Doctor Who and the Vampire Inversion

Here's a treat: Paul Hanley, who you may recall provided the original art for Forgotten Lives, as well as a whole host of other Doctor Who, cult film and original art, has teamed up with Bret Herholz, another excellent artist and graphic storyteller with a penchant for all things Who, to create The Vampire Inversion, a completely free new comic featuring the Shalka Doctor (as played by Mr. Richard E. Grant back in 2003, and fleetingly appearing onscreen again in 2024).

For this adventure, Paul has written the script and Bret has provided the art, and his scratchy blac-and-white style really works for this gaunt and foreboding Doctor. The Vampire Inversion is a postmodern adventure into vampire cinema, which also explores the hidden corners of Doctor Who's own mythology. As the cover page teases: "Two Doctors, vampires and... Andy Warhol?!" When you've enjoyed the comic itself, you can also read Paul's original script.

Paul and Bret have provided this comic for free, but do suggest that you might like to make a donation to one of the charities they've chosen to support: 

The Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT)

TRACTION (Trans Community Action)

Queertopia

The Central Florida Emergency Trans Care Fund

So, go on. Have a bite.

WHO REVIEW: The History Between Us

 

I love that, after sixty years, Doctor Who is still inspiring so much creative fandom. New generations of fans come to the show, explore its history, have their imaginations fired up, and go on to create their own stories. Some of these stories go on to inspire other fans; some writers will even go on to create official Doctor Who. It's all rather wonderful. Admittedly, it's a bit strange for me to see a book full of authors and artists going by their online handles, but then, pseudonyms have a long history and, well, I guess I'm getting old.

The History Between Us is a collection of stories featuring the Doctor and the Master, from the 77 Years Team. This group previously published 77 Years itself, exploring the Dhawan Master's accidental exile alluded to in Spyfall (I've now bought the digital edition of this, so expect another review in the future). This volume, which I picked up on the reprint for the 60^th anniversary and have finally had time to sit down and read properly, is more expansive, covering the two Time Lords' lives from their childhood on Gallifrey to their most recent run-in on TV, and beyond.

Fanthologies are nothing new, and nor is fiction exploring the relationship between the Doctor and the Master. Even the idea that they were once a couple, whose love has turned to an intense enmity that they've dragged out across time and space, isn't without precedent. Forcing them to sit down and talk to a marriage counsellor, though – that's a stroke of genius.

The first thing you notice when you pick up this book is just how gorgeous it is. Kris Merola's cover is absolutely stunning, and only the first of a selection of incredible illustrations in an array of styles. Then, of course, we have the stories themselves – one for each main Doctor, plus a framing story and an extra story at the very end, set some time in the future. (I won't reveal which Doctor and Master this one features, but they may have recently been brought into TV canon.) The stories explore their relationship and its fluctuating levels of friendship and enmity across the centuries. Any romance is included with a lightness of touch – the more intimate details of their relationship is kept to background and inference.

There's a very high standard to the writing here. Every story is strong, with the best being really quite excellent. I have some particular favourites. “On the Contrary Nature of Temporal Exobiology” by Ana M. explores the first meeting and growing friendship between the charismatic Koschei and the awkward Theta at the Academy. “Doctor Who and the Vortex Bloom” by Fennric explores the Third Doctor's life in exile, including the nature of his prisoner tattoo (in reality, Jon Pertwee's tattoo from his time in the Royal Navy, which has caused no end of fan debate). The story has a spot-on portrayal of the affectionate rivalry between the Third Doctor and the Delgado Master (and it's nice to see someone remember that sometimes the Three discarded his fancy clothes and got down to a T-shirt and jeans).

“Taphonomia” by Soph features the Fourth Doctor and “Crispy” Master, on his last legs and desperate. It's a subtly chilling story with a touch of horror. Sariane's Fifth Doctor story “The Wandering Mind” is a fascinating exploration of the Doctor's subconscious. “Nothing but Time” by Red brings the Eighth Doctor and the War Master together, in a tremendously fun, time-twisting tale that handles the tricky business of fitting in with TV continuity better than Big Finish usually manages. The highlight of the modern Doctor-Master pairs is “Not a Vessel for Your Good Intent” by Jay, a thoughtful exploration of the Missy's imprisonment and the reasons she and the Doctor are going through with it.

While these were the stand-out entries for me, every story presents an intriguing take on the Doctor and the Master. Of course, not every Doctor met the Master on TV, and while most of their respective incarnations meet in order, there are some unexpected pairings. A truly masterful collection.

