Story Discussion: A Matter of Life and Death (Graphic Novel)

Here’s the story discussion thread for the A Matter of Life and Death graphic novel collection that collects the Eighth Doctor miniseries from Titan comics. This was a five-issue miniseries and according to the wiki, each issue had a different title. Anyway, have fun.

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Cool, we begin with one of the very few comics that I actually have :+1:

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I’m pretty sure I have this one having picked it up for less than a quid in Forbidden Planet. Yay!

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Just read the first issue. While not as good as some comics I’ve read, the art is decent enough. The story is a lot of fun and I love Josie Day. Tardis Wiki’s Eighth Doctor Timeline places between the Liv and Helen Adventures and the Time War. I like the design of the sonic screwdriver in this and the look on the Doctor’s face when Mrs. Fellowes bursts in complaining about monsters is excellent.

So I finished this last night. It’s a lot of fun. The individual issues each have interesting and different storylines, and then everything is tied together in the last issue. Josie’s origin has a Dorian Gray feel to it, and I love that it’s the Twelfth Doctor that sets all this up. Josie Day is an awesome companion. She’s fun, independent, kind. She works well with the Eighth Doctor and it’s a shame that we only got a couple more little brief appearances of her in a couple other comics. I’d love an ongoing Eight/Josie series from Titan, or even a series of novels or some Big Finish.

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I’d love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on Josie Day. She really needs more stories.

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Finished this yesterday.

I wasn’t fussed about Josie to start with - just seemed like the normal ‘spunky girl companion’ this time with turquoise hair but I did like the twist that she was a painting come to life. I liked the parallels that became apparent from the mini-adventures within the overall story. Not sure there is much you could have done with her beyond that though.

I enjoyed the story but there was no effort made whatsoever to make the Doctor look like McGann (which is especially odd as the Twelfth Doctor looks like Capaldi. The lack of McGannness did pull me out of the story a bit.

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Haven’t listened to this yet but here’s the Pieces of Eighth podcast episode which talks about A Matter of Life and Death and features the writer George Mann and the artist, Emma Vieceli:

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I read it this morning in one go. It really was a mini-series - the format with all their different adventures fitting together to form the greater puzzle in the end could very easily be a whole 8-part TV series if expanded upon.
I love “The Picture of Dorian Grey” which this seems to be somewhat inspired by, and the 8th Doctor is perfect for that general narrative tone.
The twist with Josie at the end was great, but in the end I don’t think we got enough of her to really form a clear characterized profile of this companion, though I liked her being an artist.

That the events of the story was set in motion by the 12th Doctor because he knew that 8 had the required people skills that he himself lacked was a nice touch.

Art wise I don’t quite think Paul McGann’s likeness was portrayed as well as it could have been in this story, but the backgrounds and especially the colours were very striking.
Overall a very enjoyable outing for the 8th Doctor :+1:

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Almost exactly what I thought about this :slight_smile:

We really should get a room!

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