I first remember coming across the cartooning genius of Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett in the Marvel UK titles in the very early 1980's. Titles such as "Marvel Super Adventure", "Super Spider-Man TV Comic" and the fabulous "Future Tense". These weekly magazines were my first real exposure to the world of US superheroes.
The comics reprinted things like Micronauts, Daredevil, Kirby's Black Panther, Defenders, Iron Man and strangely, Dazzler. Usually on the letters or editorial page was a short three panel comedy cartoon called "Earth 33 1/3".
Featuring a host of Marvel characters old and new, the strip was a quick "one-two-three" of corny jokes, puns and satire.
These proved to be so popular that at one point there were up to eight different humorous comics created by the pair and published across the Marvel UK line, including Fantastic 400, Jet Lagg, Bullpen Bedlam and The Fairly Amazing Spider-Hound. I remember that this culminated in the August 1983 publication of the one-off special "Channel 33 1/3" which reprinted some of the material along with the longer-form "I was Adolf''s Double". I had a copy for many years.
The team also produced another, film influenced, strip called "Flickers" for "Starburst" magazine between 1981 and 1985. I'd not heard of it until browsing the internet for some notes for this blog post (I wasn't a Starburst reader for some reason). I particularly like film critic Edward P. Sloth...
With issue 64 of Doctor Who Monthly, dated August 1982, Quinn and Howett began what could be argued as their most famous collaboration - "Doctor Who?". This new book from the always excellent Miwk Publishing sees a collection of every cartoon published in DWM, together with the full page comics from the various specials.
It's fascinating to see the evolution of the material. In the early days they were very much in the vein of the Earth 33 1/3 strips - quick little three-panel gags with the current Doctor and companions. For the 1982 and 1983 DWM Specials, Quinn and Howett had full pages to play with, which resulted in "So You Think You'd Make A Good Companion For Dr. Who!" and "Dr Who The Next 20 Years". These were obviously popular, because we then got the ten part "Doctor Who History Tour" which ran sporadically in DWM between issues 108 and 135 alongside the normal cartoons.
Expanding the scope beyond just the current Doctor, no actor, character or monster was safe from the relentless satire of the dynamic duo. Some of it was pretty broad - poor Colin Baker had jokes about his weight and there was stereotypical Scottish dialogue from McCoy. Even the production team came in for some gentle ribbing. JN-T was always depicted as a "hairy gooseberry" wearing a Hawaiian shirt covered in stars and planets and there were jokes about costume limitations and BBC cutbacks. .There was also a hilarious four page "unscreened edition" of An Unearthly Child in the 1983 Winter special.
From issue 146 of DWM onwards (March 1989) , the strips were promoted to full colour, and it's these that are of the most interest to me, as I had stopped buying the magazine regularly by this point. If anything the scripts get even wackier, with Ice Warrior acting classes, the Malus on a tube train, Bruce Forsyth as the Eighth Doctor, Ken Russell directing everyone in the nude and an unfortunate team up between Shockeye and the Kandyman. Oh and don't forget Pater Haining releasing an 'anniversary celebration' book at any opportunity and "Unlikely things to hear whilst viewing Dimension In Time". The last regular three panel comic appeared in DWM issue 225 (May 1995) with a one off reappearance for issue 350 (December 2004).
The middle section of the collection is taken up with complete reprints of the 64-page "Doctor Who Fun Book" and it's sequel "It's Bigger On The Inside" published in 1987 / 1988. These contained all-new material and allowed Quinn and Howett to break free of the usual restrictive format. Looking back, they most remind me of the comics annuals and summer specials I used to devour in my youth - the occasional longer-form story surrounded by jokes, single panel cartoons, illustrated and text features, puzzles, quizzes, fun facts and other assorted nonsense. Although I bought these at the time of release, I had forgotten the sheer inventiveness on display. Don't like a joke? Don't worry, there will be twenty more along on the next page. The double page spreads are just superb. The two magazines were a love-letter to the days of The Beano and The Dandy.
The final part is a real treasure trove of pretty much every other remaining rare scrap of Doctor Who related stuff produced by Quinn and Howett. This includes unused or changed strips, sketches, private commissions for Christmas cards and convention booklets and even work from the BBC staff magazine 'Ariel". Rounding it out is a selection of newspaper cuttings and private photos (I hadn't realised that Dicky played a BBC cameraman in "An Adventure In Space And Time"). The warning letter from Marvel management and the article on "Channel 33 1/3" being accused of breaking obscenity laws are fascinating inclusions. I really like the picture from the 80s of the two lads with Colin Baker - all three with luxuriant long curly hair! There is also a shot of Dicky on the 1988 ITV Telethon which I remember vividly. The last couple of pages reprints a lovely interview from the exquisite Vworp Vworp magazine of a few years ago.
For me the strips have not aged at all. They are still as relentlessly madcap and anarchic as I remember and captured the joy and love the gents had for the long-running show. The likenesses were not always spot on, but you could always tell who each figure was meant to be (Howett admits in the book that he struggled with some charactisations and was asked to reduce the size of Peri's breasts). The reproduction quality is also uniformly excellent. Pages have been carefully restored and where possible scanned from the original artwork. Miwk Publishing's books are always of high quality and this is no exception.
