Last update: June 2008.

Compared to the previous two decades, the Daleks suffered relatively little exposure in the 1980s, with the annuals a thing of the past, and their few comic strip appearances all confined to the pages of Doctor Who Weekly, Doctor Who Monthly and Doctor Who Magazine.

ABSLOM DAAK - DALEK KILLER

Read our exclusive interview with Abslom Daak creator Steve Moore here!

Abslom Daak is sentenced to become a Dalek Killer and dispatched to the planet Mazam. Here he teams up with Princess Taiyin and, against all the odds, frees the planet of Dalek rule. However, Taiyin is shot by a Dalek leaving Daak distraught and swearing vengeance on every Dalek in the galaxy.

After the golden Emperor Dalek of TV21 fame, Abslom Daak arguably represents the comics’ second greatest contribution to the Dalek mythos, with a number of return appearances in the comic strips and even an appearance in the Virgin range of novels.

ARTIST: Steve Dillon
WRITER: Steve Moore
ISSUES: 17-20
COVER DATES: Feb 6th 1980, Feb 13th 1980, Feb 20th 1980, Feb 27th 1980
REPRINTS: This strip has been reprinted several times, most notably in the 1983 Doctor Who Summer Special and the Marvel US reprint title Doctor Who (Issues 6-8, Volume 1, published in 1985) where it was rather unsympathetically colorised by Andy Yanchus. It has since been reprinted in the ‘graphic novel’ Abslom Daak Dalek Killer, released by Marvel in 1990. The cover for and contents of this volume are shown at the bottom of this page.

A frame from the colorised US Daak strip.

TIMESLIP

The Daleks make their first cameo appearance in the main Doctor Who Weekly strip - and in the same week that Abslom Daak makes his debut appearance!

ARTIST: Paul Neary
WRITER: Dez Skinn (Plot), Paul Neary (Script)
ISSUES: 17-18.

COVER DATES: Feb 6th 1980, Feb 13th 1980.
REPRINTS: Reprinted in full, if somewhat rudimentary, colour in Doctor Who Classic Comics, issue 27 (7th December 1994), then in IDW’s Doctor Who Classics No. 4, in March 2008. The colouring on this second version was done by Charlie Kirchoff. An alternative ‘retailer incentive retro art cover’ version is also available

This may also be the only appearance ever of the Movellans in a comic strip.

THE DOGS OF DOOM

A space freighter is attacked by Werelocks. The Doctor is briefly turned into a Werelock, but goes on to discover that the Daleks are behind the attack. Assisted by Sharon and Brill the Werelock, he defeats the Daleks.

ARTIST: Dave Gibbons
WRITERS: John Wagner & Pat Mills
ISSUES: 27-34
COVER DATES: Apr 16th 1980, Apr 23rd 1980, Apr 30th 1980, May 7th 1980, May 14th 1980, May 21st 1980, May 28th 1980, Jun 5th 1980
REPRINTS: This strip was reprinted with additional colour by Andy Yanchus in the Marvel US title Doctor Who issues 3 and 4, which were released on 3rd December 1984 and 4th January 1985. They were then reprinted in black and white in the Panini special edition ‘graphic novel’ Doctor Who and the Iron Legion, which was released in 2004. It was also reprinted, in full colour, by IDW in Issues 6 and 7 of their Doctor Who Classics in May 2008. Colour was provided by Charlie Kirchoff, with rather splendid covers by Joe Corroney. Alternative ‘retailer incentive retro art cover’ versions are also available. All of these covers are shown below.

STAR TIGERS part one

Read our exclusive interview with Abslom Daak and Star Tigers creator Steve Moore here!

The return of Abslom Daak as, pursued by Daleks, Daak heads for Draconia where he teams up with Prince Salander. They embark on a mission to recruit more comrades. The Daleks put in only a brief appearance.

ARTISTS: Steve Dillon, David Lloyd
WRITER: Steve Moore
ISSUES: 27-30
COVER DATES: Apr 16th 1980, Apr 23rd 1980, Apr 30th 1980, May 7th 1980
REPRINTS: This strip was reprinted in the ‘graphic novel’ Abslom Daak Dalek Killer, released by Marvel in 1990. The cover and contents are shown at the bottom of this page.

It is interesting to note that, at a time when Doctor Who Weekly was strapped for cash and retargeting the comic at a younger audience (hence the move to illustrated covers) we get a double hit of Daleks for four weeks. Could this be an attempt to hold the interest of its readership while it found a solution to its problems?

