Doctor Who. The Eighth Doctor. Vol. 1: A Matter of Life and Death

Only the first and last exploits of the Eighth Doctor have ever been filmed, but his adventures in between have been chronicled in a long series of novels, audio dramas, and comics. Mann, who has written "Doctor Who" stories in all three of those formats, introduces a new companion for him here. When the Doctor returns to his old house on Earth he finds a squatter there: artist Josie Day, whose paintings (of alien monsters she shouldn't be familiar with) are somehow coming to life. Josie and the Doctor's resourcefulness is tested on an exciting multipart quest that takes them first to a planet of cat people who have been hunted to near extinction, and then to 1860s England and much further afield. The Eighth Doctor's romantic idealism is well captured, and Josie shows a brave spirit kindred to his own. The artwork often favors thick outlines and bright colors in an attractive, somewhat art nouveau-esque manner, appropriate to the Doctor's 19th-century costume.