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UK based Titan Comics brought plenty of Doctor Who comic news across the pond for their appearance at SDCC. In addition to assembling some of the artists and writers behind their SDCC 2015 exclusive story and upcoming four Doctor crossover, panel moderator and Executive Editor Andrew James announced a new mini-series and holiday special both coming this Fall.

The panel kicked off with Senior Editor Steve White leading the room in singing Happy Birthday to Ninth Doctor series artist George Mann before James took the podium to premiere a teaser trailer for the forthcoming four Doctor crossover as series writer Paul Cornell looked on. Fans got a taste of never before seen artwork from series artist Neil Edwards, including an image of Doctors Ten, Eleven and Twelve gathered around the TARDIS console with companions Gabby, Alice and Clara. A title card proclaimed the crossover would feature four companions, which begs the question of who the fourth might be.

The crossover hits stores August 12 to coincide with the second annual Doctor Who comics day the following Saturday, August 15. The celebration will feature appearances from Doctor Who comics creators “at over 2,000 stores and libraries world-wide,” according to James.

“This all comes about because Clara Oswald desperately tries to prevent what she refers to as ‘some kind of multi-Doctor event’ which she doesn’t want to happen,” said Cornell, describing the basic premise of the series. “Thankfully, she fails to do that completely.” As with any multi-Doctor tale, from early seventies television serial “The Three Doctors” on down through 2013’s “Day of the Doctor,” disagreements and power struggles between the iterations take center stage.

“Ten and Twelve really don’t see eye to eye. Twelve can’t explain how he’s even alive to the other two,” Cornell said, noting that the story takes place before Doctors Ten and Eleven meet up in “Day of the Doctor.” He acknowledged that how the pair don’t remember this earlier encounter is one of the main points his series will have to explain.

“Ten thinks Twelve must have done something diabolical to even exist, he calls him an ‘abomination.’ And Twelve says, ‘Abomination? Dalek word. Nice.'” Cornell’s take on the Twelfth Doctor includes further witticisms such as his referring to Doctors Ten and Eleven as “Manic Pixie Dream Doctors,” leaving the Eleventh Doctor in the unenviable position of trying to help the other two manage to get along. He promised that the story, which he said was “all about a photograph, the nature of which means the end of the universe,” would feature some compelling cliffhangers, lots of old monsters and some surprise cameos.

Cornell wrapped up by saying: “All the Doctor Who titles are coming to a halt to clear the way for this for five weeks, and then they’ll all be relaunched again with any survivors.”

One of those titles is the recently launched Ninth Doctor comic series. To the right of Cornell on the panel was Cavan Scott and Blair Shedd, respectively the writer and artist behind the series. Scott remarked that he couldn’t quite believe he was writing for a Doctor that had already reached the 10th anniversary of their appearance and then death.

“We wanted to do a big event to celebrate that,” Scott said, “and wanted to do things we hadn’t seen the Doctor do very often in that year.” He said that Nine is still dealing with the Time War, leaving him a “very, very raw, a man who’s remembering how to be the Doctor.” Scott felt the TARDIS team of Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness helped the Doctor with that, saying he loved the brilliant way that group interacted. He also noted the flirting between Jack and the Doctor and Rose, which he likened to a love triangle that was perpetually spinning.

In terms of story, Scott explained that annihilation of the Time Lords left a “vacuum of power” that two warring factions are vying to fill. This leads the Ninth Doctor, Scott said, “to come face to face with people who are saying, ‘We are the new champions of Time’ and he might not like that.”

Scott added another Doctor to the growing roster of Time Lords he’s written for when he paired with Mann on writing duties for the SDCC exclusive story “Selfie.” James explained that the origins of the Con-centric story, which he described as a “delight” to work on, lay truly with the writers as his brief for the tale only asked that they do a story set in San Diego with the Twelfth Doctor and Clara.

“We spent an evening on Skype arguing, basically,” said Mann, who elaborated that the loose brief from James gave them the freedom to go anywhere in the city, but that both writers agreed they wanted to do a story at the convention center which they saw as “the heart of comics.” This was why the story opens with the TARDIS landing in the middle of the convention’s main floor,  in a full-page shot that James explained took artist Rachael Stott weeks to complete as she kept adding detail and costumes for con goers that referenced a variety of fandoms.

Scott said he and Mann asked themselves what summed up a convention these days and decided it was the many selfies taken by attendees. This led to the concept of an alien that could only be seen in selfies, and what endgame such a creature would have. “So if you look on your phones and see this,” Scott intoned in an ominous voice, gesturing to a slide showing a panel of the alien, “run.”

