A Doctor a Day 9: Fantastic!

The Doctor & Dalek

"Run!" In TV's greatest (re)introduction, The Doctor returned with a bang, and though his 9th incarnation lasted only one series he managed to leave his fantastic mark on an old and a new generation of fans. He came from nowhere, dressed in a battered leather jacket and carrying the scars of a war beyond human comprehension. A Time War, waged against the merciless Daleks. This Doctor was a man who had seen unimaginable horrors; a man who had watched/caused the destruction of his species and his planet. He was alone, he was angry, he had a Northern accent ("lots of planets have a North!") and he strode through the Universe like an unstoppable force. Because he was one, and he knew it.

Christopher Ecclestone's Doctor is one of the best portrayals there is, partly because he had the hard task of bringing the character to a new and sceptical generation, and partly because he had to play a whole new Doctor; a man who loved Humanity but who had been so irreparably damaged by war that he saw the universe through jaundiced eyes. It's a complex, brilliant performance and one underrated by many. He revels in the little cliches of Humanity but is easily aggravated by them. Ultimately though, you know he is the Doctor, because he's willing to give up everything, even his own life, whether for the entire Earth and just one girl.

A Doctor a Day 10: Well...Allons-y!

The Doctor & Cyberman

"Hello! Ooh, new teeth, that's weird..." And so Doctor 10 was born, with one of the most memorable lines in the show's history. It wouldn't be the 10th Doctor's most memorable line though; he was full of catchphrases, from 'Allons-y' to 'I'm so sorry' to 'Well...' (the link is well worth checking out for that last one by the way) and his final, heartbreaking line 'I don't want to go!'. Over 4 years on our screens he picked up quite a few verbal mannerisms, and quite a few enemies too: parallel world Cybermen, Ood, a newly-regenerated Master, Sontarans, and Vashta Nerada.

In his slim-fit suit, a swishy coat, and Converse All Stars, he was a Doctor far more in touch with humanity than any before or since. Perhaps its why David Tennant's excellent portrayal was so well received by fans and the public. His Doctor was one that could easily be related to, and his style much-admired by fans and fashionistas everywhere, but it does lead to the least alien portrayal of the Time Lord to date. But that fits in with the Doctor's story arc: he was a man who was used to humanity again, after his predecessor had been so detached from it.

A Doctor A Day 11: Don't blink; fezzes are still cool.

The Doctor (with cool fez) & Weeping Angel

"I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool," proclaimed The Doctor last year, and instantly the fez became the headwear of choice for millions of kids across the country. So here's our hat-loving Doc, checking out his fez in a mirror. If you know how a weeping angel works then this cartoon becomes funny. If not, then you really need to watch an episode with them in: they're one of the greatest and scariest monsters ever devised.

I love Matt Smith's Doctor. His take on the character is old and new, classic but full of surprises; human but packed alien traits. Above all though, you really do believe he's playing an ancient man in a young body. With every look, every hand gesture, you just feel like you're watching a man who's seen the great horrors and beauties across the expanse of Time. His is the most alien Doctor we've had since the 70s - even his clothing speaks of a creature who's seen plenty of humanity but never quite got the hang of it, hence the love of bizarre headgear.

Don't get too attached to the fez though. Doctor Who returns on the 23rd of April...with a brand new item of millinery that no doubt every child will harangue their parents for: a Stetson. All together now: "Stetsons are cool..."

Nothing to do with cartoons, as the label says, but I've a new article up at Fuel Your Writing, as part of the new series The Writing Spaces. It's all about Mary Shelley, a beautiful Swiss villa, and how a big Indonesian volcano helped create 'Frankenstein'. Go on, give it a read.

Admiral Ackbar has some advice for you...

Do you know, I've never met anyone who actually likes Valentine's Day. Not one. Everyone I know or meet or talk to dislikes Valentine's Day and its unnecessary pageantry for a) an emotion that you can feel on any other day and b) for a saint who wasn't all that great. For the single its a torturous 24 hours and for those in a relationship it's a redundant day. I love my girlfriend, I tell her that every time I'm with her, and I don't need a grim day in February as an excuse to tell her, or to buy her flowers or take her out for dinner. We already do all that stuff, without the overwhelming glitter and hearts. That's why I always heed Admiral Ackbar's warning. It's a day for greeting card companies, mediocre Italian restaurants and rose sellers to mine profit from raw emotion, and while that's a despicably clever strategy, I think it's something to best steer clear of.

And if you need further good reasons why Valentine's Day is the worst day in the whole year, this old instructional video will undoubtedly help.

Packet In (or, The Excitement of the Empty Space)

Permit me to put on my rosy spectacles and enjoy some nostalgia.

I was clearing through an old box in my room today and found this:

Yep, it's the front of a Kellogg's Corn Flake box. A box from about 1992, a time when, as you can see, people were concerned about getting their money's worth of carbohydrate in a breakfast cereal. Finding this was quite the blast from the past. Now, when you look at this or any other packet of corn flakes you probably see just that; a packet of corn flakes. But to this day I see potential drawing space. I see excitement.

Sundays were when my little brother and I were shipped off to Granny and Granddad's house for the whole day. We used to have a great time; playing boardgames, running around in the tiny garden and building obstacle courses or looking at all the new inventions in my granddad's shed, watching Catchphrase and Bullseye and that one show that had Hulk Hogan in a boat (I forget what it's called...but I think The Simpsons based 'Knightboat' on it), and getting up to all the mischief kids who are 6 and 4 get up to. But the best part of the day was when my brother and my granddad and me would sit at the kitchen table and draw. I loved to draw, and boy would we draw.

The thing is, it was always on the back of cornflake packets.

Now, I don't know if my granddad was cheap (likely) or didn't want us wasting good paper with our scribbles (even more likely), but all we ever drew on were the backs of cut up old cornflake (or, sometimes, bran flake) boxes. It gave even our best work a colour-sapping browny-greyness to it, but I didn't care. To me, a six year old kid, a fresh piece of cut up cornflake packet was as exciting as a six foot canvas. The sort of thing I could do this on...

Yep, this is the reverse side of that corn flake packet: a drawing I did (age 6, I think) of a wooden monkey my gran owned (and still does), which I loved (and still do), and which I had evidently nicknamed Charlie. I must have thought he looked quite lonely on his own, as my gran has never owned a crocodile, snake, bird or bug ('Bertie bug' has been cut off by the scan, but he looked like a ladybird), but there he is with them all, calling them his friends.

It's an unremarkable picture by any standard, but I've decided to frame it and put it above my desk, partly as an artefact of my life, but mostly to keep reminding me of how much I loved - and still love - to draw, and so that I never forget the excitement and potential of an empty space, even if that empty space has a cereal-loving cockerel on the other side of it.

Anyway, nostalgia trip over. I'm off with my crayons and a pair of scissors. I think I spotted a nearly-empty box of Weetabix in the kitchen earlier...

Real Ale! Real Adventure!

Pintman catches the villainous Doctor Keghead in the act! This is a mock-vintage comic cover I drew for a friend of mine who likes his real ale. CAMRA (the campaign for real ale) do not publish comics about real ale, but should. I think it would help their cause. They could sell them next to the pork scratchings.