Like the Daleks, the Cybermen are now into their fifth decade of comic strip action, and to celebrate this fact, and as a compliment and update to the short feature on the Black Legacy disc, we here present a brief and ongoing history of every Cyberman strip ever published.

If you know of any omissions, or have additional information (and I’m sure there’s plenty more useful information that could be added here), then please feel free to contact us at our usual address: empire639@msn.com. Your name will be added to the credits at the bottom of this page.

Last update: June 2008.

Having originally lost out in the race to acquire the rights to the Daleks (which went to TV Century 21), TV Comic finally secured them in Issue 788. However, they soon lost them again, either because the license expired or because Terry Nation was keen to take his metal monsters to America to launch them in their own series. In their place, TV Comic quickly snapped up the rights to the Cybermen, who became the strip’s recurring villains...

THE COMING OF THE CYBERMEN

Discovering a seemingly abandoned space carrier on the planet Minot, the Doctor is soon trapped aboard as the Cybermen take off, intent on using a devastating bomb to destroy the Earth. The Doctor primes the bomb, but has only twenty-five minutes to make his escape...

WRITER/ARTIST: John Canning.
ISSUES: 824-827.
COVER DATES: Unknown.
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 26.

This strip really establishes the way the Cybermen would appear throughout their many TV Comic run-ins with the Doctor. Chief amongst these is the fact that, despite The Tenth Planet having appeared on television over a year previously and the more streamlined Moonbase version now being the TV standard, the strip’s Cybermen continued to have cloth faces. Oddly, this would become the most enduring comic strip Cyberman of all.

FLOWER POWER

On a planet swarming with butterflies and moths, the Doctor, John and Gillian meet eccentric insect hunter Professor Gnat. Despite the Doctor’s warning, the Professor is captured by Cybermen. The Doctor discovers dead Cybermats and soon realises that the scent of the planet’s flowers is lethal to the Cybermen. So he and his grandchildren head off to the Cyberman’s subterranean base armed only with bunches of flowers.

WRITER/ARTIST: John Canning.
ISSUES: 832-835.
COVER DATES: Unknown.
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Magazine Issue 307.

Probably one of the strangest strips ever to feature the Cybermen, though really the idea that the scent of the planet’s flowers is lethal to the Cybermen is possibly no stranger than the idea of gold dust being lethal to them.

CYBER-MOLE

The Cybermen land a giant cyber-mole machine outside London, which they use to burrow deep beneath the city and steel the deadly doomsday bomb from its vault. With the bomb in their metallic grasp, the Cybermen hold the world to ransom. The military welcomes the Doctor's knowledge of the Cybermen and, armed with  anti-Cyberman weapons, the Doctor leads the assault on the cyber-mole.

WRITER/ARTIST: John Canning.
ISSUES: 842-845.
COVER DATES: Unknown.
REPRINTS: None.

The Doctor joins forces with the military to defeat the Cybermen... Hmmm.... sounds a little like The Invasion, only considerably shorter. This strip ran from 3rd February 1968 to 24th February 1968.

THE CYBER EMPIRE

Landing on an unnamed world, the Doctor, Gillian and John discover that the Cybermen are using slave labour to construct a gigantic city in honour of their leader. The Doctor leads the slaves in revolt and soon topples more than the Cyber Empire...

WRITER/ARTIST: John Canning.
ISSUES: 850-853.
COVER DATES: Unknown.
REPRINTS: None

This strip ran from 30th March 1968 to 20th April 1968. The concept of Cyber-art isn’t without foundation in the actual TV series. Don’t forget all those lovely Cyber-portraits on the walls in Tomb of the Cybermen.

MASQUERADE

John and Gillian are captured by the Cybermen, and the Doctor is forced to disguise himself as one of their number to rescue his grandchildren.

WRITER/ARTIST: Patrick Williams
ISSUE: TV Comic Holiday Special 1968
REPRINTS: None

This story has almost exactly the same plot as The Doctor Strikes Back (see Daleks in the Comics for reference).

THE TIME MUSEUM

Using various exhibits in a museum in a ruined city, the Doctor, John and Gillian evade the Cybermen. As ever.

WRITER/ARTIST: John Canning
ISSUE: TV Comic Annual 1969 (1968)
REPRINTS: None

ESKIMO JOE

On an ice world, the Doctor decides to indulge in a spot of skiing. However, he is mortified to discover a Cyberman patrol on the planet. To evade them, he fakes his own death, then joins forces with an Eskimo inventor named Joe. Armed with an unlikely arsenal of robot gulls and exploding eggs, the Doctor and Joe attack the Cybermen’s base.

WRITER/ARTIST: John Canning.
ISSUES: 903-906.
COVER DATES: Unknown.
REPRINTS: None.

This strip is also referred to as Cybermen on Ice and Conflict on Ice.

THE CHAMPION

When the TARDIS is caught in a strange web, the Doctor and other luckless travellers are forced to wrestle in an arena for the amusement of the spectators. The Doctor defeats an ape-like creature, but then is forced to face a Cyberman...

WRITER/ARTIST: Patrick Williams
ISSUE: TV Comic Holiday Special 1969
REPRINTS: None

TEST FLIGHT

Joining a group of scientists to observe the test run of a new fighter plane called the Dart, the Doctor finds the observation plane that he and the scientists are travelling in hijacked by a squad of Cybermen. The Doctor is forced to escape to the Dart, intent on using it against his deadly enemies.

WRITER/ARTIST: Patrick Williams
ISSUE: TV Comic Annual 1970 (1969)
REPRINTS: None

As the 1960s wore on, the Cybermen were largely usurped in the pages of TV Comic by the unstoppable and fiendishly cunning Quarks (no, really). The 1970s would be even leaner times for the cybernetic monsters, as they appeared in only two comic strips and made one brief cameo in a humorous strip...

DOCTOR OOH

The Cybermen only pop up in the background in this sometimes amusing, sometimes plain silly offering from MAD UK.

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 (yes, it is that Steve Parkhouse)
WRITER: Geoff Rowley
ISSUE: 161 (UK Edition)

This strip has the distinction of being the first to portray the Cybermen as anything other than the cloth-faced variety. It only took ten years...

1979 saw the launch of a brand new comic devoted entirely to Doctor Who (well, give or take reprints of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde and other US strips from the 1950s...) Each week would see one main strip featuring the Doctor and one back-up strip, featuring one of the Doctor’s old foes. Of course, it wouldn’t be long before the Cybermen put in an appearance...

THROWBACK: THE SOUL OF A CYBERMAN

On Mondaran, junior Cyberleader Kroton finds that he has emotions. Befriending human rebels, he saves their leader from the other Cybermen. Unable to stay, he sets off alone into space...

ARTIST: Steve Dillon
WRITER: Steve Moore
ISSUE: 5-7
COVER DATES: Nov 14th 1979, Nov 21st 1979, Nov 28th 1979.

Kroton would make many return appearances through the years, becoming one of Doctor Who Magazine’s most enduring characters.

So after a busy time in the 1960s, albeit as generic baddies chasing after the Doctor, and slimmer times in the 1970s, what did the 1980s hold in store for the Cybermen?

Click the image above to go forward to the 1980s

With thanks to:
Nadir Ahmed for comprehensive information on the ‘Doctor Who?’ comic strip
Roger Smith for images and additional information
Douglas Ketcham for an eagle eye
Ian and all at The Doctor’s Receptacle for additional scans and information