Saturday 28 May 2016

Presenting the new 'Baby Doll Patrick' doll

As regular viewers know, I am still fascinated by those full page adverts for "limited edition collectors items" that clutter the pages of Sunday newspaper colour supplements. 

About a fortnight ago, I was quite shocked to discover there is now a Doctor Who cuckoo clock on sale. This is a couple a months after I debuted my Official Sydney Newman Doctor Who Cuckoo Clock. Life imitates art. 

Another one of those products that I find genuinely quite disturbing is the life-like baby doll models. These are disturbingly realistic 'dolls' designed to look as cute as possible but in reality have the souless eyes of a shop window mannequin. 

I created one in the image of the first Dr Who William Hartnell about a year ago. It certainly created a bit of a brouhaha with twitter comments ranging from 'I want one!" to "You are now blocked, you sick bastard!" 

I produced a postcard of it for last year's Whooverville convention and I sold well into double figures of it... about fourteen. 

With my medication wearing down over this Spring bank holiday, I decided to create a companion doll for the first one. For this, I apologise. 

Here it is... 



































From our factory camp in North Korea to...
...your child's loving arms. Another satisfied customer!

Sunday 22 May 2016

Add EastEnders' Bobby Beale to an old Doctor Who Adventure to Make it Scarier...

The title says it all really. 

Following the little rascal's attack on his stepmother whilst everyone is celebrating another Fowler wedding and Peggy's suicide. (Need a Harry Hill look-to-camera here...), I thought that the one thing that could make some of the old Tom Baker Doctor Who adventures even more scary and horrifying would be the addition of Bobby Beale

Here's some ideas. I'm sure there are plenty of others but three is enough to be honest. 





BBC's Legends of Yesterday - part four

A few more covers for the ongoing BBC's Legends of Yesterday series. Finally did the Liberator vs the Charlotte Rhodes cover I'd promised myself way back.

Not sure where I can go with it now. Suggestions to the usual address please... 



































And finally, a nice big image of all 12 of the covers together.* 




































* Yes, I know there's one missing. I'll show it off later when the actual cover has been published in a well-known long-running fanzine.

Casualty novelisations..... no reason.

I did a few Doctor Who covers based on some old Corgi Star Trek novels a few weeks back. They're here. 

I was quite pleased with them and they seemed to be quite popular on Twitter - particularly with one writer of Doctor Who novels who seems to be on the same medication as me.

I thought, "Let's make them more absurd." 

What about Casualty? There's not been many Casualty novels over the years. Maybe in its thirtieth year we need some... 






























I also took the liberty of adapting a design classic for a bit of politics...


Wednesday 11 May 2016

The Threads Sticker Collection

I'm indebted to Twitter follower @unloveablesteve for suggesting this one... 

It's very rare that a suggestion in the Twitterverse catches my imagination and this is one of those occasions. 

Thanks Steve.

Sunday 8 May 2016

BBC's Legends of Yesterday - part three

I've done three more covers for this promising new comic book series that people seem to like.

Sadly, I can't be arsed to do the insides...




Thursday 5 May 2016

The Rozzer Files - Now Available to Treasure on DVD!

I've been asked to do a DVD cover for something I've never heard of. 

This is it...

No. I didn't think you had as well.

I've watched an episode and it's not very good but don't tell the clients that. 

Thanks. 




Front cover - click for larger

Inside cover - click for larger

Tuesday 3 May 2016

Where No Time Lord Has Gone Before...

Back in the 70s, Corgi Books reprinted the Bantam Star Trek episode adaptations with more uniform covers. 
The US versions tended to feature variable pieces of SF art - usually variations on the USS Enterprise against a psychedelic space-scape. 

The UK ones were simpler but more iconic - a giant number with standard elements peppered around it. 

In keeping with my recent posts, here's a Doctor Who take on those designs. 

I've also done a variant version of the original Star Trek novel 'Spock Must Die'. 




Monday 2 May 2016

The Twelfth Doctor's Target Adventures - additional...

I knocked this up quick. 

Back in the day, Target books used to reprint the earlier novelisations using badly scanned and cropped versions of the original artwork coupled with the more up-to-date 'gate' logo. 

So I did this... 













You can see the earlier covers here.

The Twelfth Doctor's Target Adventures...

I made a decision early on not to include Peter Capaldi's face on the cover of my Target book designs. It was certainly not dues to any antipathy I have towards the actor. On the contrary, I love him - the best thing to happen to Doctor Who in at least a decade. No. The idea was to homage the period during the publication of the original novelisations when the current Doctor's face was absent from them for legal reasons (apparently resulting from a misunderstanding between the publishers and the BBC at the time regarding the lead actor's permissions). 

The recent exhibition of original Target book art at the Cartoon Museum in London has prompted me return to these covers - in particular the one for 'Genesis of the Daleks' which also adorned the cover of issue 499 of Doctor Who Magazine

Based on 'Genesis of the Daleks'
With nothing much happening over the May Day bank holiday, I thought it would be nice to create some more covers based more obviously on these classic designs. I did three and might do more but as always, it depends on the material and whether I can get it to look right. 

I hope you like them.


Based on 'Revenge of the Cybermen'

Based on 'Doctor Who and the Cybermen'


Sunday 1 May 2016

Revised Cover for Destiny of the Doctors PC Computer Game

Dug out my copy of the 'Destiny of the Doctors' PC game earlier today. It's nearly twenty years old which I suppose makes it over 50,000 years old in computer years. 

It really struck me that the cover is an absolute shower. An out-of-focus Dalek, a Cyberman with part of his handles missing and one of the crap Silurians from Warriors of the Deep

I thought I could make a better one but I couldn't... 






The back has a picture of each of the Doctors except for Paul McGann - who had starred the year previous to the game's release in a big budget TV movie version of the show. A deliberate omission? 

I tried to correct it with an official BBC publicity still... 




There's also a little instruction booklet with all the usual technical stuff in it together with a page - well, half a page - of KEY FACTS about TV's Doctor Who. I include it here as the information contained within these three bullet points offers a rare and thought-provoking insight into the series and the high esteem it was held in by BBC Worldwide at the time... 

(Please note that I haven't tampered with the final image whatsoever.)

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Doctor Who

Heading back to the 70s for this trio. 

Nothing much to add to them other than the fact they are based on contemporary covers for UFO and Space: 1999 novelisations. 

Don't worry, I won't do any more of these...