4-Dimensional Vistas: The DWM Comic Strip by the Numbers (From Stockbridge to Beyond Segonus: A Doctor Who Magazine Comics Marathon, Part 56)

The Doctor Who Magazine comic strip, as I have chronicled extensively on this blog, has a very long history. Thus, we can compile all kinds of interesting numerical facts about it! Note that for all of these, I'm just focused on the "main" strip, not the back-ups.

Longest Runs by a Writer

Here, I'm looking at the longest runs as the writer of sequential strips. These runs have to be unbroken, either by a fill-in writer, or by the strip itself taking an issue (or more) off.

• 1. Scott Gray on #512-52 (41 issues)
• 2. Scott Gray on #442-80 (39 issues)
• 3. Steve Parkhouse on #53-84 (32 issues)
• 4. Scott Gray on #308-29 (22 issues)
• 5. Scott Gray on #333-53 / Dan McDaid on #400-20 / Jonathan Morris on #421-41 (21 issues)
• 8. Scott Gray on #284-303 (20 issues)
• 9. Steve Moore on #35-82 (18 issues)
• 10. Pat Mills & John Wagner on #1-16 and on #19-34 (16 issues)

Unsurprisingly to anyone who has been reading all this time, our man Scott Gray has five of the ten longest runs as the comics main writer! He racked up long runs during the McGann, Smith, Capaldi, and Whittaker eras. And if you read him, you'll know why; I don't think there's anyone else who has ever "got" what makes Doctor Who work as a comic better than him.

Longest Runs by an Artist

• 1. John Ridgway on #88-133 (46 issues)
• 2. Dave Gibbons on #19-57 (39 issues)
• 3. Mike Collins on #355-76 / David A Roach on #359-80 / David A Roach on #467-88 (22 issues)
• 6. Dave Gibbons on #1-16 (16 issues)
• 7. David A Roach on #451-64 (14 issues) / Lee Sullivan on #584-97 (14 issues)
• 9. Martin Geraghty on #244-55 (12 issues)
• 10. Mick Austin on #73-83 and John Ross on #524-34 (11 issues)

Somewhat surprisingly, to be honest, John Ridgway's run as an artist is longer than any of the runs by a writer! He provided the art for every Colin Baker strip and then into the Sylvester McCoy era (and also returned a few times after that). Mike Collins and David A Roach have overlapping runs because Collins was penciller when Roach was inker.

Both of these rankings just cover the strips in the collected editions; I think both Barnes and Sullivan continue on the strip after #597, so they should climb a bit.

Most Strips by a Writer

But who has actually done the most overall, regardless of number of sequential strips?  

1. Scott Gray (184 issues)
   
2. Steve Parkhouse (46 issues)
3. Alan Barnes (27 issues)
   
4. Pat Mills & John Wagner (32 issues)
5. Jonathan Morris (28 issues)
6. Dan McDaid (26 issues)
7. Dan Abnett (24 issues)
8. Jacqueline Rayner (20 issues)
   
9. Steve Moore (18 issues)
10. Gareth Roberts (17 issues)

Impressively, Scott Gray has written four times as many strips as his nearest competitor! It's hard to imagine anyone overtaking his record in the near or even distant future. 

Most Strips by an Artist

1. David A Roach (162 issues)
2. Martin Geraghty (143 issues)
3. Mike Collins (75 issues)
4. Dave Gibbons (66 issues)
5. John Ridgway (61 issues)
6. Robin Smith (55 issues)
7. Lee Sullivan (44 issues)
   
8. John Ross (31 issues)
   
9. Adrian Salmon (18 issues)
10. Colin Andrew (14 issues)

Regular inker David A Roach dominates here; he's inked many Martin Geraghty strips and many Mike Collins ones, allowing him to surpass both pencillers. John Ridgway still does well here, landing in the top five. Robin Smith, a bit of a forgotten inker to be honest, is in sixth.

Longest Gaps between Contributions

I think it was when John Tomlinson popped up as the writer of a David Tennant strip, having previously written one back during the Sylvester McCoy era, that I first got interested in this statistic. I am going to count people who came back for #500 but are otherwise not regular contributors outside of my ranking.

• X. Dave Gibbons (431 issues between Stars Fell on Stockbridge and The Stockbridge Showdown)
• X. John Ridgway (289 issues between Uninvited Guest and The Stockbridge Showdown)
• 1. Lee Sullivan (267 issues between Children of the Revolution and Liberation of the Daleks)
• 2. John Tomlinson (210 issues between Nemesis of the Daleks and The Betrothal of Sontar)
  
• 3. Alan Barnes (204 issues between The Warkeeper's Crown and Liberation of the Daleks)
  
• 4. Sean Longcroft (156 issues between A Life of Matter & Death and Mortal Beloved)
• 5. Mike Collins (152 issues between The Good Soldier and The Nightmare Game)
• 6. Adolfo Bullya (126 issues between Junk-Yard Demon and The Grief)
• 7. John Ross (104 issues between Bus Stop! and Spirits of the Jungle)
• 8. Alan Barnes (95 issues between TV Action! and The Warkeeper's Crown)
• 9. Scott Gray (89 issues between The Flood and The Chains of Olympus)
• 10. Lee Sullivan (78 issues between ...Up Above the Gods... and The Last Word) 

Tomlinson held onto that record for a long time, but the second David Tennant era finally saw him dethroned by the return of Lee Sullivan after a twenty-year absence. It's pretty amazing that the strip has been running so long some of the people who have contributed the most can also be on the list for longest gaps between contributions!

Longest Runs as Main Companion

This one I'm counting a bit differently. Instead of looking at individual strip appearances, I'm looking at how long each companion was the "main" one for the strip. So, for example, Izzy gets a point for Unnatural Born Killers in #277 despite not appearing in it because she was the main companion during that era (appearing in the strips immediately before and after it). Along those lines, I did not count one-off reappearances (e.g., Ace in Ground Zero, Rose in Monstrous Beauty) or reappearances where a former companion serves a different narrative role (e.g., Fey in The Clockwise War).

1. Izzy in #244-328 (85 issues)
2. Frobisher in #88-133 (46 issues)
3. Yaz in #531-52, 559-62, 570-83 (40 issues)
4. Clara in #462-99 (38 issues)
5. Ace in #164-92, 203-10 (37 issues)
6. Amy in #421-55 (35 issues)
7. Sharon in #19-48 (30 issues)
8. Peri in #104-29; Fey in #257-71, 318-28; and Ryan & Graham in #531-52, 559-62 (26 issues)

It was honestly surprising for me to realize how long of a run Yaz had, the longest of any tv companion.

This post is the fifty-sixth in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment covers a reading order for the collected editions. 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
41. Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 1
42. The Phantom Piper
43. Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 2
44. The Clockwise War
45. Death's Head: Clone Drive / Revolutionary War
46. Skywatch-7
47. Mistress of Chaos
48. Transformers: Aspects of Evil! and Other Stories
49. Transformers: ...Perchance to Dream and Other Stories
50. Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
51. Liberation of the Daleks
52. The White Dragon 
53. The Return of the Daleks
54. Black Sun Rising
55. Monstrous Beauty