Junk-Yard Demon by: Steve Parkhouse with art by: Mike McMahon and Adolfo Buylia

 

Junk-Yard Demon is written by Steve Parkhouse with art by Mike McMahon and Adolfo Buylia.  It was released in Doctor Who Monthly issues 58-59 (October-November 1981) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: Dragon’s Claw by Panini Books.

 

Coming right off the trainwreck that was Doctor Who and the Free-Fall Warriors comes another story with a hyphenated title and the second comic strip not to be drawn by comics legend Dave Gibbons.  Junk-Yard Demon is the last of the two issue stories and the penultimate story for the Fourth Doctor before the switch to the Fifth Doctor after the airing of Castrovalva.  The previous story struck with just how out of place its tone felt in Parkhouse’s darker vision for the Doctor Who Monthly comic strip with a comedic and upbeat tone, while Junk-Yard Demon succeeds at being just the opposite.  This story is one that brings the Cybermen into their first appearance in the script, a lone Cyberman from Mondas on the ship of some scalpers, being repaired slowly and biding its time.  The implication is there when you see it for the first time that it really has been waiting, drawing on ideas that the Cybermen are a race of conquerors effective for their ability to lie in wait and just not dying.  The Cyberman here one of the scrappers has been working on to make a robot butler which adds this little flair of comedy in an otherwise dark story.  Parkhouse’s comedy here isn’t all and out in the Season 17 style but is one that gets everything down into one or two jokes adding for moments of levity.  The Doctor in particular is particularly quippy throughout which is a lot of fun, but there is enough to sell the danger of the situation here.

 

The art of Junk-Yard Demon is also interesting as it is not by Dave Gibbons, but by Mike McMahon (who did a backup script in issue 56) and Adolfo Buylia (who did nothing else for Doctor Who Magazine).  McMahon and Buylia together have a very different style to Gibbons, making things a bit more over the top than the rest of the strip as well as implicating some body horror with the Cybermen appearing here.  The Cybermen design are basically mash ups of the designs from The Tenth Planet, The Moonbase, and The Tomb of the Cybermen which makes for an interesting design.  There are a few moments where the Cybermen, specifically the Cyber Leader here, gets to be a little more of an emotional character which is telling as the last Cyberman story was Revenge of the Cybermen.  The conclusion of this story is also done on a very high quip giving things levity and the Doctor’s last lines are also some of the funniest as he just slips away hoping that the scrappers, Flotsam and Jetsam, don’t ever find any Daleks because they do succeed in making a Cyberman butler.  This may make the Cybermen here feel more like robots over the cyborg portrayal, but it is at least an interesting little idea.

 

Overall, Junk-Yard Demon sets the strip back on the right path after a weird little comedy interlude, combining the humor with the darker storytelling.  It brings another TV villain to the strip for one appearance and gives an interesting look at the Cybermen, which at the time would have given readers flashbacks to the long missing The Tomb of the Cybermen which also makes things feel very nice.  9/10.