Fifty years of Doctor Who in comics to be celebrated

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is to mark 50 years of Doctor Who in comic-strip form this year as part of its line-up of events.

The festival is taking place at various venues in Kendal, Cumbria, from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th October, and with Doctor Who believed to be the longest-running licensed science fiction comic strip globally, it will be paying tribute to this format.

The first Doctor Who comic strip appeared in issue 674 of TV Comic, cover dated 14th November 1964, with the adventure The Klepton Parasites that unfolded over ten weeks (although a spoof, called Doctor What And His Time Clock and featuring a William Hartnell lookalike, appeared in Boys' World between 30th May and 3rd October 1964).

Doctor Who would go on to appear in - take a deep breath, folks! - Countdown, Countdown for TV Action!, TV Action in Countdown, TV Action + Countdown, TV Action, TV Comic Plus TV Action, TV Comic Plus Tom and Jerry Weekly, Mighty Midget Doctor Who Comic, Mighty TV Comic, and TV Comic With Target before its move to Doctor Who Weekly in 1979, with DWW eventually becoming Doctor Who Magazine. It is also in comic-strip form now in the UK in Doctor Who Adventures, which began in 2006, and has been published as a comic strip in the USA by IDW, with Titan recently picking up the licence.

Dez Skinn - the first editor of Doctor Who Weekly - will be giving an insight into the publication's evolution, including meeting with the BBC and touring the country with Tom Baker, in The First Doctor of Doctor Who at the town library on Friday 17th October at 7pm - the exact 35th anniversary of the cover date of the first edition of DWW.

Also on the festival programme is Doctor Who: 50 Years in 50 Minutes on Saturday 18th October, which is being held at the library as well. Starting at 5.30pm, this will have a panel, hosted by former DWM editor John Freeman, that will comprise artists Mike Collins and Martin Geraghty plus writers Scott Gray, Nick Abadzis and Robbie Morrison.

Others appearing at the festival who have a Doctor Who connection will be the artists Dave Gibbons, Mark Buckingham and Gary Erskine plus cartoonist Kev F Sutherland.