I have really fond memories of many of the cartoons included in this book and having everything all in one place means I can dip in and out at leisure (which will be often I'm sure). If you have any love for Doctor Who, humour strips or just comics in general, you owe it to yourself to get this book. You can buy it direct from Miwk Publishing here. Hurry because stock is becoming limited.
Can we have an Earth 33 1/3 collection now please?
I have a confession to make. There are some episodes of Doctor Who I have not seen. Ever.
I don't mean all the Hartnell or Troughton ones that were transmitted before I was born. Or the Missing Episodes which only exist in soundtrack and telesnap form. And I've talked before about how there were a handful of Pertwee stories which I had not seen before commencing this project - it's not those.
Remember that I first became a regular viewer and fan with Monster of Peladon and never missed an episode after that on transmission? Until now. I have reached the point at which I stopped watching Doctor Who.
Image of the Fendahl through to Underworld I've been trying to figure out what caused me to give up on my favourite show for 12 whole weeks - between 29th October and 1977 and 28th January 1978. While it's true that we had just completed the poorly realised 'Invisible Enemy', I don't think that would have been a trigger. I then thought that maybe it was the lure of Glen A Larson's 'Buck Rogers In The 25th Century' on rival UK channel ITV, but a quick check revealed that it didn't start transmission until August 1980 (concurrent with Who's eighteenth season). We might come back to that later...
So something on another channel broadcast during late 1977. Probably in the SF / fantasy genre (I can't imagine anything else distracting me from Who). A little bit more digging on the Interweb revealed the only possible culprit, and it's rather embarrassing. It appears that I gave up watching Doctor Who for this man:
Yes that's Patrick Duffy as Mark Harris, the 'Man From Atlantis'. Oh dear. What was I thinking?
I'll admit he *is* enigmatic (last survivor of Atlantis and all that). He does have gills and webbed fingers. He does swim in a very unusual fashion. I'm a sucker for pretty much any SF and fantasy TV show, but even this is stretching things.
Okay, so there are SF elements in the plots of most episodes - a rogue computer brain, giant jellyfish, a hypnotic mermaid. One week even features an underwater landslide which transports Mark to Verona, Italy in the days of Romeo and Juliet! It's hardly all of time and space in a box that's bigger on the inside though is it?
So I'm going to blame my mother. You might think that's a bit harsh, but hear me out - the facts stack up. Remember that in 1977 I'm only 10 years old. I don't control the TV remote (actually I'm not even sure if there was a remote back then). We don't get a video recorder for another couple of years. So maybe, just maybe, me being able to watch Doctor Who all this time was because the adults in the house didn't want to watch anything else.
Until along came Mr Duffy and his bare torso. Because he does wear nothing but a pair of tight swimming shorts most of the time. Yes that's it - my mum was won over by his good looks, winning smile and sculpted six pack. Poor old Tom Baker couldn't compete. Surely that has to be the reason. Doesn't it?
Anyway, whatever the explanation, it meant I missed twelve weeks of Doctor Who. But it's more than that, because these are three Tom Baker stories I have never seen - not once. I can't remember anything from the Target novels for these three adventures and the little I do know has only been absorbed through some kind of osmosis over the intervening years. The DVD's have been sitting on my shelf just waiting for the right time.
Here we go...
Image of the Fendahl What I do know: A glowing skull, a golden woman and a slug-like monster.
I can imagine that if I had seen this as a ten year old, it would have scared the hell out of me. Sure it plays with the old horror movie tropes - mysterious deaths in a village, meddling scientists inadvertently resurrecting an ancient evil - but it does it so well.
The opening sequence where Thea Ransome falls under the thrall of the glowing skull is made even more unsettling by the lack of Dudley Simpson's trademark music - just the ominous hum of the machinery and a subtle sound effect of the skull coming to life.
As an aside, a transparent skull would become a defining image during my early teenage life. A mere three years after 'Fendahl', in 1980, Yorkshire Television aired "Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World". This featured the infamous crystal skull in the opening titles and in one of the episodes. The series (and the concurrent launch of the part-work magazine "The Unexplained") launched my three year long semi-obsession with the paranormal, and mysteries such as UFO's, the Cottingley Fairies, stone circles, etc. I even remember doing an English studies spoken word piece at secondary school on spontaneous human combustion!
Back in Fetch Priory and the surrounding countryside it's all very atmospheric. Lot's of heavy mists, dark oak panelled corridors, tilted camera angles and shadowy corners. Yet again the incidental music is kept to a minimum, heightening the tension. The cliffhanger to part one is particularly effective.
The supporting cast are all good value. Fendelman starts out as your typical intense and obsessed scientist, but has a great reversal when it turns out he is misguided and is not the real human threat here. Stael is just mad as a box of frogs (with the googly eyes to match) - a soft-spoken, deluded maniac verging on the psychopathic. Colby is unusual as he has a wry, sarcastic personality and gets the lion's share of the funny lines. But best of all is the eccentric Mrs Tyler. Daphne Heard hams up the role for all its worth.
Tom of course is on fine form. Although he plays some of the story tongue in cheek - chatting with cows, sniffing the artefact in the lab - he is obviously enjoying himself and gives the plot the weight it needs, especially when the Doctor admits to being frightened by the gestalt entity from Gallifreyan legend.
