Doctor Who: The Highgate Horror

This book collects Doctor Who Magazine Comic strips from Issue 484 of Doctor Who Magazine and from Issue 489-500.Here’s a look at each story:Space Invaders (484): The Doctor and Clara attend an auction at a storage unit IN SPACE and get into a bidding war. This one has some dull moments and then the action feels a bit rushed with the Doctor actually telling us the moral. Still it has some humor and it’s not bad. Grade: C+Spirits of the Jungle (489-491): The Doctor and Clara visit an alien jungle in search of treasure and things go wrong. Clara encounters a vision of Danny Pink which I thought was an annoying rip off of what was done in the Christmas but they had a few twists with this one. This wasn’t bad but it felt very busy with a dull villain and a story that Doctor Who’s done a lot. Grade: C+The Highgate Horror (492-493): Strange goings on in a cemetery in the 1970s with a weird cult and hate to be repetitive but this is yet another story where there’s not a whole lot memorable or interesting and it feels like it’s treading old ground. Grade: CThe Dragon Lord (494-495): First story I really got into in this volume. The Doctor and Clara land on a theme planet that’s modeled on Camelot and local creatures have been made into dragons. However, the Dragon Lord has taken control and is terrorizing the colonizers. The art isn’t realistic but it’s wonderfully stylized for this sort of dark fantasy situation. We also get a bit of the feel of Series 8 12th Doctor in the way he reacts to the problem as well as how he leaves it. Grade: B+Theatre of the Mind (496): A great one shot strip in which the Doctor and Clara visits the Doctor’s old friend Houdini who has gotten himself into trouble exposing a phony spiritualist, leaving all three of them in a very bizarre and perilous position. Overall, a great story and the art makes it come alive. Grade: A-Witch Hunt (497-499): Clara agrees to be the witch in a Halloween maze fundraiser for Coal Hill School but along comes Miss Chief, a Mister Mxyzptlk like interdimensional sprite who decides to play a joke by sending Clara back to the 17th century where she’s captured by a witch finder. This is actually a very clever story and Miss Chief is really a treat. I hope she returns. The story is very funny, but with some poignancy at the end as 499 was Clara’s last DWM strip and just like they did for Donna’s departure, DWM showed they know how to create a sad yet ironic end. Grade: A-The Stockridge Showdown (500): The Doctor returns to a frequent stop in Stockridge where an old comic strip enemy wants to exact his vengeance, but will the Doctor instead finally get justice for an old friend. This strip is an extra long anniversary special with a host of guest stars who have graced the comic strip over the past several decades. The more you know the strip’s history, probably the more you’ll get out of it. I didn’t recognize all of them but I recognized enough to enjoy it. Grade: B+Overall, not a bad book, but a bit uneven with the first few stories being average while the final four were really good. On its merits, I’d probably give it 3 ½ stars. The 500th script makes it a must-read for long-time fans of the DWM strips, but for everyone else, it’s hit and miss.

Another of my growing collection of Dr Who graphic novels that arrived safely to this location

An excellent anthology of stories from Doctor Who Magazine featuring the twelfth doctor. Many seem better (& less complicated) than the TV tales.

Art and story are all excellent. The title story would make an excellent horror movie with or without the good Doctor. I took one star off because my copy showed up slightly damaged. Not enough to return it but if I'd seen it at a store I probably wouldn't have picked it up.