The writers and artists behind Cutaway Comics explain how they’re breathing new life into some of Doctor Who’s best-remembered characters.

Feature by MATT CHARLTON

Lytton, a character who appeared in Resurrection of the Daleks (1984) and Attack of the Cybermen (1985), is returning in his own comic book series. Art by Barry Renshaw.

Gareth Kavanagh, the publisher behind Cutaway Comics.

I magine a universe where deadly enemies, dictators and rogue gods are free to roam without a mysterious traveller in a blue box turning up to save the day. Scary thought, isn’t it?

The imprint Cutaway Comics will be exploring this concept using characters and places from the worlds of Doctor Who. Behind the range is Gareth Kavanagh, co-creator of the acclaimed Vworp Vworp! fanzine. “What I’ve done in publishing I owe to Doctor Who Weekly,” he says. “That first issue of DWW [published in October 1979] I remember vividly. It wasn’t the cover-mounted transfers, or The Iron Legion [the main comic strip] that captured my imagination. It was the strip at the back with the Daleks.”

While Tom Baker’s Doctor was busy fighting Davros, Scaroth and the Nimon on television, Daleks, Sontarans and Cybermen were stars in their own universe. Writing and illustrating these tales were Alan Moore, Steve Moore and David Lloyd, all at the beginning of their careers. “Those back-up strips, they had power,” says Gareth. “A world without the Doctor existed, and it was utterly terrifying.”

The Return of the Daleks, written by Steve Moore with art by Paul Neary and David Lloyd, appeared as a back-up strip in the first issue of Doctor Who Weekly (1979).

Gareth has since featured many of the strips’ artists and writers in Vworp Vworp!, while his theatre company, Room 5064, produced licensed stage adaptations of Halo Jones and V for Vendetta. So why set up his own comic imprint? “I’d spent a long time talking about these strips and finding creative ways to use other material, like with the plays. I suddenly had a lightbulb moment - why not publish my own comics?

“This is a chance to let lesser-featured creations have their moment in the sun,” Gareth continues. “And we can do it without the constraints of a BBC budget, or a Saturday evening slot on BBC1. We’re launching with Lytton, a four-issue miniseries, written by Eric Saward, with art from Barry Renshaw. Barry has previously drawn for 2000 AD’ s Strontium Dog, and Eric [who was script editor on Doctor Who from 1982 to 1986] will be familiar to many readers.”

Lytton (Maurice Colbourne) undergoes a gruesome conversion process in Attack of the Cybermen (1985).

“A world without the doctor existed, and it was utterly terrifying.” GARETH KAVANAGH

We saw a version of Lytton being killed while double-crossing the Cybermen [in 1985’s Attack of the Cybermen], leaving the Doctor aghast at having misjudged Lytton’s motives. “Lytton’s in a totally different place here,” says Eric. “He’s still a soldier of fortune, a fighter. But he’s trying to leave his past behind and run this jazz club in London - enjoy fi ne wine and good food. But there’s something lurking in the shadows to spoil this…” In the comic, Lytton acquires a companion, Wilson - and, adds Eric, “an enemy in the form of the vicious Mr Longbody. Oh, and there’s the small matter of the strange noises in the sewer.”