STAR TIGERS part two

Doctor Who Weekly’s cash problems were eventually solved by transforming into Doctor Who Monthly, which meant fewer pages of comic strip and fewer articles had to be produced across the year. It was a canny move which would ensure its survival to the present day...

Daak and Salander recruit Harma the Ice Warrior and Daak’s old rival Mercurius. They go on to defeat a Dalek space commando unit.

ARTISTS: Steve Dillon, David Lloyd
WRITER: Steve Moore
ISSUES: 44-46
COVER DATES: Sept 1980, Oct 1980, Nov 1980
REPRINTS: This strip was reprinted in the ‘graphic novel’ Abslom Daak Dalek Killer, released by Marvel in 1990. The cover and contents are shown at the bottom of this page.

The original set of Abslom Daak stories concludes here, but it always felt like Steve Moore had other plans for his psychopathic creation, as Daak’s promise in the first strip to return to Earth is never fulfilled and the whole issue of Taiyin, held in suspended animation, is never satisfactorily resolved. When Daak returns, these threads have been lost as he turns to some degree from character to continuity reference.

DOCTOR WHO?

ARTIST: Dicky Howett.
WRITER: Tim Quinn.
ISSUES: Winter Special 1982 (Full Page), Summer Special 1983 (Full Page), 80, 81, 83, 89, 94, 96, 102, 103 (Full Page), 104, 107, 110 (Full Page), 115, 122, 124, 129 (Regular and Full Page), 132 (Full Page), 137, 141, 143 (Panel), 25th Anniversary Special (Full Page), 152, 153, 154, 156, 162, 163, 166, 168, 169, 171, 179, 182 (Full Page), 183, 188, 191, 194, 195, 196, 200, 201, 203, 205, 206, 209, 211, 216, 220. 221, 223, 224, Yearbook 1992 (Full Page), Yearbook 1994 (Panel).
Complicating matters of Dalek appearances in ‘Doctor Who?’ is that in certain strips there was sometimes a small stick-figure Dalek in some of the strips with a word balloon of its own. These appear in the following strips:
106, 113 (Full Page), 130, 132, 134, 135 (Full Page), 137, 141, 154.
REPRINTS: Heaven forbid.

Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett provided a regular ‘funny’ virtually every month from 1982-1996, sometimes expanding to a whole page of ‘hilarious’ Doctor Who related ‘wit’. These frequently referenced the Daleks, as in the above strip.

A great big invisible reward to anyone who has information on relevant strips contained in The Doctor Who Fun Book and It’s Bigger on the Inside.

KANE’S STORY

ABEL’S STORY

Without the Daleks, Davros puts in a brief cameo appearance in one frame of this strip. This is his first appearance in a comic strip ever.

ARTIST: John Ridgway
WRITERS: Max Stockbridge (AKA Alan McKenzie)
ISSUES: 105
COVER DATE: Oct 1985
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 20. Also reprinted in black and white as part of Doctor Who Voyager, published by Panini in 2007 as a graphic novel. The cover for this publication is shown above.

UNCLE PIGG’S FAMILY TREE

PROPOSED NEWSPAPER STRIP

In 1989, an attempt was made by the staff of Doctor Who Magazine to launch a syndicated newspaper strip. There were no takers for the strip, and the panels that were produced for a story entitled Terror from the Deep were later printed in Doctor Who Magazine.

The story for Terror from the Deep came about by asking Doctor Who fans at a convention what elements from Doctor Who they would like to see in a comic strip. Daleks, UNIT and the new Channel Tunnel were apparently top of the list.

NEMESIS OF THE DALEKS

1989 saw the decade ending as it began, with Abslom Daak battling Daleks, but this time joined by the Doctor.

The Doctor teams up with Abslom Daak to confront the Emperor of the Daleks. Daak sacrifices his life to destroy the Daleks’ Death Wheel in orbit above the planet Hell.

ARTIST: Lee Sullivan
WRITERS: Richard Alan (plot) & Steve Alan (script)
ISSUES: 152-155
COVER DATES: Sept 1989, Oct 1989, Nov 1989, Dec 1989
REPRINTS: This strip was reprinted in the ‘graphic novel’ Abslom Daak Dalek Killer, released by Marvel in 1990. The cover is shown below.