1970s Strips


	Last updated: April 2008


	Countdown, launched on the week ending February 20th 1971, is regarded as the last of the really lavish children’s titles. Doctor Who joined its pages at its inception, with the Daleks finally appearing in the strip the following year, when the publication had become Countdown for TV Action!.

SUBZERO

The Daleks hijack an atomic submarine, then stage an attack on Sydney, planning to convert the survivors into Daleks. As you can see above, their plan gets surprisingly advanced.

ARTIST: Gerry Haylock.
WRITER: Dennis Hooper.
ISSUES: 47-54.
COVER DATES: Jan 8th 1972, Jan 15th 1972, Jan 22nd 1972, Jan 29th 1972, Feb 5th 1972, Feb 12th 1972, Feb 19th 1972, Feb 26th 1972.
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 5.

THE PLANET OF THE DALEKS

Using a Time Vector Generator, the Daleks divert the TARDIS to Skaro, intent on turning the Doctor into a Dalek. The Doctor escapes, but is forced to fight for his life in the jungle.

ARTIST: Gerry Haylock.
WRITER: Dennis Hooper.
ISSUES: 55-56 (Countdown), 57-58 (TV Action in Countdown), 59-62 (TV Action + Countdown).
COVER DATES: Mar 4th 1972, Mar 11th 1972, Mar 18th 1972, Mar 25th 1972, Apr 1st 1972, Apr 8th 1972, Apr 15th 1972, Apr 22nd 1972.
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 6.

It was partway through this strip, which follows on directly from the previous story and which sees a return to the Daleks’ metal city on Skaro complete with authentic architecture, that Countdown changed its name, with the strip thereafter presented largely in black and white.

THE THREAT FROM BENEATH





	The Doctor traces the destruction of spy satellites to a submerged Dalek saucer. This story was billed as This Week’s Big Story and was complete in this issue. *ARTIST:* Gerry Haylock WRITER: Dick O’Neil ISSUE: 112 COVER DATE: Apr 7th 1973. REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 23. The strip was also retouched to change Pertwee’s features into Tom Baker’s and reprinted in the 1977 TV Comic Winter Special under the title Invasion. See further down this page.


	On the week ending 1st September 1973, the Doctor Who comic strip returned to the pages of what might be considered its ancestral home: TV Comic. This was following the merger of TV Action in August 1973. Doctor Who rejoined the publication with Issue 1133. The Daleks returned the following year in Issue 1155...

THE DISINTEGRATOR

Asked by the CID to investigate a gangland boss called Sylvester, the Doctor discovers that he is secretly in the employ of the Daleks.

ARTIST/WRITER: Gerry Haylock.
ISSUES: 1155-1159.
COVER DATES: Feb 2nd 1974, Feb 9th 1974, Feb 16th 1974, Feb 23rd 1974, Mar 2nd 1974.

RETURN OF THE DALEKS!

A renegade Time Lord named Shazar allies himself with the Daleks to steal the Doctor’s TARDIS.

ARTIST/WRITER: Gerry Haylock.
ISSUES: 1215-1222.
COVER DATES: Mar 29th 1975, Apr 5th 1975, Apr 12th 1975, Apr 19th 1975, Apr 26th 1975, May 3rd 1975, May 10th 1975, May 17th 1975.
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 17.

DOCTOR OOH


	Perhaps buoyed by the success of Tom Baker’s Doctor, the UK edition of Mad Magazine turned its bizarre attentions to the series in 1975 with a sometimes well observed and sometimes very funny pastiche that aims at all the usual targets.






	The Doctor, Hairy and Squarer land aboard a space ark where geniuses (including all the previous Doctors) are held in suspended animation. Unfortunately the Doctor is attacked by a self-knitting scarf, and Hairy’s attempts to save him don’t go to plan. Or something. *ARTIST:* Steve Parkhouse WRITER: Geoff Rowley ISSUE: 161 (UK Edition) The Daleks only make a cameo appearance in three frames of the five page strip, two of which are reprinted above. It is interesting to see the name Steve Parkhouse attached to the strip. He would later write some of the best and most ambitious comic strips for Doctor Who Magazine.

