Based on the the TV series.
CSI: Thicker Than Blood 2003 (SC GN) 48 pgs.
Written by Jeff Mariotte. Illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, and Ashley Wood.
Colours: Fran Gamboa, Ashley Wood. Letters: Robbie Robbins. Edited by Kris Oprisko.
Based on the the TV series.
Interview with creator Anthony Zuiker.
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by IDW Publishing
Media tie-in comics often used to be disappointing -- too often seeming simplistic or watered down versions of their inspiration. Maybe it was because too many comics seemed to be written and drawn by creators who often didn't seem that familiar with the source material -- and didn't much care! Or maybe it was that I just had too high a standards, taking it too seriously (oh -- so-and-so would never say that! What a stupid comic!) Whereas I'm more easy going these days.
Whatever, I've enjoyed some media inspired comics lately.
CSI: Thicker Than Blood is based on the hit TV series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It's one of a series of CSI based stories from publisher IDW -- including other one-shots, plus some mini-series (not to mention comics based on the TV spin-off CSI: Miami).
And for fans of the show, it does a decent enough job evoking the series -- for good and bad.
Scripter Jeff Mariotte tells a straight, investigative/detective story, as the CSI team investigate two separate cases (as the series' episodes often split their attention) -- one involving an attempted mob hit, the other, the disappearance of an Elvis impersonator. And it all seems pretty evocative. The characterization is minimal as the heroes' personalities take a back seat to the cases -- like in the series -- but Mariotte has enough feel for them that the dialogue and quips seem appropriate to the different characters (like the opening scene where an off-the-cuff remark by Nick leads to Gill launching into a pedagogical speech revealing his knowledge of obscure trivia). And the Elvis case also evokes the series' penchant for having cases embroil the characters in various fringe sub-cultures and professions (actually, CSI -- the series -- is kind of reactionary when you think of it, tending to portray any alternative group as weird and twisted; I mean, this is a series that could make people who play a Scrabble-like game seem like freaks!)
Actually another way the comic evokes the series is in the short shrift given the Sara character. I'll confess, I think actress Jorja Fox is kinda hot, and I used to watch the series, in part, for her...and I began to notice that her screen time seemed less and less (I half wondered if she was being punished for a contract dispute she had with the producers, but the actor who plays Nick was also involved, and his part doesn't seem diminished). Anyway, in this story, of the five CSI's, her part is the most negligible (mind you the coroner guy only appears in a few panels!)
Artist Gabriel Rodriguez does a decent enough job evoking the actors, and has a realist, understated style that suits the story. And even his original characters look realistic, so that you don't have a jarring contrast between the actor-based drawings and the made-up characters (he might well use models for some of them, too). In a bit of gratuitous titillation, the characters' investigation requires them talking to some strippers...and Rodriguez handles the, um, aesthetics of those scenes quite well, too (keeping it just this side of being "mature readers"). Though the overall colouring is a bit drab and grey -- not quite evoking the glaring sun of the Nevada dessert. When the characters speculate about a case, and we flashback to re-enactments, a different, stylized art style is employed by Ashley Wood -- it's an interesting trick, making it obvious we're seeing a speculative flashback, though the style makes it hard to entirely tell what's going on.
The down side to all this is that the comic is full of talking heads, discussing facts and figures. Mariotte and Rodriguez do a good job keeping the energy up, but it's still a bit dry. As mentioned, the series itself is often more plot driven than character-driven, but even it usually works in some sort of emotional/character element. As well, there aren't many twists and turns to the cases (the way the series would often have a case start out seeming about one thing, then turn out to be something else) and there are so few suspects introduced, that there aren't many surprises in the solutions. And there was also some questionable logic, particularly regarding the time frame. I don't think the title has any meaning, per se, and I'm still not sure why the story seems to open with the explosion of a pirate ship -- nothing more is said about it, so I'm guessing I misread the visuals.