The grotesque serpentine Fendahleen creatures are worthwhile - probably helped by the fact that they're not in it a lot. The dark shadows reinforce that something wet and slimy is hiding from you, leaving a disgusting mucous trail in the dark. Yes the mini-versions do look a little underwhelming but the overall design is a strong one and it makes a change from a bipedal obvious-man-in-suit monster.
So we have some mad goings on in a spooky old priory, an alien from the dawn of time tampering with human evolution, a coven performing ritualistic sacrifice and a threat so large that the Earth could be devastated in a single year. Perfect ingredients for a classic showdown? Well here's my only problem...
How does the Doctor beat this embodiment of death?. He throws some salt at it like a common garden slug! I guess I can see the parallels they were going for here, but it's a disappointingly easy resolution. Equally it's a shame that when the full orchestral music kicks in and Thea rises from the pentagram as the reborn Fendahl, it's as a golden empress with sinister eye-shadow, who does nothing more menacing than swishing her robes around the place and converting the unwitting acolytes into more Fendahleen, before she is quickly blown to kingdom come (The Brigadier would approve). Poor Wanda Ventham doesn't even get any meaty evil dialogue after enduring her full body makeover. I'm quibbling though - it's all lovely stuff and would not have been out of place in the Hinchcliffe era. The final implosion of the Time Scanner shows off some impressive pyrotechnics too.
In conclusion, perhaps the most disturbing element is when Stael is given a gun to commit suicide rather than be transformed into a Fendahleen. With all the noise made by Mary Whitehouse about the horror elements in the previous seasons, it's this scene which is maybe a step too far. I wonder what my ten year-old self would have made of it?
The Sunmakers What I do know: Something about tax. The bad guy is the host of the fondly remembered educational series "Words & Pictures".
So by all accounts this is meant to be an incredibly witty satire on the high taxation policy of the UK government in the 1970's, written because Bob Holmes had a particularly large tax bill to pay which teed him off no end. So why is it that I struggled with the terrible costumes, the cardboard props, the bad acting and the by-the-numbers plot?
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not some fat cat gloating in my mansion, dictating this to my flunky while reclining on my fur covered chaise-lounge. Doctor Who hasn't been this overtly political since the Pertwee era of pompous Whitehall bureaucrats - and I can see the obvious and distressing parallels to modern day society. Pluto is a sad and depressing place to exist, where the workers are ground down so much that suicide seems like an acceptable option. It's a dark element to kick the story off with.
However, the plot seems to be the standard "Doctor inspires rebellion against a totalitarian regime" plus a largely forgettable game of capture - release - capture with some added comedy driving from Leela. This might even be where the "running down corridors" phrase came from. Okay, so that's perhaps a bit harsh. It's not the classic work from Robert Holmes we have come to expect, but the world-building is excellent - drip feeding little nuggets of information. All that stuff about Wurgs and Keeks and Citizen Kandor is lovely.
Aaaand then we get Gatherer Hade in his hideous purple robe, delivering all his lines in an irritating silly voice - sounding like someone out of "This Is Jinsy" or, slightly earlier, Mathesar from "Galaxy Quest". While the characters in that TV show / movie are surreal and funny, Hade is just bloody annoying. The only thing he has going for him is his ever expanding obsequious vocabulary and increasingly offensive terms of reverence ("Your grossness, omniscience, audacity, monstrosity, corpulesence..."). Otherwise I have to ask, how did someone this ham-fisted incompetent get to such a position of power?
I will admit that the real-world locations for the Undercity do make a great backdrop - all those regular concrete shapes - and the lighting is pretty good with plenty of shadows. The rebel bands costumes also look so much better on film. It's just that for someone like me who has never seen this before, the location does make the serial seem like an episode of Blakes' 7. That feeling is strengthened by the Dudley Simpson music, the overall "orangey brown-ness" of everything, and the appearance of Michael Keating - plus even the guard helmets are prototypes of the Federation ones. Oh and don't forget drugging the citizens into compliance. Squint slightly and Avon could be hiding round the next corner. I wonder if Terry Nation and Bob Holmes got drunk in the BBC bar one night and swapped ideas?
Other scenes I liked? Where Leela is imprisoned hanging off the wall at a 45 degree angle and the steamer scene with references to "excellent duodecaphonic sound". How very 1970s.
It's probably around this time that Tom started being difficult and making his own script up as he went along, without a strong enough producer to reign him in. There's inventive, there's manic and there's Tom being all over the place, hopping around and generally behaving like a total loon - although I did like the bit where he hit his head on the scenery! Certainly the Doctor and Leela seem to snap at each other quite a lot and the "comedy" dialogue between them is very laboured. That could have all been in the script though.
Once again everyone seems to be deaf as they don't notice that K-9 sounds like someone shaking a box of spanners. Really with K-9 Mark I they should have treated him like Kamelion and found any excuse to leave him behind in the TARDIS. I suppose he does have his uses though as it now appears he can shoot round corners. Just as well as the rebels are a thoroughly unlikely and unlikeable bunch of revolutionaries. Only Cordo seems to have the ideological zeal, but I'm not sure he will be any better in charge than the regime he is trying to overthrow.
In fact the revolution is over a bit too quickly and a bit too easily. Storm one tiny room. Pull a few levers. Disperse the gas. Job done. It brings all that world-building crashing down. So the entire city population has been ready to revolt, it was just the gas that was suppressing them? Hmmmm....
