Target Covers for Short Stories

These are some covers I did for Paul Burns. 

The first is a cover for a collection of his short stories - which had previously seen the light of day in a number of fan publications.

He also commissioned me to do faux Target book covers for each of his six stories. Despite the lack of visual references, I'm really pleased at how these came out. (Yes, that is a Z Victor car from Z Cars on the first cover!)

Thanks to Paul for allowing me to share these. 

If you have a short story you want a cover for, let me know. You can contact me on Twitter and we can work something out.

Doctor Who - Season Fourteen on Target

Now this for me is the apex of classic Doctor Who quality. The series' budget was certainly never spent better on a season where - in their own ways - each story is a classic. 

From the glorious rich renaissance atmosphere of 'The Masque of Mandragora' to the seedy grim London of 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang', the series never really hit the consistent quality that it had here - before or after. 

And the ratings reflected this with the series hardly out of the weekly top twenty. 

I could go on forever acknowledging the genuine scariness of 'The Robots of Death' and the shocking revelatory thrills of 'The Deadly Assassin' (especially THAT episode set in the matrix!!) But this is a blog that shows of my measly art. 

So here are six retro Target interpretations of the greatest season of 20th century Doctor Who!

Most of these designs are available printed on stuff like T shirts, clocks and shower curtains from RedBubble. The link is here>>>

Star Trek Discovery on VHS!

There was that huge curved ball that CBS/Paramount bowled late last year when they removed Star Trek Discovery from Netflix just days before it was due to premiere. The press release was a classic example of working to the rules of positivity when a more empathic approach was needed for an action that affected every fan who didn't live in North America. The bottom line was "No more new Star Trek until your country gets Paramount+ as a streaming service. 

To say it created a storm of protest is an understatement and no doubt, had this been the late 60s, a harsh letter writing campaign would no doubt result in the company's postal room being snowed under for several weeks.

But this isn't the 1960s. It's the space year 2022 and there are solutions to these sort of problems and these solutions can be sorted out immediately.

Star Trek Discovery was quickly transferred to the CBS owned zombie streaming service PlutoTV where it "airs" for free at 9pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. It means everyone can see the episodes for free. Not at a time of their choosing admittedly but isn't that what TV was like in the 60s.

And there we are... back to the 60s again. Who knows, we might even get a revamp of the original 60s pilot episode to emphasise the comparison further?

This is all a roundabout way to present these two retro VHS covers I did. Back to the 90s though when we had to watch Star Trek The Next Generation et al on a two episode a month basis through the magic of VHS. It cost £9.99 a month too and took up yards of shelf space by the seventh season... Ah, the nostalgic memories... We never had it so good... did we???

If you like these anachronistic pieces of retro fluff, then you can show you appreciation of the artist by slipping him a coffee via his Ko-fi page. The link is here.

Bionic™ Spin-off Annuals

I was asked by John who runs the @Bionic_Tweets Twitter account. He'd seen my work and wanted me to produce some annuals featuring popular characters from the TV shows 'The Six Million Dollar Man' and 'The Bionic Woman' for the Christmas period. We settled on four titles featuring 'Oscar Goldman' (the non-bionic boss of lead characters Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers), 'Bigfoot' (a space android disguised as the legendary US crypto-beast Sasquatch), the 'Fembots' (android doppelgangers used to infiltrate whatever the script writers deemed interesting that week... and inspiration for the villains of the same name in the Austin Powers movies) and, last but by no means least, Max the Bionic Dog (the fence and shark jumping German Shepherd looked after by Jaime Sommers). 

The covers used some lovely hi-res photographs from the series and I was able to create some designs that had a colourful feel for the period.

The Max the Bionic Dog annual is based on the cover of the first Six Million Dollar Man annual. And yes, those are all genuine images of Max and not stock photos of any old German Shepherd. Note the loose wiring on his neck!.

The Oscar annual cover features the character's exploding briefcase - unseen in the series but a vital accessory for the Oscar Goldman action figure. 

I put Bigfoot and the Fembots together because I liked the sound of the title. It had a 60s/70s pop group vibe to it. Very pleased with the look of this one - particularly the colours.

John has very kindly let me put these on the blog. You can visit his Twitter feed for all your bionic needs at @Bionic_Tweets . 

Doctor Who Season Thirteen on Target

Continuing with the retro Target books, here's season 13. 