Doubtless encouraged by a Dalek story on television every year between 1972 and 1975, World Distributors’ resurrected the Dalek annual in the late 1970s. Just as the television Daleks went quiet for four years. This can hardly have helped sales.

As with most annuals, the cover date is a year in advance of the actual year of release.

PLANET OF SERPENTS


	Reb Shavron crashes on Terroth to be confronted in turn by swamp creatures and then Daleks. Guess how she survives. Go on, guess!



	*ARTIST/WRITER:* Edgar Hodges.

FLOOD!!!

The Daleks melt the polar ice caps intent on threatening the world’s cities with disastrous flooding. It seems a slightly tame plan for Daleks, don’t you think, though perhaps it was intended as an extremely prescient warning about global warming.

ARTIST/WRITER: Edgar Hodges.

DOCTOR POO

Ah, the sort of comedy that made Crackerjack (“Crackerjack!!!”) seem sophisticated by comparison. If anyone has further details about this one-off strip in the Badtime Bedtime Storybook section of Monster Fun Comic, then please email us at the usual address.

ARTIST: Unknown
WRITER: Unknown
ISSUE: Not available (1976)

Under no circumstances should this strip be confused with the same titled Doctor Poo that appeared in Viz during the 1990s. That strip isn’t quite so innocent in its humour...

THE DALEK REVENGE

The Time Lords dispatch the Doctor and Sarah to Ercos to thwart a Dalek plan to turn the entire planet into a gigantic missile that will be used to destroy the Earth.

ARTIST/WRITER: John Canning.
ISSUES: 1251-1258.
COVER DATES: Dec 6th 1975, Dec 13th 1975, Dec 20th 1975, Dec 27th 1975, Jan 3rd 1976, Jan 10th 1976, Jan 17th 1976, Jan 24th 1976.

Tom Baker might look more like Claire Raynor in a hat, but the Daleks in this strip are exceptionally well drawn.

INVASION

The TV Comic Winter Special 1977 reprinted the Third Doctor story The Threat from Beneath, with Baker’s likeness (and I use the word loosely) painted over Pertwee’s features. The credits are naturally the same as its previous outing:

ARTIST: Gerry Haylock
WRITER: Dick O’Neil
ISSUE: TV Comic Winter Special 1977

Click here to see a sample page from this strip.


	With both the 1977 and 1978 Annuals making up their comic strip quota with reprints of the Dalek Chronicles strips from TV21, it was left to the final 1979 annual to provide some original material...

THE HUMAN BOMBS




	The Daleks prepare to launch their deadly new Geiga bombs at the Earth. A special Anti-Dalek Force is assembled to fight them. *ARTIST/WRITER:* Walter Howarth.

ISLAND OF HORROR

In the Pacific Ocean, Japanese fishermen find scientists hideously mutilated by the Daleks and turned into savage psychopaths.

ARTIST/WRITER: Walter Howarth.


	Polystyle eventually relinquished their rights to the Doctor Who comic strip in 1979, and it was several months before the new Doctor Who Weekly was released by Marvel Comics on 10th October 1979. However, the first issue saw the return of the Daleks in the back-up strip...

THE RETURN OF THE DALEKS

The Dalek Annuals aside, this strip, which was a backup strip in the first four issues of Doctor Who Weekly, was the first time the Daleks had appeared in a comic strip without the Doctor since the days of TV Century 21 in 1966.

On the planet Anhaut, movie studio owner Glax unwittingly resurrects the Daleks who were defeated 800 years previously. The actor playing the role of the man who defeated them and a former Dalek agent thwart the Dalek invasion.

ARTISTS: Paul Neary & David Lloyd
WRITER: Steve Moore
ISSUES: 1-4
COVER DATES: Oct 17th 1979, Oct 24th 1979, Oct 31st 1979, Nov 7th 1979
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics Issues 23 & 24. Also reprinted in colour in the first issue of the US Marvel publication Doctor Who, with colour (or color if you prefer to keep in American) by Andy Yanchus. Cover and panel shown below.

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