The Fabulous Idiot

"This is serious business, you know!"

Writer: Steve Parkhouse

Format: Comic Strip

Released: June 1982

Printed in: DWM Summer Special 1982

Featuring: Dr Ivan Asimoff

Synopsis

At home in a small city on the tiny planet of Sigma, Dr. Ivan Asimoff sits in his room writing one of his science-fiction stories. Caught up in his 'adventures', he faints when he opens the door and is faced with a life-size alien being, delivered as the new cover illustration for his book from his artist.

Verdict

The Fabulous Idiot was another pretty average comic strip adventure to continue my reading through the Black Sun Rising graphic novel collection of backup tales from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. This one comes from a summer special edition and unfortunately I didn't think it quite lived up to the standard of what we have mostly had from this collection so far. I mean, the only familiar element of the story was the character Dr. Ivan Asimoff who isn't the most memorable or just greatest of characters in my opinion and was potentially taking the idea of a backup tale to the extreme! He's not exactly a bad character I just don't think he offers a huge amount. It's probably wrong and politically incorrect to say but his appearance doesn't offer much either and he just looks a bit silly. I completely understand that in 1982 the target audience of a Doctor Who Magazine special might have been much younger than I am now at twenty-nine, but I can only read from my own perspective! I did appreciate the idea of Asimoff writing science fiction tales and in the Whoniverse that's obviously a great thing. I was almost expecting and half hoping to have a visit to the Land of Fiction when that element emerged, but there really is only so much that can be done with a page count as limited as four. There's not a lot of room to manoeuvre with there but one thing I will commend the recent run in the collection for is doing a lot with such reduced content. This one falls short and I wasn't even a huge fan of the layout as the panels didn't seem to flow well on the back half as they weren't even and I felt the direction was a little misleading or in the wrong order which obviously doesn't help. I like to think that the idea of Asimoff awaiting a cover illustration for one of his latest adventures was a little nod to the impressive standards of Target cover illustrations which I imagine were eagerly anticipated during this point of fandom. The idea that everything wasn't accessible is honestly frightening as we're so privileged these days, but if you missed it on broadcast that was that. It would change my entire life! Asimoff actually being frightened of his cover art illustration for the next adventure book was a little ridiculous but again I think part of that just comes from his own appearance. He is a ridiculous character so it's a little difficult to imagine him in any other way than ridiculous. Almost everything he does in terms of action or speech feels a bit silly. That's why I'm not entirely sure by the use of him as a lead character for a comic strip here. Does it really feel like a bonus? I can't remember that The Free-Fall Warriors was an instant classic nor anything terrible, but I'm not sure it would be my first choice as warranting a bonus follow on! I must say though that the name of Captain Conquest was a sensational name and I'd love to see more of a character like that. It's definitely a science fiction character within the Whoniverse that I felt could do more as that's just such a good moniker. I loved that. Overall, there wasn't anything particularly bad about the comic strip but it just didn't excite me, the lead character wasn't the best, and it just didn't offer a huge amount either. An average read as the very definition. 

Rating: 5/10