It was during this season that I queued up outside Preedy's newsagents in Derby's Eagle Centre in order to have a fully costumed Tom Baker sign my copy of 'Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion' - an odd choice since it was a Jon Pertwee adventure but it was at the time, the only Target book I didn't own.

 From that day until today, I had a complete set of first edition Target books (except for 'The Two Doctors' which is a "Second Edition" due to a f*** up at W H Allen.)

These covers are available as design on RedBubble. 

Check them out via this link.

Doctor Who - Season Twelve on Target

I've done some more retro Target book covers. Actually, I've done quite a lot more retro Target book covers. 

As you can see from my earlier ones for Flux, I'm quite taken with the second redesign that debuted with Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons. It features a cutdown version of the then series logo and a (usually) white border that the artwork occasionally bled out of - building on the pop art/Frank Bellamy style of the previous ones.

I did the 80s stories first but in the interests of some semblance of continuity, I'll begin with Tom Baker's first season which I only completed a month or so ago.

If you've enjoyed these, you can find them available on RedBubble on a selection of products including T shirts, mugs and more. Follow this link.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special 2021

As you well know, each year since Doctor Who lost the Christmas Day slot, I've had a go at creating my own Christmas-themed episode. I've done three so far and the running gag sadly shows no sign of flagging.

2021 posed a little bit of a problem as it was post-Flux and would've been one of the final episodes for Jodie Whittaker. In the end, I put something to together that featured the thirteen Doctor teaming up with the fugitive Doctor for a 'What If?' style tale. 

'Whatever Became of Christmas?' sees the Doctor returning to Earth to celebrate the festive season with her friends. However, when she exits the TARDIS she discovers that despite it being Saturday 25 December 2021, the shops are open, there's no decorations up and nobody has heard of Christmas. As stumbles around Sheffield, her actions are being watched... But by who? 

Here's a Radio Times cover previewing the episode. The series also used to have an RT cover in the run-up to the double issue and heralded their preview of the rest of the festive telly delights and Mrs Brown's Boys. Folks seem to have been fascinated by my choice of colour for Jodie's T-shirt. I put her in a green one for the second special simply to differentiate her from earlier choices and it seems to have stuck for the following specials. This time I've paired it with a deep red coat to contrast with it. This allowed the Doctor to have a Christmassy colour scheme to her look (red and green) to contrast against the lack of colour in the Xmas-less Sheffield. 

Here's the RT billing for Christmas Day. Again the running gag of the special preceding Call the Midwife is played out again. This time it's a football version of the popular family drama. The synopsis is a bit long-winded for the Radio Times but it gets across the plot. 

And finally the Blu ray cover which for some reason I always seem to complete first.

As a bonus, I've also done textless versions of both pieces of art. 

Heaven only knows what I'm to do for the 2022 Christmas special. It will be post-regeneration and chances are the Doctor will still be faceless before their debut in 2023... Ho, hum! It keeps you on your toes does Doctor Who!

If you've enjoyed the images in this post* then you might like to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee via my Ko-fi page. The link is here!

* I say "images" as my writing seems to be long-winded and rambling again. And it trickles off towards the end. Buy a coffee for the pretty pictures but not the writing bit. Hate writing... and it shows.

A Few Other Series Thirteen Things...

Here's a few other items I did based on series 13. Three annuals and a game.

The Swarm and Azure annual is inspired on the 1981 Sapphire & Steel annual with the two villains posed in front of a clock like the famous publicity still of the series.

The Division annual is an original composition that features the characters as depicted in the episode "Once, Upon Time" but gives them their real faces as opposed to those of the Doctor's companions. Maybe it's bit dark looking for a kids annual but I think I've got the photoshopping on the figures right.

Jerricho at Large is one featuring the eccentric professor character played by Kevin McNally in the latter half of the series. I think it's safe to say that he was the story's stand-out guest character. This - along with the Swarm and Azure design - is available from RedBubble as a journal or notebook. I was messaged shortly after I uploaded it to the site by someone who said they were buying one as a gift for the actor. Not heard anything back yet though...

And finally, the title of episode two was 'War of the Sontarans' which got me thinking... and photoshopping... and ending up with this...

As always if you like what you see, you donate towards my upkeep by purchasing me a coffee via my Ko-fi page. Follow the link here.

TV Annuals 2022

As was usual, I produced some absurd TV annual covers for the festive season. They were done over a period of months so I probably would've ended up posting them one at a time had I been updating the blog then.

