Doctor Who: Free Comic Book Day 2024 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2024, May 2024

Apparently penned by Dan Watters whilst listening to English rock band “Adam and the Ants”, it’s pretty clear that the British author was having “a blast” whilst developing this opening instalment to “a brand new Fifteenth Doctor comic series from Titan Comics”. Indeed, despite some disconcertingly dark concepts concerning a viciously-fanged villain who bottles up the dying screams of people and stacks them upon a seemingly endless series of shelves, there’s still a distinctly good-humoured, rather jovial feel to the Time Lord’s trip back to a hangman’s gibbet in Eighteenth-Century Yorkshire. 

Much of this jocularity is undoubtedly caused by the twelve-page periodical quite wonderfully capturing all the energy and roguishness of actor Ncuti Gatwa’s televised portrayal. There’s a genuine joy to the Gallifreyan as he discovers a sound emanating throughout the space-time vortex, and excitedly decides to follow the noise to its source on Earth in the year 1739 A.D.; “All those places… someone’s trying to scare me.”

Such infectious enthusiasm is also on display when the Doctor subsequently encounters Dick Turpin, and wastes no time at all in climbing upon a nearby horse and riding the highwayman down. This tense chase sequence is the highlight of the comic, courtesy of the infamous robber attempting to blast the titular character to bits with a cyber-blaster. Yet its London-born writer still manages to inject some playfulness into the nail-biting action by having the leather-coated time traveller politely doff a semi-conscious soldier’s cocked hat at the start of the pursuit.

Equally as good as imbuing this book with the high-octane vitality of the science fiction programme are artist Kelsey Ramsay, and colorist Valentina Bianconi, who together quite wonderfully capture the physical likenesses of the show’s leading thespians. Admittedly, Ruby Sunday’s role within this particular plot is somewhat overshadowed by the Time Lord’s aforementioned heroic dash to recapture the ‘romanticised horse thief’. But nonetheless the graphic designer still manages to convey the courageous companion’s evident concern at being tied-up by the authorities in the mistaken belief that she is one of Turpin’s accomplices and should therefore be mercilessly hanged alongside him on the local gallows.

Writer: Dan Watters, Artist: Kelsey Ramsay, and Colorist: Valentina Bianconi