Celebrating Volume 3 of the increasingly-popular (and rightly so) fanzine, it’s Vworp Vworp! Week at the Doctor Who Companion. And we’ve got some real treats for you coming up.
First, we thought it’d be appropriate to give you a taster of the latest issue, a massive 208-page tome boasting three regular covers and more features than you can fit into the Monk’s TARDIS. Check out these sample pieces…
Anything Can Happen in the Next Ten Rels!
As you can see, this 7-page feature is written by science fiction author, Stephen Baxter – yes, the Stephen Baxter, responsible for Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice, The Massacre of Mankind (official sequel to The War of the Worlds), Flood, Voyage, Raft, Manifold: Time, and, with Terry Pratchett, The Long Earth series. And then some!
Recalling the Daleks’ adventures in TV Century 21:
“According to [editor, Alan] Fennell, the idea for the comic strip came from [Dalek creator, Terry] Nation. They both shared the same film-writing agent, and it was through this agent that Fennell was first approached. The first few serials, featured artwork by Richard Jennings, who had worked on The Dalek Book with Terry Nation and David Whitaker, both of whom collaborated on writing much of the comic strip’s 104-week run.”
4-D Moore
Gareth Kavanagh nabbed a rare interview with comics legend, Alan Moore, who might be best known for Watchmen and V For Vendetta but who also worked on strips for Doctor Who Magazine. Moore says:
“If I’d have had my way, and had been allowed to be as completely obscure with regards to Doctor Who as I wanted to, then it would almost certainly have been endless stories about The Celestial Toymaker, which was my favourite sequence in Doctor Who.”
Gary Russell Has Plenty of Fun
The DWC’s very own Matt Badham chatted to Gary Russell, former editor of DWM. This was at a troubled time for the show, as it was off air, with little hope of being seen again – but Russell argues that this was actually good for DWM:
“It was completely freeing-up because you were answerable to no one and I was kind of led by what VHS was released that month. If it was a Davison story, I would say to Andrew Pixley that I wanted to make sure that the Archive was a black and white, and somewhere in the middle we’d have a bit of Pertwee or a bit of Baker. So there was a balance, but the VHS would lead what was in the Archive, the interviews would be based around those two things, and there’d be a Virgin novel to talk about. There was a lot going on, and it was a very easy time to manipulate the magazine.”
The Difficult Age
Gareth also talks to the Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker, and Gary Russell, about the comic strip, The Age of Chaos – written by Baker himself! Asked whether he found the process daunting, Colin says:
“Do you know, ‘daunting’ doesn’t do it for me. I suppose it’s because I’ve never had to earn my living as a writer; it’s never been other than a labour of love, so writing the story for this I found rather fun. But I can’t remember the extent to which Gary came to ‘yes.’ ‘no’,’ ‘change this,’ ‘change that’…”
Leave it to Jennings
Vworp Vworp‘s editor, Colin Brockhurst finds out more about Richard Jennings, the ‘go-to’ artist for anything featuring the Daleks in Doctor Who‘s early days, and even spoke to Richard’s daughter, Celia, to find out more. Brockhurst writes:
“His contributions to The Dalek Book are impressive: the cover, the beautiful contents page, full double-page spreads, the very first ‘Anatomy of a Dalek’ feature, and three out of the six comic strips, all rendered in full colour using oil paints, in his rich, detailed style.”
Hectic Menace and Humorous Self-Mockery
Writer, director, and Dalek operator, Nicholas Pegg takes a trip down Memory Lane with a look back at the Target books, especially the added flourishes not seen on screen… Pegg remembers:
“My first Doctor Who books cost a piggy-bank-busting 30p, but every few months, the cover price would creep up by another five pence. I still remember wincing in anguish upon turning over the canary-yellow Carnival of Monsters to discover that the price had been hiked to an exorbitant 50p. The was in January 1977, and Callaghan’s inflationary crisis was clearly beginning to bit at W H Allen, because the price leapt up to 60p just four books later with The Ark in Space (another yellow one, as it happened).”
Lee Sullivan’s Art
Of course, Vworp Vworp! isn’t solely filled with features: alongside an interview with artist, Lee Sullivan, you can check out his sketches (plus script extracts) from the unforgettable Seventh Doctor strip, Emperor of the Daleks!
Then feast your eyes on Sullivan’s The Daleks: Deadline to Doomsday, finishing off the strip (written by John Lawrence) began by Ron Turner.
And there’s plenty more!
But of course, we won’t spoil the surprise. Head over to Vworp Vworp!’s official site and buy this mammoth tome, at just £9.99 plus postage and packaging.
Of course, the DWC will have heaps more of exclusive content celebrating the fanzine across the coming days…
(Take a closer look at these sample pages here:)