This is all of them together in one place:

This is The Pact. A classy little BBC workplace drama from Doctor Who writer and doyen of the classic series Blu-rays, Pete McTighe. A group of workmates are apparently responsible for the death of their boss and attempt to cover it up leading to conflicts and secrets being revealed. Not exactly annual material but an ideal subject for one of my covers...

Line of Duty came to a thrilling climax at the start of the year. A tour de force cast with a brilliant Jed Mercurio script turned out not to be everyone's cup of tea. Perhaps the stand-out character from the series was little 13 year old Ryan Pilkington played with deadly acid by Gregory Piper in the first series. He created a bit of a storm when he returned as not only an adult... but a copper... and a VERY bent one at that. He really should have had a spin-off series but (quite rightly to be honest) got his come-uppance in the final series. Who could forget his series one catchphrase... "Bent bastard!" 

The annul itself is based on a design used by NetworkDVD for their release of the cosy late 60s police drama 'Parkin's Patch'. 

Russell T Davies' It's a Sin told the story of the AIDS crisis seen through the eyes of a group of young people. Despite the subject matter and many harrowing scenes, it was also a joyous celebration of life... and what it means to hold onto it even if the most harrowing of times. The annual design is a reflection of the positivity that comes from Davies' pin sharp script and is based on the design style of an 80s Look-in annual. 

Last year I created a Chris Witty annual. Maybe it was going a bit too far picking out an individual to represent the global pandemic. Having said that, it's one of the journals that has sold a few copies on RedBubble. Some shyster even pinch the design and put it on their RB store... This year I did something more generic and used the 1980 Blake's 7 annual as my inspiration. Quite pleased at my attempt on the logo! 

This is one I should've done ages ago - a period-style annual for Endeavour. Not specifically based on any published book or series although it does take elements from the World Distributors annuals. (I think I may have put a non-contemporary logo on it!) The police car is actually a publicity still from 60s Z Cars. Russell Lewis "liked" this when I tweeted it.

When season two of 'Star Trek Discovery' ended, I was one of those who quite rightly saw that a Captain Pike spin-off was the most logical outcome of his appearance in the series. I even did a few period book covers and designs showcasing the concept. It took Paramount and CBS a year or so but they got there and the series debut in a few short months. This is just a design using what few images were available of the main cast in their correct costumes (and haircuts). The image of the USS Enterprise is a bit of a cheat as it's actually a commercially available scale model... but they did that on the original Star Trek series didn't they?

The Covid 19 and It's a Sin annuals are available as journal and notebooks on RedBubble. Follow the link.

If you've enjoyed these designs, show your appreciation with a coffee purchased via my Ko-fi page. Follow the link.

Doctor Who - Series thirteen on Target

This is late! 

I should've posted this last year in the week following the final episode of the series. These are the six covers I produced for series 13. It would be interesting to see how Target would've handled this back in the day - six short novelisations (more profitable) or a single big one (probably more logical for a six part story).

As for the episodes, I really enjoyed this series. Some great visuals, a far ranging story packed with colourful characters and some great twists along the way. It certainly corrects the issues I have with the last two series.

The negatives are fiddly nerd things. Not enough Kate Stewart (in fact, why the heck was she even there?). The timeless child storyline had no real pay off as the Doctor is still running from her past rather than facing up to it. Chris Chibnall seems to have a real issue with the Doctor he created. By all means, make her more fallible but don't make her a failure - especially on a personal level. Hopefully, this will be addressed in her final two episodes... but I've an awful feeling the regeneration will hinge on the unrequited love between her and Yaz rather than tackling her dodgy past with Division.

As for the covers, I adopted the mid 70s style for them. I'm a great fan of these comic strip/pop art pieces. Ones like Peter Brookes' 'The Green Death' et al with a smattering of Kirby, Bellamy and Achilleos. 

Again, the lack of dynamic photographic source material hampered the compositions - especially for the first one. Some of these were done after the episode aired which I don't like doing. The spontaneity of using just the visuals from photos to create the design rather than picking out characters and incidents from the stories is something I prefer... and was no doubt a factor in the original Target artists' creations back in the day. 

I hope you like them.

Just to catch up, here's my covers for the following two specials 'Eve of the Daleks' and 'Legend of the Sea Devils'. I'll probably return to the Sea Devils story once the show airs later this year.

As always, if you enjoy my stuff and want to show your appreciation, drop me a coffee via my Ko-fi page here.