James segued into the announcement portion of the panel by saying that the Titan editors so loved Stott’s work on “Selfie” that she was the first artist invited to work on year two of the Twelfth Doctor series. Stott will support returning writer Robbie Morrison. “Selfie” writing team Scott and Mann will also return to a Twelfth Doctor story in a holiday special due out in early December. “Doctor Who is synonymous with Christmas back in the UK and around the world,” James said, “but we’re going to go slightly more international with the holiday.”

The other big announcement from the panel was the release of a new mini-series featuring the Eighth Doctor. James showed a slide of the series’ issue one cover by Alice X. Zhang, whose oil painting-style imagery depicts actor Paul McGann. McGann’s brief on-screen tenure as the Doctor only included one ill-fated TV movie, meant to test the waters for a possible BBC series collaboration with Fox. Though the film is much maligned, fans largely agree McGann himself shined in the role.

Due out October 28, the new series will be written by Mann with art by Emma Vieceli. “It’s a different format to the mini-series you’ve seen before,” Mann said, explaining that this was a later version of the Eighth Doctor, as seen just prior to “Night of the Doctor.” That television short, which served as a prequel to “Day of the Doctor,” was well-received by fans and may have paved the way for Titan to feature him in comic form.

Mann himself stated the short had personally made him want a season’s worth of Eighth Doctor stories. As a result, he wrote each issue as it’s own “episode” and “separate adventure.” Issue one will deal with a “village under siege set in the modern day,” but the issues will also see the Doctor travel to distant worlds and introduce new villains. Mann also said that we’ll meet a new companion named “Josie” who will be central to the stories, calling her “the backbone of the series.”

The Eleventh Doctor year two sees the introduction of a new writer to pair with Robbie Williams, Si Spurrier, who sent a video greeting to play to the panel introducing himself. Artist Simon Fraser returns, joined by newcomer Warren Pleece. The Tenth Doctor year two brings back Nick Abadzis on writing, while returning artist Elena Casagrande will be joined by Eleonora Carlini.

Check out some of the upcoming covers from Tenth and Eleventh Doctor year two, upcoming Twelfth Doctor and new Eighth Doctor covers below!

With the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) less than a month away, news is coming in fast and furious on con-exclusives. Titan is offering a cornucopia of SDCC only merchandise, with triptych covers featuring the 10th, 11th and 12th Doctors, an SDCC exclusive story line featuring the 12th Doctor and Clara battling a mirror-bound alien threat at the con itself, and two 10th Doctor vinyl figures including a 50th anniversary 10 wearing 11’s Fez! Titan will be at booth #5537. From Titan:

DOCTOR WHO: THE TWELFTH DOCTOR SDCC EXCLUSIVE

When the Twelfth Doctor and Clara turn up at San Diego Comic Con, a quick selfie outside the TARDIS reveals an alien threat among the con-goers and cosplayers! The green-skinned Lady of Neverness can only be viewed through mirrors, photos and quantum snapshots, and has turned up in the background of photos all over the convention! But if enough people view her at the same time, she’ll gain the power to breach into our dimension… to feed on the life-force of the whole planet! Can the Doctor and Clara defeat her and save the day?

Find out in this exclusive new short story, only available at San Diego Comic Con 2015! Plus, go behind the scenes of the comic with writers George Mann and Cavan Scott, and artist Rachael Stott – and get an early in-print glimpse of the Doctor Who 2015 Event – Four Doctors! All under two amazing covers from fan-favorite artist Alice X. Zhang!

When writer Cavan Scott talked to us about taking on the Ninth Doctor back in March, he mentioned he would be adding another Doctor to the long list of Time Lord incarnations he’s written for. This issue is what he was hinting at! Scott has previously written for Doctors: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and now 12! The issue offers a choice of two gorgeous covers from Zhang, who really lovingly captures the Doctors and now a Companion in her oil-paint portraiture style:

Then there’s that nice series of interlocking covers featuring the three Doctors looking very British in front of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye. The special covers are unique to SDCC, and contain the latest issues in the ongoing series of the Doctors.

Doctor Who: Tenth Doctor #14, which is the penultimate issue of the ongoing series, finds 10 and Gabby separated by an “ancient force from the centre of the galaxy” according to the release from Titan. Can Gabby hold her own alone? Check out our interview with series writer Nick Abadzis to get your 10th Doctor fix before the issue drops.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #14 is part one of a two-part season finale, that teams Al Ewing and Rob Williams up on writing duties for what Titan calls “an unmissable mini-epic.” Will companion Alice “find peace — or be marooned far from Earth? Will Jones fulfill his cosmic rock god destiny — or die among the stars? And who will be left to join the Doctor as we head into Year Two?” Check out our interview with Ewing and Williams and see if the spoiler hints they gave us have come to pass yet…

And finally Doctor Who: Twelfth Doctor #11 finds the Doctor and Clara “Fresh from their adventures in Las Vegas” and apparently  the Doctor and “eager for a change of scenery, but their next destination aboard the TARDIS will prove a SHOCKING change of pace!

