Lockdown Doctor Who Posters

There was a global re-watch of the very first nu-Who episode 'Rose' a week or two back. It followed on from an equally popular one for 'Day of the Doctor'. Loads of folk took part. Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies even joined Twitter to take part. Both of them supplied some new short stories to complement the episodes. The two events even made the BBC news showcasing the diverse fans from around the world - Brazil, Japan, Moscow, Italy, Australia - who joined in with the love.

I did my little bit and produced a cinema poster for 'Rose' in the style of the 1950s sci-fi film 'Invaders from Mars' (like those Supermarionation ones I did a few posts ago). I quite enjoyed doing it. So I did one for 'The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky' based on the famous poster for 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. I've no idea how the two connect up but the end result is quite pretty. 

I might do some more. 

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Target: Whittaker - part two

For some reason, I did a few Target book covers for the thirteenth Doctor that returned to the original 1974 design. I was reasonably pleased with the outcome of some of them. So much so, that I uploaded three of them to my RedBubble store . 

Later in the year, I returned to the idea and did the rest of Jodie Whittaker's premiere series. (I will upload those additional ones shortly for completeness.) 

So when it came to producing covers for series 12, it was a no-brainer that I'd return to this early style. 

Despite the lack of photographic material available both before and (surprisingly) after each episode was broadcast, I managed to complete each piece on time - some were even tweeted before the episodes aired. Spoiler-free of course. 

Here are the Target book covers in order. I'll some variants in a later post. 

If you enjoyed these little feasts of retro-art, then please consider buying me a coffee via my Ko-fi account. If you follow the link, you can also take time to browse the gallery of my least worst bit while you're there. Thank you. 

Supermarionation Movie Blockbusters!

The wonderful Talking Pictures TV channel recently broadcast 'Captain Scarlett' here in the UK. I didn't watch it. It's not my cup of tea. 


"Why?" I hear you ask. "It's the popular Gerry and Sylvia Anderson supermarionation TV series from the sixties featuring an indestructible secret agent and his battles against intangible slow speaking aliens from Mars."

"Ah, but it isn't." I say (somewhat smugly). "Take a note of the extra 't' at the end of 'Scarlett'. This is in fact the 1953 movie 'Captain Scarlett' - a period adventure film that starred Richard Greene - TV's Robin Hood - as a Napoleonic swashbuckler who attempts to save a Princess from a dodgy marriage. So not really my cup of tea in any world even though it was shot in Technicolor in Mexico and was Brazillian actress Leonora Amar's final film." (You can tell I've looked it up on Wikipedia, can't you!) 

I thought it would be a tremendous wheeze to create a cinema poster for the indestructable Captain Scarlet based on the original one for 'Captain Scarlett'. So I did.

And as usual, I got carried away. I also did ones for 'Stingray' (Based on the poster for 'War Gods of the Deep' (1965) aka. 'City Under The Sea', 'Fireball XL5' (Based on the poster for 'Rocketship XM' (1950) and er... 'Timeslip' (Based on the poster for er... 'Time Slip' (1950) a movie that shares the same name as the eponymous children's TV serial from 1970.)  

If you've enjoyed these efforts, why not buy me a coffee via my Ko-fi account to show your appreciation. Even if you don't, the link will also take you to a Gallery featuring what I consider my finest pieces of work. Both of them. Thank you. 

A Very Dalek Christmas...

Last year (or rather Christmas 2018), there wasn't a Doctor Who Christmas special. It actually went out on New Year's Day. It didn't feel right. Over a decade of Christmas teatime specials and suddenly it was gone. 

Well, you know my attitude. If you want something that you can't get then make it yourself... and sod 'em. 

Which is what I did - producing the Radio Times cover and Blu-ray packaging for my own made-up Doctor Who Christmas Special 2018 in which the thirteenth Doctor and her fam battle the Weeping Angels who are using their images on Christmas cards to bring terror to the festive period. "The image of a Weeping Angel IS a Weeping Angel!"

Fast forward to Christmas 2019 and we don't even have a New Year's Day special. Actually, it's just the first episode of the new series - special but not special in a SPECIAL way. 

So i did another one. This time featuring the Daleks who are using the front of a travelling festive holiday fair to infiltrate the US defence system during Christmas 1962. (And the DW producers say they've ran out of Christmas ideas for the specials...)

Here is the visual result in the form of the Radio Times and the official Blu-ray release. 

Happy Easter folks. x

If you've enjoyed this little piece of Doctor Who hokum, then you might want to buy the author a coffee via his Ko-fi account. He also has a gallery there so you don't have to wade through all the crappy stuff on this blog to get to the good bits. 

The New Doctor Who Monster Book

Just before Christmas, I had an idea to do an update of the 1976 Doctor Who Monster Book featuring Jodie Whittaker's first series as the Doctor. 

I managed to do a cover quite easily - fudged with a circa-Matt Smith Cyberman (remember the Cyber Warriors and the Cyber Lords hadn't been revealed back then.) 

The original book included black and white versions of many of the original Target book covers used to flesh out the sparse text. So I also created some Target-inspired artwork to illustrate this new version. I even managed to get as far as writing up and laying out a few pages before the festive holiday. 

Then the new series started and I was presented was a quandary - should I keep to the original idea and just feature JW's first season or should I expand it to include the 2020 one too? Given the amount of new monsters debuting this series, I decided to put it on hiatus for a bit. (I was also busy doing proper Target book covers for the new episodes as they aired!) 

I will return to it shortly but will no doubt have to redo the cover to include some newer elements... which is a pity really as I quite like it as it is. 

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