Oh no, not more Armada Doctor Who book covers...!

I've been sorting out the files on my mac of late. It needed to be done. Lots of mis-named folders and lost designs have now been recovered and re-filed. 

Whilst doing this, I started to fix some of my older work to ensure I had the best possible copies. I've gone back and redone a few as well - making some of the Target cover designs into full cover proofs with fronts AND backs. I'll post them at a later date though followerers of my Twitter feed will have seen them as my regularly nightly #DoctorWho Book at Bedtime. 

I've also taken a few of the stories and asked the question... "What if the Armada paperback release of 'Dr Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks' by David Whitaker had had the same success of the Target reprint in 1973?  

Would David Whitaker have found himself in the same position as Terrance Dicks and headed off on a new career as principal writer of the 'new' novelisation range from Armada Books? 

I've done some covers anyhow using the original artwork from the retro Target books I did last year. I make no apology for not giving the novels any titles. After all, the original is just called 'Dr Who' - the rest of its given title (the 'in an exciting adventure...' bit) is, to be perfectly honestly just a bit of cover blurb.

Anyhow, here they are...

Classic Doctor Who novels re-branding - the fifth Doctor

For Peter Davison's term as Dr Who, I've completely re-done the logo. Collectors of old pop compilation LP records will no doubt recognise its origins. I wanted something that spat 'the eighties' and I think I've got that. 

Some people hate it, but they tend to be the ones who don't get the fact I'm attempting to recreate something akin to the decades that the episodes were originally transmitted. I'd have to say that I'd have been appalled if they had gone for something like that at the time. 

In most cases, the strap line on each cover highlights some of the tantalising questions asked in the Radio Times listings during the show's first run. I will admit that I got a bit carried away and started making my own up as the covers went on...

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this bumper crop of covers...

Classic Doctor Who novels re-branding - season twelve

This is just a bit of housekeeping... 

When I did some covers for Tom Baker's first season of Doctor Who, I had the absurd and off-kilter idea of producing them as a series of World Distributors colouring and activity books - the sort that were very prevalent at the time. You can see them here.

Now I've gone and done the thirteenth season as more traditional novels - though still published equally absurdly by World Distributors - the OCD in me decided that those original designs needed modifying to fit the new scheme, 

Here they are - all tidied up. There's also a new version for Revenge of the Cybermen as the main pic in the old one was too bizarre even for a 70s novel cover... 

Classic Doctor Who novels re-branding - Season eight

With some time on my hands and my funny bones being afflicted with temporary paralysis, I needed a bit of a creative outlet over the holiday period. 

As long time observers of this blog have seen already, I managed to complete vintage style retro covers for the whole of the 60s era of Doctor Who late last year. At the time of completing these, I think I made it it clear that I saw no reason for continuing into the third Doctor stories for the simple reason, the covers would just be retreads of their contemporary counterparts.

I've sort of changed my mind on that. I did a handful of retro covers for these stories using unusual images and their early working titles (These are located here.). 


I decided to take it a little further and began 're-branding' the novels from Terror of the Autons onwards. (I missed out season 7 for reasons I still can't quite fathom.) 

Top of the re-branding was using a non-BBC logo for the series. Keen collectors of Dr Who novels will no doubt recognise the 'new' logo from the Armada paperback edition of David Whitaker's novelisation of the first Dalek adventure - suitably touched up and re-coloured where necessary. An "Authorised Edition"/BBC logo adds to the effect of giving the new designs a bit of a World Distributors/Target books hybrid look and adding to the 70s feel of them. 

I hope the effect is pleasing. I certainly enjoyed doing them. The second batch will follow shortly.

EastEnders - Newly Missing Adventures from your favourite Doctor Who authors!

I did some of these a year or so back to celebrate the 30th anniversary of TV's EastEndErs. 

They seemed to go down well and since EastEndErs is one of the few TV shows I still watch regularly these days, I thought I'd do some more. 

Life would be dull otherwise...

Target: Matt Smith - part one

The Target Books juggernaut moves on!

New stories! New Doctor! New logo! Same old 126 pages of description and dialogue...

To celebrate the dawning of a new eleventh Dr. Who, the marketing bods at Whallen have pulled out all the stops and produced an A4 glossy poster of their forthcoming titles. 

It'll be in the post to all good bookshops shortly and managers can use blu tac to stick it prominently in their shop windows where the public can see for themselves the excitement ahead! 

(If they don't use it, can they mail it back to them as they only have a print run of 500 and fourteen of them were a bit smudged. Thanks.)