Finn Clark review: Art Attack (DWM 358) (NO SPOILERS)
Andrew McCaffrey
NO SPOILERS
Art Attack (DWM 358)
Story & pencil art by Mike Collins
Inks by Kris Justice
Colours by Dylan Teague
Lettering by Roger Langridge
Starring the 9th Doctor and Rose
Mike Collins isn't one of DWM's more famous names, but his involvement
with
the comic strip goes back a long way. Before both writing and drawing
Art
Attack (DWM 358), he'd written three stories and drawn five more, for a
total to date of 153 comic strip pages and twenty episodes. He's created
strips for all the Doctors since Colin Baker. What's more, he's one of a
rare breed... a genuine all-rounder. Apart from him, DWM's only real
writer-artists have been Steve Parkhouse, Sean Longcroft and Paul Neary.
The stories he's drawn are:
Doctor Conkerer! (DWM 162)
Party Animals (DWM 173)
The Good Soldier (DWM 175-178)
The Nightmare Game (DWM 330-332)
The Love Invasion (DWM 355-357)
Art Attack (DWM 358)
And those he's written:
Profits of Doom! (DWM 120-122)
Claws of the Klathi! (DWM 136-138)
Slimmer! (The Incredible Hulk Presents 11)
Art Attack (DWM 358)
Even at the new length of ten pages, one-episode stories like this are
unlikely to be substantial. The format has thrown up some wild
experiments
in the past (The Fangs of Time, The Land of Happy Endings) but this
isn't
one of those either. It's not life-changing or anything... but it is
quite
good.
The TARDIS lands in the 37th century... and it's not just any old
futuristic setting. Oh no. It's a transdimensional art gallery and the
latest in a long line of the comic strip's wild and wacky visual treats.
However in the light of Russell T. Davies's comments about making the
new TV
series a visual experience, Art Attack's Escheresque setting doesn't
merely
hark back to the fecundity of imagination of a Gibbons or a Ridgway. For
once this kind of thing feels faithful to the TV series too. It's easy
to
imagine the Slitheen's designers getting enthusiastic about Cazkelf the
Transcendent.
It's witty! There's Doctor-Rose repartee and some nice little gags.
Trust
an artist to have things to say about the Mona Lisa...
The story itself is likeable. Curiously we've now had two Eccleston
comic
strips and in both of them the evil alien invader... well, wasn't. The
plot moves at a good pace, it has a nice twist or two and doesn't feel
bland. The art is solid too. It looks nice on the page, with
particularly
good likenesses of Rose. (Eccleston looks okay, but personally I think
he's
deceptively hard to draw. He's not craggy, if you know what I mean. He's
not as difficult as Davison, but he's no Hartnell or Pertwee.)
There's continuity and worldbuilding. World War Five, which by all
accounts
sounds pretty extreme, happened recently (this is the 37th century) and
there's an Alpha Centauri in a wig. What's more there's a reference to
the
Doctor being the last of his people. That's obviously a nod to the new
TV
series, but it also had me thinking back to that throwaway line in The
Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack (DWM 334-336): "A dull grey world in
a
bottle he couldn't wait to break". In 2003 that was merely a olive
branch
to the books which only confused things. Did the comics come before,
after
or during the 8DAs, then?
However today the situation is a lot more complicated. When it comes to
blowing up Gallifrey, the 8DAs are no longer the only game in town. To
me
this almost looked like a *comics* reference... we've got the TV series,
the 8DAs and the comics, none of which fit together without a little
work.
Interesting!
Overall, this is a nice little story that's good for a laugh and never
seems
to be wasting your time. We've all read much worse!
Finn Clark.
--
Andrew McCaffrey
----
"I don't accept the currently fashionable assertion that any view is
automatically as worthy of respect as any equal and opposite view. My
view is that the moon is made of rock. If someone says to me "Well, you
haven't been there, have you? You haven't seen it for yourself, so my
view that it is made of Norwegian Beaver Cheese is equally valid" - then
I can't even be bothered to argue." -- Douglas Adams
Brax
news:U_Hve.10$MI4...@news.abs.net...
> [Posted on behalf of Finn Clark.]
> Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack (DWM 334-336): "A dull grey world
in
> a
> bottle he couldn't wait to break". In 2003 that was merely a olive
> branch
> to the books which only confused things. Did the comics come before,
> after
> or during the 8DAs, then?
same time, different bottles. For me the whole universes within bottles
thing was a comment on how the eighth Doctor's era was different to any
that came before. Before 1996 the TV series was the primary source and
everything led from there (like the NAs took their basis from where
Cartmel and co wanted to go) or was different from it (like the DWM
strips) but the TV series was the primary run and everything else was
either a continuation (NAs) or in a secondary continuum or vague gap
somewhere (the DWM strips, the MAs) but the eighth Doctor era has
several competing timelines battling for supremacy:
the EDAs
the comic strip (easily the best)
the audios (okay, these weren't around at the time, but instead of
having two continuums we've now got three)
so, universes in a bottle.
> However today the situation is a lot more complicated. When it comes
to
> blowing up Gallifrey, the 8DAs are no longer the only game in town. To
> me
> this almost looked like a *comics* reference... we've got the TV
series,
> the 8DAs and the comics, none of which fit together without a little
> work.
> Interesting!
I'm in favour of them not fitting, but showing a Doctor Who era which
branches off at the start and converges (or not) after the end. Also,
that's a point, the end is something we've not seen and the eighth
Doctor audios are continuing.
> Overall, this is a nice little story that's good for a laugh and never
> seems
> to be wasting your time. We've all read much worse!
also, the alien in it seems to be wearing the most outrageous
proto-Doctor costume (a mix of the third, sixth and Austin Powers) which
is a nice contrast to the Doctor which makes you really appreciate the
leather jacket :o)
Brax