Captain Jack himself, John Barrowman, is writing a Torchwood comic, and we've got some exclusive preview images, plus a few words from the Captain himself.
Appearing in issue #14 of the bimonthly (no salacious pun intended) Torchwood Magazine, the comic "The Tale Of The Selkie" is co-written by Barrowman and his sister Carole. Jack visits a remote Scottish island where people are disappearing one by one. And to his horror, he realizes he may know who - or what - is responsible.
The publisher sent us a mini-interview between Carole and John, and it's quite touching, especially the part where John talks about watching Doctor Who on the Chicago PBS station late at night as a kid:
CB: Ready to chat about our Torchwood Magazine comic?
JB: Wait. Shouldn't we have some sound effects if we're making this read like a scene from ‘24'?CB: Do you even know how to write sound effects? You're the worst speller.
JB: I blame the doctor for that because when I was a kid I'd stay up late on Sunday nights when the classic DOCTOR WHO was on WTTW in Chicago so I'd never study for my Monday morning spelling tests. Add the sound effects later.CB: Do you remember when we first got the idea to collaborate on a Captain Jack story?
JB: The summer when we were working together on Anything Goes. We were on location for Torchwood in a warehouse in Cardiff. I was filming the "Meat" episode.CB: Wasn't that the same shoot where the pigeon pooped on Jack's shoulder? Now that was hilarious.
JB: That was good luck . . . the shoot was taking forever. Lots of green screen shots. I think I started making up ways that Jack could end the scene and we could all get home. Now that I think about it, we came up with some funny stuff . . . I still think we should do something someday with the idea of Jack and the–CB: Shush!! . . . Can we tease shamelessly like that?
JB [laughing] I think we just did. Anyway, I remember the endings we made up got more ridiculous the longer we all sat in that cold damp warehouse . . . you and I kept playing on the way home in the car.CB: I'd forgotten about that . . . do you remember what we called the game?
JB: "What Would Jack Do?" . . . but the actual comic didn't really take shape until Comic Con last summer in San Diego when we met Tommy Lee Edwards and Trevor Goring.CB: It was the ‘Face of Boe' poster that did it.
JB: The poster they created of Jack superimposed on the ‘Face of Boe' still amazes me when I look at it. I framed it as soon as I got back to London. It's on the wall in my office and I think it's the best illustrated characterization of Jack that I've come across . . . until our comic is released that is.
And John says the comic foregrounds Captain Jack's guilt and compassion, plus his wicked skills with a harpoon.
Torchwood Magazine #19 comes out in the UK and Ireland on Feb. 19.