Plus we get a disturbing conclusion that conveys the impression that throwing people off rooftops is hilarious and justified. I'm surprised Mary Whitehouse didn't have kittens.
The redeeming factor is of course The Collector. A wonderfully sadistic and toad-like turn from Henry Wolff, with his Dennis Healy eyebrows, cackling voice (which oddly didn't annoy me like Gatherer Hade) and his overwhelming glee at the continued profits of The Company at the expense of the grinding oppression of the masses. I especially liked it when he started spinning round in circles raving about the "vicious doctrine of egalitarianism".
The final confrontation with the Doctor (sorry, "Dok-Tor") also contains some of the best dialogue in the whole serial, although I could have done without the comedy "boing " effect when The Collector hit his big red button. His constant interrogations of "9-Zero-9" (which I presumed was his computer) for some reason made me think of 7-Zark-7 from "Battle of the Planets".
It was also a clever idea that beneath the veneer of a profit mad businessman - enslaving the population until the resources run out - was just another weak, feeble creature. The Collector screams and sulks as he oozes off down the drain. It's one of the few elements of the story that I can remember seeing before somewhere.
So actually, The Sunmakers is not all bad. It just needs a bit of tweaking here and there to remove the pantomime elements and beef up the production values.
Underworld What I do know: Based on Greek myth. Lots and lots of CSO
Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way. Yes it's basically Jason and the Argonauts in deep space. P7E is Persephone, Orfe is Orpheus, Herrick is Hercules, Jackson is Jason, etc., etc. If you don't work it out during the four episodes, the Doctor rams it home at the story's end. In fact the pilfered plot is Underworld's greatest asset. The other plus point is the excellent model and physical set design work. The opening shots of the Minyan ship flying through space are superb. The interior command deck is also well realised with a dilapidated look that reminded me of a mausoleum.
The conceit of a decaying run down spacecraft at the edge of the universe on a quest that has lasted 100,000 years is also a good one. What would it be like to have lived for all that time, constantly renewing your body, in pursuit of a single goal? Surely such a bleak long voyage would drive you borderline insane? As the Doctor says, it's the SF equivalent of the Flying Dutchman.
Add in some revelations of the historical link between Gallifrey and Minyos and why the Time Lords adopted their policy of non-intervention and you have some great core ingredients for a mythic tale.
Of course Dave and Bob do like a good catchphrase, so we get "The Quest Is The Quest", which signifies - precisely nothing. At least when you heard "Contact has been made" it meant that The Swarm had taken over another body. This is equivalent of me saying "My Job Is My Job", the kind of facetious nonsense that would get me a good slap. Maybe the crew have gone bonkers after all.
Nope. Instead of being weary and psychologically broken as the dialogue suggests, the Minyan space crew are mostly bland. Maybe all that semi- regeneration has sucked the personality out of them instead. It's not helped by the fact that a couple of them are terrible thespians, especially Imogen Bickford-Smith who plays Gwyneth Paltrow a-like Tala. She takes underacting to new depths. By contrast Alan Lake throws himself into the role of Herrick and gives Tom a run for his money with his mad-eyes and booming voice.
There's a bit of a lack of consistent logic going on at this early stage. Jackson describes the Minyans as "A ship of ghosts...going on and on and unable to remember why". Then in his very next sentence he manages to describe exactly what they are doing *and* why!
It's not too bad though as the plot rattles along. In very short succession we get the arrival of the TARDIS crew, some confusion, a history lesson, some technobabble, some exposition and finally imminent danger as the R1C is going to be sucked into a space nebula whirlpool (that's Charybdis ticked off the list then). The effect of the ship being covered in rocks attracted to it's gravity is pretty impressive. So far so good for episode one. A shame all that goodwill is about to be wasted.
After K-9 intones "You have penetration" (ooo-er) and the ship crash lands into the planet we descend into... well all those of you who have seen Underworld before know what it is - It's CSO a-go-go.
Now the superimposed caves are not as bad as their reputation led me to believe. Accepting the huge constraints the production team were under and the level of this technology in the late 1970s, the results are not totally without merit. I love Doctor Who - I'm more than happy to overlook a few dodgy effects.The main problem is that the virtual sets have no weight or atmosphere to them, plus it's quite obvious that there really are only a couple of models which are repeated over and over again. At one point Herrick puts a marker on a rock so they don't get lost. He needn't have worried, as there appear to be only two corridors in the whole complex.
Costume-wise, the Minyan spacesuits have great tubing all over them, and helmets shaped like the rubber on the end of a pencil - which I really like. However in predictable style, the bullied Trogs are in sackcloth or hoodies while the guards are in natty black uniforms, with masks with multiple gimlet eye holes (goodness knows why as they look like normal humans underneath). They might be great at macho posturing but are really totally bloody useless - not even realising they are being gassed at the start of part three when their colleagues are falling down unconscious around them. Let's talk about the cliffhangers for a minute, as they get progressively worse throughout the story. Part one has the rocks hurtling towards the R1C. That was pretty good. Part two has the Doctor ineffectually waving his scarf at some fake smoke which looks about as dangerous as steam from my shower. It's not great but I'll let it slide. Part three has the appalling mine cart tipping sequence. The idea of the Doctor and Leela falling into the rock crusher is a nice dramatic one, but it's so poorly directed that not only is it borderline incoherent, there is also no sense of peril at all. We don't even see our two heroes fall out or scream in fear! After the incredibly long recap they just get pulled up from the ledge and then give up trying to get into the Citadel that way. So what was the point of it in plot terms, apart from to pad out a story that is already treading water like there's no tomorrow? (We've already been treated to almost a whole episode where nothing happened, endless long shots of K-9 trundling along and guard chases where they fall over in the same place every time).