Physical copies of this book are no longer available, however, ebook and audiobook versions can still be ordered through the 77 Live Team website.

Doctor Who and the Adventures in the Far East

There's been a lovely little flurry on Twitter recently regarding some forgotten Doctor Who from South Korea. The details are available here at broadwcast, which focuses on the overseas sales of televised Doctor Who, but also includes a section on merchandise in each country.

South Korea didn't really go for Doctor Who much in the 20th century, but this little titbit has recently emerged. It turns out that Korean readers had their own, short-lived, probably unlicensed version of Doctor Who as a comicbook release. Treasure Island was a Korean manwha (cartoon format) publication which released hefty 400-page volumes from 1982 to 1992, and included various reprints and licensed materials as well as original creations. Quite how they managed to create their own version of Doctor Who is uncertain, and there doesn't seem to be any evidence that they acquired a licence to do so, although broadwcast suggests they might have cribbed some material from Marvel reprints and worked from that.

Certainly, there's a very clear influence of Tom Baker's fourth Doctor on the manwha Doctor, who wears a clear variant on his costume. These were released in early 1984, when the fifth Doctor's time was coming to a close and the sixth was making his debut, but Tom Baker's image would still have been the most commonly seen around the world. Indeed, his was still the face most people thought of when imagining the Doctor until Tennant and Smith assured the domination of the modern series in younger viewers' minds.

It's an idiosyncratic take on Doctor Who, with the Doctor (from the planet Black) and his companion Joy travelling the universe in a TARDIS that appears to be a rocketship. The only story for which there's any detail so far is "Fugitives," which saw the Doctor fight Nazis and pirates for the entertainment of avian aliens. The article's writer says that's the sort of thing only a manwha book would include, but I can easily imagine it turning up in an early Doctor Who Weekly or Monthly comic strip. If your Korean's up to scratch, you can read some of the adventure here.

It's wonderful that there are still elements of Doctor Who and its spin-offs that are turning up out of the blue like this after all these years. I've always had a soft spot for weird knock-offs and foreign language versions of my favourite properties (the tokusatsu Japanese Spider-Man series being perhaps the greatest). The Treasure Island strips and the manwha Doctor are still obscure enough that there's bound to be more material out there waiting to be discovered.

So far, the manwha Doctor has certainly caught a few fans' imaginations. Most notably, Doctor portrait artist extraordinaire Paul Hanley has added him to his line-up of incarnations. (He's got the rocket fins on the TARDIS and everything.)

The manwha Doctor isn't the only version from the Orient. The Japanese translations of the Muller and Target novelisations published by Hayakawa Bunko from the early 80s featured their own idiosyncratic versions of the Doctor, his companions and adventures. Starting with the translation of Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, with a new title that translated as Space-Time Big Bloody Battle, the Japanese Dr. Hu appeared Asian but in the first Doctor's clothing style, and battled unique versions of the Daleks and truly unsettling Autons. Then there's Dr. Who, a completely unrelated but surprisingly Doctorishly-stylised villain from the tokusatsu movie King Kong Escapes. Who's to say there's not a universe for each of these alternative Doctors in the great Who-multiverse?

A crossover between the manwha Doctor and the Hayakawa Doctor, at least, has got to be worth something.

Penguin-style Doctor Who Covers

Just a gorgeous idea for a Tumblr blog.

http://doctorwhopenguin.tumblr.com/

Not to be confused with penguin-style Doctor Who companions, because that would be Frobisher.

The Many Regenerations of the Doctor

Had to share this piece of work by Stratos06th aka South Park Taoist. I'd fancied making something like this myself, but I could never have made something as good as this. While there are plenty more Doctors who could have been included on here, I think the artist has drawn the line at the right place. Any more would make the chart too busy, and I love the little inclusions of pastiche characters and mythic equivalents of the Doctor that wouldn't fit if, say, all the Morbius Doctors had been included separately. It's a great piece of work. Click to embiggen.

This is currently the wallpaper on my phone's lock screen. It's by Rachael Stott, a freelance illustrator who is both extremely talented and uber-geeky. You should check out her blog.

(Also thanks to my friends Tanya and Mlle de la Mort, who both searched the interwebs for me to find out drew this.)

PAPYRUSAURUS

Yes, you're probably pronouncing it wrong. Don't worry about it.

If you're following my blog, you're probably into either Doctor Who, or dinosaurs, or some other bit of geekery. In which case, you could do worse than checking out the crafting genius of Papyrusaurus, if you have failed to do so already.

