A very different edition of the first Doctor Who novel, Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, has just been released by BBC Books. This version of Doctor Who and the Daleks retains David Whitaker’s text but instead of the illustrations we’ve become used to in the Target or Armada editions, it’s fully illustrated throughout by artist Robert Hack who chatted via email with Paul Simpson…

How did you first hear about Doctor Who, and what eras of the programme interest you most?

When I was five years old, my brother, who is nine years older than me, sat me down in front of the TV, and said that I’d probably like this little British sci-fi show. And he was right. This was the early 80s, the heyday of Doctor Who on PBS in America. I started with reruns of the Fourth Doctor, but they eventually aired everything that was still in the BBC archives at the time.

I love all of Who, but the 1960’s is a favorite, particularly the Troughton stories. And the gothic horror of the Hinchcliffe/Williams/Holmes era is imprinted on my soul and art, I think. But it’s Who, it’s all great.

So what was its attraction to you?

I think a big part of it is that it’s this magical mix of horror and humor and heart. And built into it’s very bones is that it can go anywhere, do anything. It’s cavemen, it’s a western, it’s horror, it’s action. It can be anything and it thrives on being everything.

It’s hard to say what it is about this show that resonates personally, because it hits some visceral part of your brain that’s hard to pin down.

How did you get into doing illustrations – and specifically Doctor Who?

I’ve been drawing Doctor Who art from the moment I first watched it. There’s a memory from first grade art class that is seared onto my brain. The teacher walking around the art room, looking at everyone’s drawing, and he did a double take at my drawing of a TARDIS on an alien world and exclaimed “Are you drawing Doctor Who?!”. Not a common subject for a kid in rural Pennsylvania in 1982. Also, I think it aired on PBS at 11pm, so he might have been rightfully concerned for my sleep schedule.

But I started drawing Who officially in 2008. IDW Publishing was, at the time, putting out a series of new comics and reprints of the Doctor Who Magazine strip. I didn’t send them any art samples at first out of some version of imposter syndrome for being American. But about a year into their run, I realized how silly that was, and I contacted the editor Chris Ryall. And it was the right email, at the right time. They needed a Doctor Who cover, but it was due within a few days. And I’ve been working on Doctor Who projects off and on ever since. IDW, Titan Comics, Hero Collector/Eaglemoss, Cutaway Comics, and now BBC Books.

And the IDW Doctor Who work was my big break into comics. That led to a lot of cover work for a lot of publishers and that led to me working with Archie Comics, who asked me to draw Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which is probably what I’m most known for. Both the comic, and the Netflix adaptation, which uses my art on the opening credits.

How did this project come about? What parameters were you given?

It was an email out of the blue. I believe they were aware of the art I created for Eaglemoss’ (RIP) Doctor Who Episodic Collection, which was art based on episodes and sold as prints, mugs, shirts, etc.

So much of freelance art is hounding editors and chasing jobs, but this was a dream project just dropped in my lap. I am well aware of just how unfathomably lucky I am.

The book is a great mix of different sized artwork – were the pieces created to the expected size they’d be used, or were there a lot of adjustments once you’d delivered the pieces?

A bit of both. Richard Atkinson did a brilliant job with the layouts and of piecing my scribbles into a beautiful book. There was a temp layout in place, so I knew what size/shape illustrations to draw for each piece. I would then do rough thumbnail sketches so we could see how it all pieced together. But some things shifted, were adjusted, and more illustrations added toward the end that weren’t in the temp layout.

We’ve had at least two different versions of this story on screen – the TV serial and the movie – and the book itself is a third variant. How much did you feel you should draw on the previous visualisations (i.e. is this the TV version rendered with the bigger budget that David Whittaker effectively had)?

It’s a mix. Whitaker’s novel is definitely its own version, and the first few chapters really set the stage for this new universe. I wanted to give familiar landmarks, nod to the past, but still make this new. But the text of the novel was the real guide.

How many paintings are there in total? And are there any that didn’t make the cut for whatever reason?

There’s something like 60 paintings in this edition. All created traditionally, so there’s a half-foot thick stack of art sitting in my studio.

There were a few alternate paintings that didn’t get used. Mostly because I thought of something better and swapped out the art. Or when we tried a few different version of the TARDIS key. But I don’t think anything was cut for space or content.

You’ve posted various variants of the cover on social media; what was the story behind those?

Those were drawn early in the process. I submitted a bunch of cover concepts (and probably using it as an excuse to practice drawing Hartnell), but we eventually went with a wraparound cover that focused on a scene from the book.

What was your reaction on seeing the final book for the first time?

When I saw a PDF of the assembled Chapter 1, and saw what the book was going to look like, I was blown away. Unbelievably happy. And then to actually hold a copy, to flip through a book that you know would have been read by your 5 year old self until the pages fell out. Unbelievable. And I hope there are kids getting our edition and rereading it until it falls apart.

And, given that some of the other Target books have their own… unique take on the original stories, are there others that you’d like to tackle?

One of my dream projects is to adapt the missing episodes. To give new visuals to a story that hasn’t been seen in 50+ years.

But there are so many I’d love to draw, new series and classic. I could see my style working well on the 1970s horror of The Seeds of Doom or Image of the Fendahl. Or maybe illustrating a disturbingly menacing take on Warriors of the Deep‘s Myrka?

Doctor Who and the Daleks is out now, for our review click here.