It’s the Strangers/One-Piece crossover you didn’t know you wanted.
The Strangers #9
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (February, 1994)
“Taken By This Guy!”
WRITER: Steve Englehart
LAYOUTS: Rick Hoberg
PENCILER: Steve Skroce
INKER: Tim Eldred
COLORING: Robert Alvord & Prisms
LETTERER: Dave Lanphear
EDITOR: Roland Mann
Disney seems to be rewriting all their classics.
Monday’s Daily Video will speak more about the problem with Disney’s latest live-action demake, but the fact that Nani does leave her family behind to pursue her own goals is the biggest sticking point I’ve seen with critics of this movie. It’s another example of “just stick to the original because it’s better”.
Over at The Clutter Reports this week, last week’s medical testing (colonoscopy if you really want to know) left me little time for decluttering so I looked into yet another supposed decluttering method, a so-called “reverse” method. I’m not sure it’s a method, but do we need one?
This week the comic reviews are back to normal, as I’ve finished all the Free Comic Book day offerings except for the graphic novels I won or was given away. The misprinted free one is quite long (someone took a serious hit on these), and the Watchmen stuff I’m going to wait on until I’m done with Charlton’s DC purchases since they were the inspiration for the original Watchmen. We’ll get there. We’ll also get to the next chapter of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image, the second half of the first SF report that led to the creation of Doctor Who, and whatever else I can get into the three surrounding days.
Have a great week, everyone!
I hear that the Rani made her debut in the current series calling itself Doctor Who, but with not much explanation as to who she is. Russell T. Davies seems to be using classic Who to push the idea that his show still fits the rest of the series. It hasn’t done that since Chris Chibnall took over.
So some of you may have made the mistake of watching “The Wish World” and wondering what the deal is with this Rani, who also bigenerated because Russell has a new playtoy he wants to abuse. Well, the Rani is one of the other Renegade Time Lords, or Time Lady in this case, who the Doctor has run into. In addition to his usual nuisance, the self-styled Master, the Doctor’s first opponent, as the first Doctor, was the meddling Monk, then the War Chief in the episode that introduced Gallifrey and the Time Lords while sending away the second Doctor. He’s dealt with a few bad apples among his people, including the embodiment of evil between the 12th and 13th lives of the Doctor going by the Valeyard…though given the fubaring of the number system your guess is as good as mine which Doctors he’s actually between. The Rani is the only one besides the Master to make another appearance, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
“Mark Of The Rani” is a Sixth Doctor adventure, travelling with Peri (short for Perpugilliam–a totally American name honest wouldn’t the Brits know) Brown. Drawn to the time at the start of the Industrial Revolution, someone is out to stop the event before it happens, thus altering history. The Master is somehow also involved, but this time it’s the Rani that the Doctor and Peri must be on the lookout for. The Master isn’t the only one who breaks out disguises, but what is the Rani’s endgame and how is the Master involved? The Doctor and Peri will have to protect George Stevenson and his inventions to find out. The following video contains both episodes separated by intros and end credits. Enjoy.
Sept. 23,1956-May 24, 2025
Word came early this week that novelist and comic writer Peter David, who has worked for DC and Marvel, adapted movies and comics, wrote his own novels, and had been suffering from health issues, passed away at 68 years old. Here’s a look at his official and very long bibliography, and a here’s a look at his career and health issues. He leaves behind along with a legion of fans in novel and comic circles, having done everything from the Hulk to Star Trek in both media and in the Star Trek audio drama Cacophony, which I actually own but didn’t know he wrote. He also wrote for TV and video games, but comics and novels will be what he’s most remembered for.
Many of us will never get to meet him, but his large body of work lives on. He understood how to fashion a story in the media being used, and even wrote the same characters in both books and comics, and used their strengths to their fullest, a rarity even at his peak and even less so today. My condolences to his family and friends he also left behind who knew and loved him best.
Before we can get to 1963, the first two reports in this series (see last week’s prologue for the full details and where to download these reports to read along) from 1962 had to exist.
In 1962, the BBC’s Head Of Light Entertainment, Eric Maschwitz commissioned reports on science fiction from the Head Of Serials at the BBC Drama Department. From there the reports were given to Donald Baverstock, Controller of BBC Television until 1995, who then commissioned Sydney Newman, Head Of Drama at BBC, to make a science fiction series. The end result was Doctor Who. Geez even in 1962 there were a lot of sub bosses. Also, funny to see how many heads we’re going to be dealing with given how little brains the BBC seems to have a times, especially here in 2025.
Two reports were commissioned, the first by Donald Bull & Alice Frick, which we’re looking at today, and the other by Alice Frick and Donald John Braybon, which we’ll get to when we’re done with this one. I have no idea who they are. There’s no entry for them in the TARDIS Fandom wiki. Science fiction was still happening on British television thanks to Out Of This World, a sci-fi horror anthology on BBC, and the early “Supermarionation” productions by Gerry Anderson for competitor ITV. Movies and novels also scratched that itch, so I wonder what they were curious about? If those shows were doing well, and any American imported sci-fi also did well, you should already have your answer. That’s the government for you. Anyway, let’s see what was in that first report.
More Captain Atom I can handle. It’s more Space Adventures that bothers me.
Space Adventures Vol. 3 #40
Charlton Comics Group (June, 1961)
The sooner we get through this series the better. I’ve already read some issues of Captain Atom while reviewing Ted Kord’s run as the Blue Beetle before he got his own solo comic. With more time it’s possible the Captain Atom stories improved, but these are still written like an anthology, and the stories have not been good. The one non-Captain Atom story in the past few issues were boring and I’m guessing that’s the norm. I won’t be coming back to this series once we’re done, and I’d stop now if there weren’t so few with the good captain left.
Enough intro padding. On to the reviews.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
BW Media Spotlight 