Secret History: Doctor Who comics - The Iron Legion
I’d been thinking about a future Roman galactic empire for years and looking for a home for the story, I could see huge potential in the idea.
Welcome to my Secret History of Comics, where for the past eleven months I’ve shared with you all my anecdotes and insider knowledge of creating Marshal Law and Charley’s War. Next year I’ll publish these secret histories in book form, along with more secret histories of my most iconic characters.
Now we’re in a rather special section on Doctor Who, in the run-up to the transmission of Star Beast, the first Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special!
All my Doctor Who posts will be collected and published in my new book Pageturners: How To Create Iconic Stories From The Creator of 2000AD, out some time in the second half of November. I can’t give you an exact date yet, as it’s dependent on when Star Beast is broadcast! But I will be putting the book on Amazon for pre-order as soon as possible.
I can’t wait to share the Pageturners cover with you all! It’s by artist Mike Donaldson (he of Spacewarp, The Beano and The Broons fame) and it’s a real smasher. More on that soon.
All my lovely generous paying subscribers will receive a free e-book of Pageturners, and my very generous founding members will each receive a signed paperback edition.
The first Doctor Who post that I kicked off with last week is free to all readers, but from today you’ll have to be a paying subscriber for just £5 per month – or £50 for an annual subscription – to read the rest of the posts (there’s a free preview every week).
The Secret History of Doctor Who will cover my surprisingly long history with the Time Lord. And it will give you the full lowdown on the Star Beast: how the comic book story originated with the brilliant artist Dave Gibbons, and how it came to be regenerated for the 60th Anniversary TV Special. I’ll be sharing lots of insider stories about the Star Beast that Doctor Who fans will only get to read here.
Paying subscribers have full access to ALL of my Secret History of Comics (plus other perks, check them out), and help me to continue giving you my best writing. I even have a free seven-day trial on Iconoblast, so you can try it first.
Let’s crack on!
John Wagner and I produced four stories for Doctor Who magazine when it was first published in 1979: The Iron Legion, City of the Damned, The Star Beast and Dogs of Doom. All brilliantly illustrated by Dave Gibbons. I can’t sing his praises loudly enough. He turned all four stories into visual triumphs. I could rave about his art for ages – and will do given half a chance – but the pictures speak for themselves. His storytelling is also first rate. In fact, I’m only stating the obvious when I say that he is one of the world’s best storytellers. We were greatly privileged to work with Dave. He turned every one of our stories into a winner.
John and I were a writing team at that time to obtain work, although we usually wrote alone. But we dreamed up Iron Legion together. I recall the ancient robot Vesuvius was John’s creation – there’s a touch of his Gronk from Strontium Dog about the character. Morris, a hideous mutant with a zip running across his forehead, was also down to John. I then developed the story further and wrote it.
John came up with City of the Damned entirely on his own and wrote it on his own.
I then came up with The Star Beast entirely on my own and wrote it on my own.
John created Dogs of Doom and wrote it on his own.
We conveyed who was responsible via the credits box. Thus, on the original Doctor Who weekly (and possibly ever since) the stories would be credited as follows:
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