Doctor Who meets Mr. Men: Adam Hargreaves Interview

Get ready to see the Doctor as you’ve never seen him before… in his Mr. Men form.

Thanks to a collaboration between Doctor Who and The World of Hargreaves, readers will soon be able to purchase 12 — possibly 13 — different books in a series that sees each incarnation of the popular time-and-space traveling Time Lord get a tiny book. In every installment, a Doctor teams up with an iconic companion (or possibly even a frenemy) to go up against a range of different Who villains, including the Daleks and the Weeping Angels.

Writing and illustrating the books is Adam Hargreaves, the son of Mr. Men creator Roger, and the person helping continue the popular British series. Currently, the only books that will be available for purchase this spring will be those of the First, Fourth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors.

Ahead of Hargreaves’ latest books hitting shelves later this month on April 25, EW spoke to the author-illustrator about marrying the two well-known British series.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What are some of the things you have to consider when translating a Doctor into a Mr. Men version of him?
ADAM HARGREAVES: The tricky bit about drawing the Doctors as Mr. Men is finding a balance between getting a good caricature and resemblance of the real actor and also maintaining a true Mr. Men style. I have tried to avoid just drawing a cartoon version of a Doctor’s face and then plonking this in a circle with arms and legs. Hats and scarves and shoes obviously help to make this easier. Noses are often the start point as they can determine the body shape.

What makes a quintessential Mr. Men story?
A Mr. Man story is an exploration of one particular human characteristic or emotion which my dad did by taking that personification and placing it in the world and then highlighting this absurdity using his daft, silly sense of humour. How would your day unfold if you were only possessed of a grumpy nature? What sort of job would you do if you could only rush around manically? The answers to these sorts of questions are what Mr. Men stories are involved with. You then need a punchline, pun or joke of some kind to finish on. My dad always enjoyed a good pun

Was there anything in particular you had to consider when writing the Doctor Who Mr. Men stories?
The process that we have evolved is for the publisher, Penguin, to provide me with a Doctor Who story synopsis which provides me with all the correct Doctor Who facts and characters and a storyline. I then have the fun part of adding a sort of Mr. Men layer to this, what you might term “Mr. Men-ising” it. The difficult part of this process was telling an essentially adult story, albeit very simple, for a pre-school child. The other key ingredient was ensuring that my dad’s sense of humour was present. I believe that making children giggle is a large part of what a Mr. Men book is all about.

Did anything surprise you when you were writing the Doctor Who version of these Mr. Men stories?
The fact that this collaboration has worked creatively. To be honest, when I was first approached with the idea of Mr. Men Doctor Who stories I was a bit bemused and fairly skeptical about the whole thing. It seemed a bit crazy at first. But I was also intrigued enough to want to give it a go and then very pleasantly surprised by the first effort. The drawing of the characters has been a lot easier than writing the stories. Although, I have to admit I always prefer illustrating to writing!

What were you most excited about when writing these stories?
There was more a sense of trepidation than excitement when it came to writing these. It felt like quite a big responsibility bringing together two such iconic British brands and then satisfying two sets of fans in one series of books. Here’s hoping I have succeeded!

Do you have a favorite Doctor?
Being of a rather older generation it would have to be Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. They were the two I enjoyed when growing up. I have a very distant memory of hiding behind a sofa in fear while an older friend of mine was watching a black-and-white episode. Clichéd but true!

Did you have a favorite Doctor Who villain you were excited to write for?
Definitely the Daleks.

Is there anything you felt you learned about writing or creating a Mr. Men story now that you’ve done the Doctor Who ones?
It’s probably made me analyze more closely the format and essential components of a Mr. Men story, although that’s something of a continuous process for me as I have had to follow my dad’s lead and learn his style of illustration and storytelling. What I do now know is an awful lot more about Doctor Who than I ever imagined I would!

Dr. Twelfth, Dr. Eleventh, Dr. Fourth, and Dr. First will all be available for purchase starting April 25. You can pre-order them here, here, here, and here. You can also see more art from the books below.

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