Nathan Ritter's Groovy Blog

Dedicated to bringing the word "groovy" back since 2031.

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Oh, man, I JUST found this.  The very, very first sketch I did of the Doctor.  This was done within hours of the story's conception, and it was just a really quick sketch done to remind myself of the idea.  As you can see, it was before I even thought of putting the carrot in his hat, which was an entire costume piece that I ended up cutting.  So actually, this is a little closer to what you're probably used to now, sans the fedora.  I guess that goes to show you that sometimes you should stick with your gut.

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So you say you're usually busy... What do you do other than write/draw Doctor What?

I travel and do a lot of research with my flatmate, John Smith.  Writing a science-fiction time-traveling story as elaborate as Doctor What requires me to do justice to places and their history, so when I can, I go and take trips everywhere I can.  John's got a lot of connections since he's lived just about everywhere all his life, and I actually draw a lot of inspiration for Doctor What from the stories he tells me about growing up in foreign countries and things.

For instance, the first story about The Celestial Toymaker was just an embellished and modified tale of his childhood in China.  He and his friends had saved up money to purchase the puppet they'd been admiring in a shop window.  Apparently, the shop owner was also a drug dealer and had been using the toy to smuggle his real product.  Needless to say, John and his friends helped to arrest the "toymaker" and trashed the puppet.  So take a drug-filled puppet and turn it into an energy-seeping toy, and you've got the story of The Celestial Toymaker in Issue 01 Doctor What.

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This was a preliminary sketch I did of the Doctor upon my first conception of the guy.  Totally different than what he looks like now, huh?  I put a carrot in his hat because his face was inspired by a horse.

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My Groovy Blog

At the suggestion of my editor, I've decided to start up this account to interact with my fans.  I don't know if this will work out, or even if I'll be able to update regularly since I'm usually really busy, but y'know, it's the effort that counts.

So yeah, if you're here, I'm assuming you already know who I am, but for those who don't, the name's Nathan Ritter.  I'm the writer and artist for the fairly popular comic serial Doctor What.  It's about a time-traveling alien man and his human friend, and they go on all sorts of groovy adventures through time and space.  I'm also dedicated to bringing back the word groovy.

I don't know what more I can really say.  I'll try to answer as many questions as I can, as well as post some artwork since that's what I do.  Don't count on any spoilers for upcoming issues, though.  I don't really plan things that far ahead, and I just sort of work on the ideas as they come.  If anything interesting happens with Doctor What, I'll be sure to post about it here.  Until then, that's all I've got for now.  BYE!