Doctor Who Week: Doctor Who Comics

If you want to know why Doctor Who isn't simply about plot or character or whatever, go read some of the comics. Dunno, maybe if you stayed up for a few days and played old scores from Dudley Simpson or Peter Howell as you read it, they'd work, but as it is, they just kinda melt away moments after you read them. Much of the wonder and weirdness and charm of the show doesn't translate to comics. Not that it even really should because I'm sure back when the show was on and everything, these added doses of Doctor Who on the newsstands were fairly exciting.

Now though, they're significantly more interesting for who worked on them and well, a ton of really interesting people did some Doctor Who comics. Dave Gibbons drew a bunch of them, Steve Moore wrote a whole lot of them, and, just from memory here, Alan Moore, Bryan Hitch, Pat Mills, Walt Simonson, John Wagner, Steve Dillon and most importantly--to me at least--Grant Morrison. Like the show itself, these comics, in retrospect are all about form and limits and those limits being stretched.

Trying to spot the aspects of a whole bunch of personality-filled artists and writers working within the confines of a super-established character is really fun. Additionally fun because so many of these are medium-length "strips" sometimes in multiple parts over a few issues, sometimes self-contained, and most notably, because all these comics auteurs weren't comics auteurs quite yet. Where their styles begin or end and where Doctor Who begins or ends and where editors stepped in--though some of the editors too, are of note, like Richard Starkings--is all awesomely muddled.

Today, David and I are going to review Grant Morrison's Doctor Who stories which were reissued by IDW last fall as Grant Morrison's Doctor Who issues 1 & 2 last fall and were recently collected in the trade called Doctor Who Classics Volume 3.