Writer: Eric Saward

Artist: Barry Renshaw

Cutaway Comics, out now

Gustav Lytton, running his club in Soho 1975, needs something important – something extraterrestrial…

This opening issue marks the debut of Cutaway Comics’ extensions to the worlds of Doctor Who, with the focus on Maurice Colbourne’s character, Lytton, created by Eric Saward for his Peter Davison Dalek story, and then used by Paula Moore in Attack of the Cybermen. Colbourne, for those who aren’t aware, was also the star of Philip Martin’s series Gangsters, and made a name playing the sort of hard man that you don’t argue with – for instance, in Return of the Saint’s Duel in Venice.

Lytton is an interesting character, and it was clear in his two Doctor Who appearances that there was more to him than we saw. Saward fleshed him out to an extent in his novelisations of the two TV stories but this comic book is a chance to find out more – if of course this is the same Lytton. As is rather unsubtlely made clear, this story deals with parallel worlds so anything is possible (although the 1975 date does tie in with noises in the sewer and a certain silver race that Saward brought back to the show).

Saward’s writing and the stories he script edited showed an interest in what makes mercenaries tick, and there’s an element of that here as we see Lytton in his new environment, and meet his associates Wilson and Miss L.

It’s Saward’s first comic book script and he doesn’t fall into the trap of overwriting – in fact, at times, we could perhaps do with a bit more explanation – and allows Barry Renshaw’s art to tell the story where necessary. Lytton looks and feels more like his Gangsters character John Kline at times – again the 1975 setting allows use of pictures of Colbourne from the series for reference – and the fully painted art conveys character and setting well.

Verdict: An intriguing start. 7/10

Paul Simpson

Watch for our interview with Eric Saward coming shortly