Ziggy Stardust and Dr Who - the life and death of a cultural comic book icon ?

In life, David Bowie was one of the most inventive and influential icons of modern pop culture, so much so that even today 6 years after his death on the 10th January 2016 his popularity has only intensified. His place in popular culture and the popular imagination is due to much more than his cult status as the "Chameleon of rock" or in his various iconic alter egos as the Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane or even the legendary Ziggy Stardust. He was a great musician who influenced and still influences a multitude of modern music genres from glam rock , soul, new romantics, electronica and punk rock. And in his own way has even played a part in influencing comic books.

Bowie was known to be a voracious reader of the classics and avant-garde type books but he also enjoyed Science Fiction and was a fan on comics. A list of Bowies top 50 books noted some of his favourites as the Beano (from the 1950’s) and Viz magazine, which he was picture several times reading. In the early 1970’s he was also noted as a fan of Gilbert Shelton’s "Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" and Marvel comics. In fact he liked Marvel so much that he helped his first wife (Angie) to procure from Marvel the rights (for 12 months only) to produce a TV series based on Daredevil and the Black Widow, with Angie Bowie playing the Black Widow and David Carruthers playing DD – thankful it fell through.

In other comic book related issues Neil Gaiman stated that artist Kelly jones should draw the character of Satan as a charismatic and suave character in his fantasy opus “Sandman” and he insitied that the character should look like David Bowie and that if it wasn’t drawn as Bowie he would send Jones his pages back until he redrew Satan in Bowie’s image. In the mid 2000’s DC also stated that the Joker should resemble Bowie with Grant Morrison stating “.. the Joker is the equivalent of David Bowie , constantly shifting his appearance....”

David Bowie has also appeared as himself in several comic books and strips over the years including many pop bio comic strips from Sounds magazine to Look-In and beyond. His most popular comic book appearance has probably been in the ongoing series based on the film “Labyrinth” where Bowie played Jareth the Goblin King. The comic of the film was first published by Marvel as a 68 pager Super Special in 1986 with art breakdowns by the equally great John Buscema. This was later reprinted by Marvel as a 3 part miniseries. The labyrinth series has since been picked up and published by Archaia comics. Bowie has also featured as himself (well his alter ego Ziggy Stardust) in various underground comics in the 1970s the most (in)famous being “Its only Rock & Roll Comix” from 1975. There have also been numerous tribute comic book covers featuring famous Bowie poses including a tribute to Bowies “Heroes” album cover that was used for the third issue of the "Dr Who: The Twelfth Doctor adventure Year two comic”.

My personal favourite Bowie “appearance “ was where he featured as a regular character in the brilliant Adult Swim animation series “The Venture Brothers” as the Sovereign, the villainous leader of The Guild of Calamitous Intent. If you haven’t watched this cartoon you really missed out as it was a treat for comic book fans.

Most recently in 2020 Michael Allred and Steve Horton produced the coffee table book “BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns, and Moonage Daydreams” which takes us on a journey through Bowie’s artistic relationships and friendships from his earliest years to working with the likes of other music icon including Lou Reed and Iggy Pop and into the creation and development of the mythology that produced his Ziggy Stardust persona. The book ends with a look at his final and most poignant and truly wonderful album “Blackstar” and his death in 2016.

As a final comment on the effect that creative people can have on your life whether that be a Stan Lee, John Buscema or Heath Ledger. It was through Bowies music that I managed to stay connected to my late brother when our seemingly small 5 year age difference started to appear more akin to a gaping chasm as my brother moved into his late teens as I was just entering them. But throughout that period and beyond we shared an interest in Bowie and we would spend hours pouring over his lyrics discussing the meaning of his songs and his multitude of characters like Major Tom , Halloween Jack, Aladdin Sane and of course the legendary Ziggy Stardust. For that and his music I thank David Bowie.