 Check out the the neat Triptych effect below of the SDCC exclusive covers below:

But what would a menu of SDCC con-exclusives from Titan be without adorable vinyl figures? Fear not, you’ve got your pick of tiny Tennant’s:

Christopher Eccleston’s portrayal of the Ninth Doctor relaunched the Doctor Who television series in 2005, and many a fanperson has swooned over David Tennant as the show’s  dashing Tenth Doctor. But it was Matt Smith’s portrayal of the Eleventh Doctor that crested the wave of Who-mania that has swept the globe in the last few years. Fans who were left pining for Smith’s incarnation of the time-traveling “madman with a box” will have reason to celebrate the release of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Vol. 1 After Life which collects issues 1-5 of the series. I spoke with co-writers Al Ewing and Rob Williams in advance of the March 25 release date (in bookstores and on Amazon.com March 31) about their past collaborations, the Doctor’s newest companion, and even got a few hints at what fans can expect in the forthcoming issues of the Titan Comics series.

Edie Nugent: Did the fact that both of you worked together on 2000 AD help you in co-writing this series? If so, how?

Al Ewing: It probably did – systems evolved during the writing of Judge Dredd: Trifecta, our 2000 AD crossover, that helped with the writing of Who. For example, I’m pretty sure we had at least one Skype conversation during that time, although more often we met in the pub. And Trifecta involved some very intricate plotting, some of which happened on the fly, so it was good practice.

Rob Williams: It helped too that we knew each other and were friends. It’s not as if you’re co-writing with a stranger because who knows how that might go. But yes, as Al said, we’d co-written once together with Si Spurrier on Trifecta, so we knew how to do it, and felt confident we could make such a situation work.

Nugent: The writing on the After Life series is very consistent. How did you work together to find the “voice” of the Doctor and establish continuity of that voice through the series?

Williams: I think his voice is very well established by the series and by Matt Smith’s delivery. It’s easy to hear when writing dialogue for the book. If you feel you’re veering off track you just stick an episode of the show on for 10 minutes. Smith did the verbal patter very well.

Nugent: The audience knows Smith-era patter the moment they read it, but to have such an ear for writing new dialogue without it seeming forced: this just comes naturally to you? 

Ewing: Well, writing any kind of unforced dialogue takes a lot of practice. But essentially, as long as the delivery seems correct, you can get away with a lot – Matt Smith can deliver a lot of different kinds of line and have them all seem part of the same character, so as long as the reader is hearing that voice in their head, it’ll cover a multitude of sins. I’m sure Rob and I both have writing tics that shine through once you’re looking for them. “…” for a pause is one of mine.

Williams: Without wanting to sound arrogant, I think Al and I are both pretty good with dialogue. The dialogue’s really not the hard part. Writing the Doctor he can babble on and you read it back and it’s all good stuff. But comics is a visual medium. So I find I have to cut a lot of my Doctor dialogue or the page would be overcrowded with speech balloons. The hard part with The Doctor is more the plotting, I find.

Nugent: Let’s talk about Alice Obifune. How did you dream her up? She’s got the smarts of Martha and the attitude of Donna (as well as many Classic Who companions like Zoe and Sarah Jane); questioning the Doctor and his motives. You mention in the series that the Doctor finds her wisdom and maturity a comfort, contrasted with his usually younger and greener companions. 

Williams: I think it was a case of trying to do something a bit different. The TV show usually has The Doctor with young girls as assistants. Smith looks so young, we thought it would be a fun dynamic to pair him with someone who seems to be physically older then him. Someone a bit more sure of herself having been through a life.

Ewing:  I forget where she came from at first – it’s a long time ago – but I remember being very keen that she give as good as she get with regard to the Doctor. I’m pretty sure her age relative to other new series companions came up early on as well in connection with that – the idea that the actor playing Alice, if she existed as a TV series character, would be older than Matt Smith and have some natural authority there. Or maybe it was the other way around. I know her Dad dying in the Falklands set her age in stone to an extent, although I don’t know if we’ve gotten around to mentioning that at all.

Williams: It’s mentioned somewhere. I forget where.

Ewing:  We know he died when she was small, and I think there’s a newspaper headline in one of the scenes about the end of the war, but I don’t know if we’ve connected the dots yet. It’ll be a nice tidbit for anyone reading this!

