Interrogator-aid

 

Hark- a Shark!

 

I'm sorry. The Shape of Water was a terrific movie - but I needed a story idea, so I stole two. 

The Karkus: The Monoid Mutineers

 

Ooh, I never liked the title for this, the third adventure in the adventures of Doctor Human, his granddaughter Susan and her comprehensive schoolmaster The Karkus. The other ones had nice Who-like portmanteau names, but this? Ah well.

This got trimmed down a fair bit, and there's at least one abandoned page of the three 'heroes' getting captured, imprisoned, and escaping - a Very Doctor Who Thing to have happen, as it turns out; ah, but it meandered. And thus common sense prevailed, brevity won and, I rather think, so did you, gentle reader.

The Karkus: Re-Enter the Rani!

 Remember that one time Erato posted an imagining of the very first Karkus story? That was done without a script - this one is the actual script!

I found the run-through in faded pencil on the back of the other 'original' strip (and, as it happens, also twice-done story) The One With The Steel Octopus, and naturally, it ran to two pages. So, here's a less-economical version of - er, The One With The Rani in a rare outing of a Time Lord in the strip. It's a bit light, to be honest, and wears its influences on its puffy, glittery Eighties sleeve. But it's the real deal, folks!

You're welcome.

The Karkus: This One Delivers

 Happy Birthday, Doctor Who! I brought you a present:

This one harkens back to the posting of the old Magnetoids cover from last year, and the cameo by SPLiNX the Robo Cat. Someone on the Facebook asked for a strip with the teleporting tabby in it, and Erato obliged! NIce to have something for the fans on a special weekend, and all that.

Plus any reason to bring back Prof Boffin, really.

Duplicates and Duplicity

 

It is a truth universally databanked that every nefarious scheme must ultimately come to naught - and so it is with Zeg's rebellious duplicate army. I had some fun designing international Daleks, but in truth not as much as I'd have liked. This was mainly because the genesis of this strip came off the back of a Christmas Special that already had numerous iterations of Daleks through the years. I was almost burned out. In the end I summoned up the reserves and leant into it. In the world of Judge Dredd the non-Mega City law enforcers are popularly dismissed as 'Judge Dredd with silly hats on' - usually by residents of a once-great colonial power, so know your place Johnny Foreigner, but I digress. These are Daleks with silly hats on. It's a comedy, dammit. That said, Zeg's original insignia for his Kozax was to be a capital 'Z', and that idea got nipped in the bud when the real world took it away from me.

Er, so here it is. The end of the longest (to date!) Karkus story. Now, eagle-eyed readers will note that this is pretty much a year late, and it is. Your humble Tythonian Beastie has a lot of catching up to do to get to 2023, so things will get a little bit busier around here for a short while. I hope you enjoy it.

And happy 60th, Doctor! You don't look a day over... er, is it 14, now?

PM Dawn

 

    

The addition of Winston Churchill as third wheel was a late addition to the story once I'd decided to make it a three-parter. Zeg dealing death and destruction from a tobacconists is, of course, a riff on Victory of the Daleks and its location filming for the Dalek base (the highlight, IMHO), but also references an old cartoon of Daleks handing out ciggies to the kids. I can't find it online, but it exists, honest!

Part three tomorrow. Or the day after!

Blitz and Clamour

It's the 23rd of November - Doctor Who's birthday! 

Plus, it's also a rather auspicious year - for the Eratoverse has reached its quarter-century. yes, Twenty-Five Laborious Years under the groaning belt of Erato.

Ooh- and this is also another momentous occasion, because this story is OFFICIALLY the  FIFTIETH KARUS STORY!

In fact, it may be close to the 100th Eratoverse story, but nobody stops to count. I know YOU will -out there. You know who you are. Leave your comments in the box below!

So it's fitting that this story should have one of Herr Karkus' oldest foes, Zeg the Dalek. This will also be the longest Karkus story to date, so stick around, and we hope you enjoy it!

 

Shear Excitement

 

In some of my oldest notes there are one-liners - simple story titles that are the barest of plot outlines. This is one of those - springing from the rather economical 'The Karkus Gets a Haircut (Monoids)' Nice of younger me to leave such a job for present me to complete! 

The story title likely was inspired by an imaginary book from Monty Python's Bookshop Sketch ("Biggles Combs His Hair'), and Monoids... because they have mop-tops, I guess. There must be a better gag in there, surely. But I doubt there was back in 1998 or so.

Having the Karkus un-masked but not really seems obvious. I have a soft spot for the gag, and was inspired a little by one of my favourite Judge Dredd one-offs, 'In The Bath', in which the titular lawman effects an arrest of intruders in his apartment, all the while never leaving the tub or revealing his face. 

Sheard the Sontaran was a nice discovery, though. I've always regarded them as a 'serious' Doctor Who monster, and never saw the pomposity ripe for parody in the Seventies and Eighties versions. Fast-forward and I've done three Sontaran Erato stories now, and in our post-Strax world, it seems hard to actually make them fun without losing their essential characteristics or referencing Moffat and Starkey's preposterous lovechild. I've given it a go, though, and this one's for my friend Al, who loves them even more than I do.

A Story as Old as Time Itself

 

Here's that anniversary story you ordered!

In truth, I enjoyed visiting the alternative universe of Doctor Human, his Grand-daughter and her brawny teacher that I decided to revisit it for the November 2021 anniversary. It just took a while to finish.

A Sound Thrashing

 

It's not a delay, more a pregnant pause.