Doctor Who: The Highgate Horror

Doctor Who Magazine Comic Collections #23

by Mark Wright, Steve Lyons (Writer), Roger Langridge (Author/Illustrator/Letterer)

Collected comic strips from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, featuring the Doctor and Clara as played by Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. The Highgate Horror collects together all the most recent stories by leading Doctor Who writers and artists, from the highly acclaimed comic strip in DWM and includes a wealth of exclusive, brand-new material revealing how the strips were created, featuring contributions and commentary from the writers and artists.

The collection contains six comic adventures:

Space Invaders!
Spirits of the Jungle
The Highgate Horror
The Dragon Lord
Theatre of the Mind
Witch Hunt
The Stockbridge Showdown

The Stockbridge Showdown is a special celebratory adventure, which first appeared in the 500th issue of Doctor Who Magazine, and includes guest artists and characters from the comic strip's past!

Genres: Doctor Who, Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Horror, Historical Fiction

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2017

Reviews

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent set of Twelfth Doctor stories. Most of the collection is just OK or fair, but the great "Witch Hunt" and the nostalgic fun of "The Stockbridge Showdown" make for a terrific finale. (B+)

[Andrew Foxley · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Highgate Horror' collects several comic strip adventures for the Twelfth Doctor and Clara (plus a few friends) from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. It's a really strong collection of stories written by Who notables Jonathan Morris, Mark Wright, Steve Lyons, Jacqueline Rayner, Roger Langridge and Scott Gray, with artists including Mike Collins, John Ross, Adrian Salmon and even the mighty Dave Gibbons bringing them to life.

As you'd expect, there's a fair bit of variety here - stories set in the past, present and future, featuring friends and enemies old and new, and appearances by historical figures Harry Houdini and Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins. My personal favourite is the DWM #500 celebratory tale 'The Stockbridge Showdown', which delves deep into Doctor Who comics lore and is a real treat for long term readers, but they're all great tales, brimming with interesting ideas. As ever, the quality is superb, and there's the usual notes from writers and artists alike shedding some light on the creative process behind each story. Highly recommended.

[beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

spoilers also for series 7-9 of the show

Mostly pretty mediocre stories, except for the Highgate Horror and Witch Hunt. The former introduces Jess, who’s a likeable, real enough feeling side character, and the corvids - vampire-like beings with a cool design that are effected by Clara splintering herself at the end of series 7B; it’s nice that the Impossible Girl arc is made relevant here. Overall a really strong story.

Then there’s Witch Hunt, which ties nicely with series 9 and almost feels like it could be an episode in it. Miss Chief is a great chaotic force, and I love the characterisation of Clara being focused fully on saving lives, and willing to go head first into danger to do so. There’s a few nice quiet character moments in this comic, like with Clara talking to her hallucination of Danny, but I especially enjoy those that draw not so subtle parallels to series 9. Such as Clara doubting she’d be brave enough to sacrifice her life to save someone else, and the Doctor saying there’s no way he’d ever forget her. Again, not very subtle, but it still hurts.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3294665.html

The comics from Doctor Who Monthly covering more or less the second Capaldi season, with Clara as the companion in all but the last ("The Stockbridge Showdown", by Scott Gray and a host of artists, which takes the Twelfth Doctor back to Stockbridge for a huge amount of comics continuity which I found gratifying despite not seeing myself as deeply into the comics side of Who fandom).

The best of these is the second last, "The Witch Hunt", story by Jacqueline Rayner and art by David A. Roach, Martin Geraghty and Paul Offredi, which starts off at the Coal Hill School Halloween party, and turns into a time-travelling battle in the 17th century with a malevolent jester figure. Rayner scores again, and did a better job of it than when the Thirteenth Doctor had a similar adventure last year.

[Philip Higgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of stories ranging from the OK (the eponymous "Highgate Horror") to the awful - "The Dragon Lord". The fan base is such a broad church it can't be easy pleasing everyone but this all felt a bit bland. The final tale, "The Stockbridge Showdown", was a fun celebration of Doctor Who Monthly's 500th edition, resurrecting favourite characters from 40 years of the publication. Dave Gibbons' marvellous artwork was a reminder of the comic's glory days but maybe that's just my middle aged bias. David A. Roach also contributes some dark scary pics to accompany the title story plus a great cover. Like with the TV series, I'm left with the feeling Peter Capaldi's terrific Doctor was let down by some mediocre writing.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun filler episodes but nothing outstanding, really. The cover tricked me and it looked like we were going to have Clara and Bill as companions. Bah.

[Alex Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, although I did read it slightly out of order. Lover the Highgate Horror story, back to the old days of Hinchcliffe.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Space Invaders! - 4/5
Spirits of the Jungle - 3/5
The Highgate Horror - 5/5
The Dragon Lord - 1/5
Theatre of the Mind - 1.5/5
Witch Hunt - 3.5/5
The Stockbridge Showdown - 2.5/5

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not only is this volume a hodge-podge of unconnected stories, but most of the stories also aren't that great. Fortunately the last two start to make up for that.

