From the inside, the reading order for the Doctor Who Magazine graphic novels seems pretty clear... but there are quite a lot of the things, and the release order of the collected editions is nothing like the release order of the original strips, so I imagine it can seem pretty intimidating to an outside reader. So to cap off my ongoing series of posts about the DWM comic strip (for now, anyway), I've written up a reading order for the collections.
Basically, the short answer is to do the volumes in the release order of the original strips. For example, the back-up tales go best by original publication, because characters from them eventually cross over into the main strip, so it's nice if you already know them. The past Doctor volumes best go by publication order, because they usually reflect what's going on around that time in publication order; most notably, the stories in Ground Zero lead straight into End Game.In most cases, I would just read the strips in the order they are reproduced in the books, but in a couple cases, I've suggested a different order in my notes.
I've given issue numbers, but in a simplified form; if a single issue is being skipped, or put in a different volume, I'm not being pedantic about its positioning.
- Fourth Doctor: The Iron Legiona (#1-38)
- Back-Up Tales: The Return of the Daleksb (#1-46)
- Fourth Doctor: Dragon's Clawa (#39-60)
- Back-Up Tales: Black Sun Risingb (#31-64)
- Fifth Doctor: The Tides of Time (#61-87)
- Sixth Doctor: Voyager (#88-107)
- Sixth Doctor: The World Shapers (#108-29)
- Seventh Doctor: A Cold Day in Hell! (#130-50)
- Seventh Doctor: Nemesis of the Daleks (#152-62)
- Seventh Doctor: The Good Soldier (#164-79)
- Seventh Doctor: Evening's Empire (#180-92)
- Seventh Doctor: Emperor of the Daleks (#193-211)
- Multi-Doctor: The Age of Chaosc (#305)
- "Under Pressure"
- "Metamorphosis"
- "The Last Word"
- "The Age of Chaos"
- Multi-Doctor: Land of the Blind (#212-26)
- Multi-Doctor: Ground Zero (#228-43)
- Eighth Doctor: End Gamed (#244-71)
- Eighth Doctor: The Glorious Deadd (#273-99)
- Eighth Doctor: Oblivion (#300-28)
- Eighth Doctor: The Flood (#329-53)
- Ninth Doctor: The Cruel Sea (#355-64)
- Tenth Doctor: The Betrothal of Sontar (#365-80)
- Tenth Doctor: The Widow's Curse (#381-99)
- Tenth Doctor: The Crimson Hand (#400-20)
- Eleventh Doctor: The Child of Time (#421-41)
- Eleventh Doctor: The Chains of Olympus (#442-50)
- Eleventh Doctor: Hunters of the Burning Stone (#451-61)
- Eleventh Doctor: The Blood of Azrael (#462-74)
- Twelfth Doctor: The Eye of Torment (#475-88)
- Twelfth Doctor: The Highgate Horror (#489-500)
- Twelfth Doctor: Doorway to Hell (#501-11)
- Twelfth Doctor: The Phantom Piper (#512-23)
- Multi-Doctor: The Clockwise Ware (#524-30)
- Thirteenth Doctor: Mistress of Chaos (#531-48)
- Thirteenth Doctor: The White Dragon (#549-77)
- Multi-Doctor: Monstrous Beautyf (#579-83)
- Fourteenth Doctor: Liberation of the Daleks (#584-97)
Notes
- The contents of these two volumes were later collected in one as The Fourth Doctor Anthology.
- I suggest reading each collection of back-up tales immediately after the main strip volume its contents were (largely) published simultaneously to. In particular, this maintains chronology for the character of Ivan Asimoff, who appears in Dragon's Claw, Black Sun Rising, and Voyager.
- Reading the volume here and in my suggested order means you start with three Virgin New Adventure–era stories (tying up that phase of the strip) and end with a "past Doctor" one (setting up the next era of the strip).
- Note that the strips in this collection are arranged out of order, but best read in original publication order; just pay attention to the original publication details.
- This volume is the finale to the twelfth Doctor strips, but is branded as "multi-Doctor" because it contains some unreprinted past Doctor material to get the volume up to full length. You can read that material here if you want, but if you wanted to experience it closer to original publication sequence, that would be between Land of the Blind and Ground Zero.
