Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer, returns...

Well, all right, that headline is a little misleading. I'm not talking about new stories (although there have been some, find out more below...). Rather, the release of Doctor Who: Nemesis of the Daleks, a Seventh Doctor comic collection from Panini Books.

Although I plugged this project on social media on release, I've just realized I inadvertently failed to mention this compendium here, which leads with the cracking Abslom Daak - Dalek Killer story 'Nemesis of the Daleks', penned by Richard Starkings and John Tomlinson (writing as Richard Alan), drawn by Lee Sullivan.

There's a host of other goodies, including the first professional comic strips I edited for Doctor Who Magazine and Paul Cornell's first-ever professional comics commission, drawn by Gerry Dolan – along with Steve Moore, Steve Dillon and David Lloyd's original Daak tales.

This book is crammed with Seventh Doctor comic stories, including the never-before-collected, oft-maligned but fun Incredible Hulk Presents strips whose creators include myself, Dan Abnett, John Ridgway, Simon Furman, Andrew Wildman, John Tomlinson and many more.

Doctor Who: Nemesis of the Daleks is the fifteenth volume in the ongoing series of Doctor Who Graphic Novels published by Panini Books, collections of comic strips that originally appeared in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine and other related titles.

Nemesis of the Daleks, named after the book’s opening strip, is the second volume of Seventh Doctor comic strips (picking up where the previous A Cold Day in Hell!, published in 2009, left off). The stories in this collection originally appeared in 1989 and 1990. At that time the strips not only ran in Doctor Who Magazine but also in a second Marvel Comics UK title, The Incredible Hulk Presents.

In addition to the Seventh Doctor strips, the book includes the popular ‘back up’ strips featuring Abslom Daak from 1980 issues of Doctor Who Weekly and Doctor Who Monthly, to tie-in with the character’s appearance in the 'Nemesis of the Daleks' story.

Panini again commissioned me to provide a detailed commentary on the stories, which includes some fantastic contributions from many of the writers and artists, with reproduced script pages from John Tomlinson and 'Nemesis' design work by Lee Sullivan.

I'm very grateful for the time many took out of busy schedules to answer my questions - asking them to dredge up their memories of strips written almost 20 years ago taxed me, too!

Panini have done a terrific job restoring the strips (Peri Godbold, as ever, the vital cog in this process), and I'm particularly grateful to Steve White for putting me in contact with Incredible Hulk Presents editor Andy Seddon, who I don't think has ever been interviewed about his time at Marvel UK before, and talks extensively about his memories of IHP.

Here is the full list of strips included in the graphic novel. (Titles marked * are reprinted for the first time in this collection.)

I hope you'll go out and buy. Train-Flight by Graham S. Brand & Andrew Donkin, drawn by John Ridgway, included in this volume, is my first work as a comics editor and includes a guest appearance by Sarah Jane Smith (an early example of actress Elizabeth Sladen's support for the Magazine).

While financial circumstances on the title at the time meant we couldn't risk running long form epics like those written by Steve Parkhouse during the Davison era (I would have hated to have started one only for the title to have been cancelled part way through, which was still a possibility, even at this point, because of the show's presumed cancellation), Train-Flight also marks the start of a loose 'arc' that builds to Dan Abnett and Lee Sullivan's brilliant Mark of Mandragora story. An arc that doesn't get in the way of the main storyline at any point, I might add, and utterly confuse its audience...

• Nemesis of the Daleks (Doctor Who Magazine #152-155)
• Stairway to Heaven (Doctor Who Magazine #156) *
• Once in a Lifetime (The Incredible Hulk Presents #1)
• Hunger from the Ends of Time! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #2-3)
• War World! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #4)
• Technical Hitch (The Incredible Hulk Presents #5)
• A Switch in Time! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #6)
• The Sentinel! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #7) *
• Who’s that Girl! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #8-9) *
• The Enlightenment of Ly-Chee the Wise (The Incredible Hulk Presents #10) *
• Slimmer! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #11) *
• Nineveh! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #12) *
• Train-Flight (Doctor Who Magazine #159-161)
• Doctor Conkerer! (Doctor Who Magazine #162)
• Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer (Doctor Who Weekly #17-20)
• Star Tigers (Doctor Who Weekly #27-30, Doctor Who Monthly #44-46)

Oh, and if after this you are looking for new Abslom Daak stories, then try and track down copies of  Vworp Vworp Magazine penned by Steve Dillon and drawn by Martin Geraghty.

•  Buy Doctor Who: Nemesis of the Daleks from amazon.co.uk

• Buy Doctor Who: Nemesis of the Daleks from forbidden planet.com

• Read an online interview with Steve Moore about Abslom Daak on the Altered Vistas web site

Blast from the Past: SCAN, with added Alan Moore

After a brief conversation with Bugpowder's Andrew Luke earlier this week, I've digitized a couple of issues of my early fanzine, SCAN, which I initially co-produced with designer Matt Bingham and helped set nme on the road to my comics career at Marvel UK and beyond.