This also features an interview with CSI TV creator, Anthony E. Zuiker, which is perhaps as amusing -- unintentionally -- as it is insightful. Zuiker, for instance, says that after having done CSI and CSI: Miami, he thinks a third series could only be justified if set in another country, that something like -- to use his example -- a CSI: New York would be pointless. But, of course, just a year or so after this interview, they came out with CSI: New York! Zuiker also goes on to talk about the realism and accuracy of the series...when I've read articles interviewing real forensics experts who complain the series sets up false expectations of what they can do. And even a lay person can pick up on the implausibility of much of it (just like the series MacGyver used real scientific theories...but in unrealistic ways).
Anyway, enough of my snide tirade...
Thicker Than Blood isn't a classic example of CSI, but it does evoke the series, in story and visuals, and should be fun for fans during the dry months of summer reruns.
Original cover price: $__ CDN./ $6.99 US
Doctor Who: Agent Provocateur 2008 (DC TPB) 144 pages
Written by Gary Russell. Art by Stefano Martino, Mirco Pierfederici, Nick Roche, Jose Maria Beroy.
Colours: Charlie Kirkoff, Tom Smith. Letters: various. Editors: various.
Reprinting: Doctor Who #1-6 (IDW series) - with covers
Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by IDW Comics
Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction TV series in TV history. It premiered in Britain in 1963 and was cancelled in 1987. And then, after persevering in other mediums (novels and audio plays, and one TV movie) returned in 2005 for a successful TV series revival. And during much of that run, including the long hiatus, the various incarnations of the character have also appeared in British comics in Doctor Who Weekly magazine.
So part of the gimmick for this comic book mini-series featuring the current Doctor, played on TV by David Tennant, is that it was the first Doctor Who comic made by an American publisher (other Doctor Who comics were simply reprints of the British comics). Not that it has severed all ties with Merry ol' England, as it is written by Gary Russell who has been involved with Doctor Who novels, audio plays and the TV version (reflecting a trend in modern TV-based comics of trying to suggest a greater fidelity to the source material by recruiting writers actually associated with the source programs).
The premise has the Doctor and then-current companion, Martha Jones, just tooling about the galaxy in the Doctor's time/space ship, unaware they are being ensnared in a scheme set afoot by a self-called pantheon of higher beings -- a scheme that somehow relates to a rash of planetary populations vanishing.
The story unfolds rather episodically at first, so that instead of simply being one, six issue story, the first few issues each tell a story -- though, with the exception of the first issue, the stories tie into the bigger arc.
And at first it works pretty well. I'll admit, I have some mixed feelings about the modern TV series in general -- for all that the old series was notorious for its cardboard sets and problematic f/x, and for all the modern series has a bigger budget and more consistently strong performances, the modern series can strike me as just a little...cartoonier than the old. Tennant's Doctor is wild n' wacky and the pacing more frenetic than fast paced. Still, I can reasonably enjoy the new TV series, and Russell maybe reflects that hyperactive frivolousness a little too well (the mini-series beginning with the Doctor and Martha racing around the cosmos in pursuit of...the universe's best chocolate milk shake!) it nonetheless makes for an agreeably breezy page turner. And by threading the greater arc at first through the background, it allows the looming menace to be more intriguing as we wonder where it's headed.
Russell has a decent feel for the two leads, even if he maybe tweaks them even more in a wide-eyed-everything-is-a-grand-adventure mode than perhaps even the TV series did. Though the nature of the humour of Tennant's Doctor is his delivery of rapid fire monologues, punctuated by quirky digressions, which, attempted in a comic book form, can just make for rather verbose panels.
Still, the first few issues work as just fast paced little romps of intrigue and adventure, taking the duo from an alien space station to 1970s earth and onto strange worlds.
Unfortunately, as the overall arc moves to the fore, I'll admit I found myself not always sure if I knew what was going on, or why. One of the pantheon seems to be pursuing his/her own agenda in a couple of issues, which the Doctor discovers...yet then it doesn't really seem to get mentioned later. The expository dialogue gets increasingly long winded, obfuscating rather than clarifying. Even why the planetary populations are kidnapped seems a bit vague as the explanation seems to contradict itself (I may be wrong, or it may've even have been a typo). For that matter, why one person is left behind on each world...isn't explained.