Space Invaders! (484). Doctor Who meets Container Wars and the weird thing is that the author doesn't list Container Wars as an influence. There's almost no depth to this shallow story of an eldritch horror in a storage rental [2/5].

Spirits of the Jungle (489-491). There was great possibility here, with the Doctor participating in some Ocean's 11 heist, but it ends up being a meandering MacGuffin hunt, with computer jungles and resurrected Pinks and it was too much of a muddle [2+/5].

The Highgate Horror (492-493). This story has a great premise, all about the Highgate Vampire in a 1972 Highgate Cemetery. It's got all the Hammer Horror you could hope for and a groovy period feel. Unfortunately, the second part turns into a long fight with pseudo-vampires that doesn't have any depth [3+/5].

The Dragon Lord (494-495). The best thing about this comic is that it does a great job with the voices of the Doctor and Clara. Twelve is cruel and curmudgeonly and Clara is quirky and fun. The story of roleplayers and dragons is also amusing and has some interesting twists [3+/5].

Theatre of the Mind (496). A charming adventure with Harry Houdini that's a little dull toward the middle which is just high-speed high adventure, but which has a great moral at the end [3+/5].

Witch Hunt (497-499). A good finale for Clara with a lot of fun, some unexpected time travel, some drama, and a great "villain" [4/5].

The Stockbridge Showdown (500). A rather delightful walk through the comic strip's unique characters and the closure of a decade-old plot [5/5].

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects Doctor Who Magazine Comic strips from Issue 484 of Doctor Who Magazine and from Issue 489-500.
Here’s a look at each story:
Space Invaders (484): The Doctor and Clara attend an auction at a storage unit IN SPACE and get into a bidding war. This one has some dull moments and then the action feels a bit rushed with the Doctor actually telling us the moral. Still it has some humor and it’s not bad. Grade: C+
Spirits of the Jungle (489-491): The Doctor and Clara visit an alien jungle in search of treasure and things go wrong. Clara encounters a vision of Danny Pink which I thought was an annoying rip off of what was done in the Christmas but they had a few twists with this one. This wasn’t bad but it felt very busy with a dull villain and a story that Doctor Who’s done a lot. Grade: C+
The Highgate Horror (492-493): Strange goings on in a cemetery in the 1970s with a weird cult and hate to be repetitive but this is yet another story where there’s not a whole lot memorable or interesting and it feels like it’s treading old ground. Grade: C
The Dragon Lord (494-495): First story I really got into in this volume. The Doctor and Clara land on a theme planet that’s modeled on Camelot and local creatures have been made into dragons. However, the Dragon Lord has taken control and is terrorizing the colonizers. The art isn’t realistic but it’s wonderfully stylized for this sort of dark fantasy situation. We also get a bit of the feel of Series 8 12th Doctor in the way he reacts to the problem as well as how he leaves it. Grade: B+
Theatre of the Mind (496): A great one shot strip in which the Doctor and Clara visits the Doctor’s old friend Houdini who has gotten himself into trouble exposing a phony spiritualist, leaving all three of them in a very bizarre and perilous position. Overall, a great story and the art makes it come alive. Grade: A-
With Hunt (497-499): Clara agrees to be the witch in a Halloween maze fundraiser for Coal Hill School but along comes Miss Chief, a Mister Mxyzptlk like interdimensional sprite who decides to play a joke by sending Clara back to the 17th century where she’s captured by a witch finder. This is actually a very clever story and Miss Chief is really a treat. I hope she returns. The story is very funny, but with some poignancy at the end as 499 was Clara’s last DWM strip and just like they did for Donna’s departure, DWM showed they know how to create a sad yet ironic end. Grade: A-
The Stockridge Showdown (500): The Doctor returns to a frequent stop in Stockridge where an old comic strip enemy wants to exact his vengeance, but will the Doctor instead finally get justice for an old friend. This strip is an extra long anniversary special with a host of guest stars who have graced the comic strip over the past several decades. The more you know the strip’s history, probably the more you’ll get out of it. I didn’t recognize all of them but I recognized enough to enjoy it. Grade: B+

Overall, not a bad book, but a bit uneven with the first few stories being average while the final four were really good. On its merits, I’d probably give it 3 ½ stars. The 500th script makes it a must-read for long-time fans of the DWM strips, but for everyone else, it’s hit and miss.

[Sam Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

DWM comics are very similar to titan comics: fun, but not life-changing.

[Alex Sarll]

The DWM comic can often feel a little flat, but failing to catch the feel of the characters is probably a bonus when you’re lumbered with the worst companion ever. Mercifully, she does make her exit* before the final strip here, which celebrates the magazine’s 500th (!) issue by bringing back favoured characters and artists from all over the strip’s past for a cluttered but fun romp. And there are some stories along the way which she doesn’t entirely ruin; Steve Lyons turns in a better script than I generally expect from him, bringing the Twelfth’s most furious side to the fore, and Roger Langridge drawing the Doctor meeting Houdini was always going to be worth a look.

*Via a meeting with Matthew Hopkins, at that. Which sadly we know she’ll escape, given the strip can hardly overrule the show, but for a moment we can dream…