- This volume is the finale to the thirteenth Doctor strips, but is branded as "multi-Doctor" because it contains some unreprinted past Doctor material to get the volume up to full length. You can read that material here if you want, but if you wanted to experience it closer to original publication sequence, that would be between Land of the Blind and Ground Zero, except for Monstrous Beauty, which would best go before The White Dragon.
Jumping-On Points
- End Game. For a modern reader, the eighth Doctor stuff may read better than the fourth and fifth Doctor material, despite its classic status. It has a more of a character focus, and is better, I think, at using continuity with light callbacks that enhance your reading pleasure, as we are used to from, say, Buffy or the 2005-22 series. If you find yourself intrigued, you can jump back and read books like The Tides of Time to discover the stories this era is drawing on.
- The Betrothal of Sontar. If you are a new series person, you may find it easier to jump on board with a new series Doctor. In that case, I would suggest skipping The Cruel Sea (for now), as I don't think the strip really got to grips with the new series style until David Tennant came on as the Doctor. The Betrothal of Sontar, The Widow's Curse, and The Crimson Hand are three strong volumes showing off the diversity of the DWM strip at its best, and you can continue on from there. Eventually, the strip will slowly drop in older continuity that you can eventually loop back to and explore. Similarly, I think The Chains of Olympus, Doorway to Hell, and Mistress of Chaos are all good points to begin for their respective Doctors.
Should I Work in Other Stuff?
If you look at my own sequence below, you'll see I worked in a lot of other stuff from outside the Doctor Who universe. In general, I would say, "No," you don't need any of this stuff to enjoy the DWM strip, especially if it's your first time through it. Make things easy on yourself, and just do the Doctor Who parts. Some specific notes on stuff I added in:
- The Transformers UK. I read this because the character of Death's Head begins in The Transformers and appears in DWM strips collected in A Cold Day in Hell! and The Good Soldier. Those strips will work on their own if you haven't read Transformers, because the Doctor doesn't know who Death's Head is either. It's quite a commitment to read The Transformers UK, partially because the UK TF strip incorporated the American comic, so you would "need" to work that in too!... and you would thus actually be reading more Transformers than Doctor Who, I think.
- Death's Head. Marvel has collected (most) of the original Death's Head series in a volume called Freelance Peacekeeping Agent; there's also a modern series collected as Clone Drive. If Death's Head's appearance in the DWM strip leaves you curious, sure go ahead and read this stuff... but I doubt it will, since DWM is not Death's Head at his best. Technically speaking, the first seven issues of Death's Head volume 1 do take place in the Doctor Who universe. Everything else takes place in the Marvel universe.
If you are very much a completist, the one I would recommend tracking down is "Time Bomb!" from Death's Head vol. 1 #8, reprinted in The Incomplete Death's Head #9 (but not in any trades, alas), as it features key roles for the seventh Doctor and Josiah W. Dogbolter, and is written by DWM's Steve Parkhouse. - The Daleks. The 1965-67 Doctor-less comic strips from TV Century 21 are fun enough and collected in a convenient Panini "bookazine"; you can read them pretty much whenever, but in particular, you may benefit from doing them prior to Liberation of the Daleks, which uses some of their iconography to good effect.
- The Sleeze Brothers. Against all my expectations, I did find this kind of charming. These characters debuted in a story collected in A Cold Day in Hell! before getting their own series. Definitely nonessential but fun enough.
- The Ultimate Comic Strip Collections. Panini have collected all their Dalek strips in two volumes and all their Cybermen strips in a single large volume. For the most part, these volumes contain nothing you can't get from the collections I've listed above if you include the back-ups... except that volume 2 of the Dalek collection includes a single eight-page story about the Peter Cushing Doctor from the DWM 1996 spring special, Daleks versus the Martians, collected nowhere else. It seems a shame Panini couldn't have included this alongside their other Cushing story in Monstrous Beauty; it's probably not worth chasing down, though.
This post is the fifty-seventh in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment is currently unknown. Previous installments are listed below:
