Art of Doctor Who on show at the Cartoon Museum (Includes interview and first-hand account)

The Cartoon Museum is an unusual place, focused on the best of comic and graphic art. It came about after a group of cartoonists, collectors and lovers of the art form came together as The Cartoon Art Trust.

As well as displays, the museum features areas for people to explore their creativity.

Tim Sandle

The Cartoon Museum is run as a charity, in order to represent British cartoons, caricatures, comic strips and animation. The museum hosts a library of over 5,000 books and 4,000 comics. The museum opened in 2006.

Entrance to the Cartoon Museum. The lampooning of George Bush along with more established cartoon characters align the doorway.

Tim Sandle

Dennis the Menace, a long-lasting cartoon character from children’s comics.

Tim Sandle

The displays in the museum change regularly.

A woman examines some of the work on display in the Cartoon Museum.

Tim Sandle

Artwork from the influential Batman graphic novel ‘Killing Joke’, written by Alan Moore, illustrated by Brian Bolland (both British).

Tim Sandle

For spring 2016 the museum has a display of Doctor Who themed art in the form of the art work used for the Target book covers.

Doctor Who (and comic fans) examine the Doctor Who art on display.

Tim Sandle

Target books was a small, independent publisher. In the 1970s, the company won the rights from the BBC to novelize Doctor Who. In the age before video recorders, reliving (or experiencing for the first time) the adventures of the Time Lord was only possible through novels.

A range of classic Doctor Who minsters, from Cybermen to Daleks, capture in graphic form.

Tim Sandle

The Doctor’s foremost opponent – a Dalek – in a painting for a book cover.

Tim Sandle

Rather than pay for photographs (and have the tricky issue of copyright) the publisher commissioned art work from a range of artists.

A set of original Doctor Who novels, in the Target Books range. Almost every story from the Doctor Who series was produced in novelization form.

Tim Sandle

The first three books in the Target series were ‘Doctor Who and the Daleks’, ‘Doctor Who and the Crusaders’, both by David Whitaker, and ‘Doctor Who and the Zarbi’ by Bill Strutton. The most prolific writer in the Doctor Who range was Terrance Dicks. 156 novels were published in the original series, from 1973 to 1994.

One of the earliest examples of Doctor Who novel art. Whitaker’s book differs from most later novelisations in that it is written in the first person and from the point of view of a companion.

Tim Sandle

Many examples are now regarded as good quality examples of the genera.

Doctor Who cover art. Between 1973 and 1991, Target Books published almost every Doctor Who television serial as a novelization.

Tim Sandle

The various faces of Doctor Who on show at the Cartoon Museum in London.

Tim Sandle

As well as Doctor, the other works on display range considerably, including political cartoons:

A range of political cartoons on display at the Cartoon Museum.

Tim Sandle

Plus popular characters from childhood:

Rupert Bear is a children’s comic strip character created by the English artist Mary Tourtel, dating back to the 1920s.

Tim Sandle

As well as caricatures of living figures, like the Queen:

A caricature of the British monarch, on display at the Cartoon Museum in London.

Tim Sandle

The best way to describe the overall ,museum is through its mission statement, where the museum is “dedicated to preserving the best of British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animation, and to establishing a museum with a gallery, archives and innovative exhibitions to make the creativity of cartoon art past and present, accessible to all for the purposes of education, research and enjoyment.”

The Cartoon Museum features an extensive shop selling graphic novels and models.

Tim Sandle