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Titan Comics will roll out in March the trade paperback edition of their highly acclaimed Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor comic. When IGN Fan Fest 2025 came, we were able to talk to writer Dan Watters (Loki, Home Sick Pilots) and artist Kelsey Ramsay (Dark Spaces: Good Deeds, Joan Jett and the Black Hearts), who gave us some exclusive peeks and ran through how they made that transition of the story of The Fifteenth Doctor into comics.

Readers will get a chance to check out some of the exclusive behind-the-scenes artwork from the Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor comic.
Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor stars The Doctor and their companion as played in the TV series by Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson, who find themselves trapped in a bizarre shopping mall in Earth’s dying days. A hair-raising new adversary, the Scream Sommelier, duly scuppers them in a time-honored fashion.

Watters just recently explained to me that he’s had the idea for the Scream Sommelier for a while, just needing the right story to bring it to life.

Watters added: “It was a divine figure obsessed with capturing and enjoying screams. When the idea to tie him into the Pantheon, the powerful entities screwing up the Doctor’s recent trips, came up he seemed a good fit. I was happy to take him out.

Returning of Cybermen from Doctor Who in the science fiction crossover special is obvious enlivening of fans by the mention of these infamous adversaries. Their inclusion as villains was, according to Watters, a pretty logical step.

"They’re kind of a poignant yet extraordinary creature, driven by a very human impulse to preservere, as they push through the Uncanny Valley to some place that is wholly inhuman. Their meaning today is far beyond their initial creation," Watters said.

Ramsay brings up the infamous Weeping Angels as dream monsters the creators would like to portray in comic form, and Watters wants to do a Carrionites story. "Linguistically wielding magic from ancient times as witches? Count me in," said Watters.

As for the ideal Doctor, Ramsay voiced a generally held opinion, saying, “David Tennant appears a classic in my eyes; I’ve seen more of his episodes than any other Doctor and kind of grew up with those Christmas specials.”

He liked the whole creating process. ‘I like thinking up ideas. I have fun describing a scene on the page and working with other creators. Each step of taking an idea from my mind to words and images on a page, with collaboration, is something that needs to be treasured always. It’s really an honor to do this work.

Her design process is approached with a unique way, states Ramsay, and she enjoys most of all the incremental development of the visual narrative. “It starts with my favorite, making thumbnails to visualize the story based on the script - this stage is the most collaborative. Then I go to pencil and layout on larger sheets, then inking as the end phase –that too is my favorite because it usually asks the least intellectual effort from me. (It’s) most soothing part.”

Ramsay recommends that aspiring comic artists focus on the things they are worst at doing in order to accumulate a wide range of work across many genres, heeding them not to stifle their idealism and to reduce the spin-factor when juggling projects and interests.

Grab an issue of sensation and mystery to read, said nobody ever – except my Aunt Cindy. “Analyze more comics,” she said on my birthday. “And novellas, novels, short stories, and poems.” “More films and paintings, too,” she recommended at the same time as wishing me a happy new year. “Happy birthday,” they said, embracing me with smiles that melted the icy weather outside our cozy little house. Characters were fighting for space in my mind, while I increasingly found myself interested in body modification subculture so often seen nearby. Flowers were beauties that liked to bloom by the roadside: each had a character all its own.

Guaranteed to be released by March 18, 2025, in all fine comic stores. from Titan, Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor – Vol 3 trade paperback