Ashley, the Chief Executive Dinosaur of Papyrusaurus, reclaims old books and transforms their pages into works of nerdy art.

She does Doctor Who tributes

and Monsters Inc. stuff for kids 

and Firefly stuff 

and she does pretty amazingly cute things with dinosaurs.

Check out the whole store. There's a lot more - not just prints, but Christmas decorations, wreaths and rosettes. She designs tributes for Supernatural, Harry Potter, Ghostbusters... all the geeking best.

You can check out her store at CraftStar through the link above, or on Etsy here. Papyrusaurus is US based, but ships worldwide.

And seriously, check this out. It's the Bakersaurus Rex.

The Infinite Artist

I'm jumping on the bandwagon a little here, seeing as a lot of people have been blogging about a particular piece of artwork, but I've been following Paul Hanley on DeviantArt for a while now, so it's not before time. Paul draws highly detailed, intricate scenes for his favourite pop culture characters and his own creations, and it'll come as no surprise to anyone that it is his Doctor Who art that has caught my eye. He's also one of Obverse Books' preferred artists, having previously provided the cover art for Iris: Abroad and Lady Stardust. He's now created the truly wonderful cover for the upcoming Iris Wildthyme of Mars. This is, of course, especially exciting for me, since this is the cover to the book that will contain my first professional fiction commission. 

Isn't it gorgeous? Paul often creates crowded vistas which act as geeky Where's Wally? style puzzles (or Where's Waldo if you're a Yank). So, as well as Iris (in her Barbarella incarnation) and Panda, he's provided all manner of Martians to try to identify. This should not be taken to mean that any of these creatures will be appearing in the stories, however. There are many more Marses than are depicted on here.

What's really been hitting the blogosphere is this. Paul has drawn numerous Doctors in the past, not only depicting an ever-increasing rolecall of the 'proper' Doctors, but having fun with apocryphal, unofficial, and fan-requested Doctors. Now, he's gone the whole hog, and produced something that I'd love to do, if my drawing skills were up to the task: 'The Infinite Doctor.'

Isn't that something? I particularly like how less well-known versions of the character are up front, with the often overlooked eighth Doctor (in his Night of the Doctor garb) sharing the limelight with the first Doctor, the Richard E. Grant animated Doctor, the War Doctor, and two of the Doctors from the wonderful Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. The latest addition to the roster, Peter Capaldi, gets pride of place, but there are all manner of extra incarnations on there, from the faces seen in the battle in The Brain of Morbius to Big Finish's 'Unbound' Doctors. There are even some that I could not identify, which, given my level of Who geekery, isn't to be sniffed at.

Two inclusions really leap out at me from this:

The 'Egon' Doctor, from the proposed Nelvana cartoon, as mentioned in my Harold Ramis piece last night. I considered including him in the 'Past, Potentials and Parallels' piece from my 'Other Doctors' series, but it was getting a little busy. It's quite heartwarming to see this version of the Doctor appear just as Egon was taken from us.

The second Doctor from the left, the rather cool, asiatic looking one with white hair and a black hat and cloak. This is a new one on me; although I was familiar with the Japanese Daleks novelisation, I hadn't seen all the illustrations before (you can view them all here). That's what's wonderful about Doctor Who, there's always more to discover. Add to the handful here who I didn't recognise a few more stage Doctors that I've just read about in Who-ology, and my Doctor catalogue is growing by the day.

There are some others I would have included here, had I the talent to do so. I'd have included some parallel versions of Doctors with distinctive looks, a couple of well-regarded fan Doctors, maybe some more spoof Doctors. But the wonderful thing about this image, in its conception and title, is that there need be no end to all the versions of the Doctor. The Doctors hang off the page, hinting at many, many more we can't see. If you can think of a Doctor, but can't spot him, don't worry. He's there somewhere, a few too many steps to the left.

For those who may need some more assistance in identifying the Doctors portrayed (or just like lists, like me) Paul has helpfully included a version with a key here. To view the above images at full size, just click on them to be taken to the original page, and to view his entire DeviantArt gallery, click here. To learn more about some of the mysterious faces pictured, try my 'Other Doctors' articles, which are already hopelessly out-of-date and lacking certain incarnations (John Guilor as the first Doctor in The Day of the Doctor? David McGrouther as the sixth Doctor on ice? Declain Brennan from 'Doctor Who Meets Einstein?')

Infinite Doctors in Infinite Combinations...