A comic hero... (moderator approved!)

[brocky]

Dear Tom,

As well as being a star of the small screen, your Doctor was also a comic hero in the 70s and early 80s. I was wondering what you thought of these examples from the two best known artists who depicted you, Dave Gibbons (left) and Mick McMahon (right). Did they succeed in capturing you, do you think?



Many thanks!
Colin.

PS: Thank you also to the moderator for allowing me to post images

[Tom Baker]

Colin,

I think they did catch me very well, I was flattered they showed me so full of vitality.

I read comics as a child and I remember the excitement when I first saw and read the American comics. Superman amazed us. Everything American amazed us. Western films especially, and a bit later the gangster pictures. My oh my, how I loved the gangsters. And I remember how I wanted to be a gangster: I mean a movie gangster. When I saw Scorsese's Good Fellas I was about fifty years old and suddenly I wanted to be a gangster again! I wanted to have an American accent and wear those wonderful clothes,and rob banks and shoot the bankers. I still want to shoot the bankers, don't we all ? The villains were the heroes - still are if they are glamourous. Glamour, wonderful word, eh? And I hear in my mind the excited talk of gangster fans: "Hey, do you remember Cagney? Pacino? Yeah, and how about Brando and Warren Beatty and Robert De Niro?" And then there would be great sighs and then out of the silence someone, anyone might ask quietly: "And then there was Tom Baker." And then a chorus of incredulity, "Tom Who?" Anyway, Colin I must get back to my dreams. I dream a lot now and every morning my wife and I exchange dreams over our first cup of tea.

Best wishes from Tom