Titan Comics 2019
Written by Jody Houser
Illustrated by Roberta Ingranata
Coloured by Enrica Eren Angiolini
Flattes by Shari Chankhamma
Lettered by Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Sarah Hedrick
The Weeping Angels are trying to break into the TARDIS! Autons are ready to attack the streets of 1969 London! Now, Ten and Thirteen must risk a deadly paradox in order to stop the EArth from becoming an alien battleground….
This arc is just super cute. It is interesting to have my first glimpse of the 13 in this manner. It isn’t because I don’t find a female Doctor appealing but because I didn’t like the 12th Doctor and just never got back to it. Jody is a marvel when it comes to crafting and writing any story she works on. So it comes as no surprise to me that I am enjoying this as much as I am. Also I have so much admiration for her because the whole nailing a Doctor Who story isn’t easy to do and with all the timey wimey stuff it really makes for some great difficulty. Plus the imagination and creativity we see in the story itself, subject matter, solutions, all that jazz is really rather stupendous when you sit down and think about how much is involved here.
I love the way that this is being told. Seriously the amount of humour, tension, excitement and dismay all swirl around each other at the same time without messing anything up or missing a beat. The way that we see the story & plot development through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is beautifully done as it moves the story forward. The character development that we see is stunning! I mean this is not any set of characters to work with but it’s done with aplomb and in how the circumstances and situations the face keep them growing and evolving. The pacing is utterly fantastic and the way it guides us through the pages revealing the twists and turns is so much fun. All of this works together to create the books ebb & flow as well as how well the book is structured.
I have praised Titan for the choices they make in who they have chosen to bring these stories to life and I will gladly do it till the sun doesn’t rise anymore. This company and the books they release are why we still love comics and what they embody. This is fun for diehard Whovians and those who just know of it with a passing glance. That requires talent, skill, charisma and uniqueness and they’ve got these in spades.
The interiors here are fantastic! I love the way we see the linework and how we see the varying weights being utilised to showcase the attention to detail. While the style of this may be closer to all-ages in appearance it still falls within the realm of classic comic style. So seeing the Weeping Angels in all their glory is both creepy and fascinating and that kind of depiction shows off some true talent. Also that we see backgrounds so prevalent throughout these pages is essential in bringing us depth perception, scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book. So seeing brickwork in the tunnels is brilliantly rendered as are the fashions that we see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a magnificent eye for storytelling. The colour work is simply divine. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours create the shading, highlights and shadow work. The way light sources are utilised is sensational as it creates all those hues and tones.
This story has been amazing. For me it’s full of layers and complexity that I had not expected to see. The dynamic between the characters is fun and playful yet serious and enlightening and it does make me want to see more. These folks have definitely made me want to keep coming back time and time again.