Or maybe if I read back over it, I would find I just missed the explanation. But that becomes another problem as, though I did flip back through the book, it was somewhat dissolutely. Reading the first few issues, I didn't necessarily grasp what was going on but, A, I figure it would become clearer as it went along and, B, I didn't care as I was content to just enjoy the light surface adventures. But toward the end I began to care about the fact that...I didn't care. I mean, surely the story's job is to make me care?
And, of course, a problem with Doctor Who in all its years (and all its multi-media versions) is that logic can be a bit, well, tenuous, as the stories build to grand apocalyptic climaxes with lots of running and shouting and explosions but where you aren't really sure it makes any kind of sense. If Star Trek could sometimes seem as though it was written by people who flunked grade 10 science...Doctor Who often seemed like it was written by people who never even took the course to begin with!
Even the notion that the Doctor's trusty sonic screwdriver ends up being crucial in the climax, as if it's the most powerful device in the cosmos, seems a stretch for a device that, in the original TV series was just a trusty tool to unlock doors and the like. But in a way, that reflects the modern TV series, in which everything is cranked up to the nth degree, and the Doctor isn't just a meddlesome Time Lord, but a veritable super being! A -- well -- a cartoon.
Another problem with the comics, I'll admit, is the art. Like with IDW's other Doctor Who mini-series, The Forgotten, a bunch of artists were brought in, making for an inconsistent visual look from issue to issue, though most affect a similar, angular, cartoony look -- which, I suppose, suits the lighter and sillier aspects of the story, but aesthetically isn't that appealling (particularly in a comic meant to evoke real actors). But even on that level, the individual artists can vary a lot, delivering some decent panels and composition...and others that look hasty or crudely drawn, some panels looking coarse and grainy as though maybe blown up from a smaller image. Ironically, for all that this is the first American-produced Doctor Who comic, it can look a bit substandard at times. This is even more ironic given the British Doctor Who strips counted artists like Dave Gibbons and John Ridgeway among their contributors (admittedly, I'm sure there were plenty of lesser talents as well).
And maybe six issues was just more than the story really warranted. Because though I started out reasonably enjoying this taken on its own frothy, fast-paced way, toward the end I found my interest starting to wane.
Cover price: $__ CDN./ $19.99 USA.
Doctor Who Classics, vol. 2 2008 (SC TPB) 138 pages
Written by Steve Moore, with Pat Mills & John Wagner. Illustrated by Dave Gibbons.
Colours: Charlie Kirchoff. Letters: unbilled. Editor: Dez Skinn.
Reprinting: Doctor Who Classic #6-10 (2008) - which reprinted the serialized Doctor Who strips from Doctor Who Weekly circa 1979
Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Reviewed July 22, 2009
Published by IDW Comics
With the revived Dr. Who TV series, American comic book publisher IDW has released a few original projects focusing on the current interpretation of the character, played by David Tennant (different actors having played the role over the years). In addition, they've released some "classic" series, reprinting Dr. Who comic strips that were serialized in British publications years ago. If these stories seem familiar, it's because Marvel Comics reprinted these very same stories in their 1980s Dr. Who comic -- though in some press releases IDW claimed these are being presented in North America for the "first time" (the original British versions were black & white, the Marvel ones coloured according to the style of the day, and IDW's are re-coloured using modern multi-tone colouring).
Since I'm assuming the Dr. Who strips started long before these, why IDW should start the same place Marvel did is a question. Perhaps it's because the Doctor featured here -- the Tom Baker version -- remains one of the most popular TV versions of the character. Perhaps it's because the artist was Dave Gibbons, shortly to achieve fame in American comics with work on, among others, The Watchmen.
This second TPB volume collects five storylines (the Dr. Who strip was serialized originally in England in short, often 3 to 8 page chapters), including "The Dogs of Doom", "The Time Witch", "Dragon's Claw", "The Collector" and "Dreamers of Death", with Pat Mills & John Wagner providing the script for the first story arc (as they had for all the stories collected in volume 1) and Steve Moore writing the rest, mixing some original foes with old stand-bys like the Daleks and the Sontarans.
(Just as an aside, the multi-chapter stories overlapped from issue to issue, but though Doctor Who Classic, vol. 1 is listed as reprinting issues #1-5 of the IDW series, it also includes the first few pages from #6 which concluded a storyline -- just so's ya know in case you were thinking of picking up volume one but were worried it might end "to be continued").