The better ending for part three would have been the torture of Herrick (complete with "Green Death" headphones) and the revelation of the true nature of the Seers. Imagine seeing those impressive metallic faces (like something out of the old 1940's Republic serial "King Of The Rocketmen") as the cliffhanger scream kicked in! Sadly it's robbed of all it's dramatic impact by something that makes no sense instead. By the way, did I miss the explanation as to why they look that way (their dialogue was quite muffled by the helmets), or is it just "they're machines"?
Speaking of which, what the hell was the Oracle - beyond yet another megalomaniacal machine? Was it the P7E's ship computer gone mad? Why was it insane in the first place? Why does it have spare copies of the Race Banks, when it has no reason to suspect that any other being in the universe even knows they exist? Apart from being derivative of countless Doctor Who stories before it, the Oracle instils no fear or sense of menace and apart from some nice sarcastic dialogue from the Doctor - "superheated junk with delusions of grandeur" - the confrontation with it is an anti-climax. I think then that the real problem with Underworld is not down to a lack of imagination with the original story idea, or the extensive use of primitive CSO techniques, but the fact that due to a script that doesn't hang together properly, actors on autopilot mode and insipid direction it's just...dull. The production team get some points for trying something bold and ambitious under difficult circumstances, but perhaps someone needed to tell the Bristol Boys to focus on developing character and consistent internal logic and they should have hired a director who could, you know, direct. It's flawed from the start, and no amount of money on real sets would have changed that. How much better would it have been if the Minyans had really been these guys?
Next time I'll be back from my misguided sojourn to Atlantis (shudder) as we say goodbye to the lovely Leela.
Some of my fondest early memories are of trips to my grandparents in Suffolk, where I would beg to visit the newsagents, so I could root around in the cardboard box of old comics he kept - five for ten pence. Copies of Buster, Cor!, Whizzer and Chips, The Beezer, Shiver and Shake. Monster Fun...
Actually I need to do a separate post on Monster Fun, as I remember liking that one a lot.
Anyway, I bought as many as my pocket money would allow and devoured them avidly while laying on a rug in the garden during those endless school holiday summers we just don't seem to get any more.
There were occasional copies of TV Century 21, Countdown and the like. Maybe they were more expensive and I preferred to get more comics for my ten pence. Or maybe they were not that well distributed in my area. I can't really recall. I do remember seeing some of those early Doctor Who strips though.
I bought more comics at home through "jumble" sales (the precursor to today's boot sales). Comics sold in rolls of ten tied up with elastic bands. There was always a pile in the corner of my bedroom. In between all the books there were always comics.
But ultimately these were disposable entertainment. One or two page comedy strips with cartoon characters and no ongoing plot. There were a few adventure stories - General Jumbo, The Steel Claw and Adam Eterno perhaps (my memory may be getting timelines mixed up) but these tended to be all over in one issue. Who cared if they got ripped, or lost or coloured in with felt tip pens?
Then in February 1976, when I was almost nine years old, something came along that changed all that. "Action" comic had arrived.
Nowadays most UK comics fans know the genesis of Action, but I'll recap briefly.
The UK comics industry of the 1970's was pretty much dominated by two major companies - DC Thomson and Fleetway / IPC. Thomson were publishers of the Beano, Dandy and Beezer. IPC produced Buster, Whizzer and Chips, etc. I'm pretty sure that read more IPC comics than any others.
Although at this point we were 30 years on from the end of World War II, the conflict was still a big presence in people's minds. In 1974, DC Thompson released "Warlord" - an adventure strip comic for boys focussing on stories set during the war. It was a huge success.
In response, IPC tasked comics legends Pat Mills and John Wagner to create a rival comic - "Battle Picture Weekly". This was also enormously popular, and contained some strips now regarded as outright classics (although I didn't read the strips until much, much later, having no interest in an all-war comic at the time).
Wanting to capitalise on the success of "Battle", IPC decided they wanted something similar but with a more contemporary feel. Springing from Mills' mind against a backdrop of social unrest in the UK and huge changes in fashion and music, it was revolutionary. This was a comic freely ripping off Hollywood with a unique British slant, pushing the boundaries and setting out to shock.
Of course at age eight I wasn't aware of any of this. All I knew was that "Action" was like a lightning bolt directly into my brain. Even now those early issue are indelibly stamped into my memory.
The movie and social influences are obvious in those first strips. "Dredger" was a British Dirty Harry. "Look Out For Lefty" included elements of football hooliganism which was a very hot topic at the time. "BlackJack" - the story of a black boxer who is in danger of losing his sight - actually prefigured "Rocky" by a good few months. "Hellman of Hammer Force" was a WWII story but with the Nazi major as the anti-hero. Then there was "Hook Jaw"...
