectively. This is a Doctor on a mission - he is determined to find his best friend. He enlists anybodies help he can find, this is a Doctor fully focused and massively energetic in his endeavour to reach his goal.
I have been reading a lot of Doctor Who comic strips of late, and I really don't think it has ever been as consistent as it is right now. This new Who is exciting and interesting. It's chock full of great companions and scheming villains. There's the odd blast from the past, but it's creating a mythology all of its own.
If you're not reading the strip, then you should be. Go back to issue 300 and the start of the Ophidius, Izzy, Destrii Storyline - you will be delighted at what you find. 9/10
Oblivion (323-328)
Ever since DWM switched its strip to colour (issue 300, early 2001), an arc has been running. It primarily concerns the Doctor's companion Izzy, and a case of bodyswapping with alien Destrii. It's been a fantastic ride, arguably the most consistently good one in the entire run (the Parkhouse strips from mid 80s are the only ones to rival it).
With Oblivion this arc appears to be at the end, it had to finish sometime, but it has been a brilliant ride for the last 2 years - a considerable achievement for all concerned with the magazine. Every month I would glance through my DWM seeing if the current strip was at an end - then go back and read from the story's beginning. Reading the strips graphic novel like, is the way I like it, but it meant even longer periods of waiting. Oblivion lasted 6 issues, that's 5 months - but the wait was worth it.
Oblivion finishes the Izzy/Destrii arc in fine fashion. The 8th Doctor is a Time Lord on a mission, he has the help of Fey and Shayde. Following the energy signatures of Izzy's abductors they arrive on a fascinating world. This apparent ramshackled world though houses an elite dome where the favoured live - Destrii's relatives mostly. The contrast from dirty streets and people, to extravagance within the dome is huge. Fey (or should that be Feyde?) goes off to the Dome to search for Izzy, the Doctor allies himself with Jodafra, Destrii's uncle, Court Jester and inventor.
The bizarre inhabitants of the dome appear at first indulgences from artists Martin Geraghty and David Roach. But there is a reason for their animal like appearance. They are wonderful creations. The artwork all round is excellent, from characters through settings. The vibrant colours of Adrian Salmon help too in creating a masterpiece.
This 6 part story really presents its readers with all kinds of amazing and interesting concepts, characters and worlds. Jodafra leaps from the page, and I wouldn't bet against a return - indeed I would welcome it. As good as Destrii's homeworld is, it is the conclusion that really highlights the excellence of the whole strip.
There's something gloriously Who-ish about the last few pages, with the TARDIS back in Stockbridge. There's also an air of controversy between Fey and Izzy, but on reflection it all fits together pretty well. I suppose over 6 years is a long time to have 1 companion - but I still will miss Izzy - I rate her right up there with the very best of any Doctor companion - in any medium.
Reading the 6 issues of Oblivion one Saturday morning was a complete joy - the ending bringing a tear to my eye - and it's a long time since DW did that. A magnificent end to a fabulous run of stories. 10/10
It will be fascinating to go back now and read from issue 300. The stories Ophidius (300-303), Beautiful Freak (304), Way of All Flesh (306,308-10), Children of the Revolution (312-317), Me and My Shadow (318), Uroboros (319-322) and Oblivion (323-328) - are the most extensive arc DW has ever produced, and therefore can easily be collected together. The colour has given the strip so much energy - but the main credit must go to Scott Gray, who was the sole writer of all the above. Credit must also go to Martin Geraghty, Lee Sullivan, John Ross, David Roach, Robin Smith, Adrian Salmon, Roger Langridge, Alan Barnes and Clayton Hickman - artists, colourists, letterers and editors respectively.
It will also be highly intriguing now where the strip goes from here. The Doctor appears companionless - it really feels like an end. There has been 7 years now since the TV Movie. After the 7th Doctor had been in the strip for 7 years they started to go to past Doctors - I wonder if they will do the same again.