A British creator line up that includes writer Tony Lee and artist Mark Buckingham will keep US Publisher IDW's Doctor Who comics afloat in the coming months.
While the Eleventh Doctor has already had several comic strip adventures in Britain's Doctor Who Adventures and Doctor Who Magazine, IDW Publishing's first title featuring all-new adventures of Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, will not be released until January 2011 in a new ongoing series.
The new title comes as US screenings of Doctor Who on BBC America delivered record ratings for the channel, with episodes reaching the top spot on the iTunes TV chart.
Doctor Who #1 is written by Tony Lee and will see the Doctor and his new companions, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, battling holographic spam and 'friending' requests on a planet that's hours from destruction by an alien race.
Artist Andrew Currie brings this debut adventure to life, with the ever-busy Tommy Lee Edwards offering eye-catching covers on each issue. Eisner Award winning Fables superstar Mark Buckingham also offers an incentive cover for Issue 1, and will provide interior art on an upcoming issue, as well. Kelley Yates will also provide an incentive cover for Issue 1, featuring a die-cut gatefold image that allows fans to open the TARDIS and see the Doctor inside.
Joining IDW's Doctor Who comic book series for art duties is Richard Piers Rayner (who first drew Doctor Who in Evening's Empire for DWM, a strip that eventually appeared in a special edition due to deadline problems), who will tackle a run-in between The Doctor and Jack the Ripper in issues #2-4. Artists Matthew Dow Smith (Doctor Who, Starman) and Chris Samnee (Thor: The Mighty Avenger) will also be featured for special story arcs.
Storylines for the new book include holographic spam fighting Mad Max-esque mercenaries, Victorian Jack The Ripper suspense, penalty shoot-outs against Vikings and Cybernetic Space Pirate Dinosaurs. Said IDW's Doctor Who editor Denton J. Tipton: "There's going to be something for everyone in this story. For example, fans of the classic series should be on the look out for a classic Doctor Who villain!"
"I could tell you who they are, but I'd have to kill you," adds Lee. "Let's just say we've been given special dispensation to use them, and we have a killer story – in all senses of the word!"
• Doctor Who #1 ($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in US stores in January. Technically the title is not available in the UK for licensing reasons but copies do reach some specialist stores. No UK publisher seems to have picked up distribution rights to IDW's Doctor Who collections.
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