Blatantly ripped off from "Jaws", Hook Jaw turned the gigantic man-eating Great White shark into the hero of the story, pitting him against corrupt or criminal humans looking to exploit the oceans. Illustrated in gory detail (often in glorious blood-soaked colour in the centre pages) Hook Jaw was the breakout star of Action, treating us mere mortals as nothing more than a food supply to be ripped apart.
A controversial inclusion right from the start, Mills had no problem with killing off as many humans as possible in as many grisly ways as possible, while maintaining an environmental undercurrent. What kid wouldn't love it? It was the talk of my playground.
In fact Mills kept pushing the boundaries, when in issue 31, Hook Jaw actually manages to kill the human 'hero' who has been pursuing him since issue one, leaving just his severed head...
I remember that panel so clearly. A real shocking cliffhanger.
As enjoyable as Hook Jaw was, it took until issue 13 for my own personal favourite story to turn up - the "Rollerball" inspired "Death Game 1999".
Set in a dystopian future (1999 seemed *such* as long way off to a young boy sat in 1976) the premise was that teams of criminals on death row or with life sentences competed in the ultra violent sport Spinball to try and win their freedom.
Spinball was a mash-up of ice hockey, motorcycle derby and insanely, pinball - with gigantic flippers and bumpers flinging steel balls at the poorly protected players at high speed. There was more than a hint of the ancient gladiatorial arena, with the bloodthirsty crowds hungry to watch the next poor soul be smashed in the face by a ball, or mangled under the spiked wheels of a roaring motorcycle.
They get their wish in the very first instalment, when 'Karson City Killers' Captain Al Rico attempts a 'Death Run' against the whole of the opposing team to get his coveted million points and a full pardon. Sadly his quest to gain the black pin results in him being crushed to a bloody pulp by one of the flippers against the wall of the Spinball-drome.
(some early Ian Gibson work there)
Meanwhile, washed up football star Joe Taggart is mistakenly accused of beating someone to death. Using his influence, corrupt Karson City governor Henry Smailes arranges for Taggart to be incarcerated at his prison, and coerces him into becoming the new leader of the Spinball team. Thus the stage is set for an epic battle of wills against a backdrop of a gory sport where death is an almost certainty.
Veteran writer Tom Tully cleverly layers the plot across several weeks as Taggart gradually builds a new squad and starts to win the respect of his fellow inmates - despite losing a few along the way in a number of savage games - all to further his goal of completing a Death Run and getting out of prison. Eventually Smailes realises that his star player is getting a little too popular with the fans and decides to bump him off.
Secretly, the governor has kept the hideously injured Al Rico on ice, and with the aid of the aptly named Doctor Jekyll, turned him into a rampaging hate-filled cyborg with only one mission - kill Joe Taggart!
Now you know how certain images will stick in your mind? Well that drawing above of the cyborg Rico smashing his way out of his cell positively haunted me for weeks. I felt uncomfortable looking at it, yet couldn't help but keep going back to the issue and taking another peek. It was probably one of my first experiences of the influential power of comics. Death Game 1999 was futuristic, violent, brutal and I loved every panel.
In the end, Action became a victim of it's own success at stretching the limits of what was possible in a British boys comic of the 1970's. The grim and gritty storylines and graphic violence (particularly in a strip called "Kids Rule OK") drew the attention of the media over the hot summer months. They went to town with lurid headlines like "Comic Strip Hooligans!", dubbing the comic "the seven penny nightmare". Doctor Who's deadliest enemy, the moral activist Mary Whitehouse, got involved and started a campaign to get Action banned.
Editor John Sanders faced an antagonistic interview abut the comic on an early evening news show on BBC1. Publishers IPC then began to get pressure from the main high street retailers ,who threatened to not only withdraw Action, but all IPC magazines from their shelves. Finally, after issue 36 had been published in October 1976, they caved in and pulled the comic from sale, pulping the next issue completely.
Now while I do recollect seeing the TV interview ("they're talking about my comic" I said to my parents), I knew nothing else about the drama going on behind the scenes. All I noticed was that when I rode my bike to the newsagents on that Saturday morning in October to get a newspaper for my dad, Action was suddenly no longer there to buy. I was slightly annoyed to say the least!
Eventually, five weeks later, Action did return to the shelves, but it was a shadow of it's former self. Scripts had been amended, violence reduced and gory deaths were non existent.To be honest I can't recall how much I noticed the difference, because my memories of that time are mixed up with what my adult self knows now about the changes. In any case, the neutered comic limped on for another 12 months before merging with "Battle".
One thing that I do remember though is that Death Game 1999 wrapped it's storyline up incredibly quickly in four short pages, changing it's name in the process to the less objectionable "Spinball" (followed by "Spinball Slaves" and "Spinball Wars"). Although markedly less violent, the successor strips are at least notable for featuring early work by Massimo Bellardinelli and later some simply superb illustrations by Ron Turner:
Action may have been castrated, but it's legacy was huge - both in the industry and with me personally. I would never be satisfied with simple old humour strips again. I wanted adventure comics - the more SF flavoured the better. Luckily, in a few short months I would get my wish - Pat Mills had taken the lessons he learned from the Action controversy and applied them to his next comic launch - a title that looked to the future for it's inspiration.