Nugent: There’s another thing that makes Alice so mature, aside from having more years under her belt than the average TV companion: she’s recently orphaned when the first issue opens. Very adult theme, that. Was there any push-back on opening the story line with such an emotionally dark moment: going through the motions and feeling empty following the loss of her mother? 

Ewing: Not at all – I’m pretty sure everyone was up for that from the beginning. Originally, I think we were set to go much darker in terms of the overall plot – this is at the very early stages – but that ended up, rightly I think, being decided against. I think the balance between light and dark stuff we’ve got now is just about perfect.

Williams: Titan and the BBC were very supportive. I liked that opening very much. The subdued grey wasn’t what people were expecting. It’s a theme that continues through the entire series. The first ‘season’ of the comic is really Alice’s journey through her loss. Coming to terms with it, learning to move forward and live again. It’s the emotional spine of the book.

Nugent: So you worked together to co-write the series, even though issue 1 seems to be the only issue that’s co written (Al took issues 2,4 and 5 with Bob penning issue 3). Was it like television writing? Did you both form a ‘writers room’ of sorts at the pub or over Skype, blocking out the story arc and then individually write drafts? 

Williams: We wrote half of #1 each. Al took #2, I did #3. Then Al did a two-parter with #4 & #5, I did #6. The entire 15 issue series is half Al, half me. #14 & #15 we’re writing half of each issue, so they’ll be co-written. The rest of the stories, there’s often little bits from one of us even if the other person is credited as scripting. My #10, for instance, Al made a suggestion there which helped nail down the theme. Lots of that going on. It’s a writer’s room dynamic throughout.

Ewing:  That’s pretty much exactly how it went! For issue 1, we took eleven pages each and then did a lot of rewriting so they fit – after that, it’s been a matter of discussing where the plot’s going and where we want it to go on Skype, and then working out what’ll happen in each individual issue. (Or two-parter, if we’re writing both parts.) Mostly it happens on Skype – once or twice we’ve met up for a pint, but Skype’s probably more productive given the lack of booze.

Nugent: I loved how you wove in these legendary musical figures: Robert Johnson, and the Bowie-like John Jones. It’s nice because so many of the historical figures we meet in Doctor Who stories are Queens or classic authors. What made you decide to highlight musicians and those two in particular?

Ewing:  Both of those are Rob’s doing, really – Jones was the companion Rob brought to the table, although I’ve had a lot of fun with him myself and rediscovered an interest in Bowie’s music.

Williams: That was just an idea born out off Bowie’s similarity to The Doctor in terms of regenerations. There’s always been a sense about Bowie of ‘where did this guy come from?’ Now, I’m sure certain substances were involved in that otherworldness. But what if, instead, he travelled with The Doctor? And that’s how he ended up with all these crazy outfits and looks etc. That seemed a fun idea. There’s a line in #3 which I think is true. If you had a time machine the first best use would be going to see all those classic gigs you’ve only ever read about.

Nugent: Al, Your issue 2 story centers on the idea of corporations ruining the ecology of a place, in this case Rokhandi and it’s natural beauty. The themes of industrial development and brainwashing could easily be transposed to the ecological worries of today. Were you intending to write the story as warning or wake-up call to the youth who will read it?

Ewing:  I’m not sure I’d go as far as to call it a warning or a wake-up call – that sounds like I’ve got a bit more clout in the readers minds than I probably have – but Doctor Who stories should have some thematic links or resonances with what people are worried about in the real world. There was a lot of that during the McCoy era, as I recall – Doctor Who as a critique of Thatcherism. So yes, there’s more than a little in #2 that could be about corporate cronyism in politics or the selling-off of natural resources, but that’s all par for the course with Who.

Nugent: How are you both feeling about the recent news that your comic story line will merge with that of the tenth and twelfth Doctors this fall in a limited series to be written by Hugo-nominated Doctor Who television writer (and longtime Who fanboy) Paul Cornell?

Ewing:  I’m looking forward to it! It should be a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to see what Paul does with our characters. I can’t think of anyone better to attempt a crossover of that nature, and I’ll be avidly reading every issue.

Williams: Paul’s a fine writer and a friend, so I’m sure he’ll do a stellar job and treat the Eleventh Doctor and Alice very well. I’ll look forward to reading it. And then we have ‘Season Two’ of the Eleventh to get up and running. We’ve already got a few fun, surprising things planned.

Nugent: Are there any more teasers you can give Comics Beat readers? Will we find out the identity of the mysterious Time lord that appeared to Eleven? Any other tasty tidbits? 

Williams: You might find out the identity of the mysterious Time Lord in me and Al’s #14-#15 two-parter.

Ewing:  Tasty tidbits…things are going to get very colourful in issue #11, and fans of a certain movie will be pleased with us.

Doctor Who: After Life Vol. 1 is available in stores on March 25.