SCAN started out a poke in the eye at British comics generally - both small press and mainstream. Matt designed the first cover to be as bland as possible, reflecting, I seem to recall, his annoyance at pretentious many small press comic covers were that he'd seen.

Issue 1/26, our first issue, includes a made-up letter from one "Alan Moore". We cheekily pushed a copy of our comic into Alan's hands at a legendary Westminster Comic Mart and thanked him for it: Alan retorted "Did you write yoo a letter?" before returning to sign early Marvel UK comics for a long queue of fans....

The digital version of Issue 2/25 includes what remains a very funny real letter from one Alan Moore in our 'Scan newsletter': he became a subscriber and the fnazine had support from huge numbers of creators including Mike Collins, Richard Starkings, Bryan Talbot, John Tomlinson, Dave Jones, Ralph Kidson and others, and, eventually helped me get a job at Marvel UK. (Which is why I always say it's worth self publishing).

Our main strip, a convoluted time travel story called "Cat and Mouse", had an episode published in a Marvel UK title thanks to support from John Tomlinson. The cheque we received for use - my first paid comics work! - was amazing, with a Spider-Man and Hulk logo. I'd never have cashed it if I hadn't needed the money).

A word about the numbering. We started at Issue 26 and worked backwards, then forwards, then missed issues, then changed formats. It drove some readers mad. It certainly drove Paul Gravett mad, who very kindly distributed SCAN through "Fast Fiction", at the Westminster Marts and by mail order, so later issues, if you can find them. do run consecutively.

To further confuse things for any potential buyers in Lancaster, SCAN was and remains the name of the Lancaster University Students Union (a particularly arrogant Student Union president had seriously annoyed me on some issue and this was a weird bit of revenge), and we sold it in local pubs. Folk did confuse the two, so we probably wisely stopped doing that.

Matthew Bingham, of course went on to become a top-flight designer and editor, working on titles such as FHM.

John Freeman continued to be annoying.

I hope you enjoy this small "blast from the past".

Knights of Pendragon Collection Planned

Panini UK has confirmed a collection of the first nine issues of Marvel UK's highly-acclaimed orginal Knights of Pendragon series, created by Dan Abnett, John Tomlinson and Gary Erskine, is in development, for publication later in 2009.

Knights of Pendragon, which also featured covers by artists such as Alan Davis and Simon Bisley, was initially a highly political and environmental comic, its themes drawn from the British folklore of King Arthur, environmental issues and New Age and neo-pagan subcultures.

The 216 page collection, comprising the first nine issues of the title's original 18-issue run, will feature an introduction by co-creator Dan Abnett and is currently scheduled it for an October 2009 release.

"It’s great news," Knights of Pendragon's original editor Steve White told downthetubes. "That was such a personal project for us and paved the way for so much that followed, such as Lords of Misrule [published by Dark Horse] and Hypersonic.

"I have a lot of happy memories of that time and even though I was only the editor, I felt I invested an awful lot of creativity into that.

"Looking back, it seems a bit cliched and naïve now, but we were young and reckless, and the environmental issues we now take for granted were still relatively new in the eyes of the readers. Even so, the creative team was a fine blend of talents."

The team took the environmental concerns as far as the format of the book, publishing it on Scangloss, an environmentally-friendly paper. While that may seem old hat now, back in the 1980s it was something of a first or a comics title.

"I'm absolutely delighted that the first series will see print," commented series artist Gary Erskine, whose credits include Star Wars, Dan Dare and more and describes the title as the "Best introduction to comics ever."

"I remember seeing a collected Italian or Spanish edition years ago of (containing the first six issues) and was always a little disappointed that we never followed up at Marvel UK."

"Does anyone still remember Marvel's first (and so far, only) green superhero book?" said co-writer John Tomlinson, who now wors for Eaglemoss. "I hope it's printed on eco-friendly Scangloss paper, or we're all going to Hell!

"When I think of The Knights of Pendragon now I remember Gary's unique, strange and sometimes terrifying artwork, the amazing lineup of cover artists (Alan Davis through Simon Bisley via John Bolton) and all the great letters we got," recalls. "Not only that, but I still can't go into McD*****s without being poleaxed by guilt, or at least acid reflux."

Like Steve, he's unsure how modern readers will respond to the story but remembers the book fondly. "I'm not sure how well it's aged, but K.O.P. (the first 18 issues, anyway) gave me, Dan, Steve and Gary, still pretty green ourselves, to effectively grow up in print. It's not often you get the chance to do that."

• Knights of Pendragon at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Knights of Pendragon at the Marvel Directory
• Knights of Pendragon at the Comic Book DB - this includes an issue by issue guide to the title
• Knights of Pendragon Wikipedia Entry