DR WHO: PETER CUSHING: THE USUAL SUSPECTS: LEE SULLIVAN.

This fantastic DR WHO artwork comes courtesy of artist and illustrator Lee Sullivan who joined PCASUK a few weeks ago and was commissioned last year to produce this piece of art for The Cartoon Museum in London, to promote an exhibition of Dr Who comic strips. It's a re working of an earlier version that appeared in the Dr Who Monthly Magazine and is a pastiche of 'The Usual Suspects' movie poster. Peter Cushing may not be considered 'Dr Who Canon' but he certainly looks as if he belongs here!

UPDATE: INFO FROM LEE SULLIVAN ON ORDERING THIS PRINT FOLLOWING YOUR REQUESTS:

Thanks for asking about the Usual Suspects print. The larger prints (approx 45x21 cm) are £38 inc P&P and the smaller (32x15 cm) are £28 inc P&P. These are high-quality photo prints on satin paper, made in small batches, signed and numbered as part of an open-ended 'series 0' run, as they are not going to be generally available. If they ever are, then that'll be 'series 1' - so '0' will be as exclusive as they get, for what it's worth! Paypal is my preferred method of payment. 
http://www.leesullivanart.co.uk/www.leesullivan.co.uk/HOME.html

'DR WHO VERSUS THE MARTIANS': PETER CUSHING COMIC STRIP FROM 1996

THE EXCELLENT WORK OF ARTIST LEE SULLIVAN PETER CUSHING IN 'DR WHO VERSUS THE MARTIANS' IN THE DR WHO MONTHLY MAGAZINE SPECIAL.

LEE SULLIVAN TOLD US: The 'Daleks versus the Martians' strip was produced back in 1995 for a Doctor Who Magazine 'Dalek Movie Special' published by Marvel Magazines in the UK.


I'd always been a great fan of the Cushing Dr.Who movies since I'd seen them, as a child, on their theatrical release here in the UK. Although I was annoyed that some aspects of the original stories had been changed, they still left an incredibly powerful impression. The cinematic versions benefited enormously from vivid colour (red Daleks!) and the sheer volume of the soundtrack; I can clearly remember the Dalek voices, already with a metallic echo added in the movies, really reverberating around the walls of the theatre. And of course, Peter Cushing, whom I was seeing for the first time here, was one of the most watchable actors ever, so even my discomfiture with the change to the character was mollified.

So, I was very pleased when strip editors Gary Gillatt and Scott Gray offered me this strip to draw. I'd gained a 'Dalek' reputation in DWM, and It was lovely to draw the movie Daleks, and Alan Barnes' script was a pleasure to work on; the Cushing dialogue sounds just right to me. We were all fans of the series and movies, and I hope it shows. Looking at it now, I can't work out exactly why the Dalek saucer is not one fully based on the second movie's wonderful version, especially as I still think it's one of the most well-executed models in film - until the end scene that is smile However, it does look very like a wooden toy my father made me when I was little, so maybe that's the reason. I was also amused to see that I'd included 'lava-lamps' in the saucer's interior too.

Trivia time - the Dalek hoverbout shot on the bottom of page two is a direct reference to the glorious Richard Jennings art on page 14 of 'The Dalek Book' which remains an absolutely magical cornerstone to my love both of the Daleks and comic strips of the period.

It's ironic that our version of a sequel was in monochrome; it seems absurd now, when computer-colouring and colour print is available for virtually every publication, but back then it was a cost too far for an already expensive title. Maybe one day it will come back in colour, yes, one day . . .