If you have any interest in "cult" theatre, film and television, then I'm sure you are already aware of the phenomenon of "The Rocky Horror Show". It's one of the most popular musicals of all time - an outrageously camp classic. Even more people are probably familiar with the film version thanks to the career-defining performance from Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter. The most famous song, "The Time Warp" has seeped into the public consciousness to such a degree that it's played at parties and weddings all over the world. Personally I've seen the stage show about a dozen times and the film over a hundred.
What a lot of people won't know is that creator Richard O'Brien (for those of a certain age forever the host of "The Crystal Maze" game show) wrote a musical "sequel" to "Rocky Horror" - and it's really rather good.
"Shock Treatment" was released into cinemas in 1981. All-American couple Brad and Janet Majors re-appear, while O'Brien and other well-known actors from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" portray new characters.
The plot? Well, although it's supposedly set several years after the climactic events of "Rocky Horror", it's not exactly a sequel - more of an "equal". I'll try to give you a brief (ish) summary:
"Shock Treatment" sees Brad (Cliff De Young) & Janet's (Jessica Harper) entire home town of Denton (USA) turned into a 24-house reality TV station under the control of the mysterious Farley Flavors. With their marriage suffering, the hapless couple are chosen to try and resolve their difficulties on live TV as contestants on "Marriage Maze", hosted by (supposedly) blind Austrian Bert Schnick (Barry Humphries).
Janet is tricked into believing that Brad has physiological problems and that committing him to the "Dentonvale" insane asylum - under the dubious care of Doctors Cosmo and Nation McKinley (Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn) - will be the only way to save him. Cosmo has Brad drugged, bound and gagged, and placed in a padded cell.
The enigmatic Farley Flavors plans to use the power of Denton television to create a new type of entertainment - "Faith Factory" - with Janet as the perfect "girl next door" face of his psychological reality show. Janet is persuaded that this new exciting life will make her desirable to Brad again. Cosmo also designs a sexy new outfit for her, transforming her into "Miss Mental Health".
Manufactured into an overnight sensation, the fame goes to Janet's head, causing her to forget about repairing her marriage with Brad. With her ego out of control, the McKinley's drug her to keep her manageable.
Meanwhile, Judge Wright (Charles Gray) and Betty Hapschatt (Ruby Wax), look into the histories of Farley and the McKinleys, suspecting that there is a sinister motive behind "Faith Factory." Hacking into DTV's computer system, Betty learns that the Doctors are in fact just character actors and that Brad isn't in a real hospital at all. It's all a sham.
"Faith Factory" goes on the air with Janet front and centre in her drugged state. In disguise, Judge Wright and Betty break Brad out of "Dentonvale". It transpires that Farley is really Brad's long lost twin brother, who wants to destroy Brad's life and seduce Janet out of jealousy. Brad finally confronts Farley face-to-face about his plans and at the last moment Janet snaps out of her ego-trip and comes to her senses.
Angrily, Farley has them all arrested, and convinces the entire population of Denton (the studio audience) to join him in Dentonvale asylum, to which they readily agree!
Brad, Janet, Betty and the Judge escape out of the deserted studio and the town itself, leaving Denton far behind, but with their hopes and ideals intact...
The film is full of outlandish quirky performances (including one from a very young Rik Mayall) and O'Brien's trademark catchy songs - such as "Bitchin' In The Kitchen", "Little Black Dress", "Looking For Trade" and "Duel Duet". It's also a biting satire on the public obsession with television and eerily predicts the rise of reality shows.You can listen to the whole sensational soundtrack here -
The film should have been a resounding success. It deserved to be. Instead it flopped badly - even more than Rocky Horror did. It never got a proper commercial release and was consigned to the trashcan of history, only fondly remembered by fans (including the BBC's own film critic, Mark Kermode). Apart from the DVD release and the occasional midnight screenings, that was it for Brad and Janet. Until now...
You see, this post isn't really about the movie version of Shock Treatment, as fabulous as that is. All of the above is just a preamble (and necessary backstory) to my trip to see the brand new first-time-ever stage show.
That no one has attempted to do a stage version of Shock Treatment before now is baffling. Perhaps Richard O'Brien was just waiting for the right moment? I have read that he gave Tom Crowley the rights to adapt it with the proviso that it only be performed at a small independent theatre - much like Rocky Horror's humble beginnings at Upstairs at the Royal Court.
The chance to see this possibly once in a lifetime event was too good to miss. So, at midnight on a Friday at the beginning of May 2015, myself and friend Betsy Chevron (of 'Binro Was Right' podcast fame) found ourselves at the King's Head Theatre in the London borough of Islington.
And the King's Head *is* small. Tucked away in the back room behind the bar of the pub, it's apparently the first and longest operating pub theatre in the UK. Fighting our way through the hordes of late night drinkers, we entered this compact space to find just a few rows of seats and a tiny stage. It must only hold around 60 people at best and the performance area is level with the audience. In fact we were in the front row and felt that we were *on* the stage. If I had stretched out my legs I would have tripped the performers up!
Two orange boiler suited TV minions in dark glasses welcomed us, making sardonic quips and getting everyone seated. The four piece band squeezed into the corner started up the Overture and the lights went down...
Now the very nature of creating a theatrical performance instead of a film has meant that there have had to be some changes made to the story. Gone is the reveal of Farley Flavors as Brad's twin brother (which would have been impossible to pull off unless you had real twins available). Also absent are ancillary characters such as Bert Schnick, the Judge, Janet's parents and Macy Struthers. It's a pared back story, a smaller cast and a simple layout - just one white set doubling as TV studio and asylum - with clever use of a minimal plastic screen, some curtains and a "hospital stretcher". Despite these seeming limitations the core story is not lost at all and the cast fling themselves around with gusto.
The small setting also means that the show really interacts with the viewing public. Doctors Cosmo and Nation McKinley first appear from within the audience and at several points actors climb over the seats, dance up and down the short aisle, sing directly to individual people and even sit on the laps of the lucky few at the front (not me sadly).
As for the cast? Well there are some fantastic performances throughout. I was already familiar with Julie Atherton from her time in Avenue Q (another tremendous subversive musical), so there were no concerns about her singing ability in the part of Janet Majors. She is charming as the dowdy wife and then really vamps it up in that oh so tight little black dress and the even tighter PVC nurses uniform - neither of which leave anything to the imagination.
Ben Kerr plays Brad well as the quiet, rather dull and dutiful husband. He has a good voice but I felt he was let down during "Bitchin' In The Kitchen' by some poor sound issues. It's a shame that he has very little to do during most of the show apart from pretend to be drugged in a wheelchair. Saying that, he does belt out a reprise of "In My Own Way" near the end while dressed in only white underpants and socks. Brave man.
With the dubious Doctors McKinley, they have wisely stayed away making them look like Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn, although there is a hint of Riff-Raff and Magenta in some of the delivery. Adam Rhys-Davies and Nic Lamont are as wacky as you would expect, with a nice line in sarcastic put downs and innuendo laden commentary. I was fascinated by the way Cosmo twisted his lips when speaking and it was only later I realised that it reminded me of a cross between Timmy Mallett and Dame Edna.
Rhys-Davies also seemed to have a lot of fun in trying to make the other cast members laugh. There was a great scene where he is measuring Janet for her Little Black Dress and his hand is *way* up her skirt. Julie Atherton let out a small squeak. "Hand a little too high there?" Adam quipped, and they both tried to stifle a giggle. He then continues to "see-saw" the tape measure back and forth between her legs, while Julie tried to control herself. "You'd better wash that afterwards..." she spluttered - at which point Adam proceeded to lick the length of the tape, before turning to the audience and declaring "Tell me you wouldn't !"
As Betty Hapschatt, Rosanna Hyland was principally there to move the plot along, although she was also charming and funny and gorgeous in equal measure. She does acquit her self admirably in the ensemble song and dance routines and I was treated to a little kiss at one point...
The stand out star of the show though is Mateo Oxley as Ralph Hapschatt. Yes, his performance is an outrageously camp caricature, but it's never anything less than hilarious. With his rubber face and superb comic timing, he gets many of the nights best laughs. Ralph also has a much larger musical presence now, with a couple of big numbers - "Thank God I’m A Man" and "Breaking Out" - to himself, plus excellent support against Janet in "Little Black Dress" and "Me Of Me".
The switch around in songs is another effect of this being a stage show not a film, but it does work. All the favourites are present, just occasionally with different singers and maybe an extra or missing verse. The most obvious amendment is where "Looking For Trade" becomes "Looking For Fame", but it does make narrative sense and in our "famous for doing nothing" obsessed times it perhaps has even more resonance. There are also a few "Easter eggs " for fans peppered throughout the script - a quick "Dammit, Janet" got a big laugh.
Perhaps the one fly in the ointment was Mark Little (once Joe Mangle of Aussie opera Neighbours) as the megalomaniacal media mogul Farley Flavors. Although he had some charisma and presence in his gleaming white plastic suit and devilish looking beard - wildly extolling the virtues of "Faith Factory" and seductively whispering "Time is tight, Janet. Do It right, Janet. Until tonight, Janet..." - he ultimately was not very convincing and seemed at odds with the rest of the quality cast. He also has *no* singing ability. A terrible attempt at musicality in his first song is then mercifully replaced by William Shatner-esque talking for the rest of the show. He almost gets away with it, but for me it spoiled one of my favourite songs, the powerful "Duel Duet". Ben Kerr as Brad is singing his heart out and Little is just completely unable to keep up with the melody or the complicated lyrics. It's a real shame and the only point at which the casting fails slightly.
In the finale, after the exuberant rendition of "Anyhow, Anyhow" and well-deserved applause for the band, we were treated to the sight of the entire cast returning to the front in little black dresses for one last reprise. Their enthusiastic can-canning caused Betsy to remark "Well, I never expected to see Joe Mangel's junk tonight...". Oh, and suddenly I was pulled up on stage to dance with another member of the audience! The perils of sitting in the front row I guess!
The most important thing to realise about Shock Treatment is that it's just a huge amount of fun. It's camp, it's sexy and just a little bit naughty. The cast are clearly having a ball and the audience are made to feel a real part of the overall experience. Many people were obvious fans and were happily singing along. But even if you have no knowledge of the show's history, I dare you not to leave with a huge grin on your face and those endlessly catchy songs reverberating round in your head.
One final note - the images I could find to post here are mainly promo shots, so don't really show off the excellent costumes and makeup work.
The show is running until 6th June 2015. I'd really recommend it for a fantastic night out.
Tickets and details for the King's Head Theatre can be found here
"So look out Mister, don't you blow your last resistor for a sister that'll certify ya..."
