Newsstand: April, 1981

Of all the comics that came out in April of 1981, I believe the only one I actually bought was Marvel Premiere 59, the third issue featuring Doctor Who. This one would have featured the first half of the City of the Damned storyline, which was one of the creepiest things I had read to that point. Written by John Wagner and drawn by Dave Gibbons, it's almost a Judge Dredd story starring Doctor Who.

I can't remember which issue of these reprints featured a pin-up of the Daleks and Davros by Dave Cockrum, but I do remember being very confused by it. At this point, I had neither seen nor read Genesis of the Daleks, so as far as I knew, the origin of the Daleks was exactly as I had read it in Doctor Who and the Daleks. The reference to Davros as the creator of the Daleks made no sense to me, since, as far as I knew, the Daleks had evolved, not been created. So, my pre-teen mind reconciled it by deciding that the picture of Davros was actually an illustration of what was inside a Dalek. Given how obsessed I later became with facts and continuity, I'm amazed that I accepted my own interpretation so easily. On the other hand, in those innocent, pre-Internet days, it's not as if I had a lot of avenues for research.

While I didn't buy it, I had to smile when I saw that Mike Mist's Minute Mist-eries came out this month. I know I had seen it on the racks, but may not have even picked it up. Given that its creators, Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty, went on to create one of my favorite comics of all time, Ms Tree, it figures that this barely blipped on my radar when it came out.