Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 1 (From Stockbridge to Segonus: A Doctor Who Magazine Comics Marathon, Part 41)

Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 1: Collected comic strips from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine
by Richard Alan, Steve Alan, Paul Cornell, Steve Dillon, Dave Gibbons, David Lloyd, Pat Mills, Steve Moore, Paul Neary, Lee Sullivan, John Wagner, et al.

Collection published: 2022
Contents originally published: 1979-89
Acquired: October 2022
Read: December 2022

As I am nearing the end of this project, I want to circle back and cover something I would have covered much earlier, had it existed at the time. This collects every Dalek story from DWM and adjacent publications from 1979 to 1993. Most of it was previously collected, but it does contain one story not collected elsewhere, so I read only that one.

If I was starting this readthrough now, I would read this volume between The Iron Legion and Dragon's Claw, though I would do just The Return of the Daleks, Absolm Daak... Dalek Killer, and Star Tigers, and save The Dogs of Doom, Nemesis of the Daleks, and Metamorphosis for their appearances in the proper DWM graphic novels.

The Return of the Daleks, from Doctor Who Weekly #1-4 (Oct.-Nov. 1979)
written by Steve Moore, art by Paul Neary & David Lloyd

This is a back-up strip focusing on the Daleks reinvading a planet where they were defeated centuries ago... coincidentally doing so right when someone is making a movie about the original invasion. It's fine; I found it hard to care about or even keep track of the protagonists. To be honest, I expected the movie stuff to be more significant, with fake Daleks versus real Daleks or something, but it's mostly there to explain why the characters have researched the history of the first invasion.

from Doctor Who Weekly #4

Stray Observations:

• Other included stories and what collections to find them in: (see below for links to my reviews)
• Abslom Daak... Dalek Killer!, Star Tigers, and Nemesis of the Daleks (in Nemesis of the Daleks)
• The Dogs of Doom (in The Iron Legion)
• Metamorphosis (in The Age of Chaos)
• Did I buy this whole volume for just sixteen pages of new-to-me content? Well... kind of. One benefit it does have is that the original graphic novel appearances of Abslom Daak, Star Tigers, and The Dogs of Doom didn't have any commentary. Paul Scoones provides commentary for The Return of the Daleks and The Dogs of Doom, John Freeman for Abslom Daak and Star Tigers, so I did take the time to read that material, which was nice of them to include.
• Found it a bit weird Richard Starkings and John Tomlinson are credited by their pseudonyms on the cover, when in the Nemesis of the Daleks collection their real names were given on the cover. People have heard of Richard Starkings, less so Richard Alan!

This post is the forty-first in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment covers The Phantom Piper. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Iron Legion
2. Dragon's Claw 
3. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume One
4. The Tides of Time
5. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Two
6. Voyager
7. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Three
8. The World Shapers
9. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Four
10. The Age of Chaos
11. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Five
12. A Cold Day in Hell!
13. Death's Head: Freelance Peacekeeping Agent (part 1)
14. Nemesis of the Daleks
15. Death's Head: Freelance Peacekeeping Agent (part 2)
16. The Good Soldier
17. The Incomplete Death's Head
18. Evening's Empire
19. The Daleks
20. Emperor of the Daleks
21. The Sleeze Brothers File
22. The Age of Chaos
23. Land of the Blind
24. Ground Zero
25. End Game
26. The Glorious Dead
27. Oblivion
28. Transformers: Time Wars and Other Stories
29. The Flood
30. The Cruel Sea 
31. The Betrothal of Sontar
32. The Widow's Curse
33. The Crimson Hand
34. The Child of Time
35. The Chains of Olympus
36. Hunters of the Burning Stone
37. The Blood of Azrael
38. The Eye of Torment
39. The Highgate Horror
40. Doorway to Hell