Who Dares Publishing is the legendary Doctor Who Artist Andrew Skilleter and Matthew Doe; one of the UK's latest and leading Doctor Who memorabilia experts, an entrepreneur solely in the field of Doctor Who. It was Matthew who had the inspired idea of bringing together their skill sets and relaunching Andrew’s legendary 1980s publishing company, Who Dares, beginning with the first ever Target Art Calendar featuring a selection of Andrew’s cover paintings. During 2017, Who Dares intends to launch a number of high quality art based projects of distinction.
Who Dares Publishing (often referred to as simply Who Dares) was set up by Andrew Skilleter to produce a range of high quality print based merchandise, setting new standards for printed Doctor Who merchandise based on his new artwork, that included poster prints, artcards, bookmarks and the official Doctor Who calendars for 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989.
The name Who Dares was inspired by bringing together his connection with Doctor Who and his affection and knowledge about the classic British space comic strip hero, Dan Dare.
Andrew Skilleter was providing cover art for the W H Allen Target imprint at the time and realising they had no plans to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Doctor Who series with any art based projects, he approached Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner. JNT was aware of his work, having approved all the covers for Target Books. This led to meetings with BBC Merchandising who initially licensed a series of A3 size new series poster prints.
The first prints featured Omega from Arc of Infinity and the Cybermen from Earthshock. Prepared in time for the twentieth anniversary event at Longleat House, two thousand were sold. Further prints followed including The Master, Sontarans, K9, Davros and the Daleks, Sea Devils, The Sixth Doctor and The Fourth Doctor. These sold in their thousands in the States.
The license to produce Doctor Who calendars in the USA had lapsed and Who Dares picked it up. The complexity of multiple copyright ownership of characters limited the choice of subjects to be painted and featured in the calendars. The first in 1986 was a showcase for Andrew Skilleter's work and sold 20,000 copies in the USA alone. While not illustrated by Andrew Skilleter, Who Dares initiated the publication of two other books of interest to him — The Man Who Drew Tomorrow, a look at the work of Dan Dare creator and artist Frank Hampson, and Timeview, the complete collection of the Radio Times Doctor Who illustrations by Frank Bellamy.
The last and best known book title published by Who Dares was the hardback Doctor Who: Cybermen, a collaboration with David Banks and Adrian Rigelsford, with a foreword by Gerry Davis. It was later published by Virgin Publishing as a paperback.
As mentioned, the first product to be released by Who Dares is 'The Andrew Skilleter Target Art Calendar 2017', for which we have the product synopsis and purchasing link, below:
The Andrew Skilleter Target Art Calendar is a large format A3 size with generous image area, wiro-bound in white and printed on heavy weight 250gsm satin paper with heavy weight front and back covers. Each is despatched in a substantial full board envelope with stiffener to ensure safe delivery.
Featuring: Warriors of the Deep, The Invasion, The Twin Dilemma (unpublished version), The Mind of Evil, Frontios, Nightmare of Eden, The Gunfighters, The Two Doctors, Logopolis, The Daemons, An Unearthly Child and The Abominable Snowmen.
+ BUY 'The Andrew Skilleter Target Art Calendar' from Who Dares for £19.95.
+ BUY a wide range of prints from Andrew Skilleter via his Etsy store!
[Source: Who Dares Publishing]