And the result...is mixed. Comics based on TV shows are always tricky, trying to capture the essence while translating it to the needs of the comics medium. Tom Baker's eccentric and mercurial performance inparticular is difficult to capture. And it could be argued the writers, at best, present a diluted version. Given that people's favourite Doctor is usually the actor they saw in their youth, one wonders if the writers modelled their characterization more on Baker's predecessor, Patrick Troughton -- with the Doctor saying things like "Dear me" and "Good Grief". Mills & Wagner attack their material with a greater sense of tongue-in-cheek than perhaps Moore does, who manages a little more sense of seriousness among the light-hearted (his story set at an ancient Chinese monastery is particularly strong).
Having to write to short chapters restricts what the writers can do in terms of character development. And humour. After all, part of the humour of Baker was how he would go off on tangents, or argue with K9 -- scenes that have to be left out (or truncated) when you only have a few pages to progress the story. In one scene, when the Doctor is told someone's name, he exclaims (!) as if in recognition...then says "never heard of her." You can easily picture Baker playing that joke...but it falls a bit flat in a single panel. For all that there is a sense of whimsy throughout -- I can't really think of too many scenes that actually made me chuckle.
And plot wise, there's less emphasis on machinations and characters plotting and more on just keeping things fast with running about (kind of like the modern TV series!). Still, it does make for some enjoyable, movie serial like adventures. And let's be honest...one assumes the writers were essentially aiming for a younger audience anyway.
I'm not a huge Gibbons fan, finding his figures can often seem a bit dumpy and stiff -- but there's no doubt he has a nicely realist style, and is well equipped to draw the space ships and corridors -- or ancient villages -- required by the plots. Considered against the cardboard sets of the TV episodes airing at the time, this does look like Doctor Who with an impressively big budget! But though he can evoke the basic look of Tom Baker, like with the scripts, he doesn't fully evoke the essence of Baker, who by virtue of his height and deep voice could be serious and intimidating in a scene as often as he was whimsical.
On TV, the Doctor was paired with an ever changing array of Companions. In the earlier Baker comics, he was on his own (either because the creators didn't have the rights to use likenesses of the other actors, or because the comics may have been written between Companions), but they soon solved that by creating an original companion -- Sharon (and also by throwing in the series' ubiquitous robot dog, K9). Unfortunately, Sharon isn't more than a place holder, with little sense the writers put much effort into creating a personality when contrasted with vivid Baker-era sidekicks like Leela or Romana. In fact she starts out a teenager...ages four years due to a quirk of time travel...but with little sense it affects her character or how Gibbons draws her! However, what is interesting is that Sharon is black, which maybe says something interesting about the difference between comics and TV. Because the TV series didn't offer a black Companion...for another few decades!
I can't really say reading this uncannily makes you feel like you're watching a lost batch of episodes. But it does capture enough of the essence to be familiar, with attractively rendered environments, and a rapid fire pacing that keeps you turning the pages.
A decent enough read.
This is a review of the story as it appeared in the Doctor Who Classic monthly comics.
Cover price: $__ CDN./ $19.99 USA.
Doctor Who: The Forgotten 2009 (SC TPB) 132 pages
Written by Tony Lee. Illustrated by Pia Guerra, Stefano Martino, Kelly Yates. Inks by various.
Colours: Charlie Kirchoff, Kris Carter, Liam Shalloo. Letters: Neil Uyetake, Richard Starkings. Editor: Chris Ryall, Tom Waltz, Denton J. Tipton.
Reprinting: Doctor Who: The Forgotten #1-6 (2008-2009)
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Reviewed November 17, 2009
Published by IDW Comics
Based on the long running British sci-fi TV series -- no, really loooonnnng running -- The Forgotten is a curious thing to review. 'Cause, in many ways, it's not very good. But, in many ways, it's not intended to be. And in many ways, you aren't really supposed to care.
