From Doctor Who Magazine #102-103
A Review by Finn Clark 2/11/04
Funhouse (DWM 102-103) starts amazingly. If only its second episode had been half as good as its first, this might have been a classic.
It's a cliche to say that TARDIS scenes are boring, but this story proves it conclusively. Part two's script has some nice moments and tries commendably to creep us out like the first episode, but comics are a visual medium. Part one is set in a haunted house drawn by John Ridgway, the original Hellblazer artist, but part two is set in lots of bright white TARDIS corridors. Big mistake. There's just no comparison. By the time you've added in some unfortunate fanwank, a story with enormous potential has collapsed down to something rather disappointing.
But dammit, that first episode is electrifying. Ridgway's haunted house is spooky and scary, the perfect complement to an Alan McKenzie script that can freak us out with the little things as well as with its big set-piece images. The Doctor picks up a strange wine glass: "it's still warm." Your imagination starts churning, which is perfect build-up for the splashy demon-ridden shocks.
There's even a cameo for Peri, though it's not really her. The DWM comic strip was always reluctant to pay extra for TV companions as well as Doctors (likenesses = money), but from the next story onwards Peri would appear in the pages of DWM until the end of the Colin Baker strips.
In fairness to episode two, it does its best. The script gives us a big eyeball and bulging walls that might have been a little eerie on TV, but sadly TARDIS scenes just aren't scary. Maybe it's the familiarity. Maybe it's the bright lights. However whatever the reason, one reads Funhouse part two paying more attention to things like the contents of the Doctor's cupboard (cricket bat, jelly baby jar, Troughton's recorder). By the time the script sees fit to de-age the Doctor through every incarnation back to Hartnell, one's almost wondering what the point was. It's not bad. These are eight pretty good pages of comic strip, only disappointing in comparison with what went before. However it's not particularly involving.
(Here's a random thought... I wonder how different this story might have seemed if its two episodes had been swapped? You'd need some script doctoring to make it work, but I can imagine this tale getting seriously scary had the Doctor and Frobisher started out in the TARDIS and only later been driven out into the haunted house.)
Funhouse was reprinted in the second Golden Wonder mini-comic, albeit without Peri's cameo. It's an impressive work of fantasy, with some great shock moments and weirdness that's up there with Steve Parkhouse at his most brain-bending. I'm not so wild about its second episode, but even that's well worth reading. (After all, nothing drawn by John Ridgway will ever be entirely bad.) Another noteworthy story, even by the standards of the mid-eighties DWM comic strip. Strongly recommended.