The premise behind Dr. Who -- for those as don't know -- is that the titular hero (who's called simply The Doctor...the "who" part is just in the title) is an alien who travels through time and space, lives centuries, and has had an assortment of sidekicks (called Companions) over the years. And when his body suffers a near fatal trauma, he regenerates into a new form, usually with some new personality quirks, allowing various actors to assume the role over the years. So the gimmick behind the Forgotten is to tell a story that involves flashbacks to all his incarnations, some of whom have had little, if any, comic book adventures before, at least in comics readily available in North America.
So the story begins with the current version of the Doctor (played on TV by David Tennant) waking up in a mysterious museum, with one of his latest Companions, Martha Jones, at his side. The problem is, the Doctor has no idea where they are...nor even much memory of his own past. But the museum seems stocked with artifacts relevant to him personally, and as he handles various objects, he has flashbacks to adventures involving his earlier incarnations. The flashbacks not only filling in his memory, but supposedly providing clues to his current dilemma.
And that's why I say, in a way, the story isn't supposed to be good. Because it's less intended as a "great" story, and more as just a fanboy indulgence, involving appearances by all the Doctors and many of his Companions (there's even a sequence where a character shape shifts into even more of his former Companions). And the evocation of some of the past incarnations sometimes shows a nice sense of those versions (the two earliest flashbacks are in black & white, as the series was back then, and the first Doctor's tale is a purely historical episode -- as the series progressed, even "historical" adventures tended to be jazzed up with sci-fi elements). But perhaps reflecting writer Tony Lee's biases and preferences, other of the vignettes seem less specific to the incarnation (the 3rd Doctor being chased by a giant robot is perhaps not wholly evocative of that era when the series had an almost proto-X-Files flavour). Though in a brief scene where all the Doctors interact, Lee manages to nail many of the personalities with just a line or two.
But with some flashbacks as long as seven pages, they still too often fail to rise above being a vignette, though the stories improve as the comic progresses, showing a little more variety in the tales: the Sixth Doctor involved in a trial/murder mystery (itself an "homage" as the Sixth Doctor was involved in an epic TV arc where he was on trial), the Ninth Doctor in a little human interest tale.
And though the point is clearly to be a fanboy indulgence, as things progress, that maybe starts to interfere with story. I've seen episodes of pretty much all incarnations, I've read some novels, I've got a large collection of Doctor Who audio dramas (full cast radio plays featuring the original actors). But as the story moved closer and closer to the climax, I just found it harder and harder to follow what was going on, as instead of requiring simply recognizing the various Doctors and their Companions, the plot hinged on references to specific incidents -- ones I either didn't remember too well, or perhaps I hadn't seen. It goes from being aimed at fans...to be being aimed at hardcore fans.
Drawn initially by Pia Guerra, but with other artists coming in later, the art is a mixed bag. The various artists affect similar styles, the work a little cartoony and stiff. Guerra does a decent job evoking David Tennant and, to a lesser extent, Freema Ageyman (be still, my heart) but seems less enthused about the other incarnations she's called upon to draw -- oh, you can certainly tell who they're meant to be. The other artists have strengths and weaknesses, but are basically playing in the same sandbox, and with Guerra still staying slightly ahead of them.
It's long been a complaint of mine that media tie-in comics are often unsatisfyingly illustrated. I don't know whether it's because top-of-the-line artists aren't interested in doing them, or whether the nature of the material is rather challenging (with more emphasis on talking head scenes than a super hero comic, it's hard for an artist to make the scenes dynamic). And, of course, it's awfully hard to capture an actor's likeness...without seeming like it's just a cut-and-paste photoreferenced image.
But for a comic where the story is a bit thin and gimmicky, the art doesn't do much to shore up the weak spots. (If Guerra's having to bail out was due to overwork, they might've been better to have assigned different artists to the different flashbacks, allowing the change in visuals to seem dictated by the story format).
The Forgotten is, to be fair, a kind of irresistible concept for a Doctor Who fan, and maybe there wasn't much more that could be done with it, given how many flashbacks are involved. But it's the sort of thing that probably would've worked better as a shorter graphic novel, rather than stretched over six months and 132 pages.
This is a review of the story as it appeared in the comics.
Cover price: $__ CDN./ $19.99 USA.
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