Review: THE OGRON OOO MONSTER BOOK and SCRIBBLOGRONS

Sometimes the innovation, humour and sheer talent of Doctor Who fans just astounds. Several years ago now, I stumbled across on Twitter (now called X of course) an account apparently being run by an Ogron called Gruntleigh. Now as any self-respecting Doctor Who fan will know, the Ogrons appeared in two seventies stories, 'Day of the Daleks' and 'Frontier in Space'. They were used as 'muscle' by the Daleks, and were basically low-intelligence ape-like creatures with limited vocabulary. 

If you're interested in seeing Gruntleigh's account, then it can be found here: https://x.com/OgronThe

He muses on life and happenings and what's going on in his life as he clashes with Davros and Adric and others ... basically it's hilarious.

So I was at the 2024 Whooverville event in Derby, and while perusing the dealer room, spotted a familiar cover on a table. But not quite familiar as it was a pastiche of the good old 1975 Doctor Who Monster Book - but this one was The Ogron Ooo Monster Book.  The cover pastiches that of the Monster Book beautifully and includes cartoon/art representations of Gruntleigh along with the third Doctor, Jo, Adric, Nyder, Daleks and even a Cyber-Ogron!  It's superb!  

But there's more. The whole book is a pastiche of the Monster Book - the same articles and layout, with cartoon images of Ogron-ified versions of the art and photos from the original, and a text which also spoofs and pokes fun at all the creatures covered.  Just magnificent!

It had me chuckling right away. 'The Silly Uns' (Silurians), 'The Whirring' (Wirrn) and 'The Suckers' (Zygons) are just some of the monsters you'll find here. All written by Ogwon Tel!

The back cover even features a selection of Ogron Ooo novelisation covers. From Ogron Ooo in Exciting Adventure with Some Mud (by Ogron Dave) through to Ogron Ooo and Puppet Monster Invasion (by Ogron Malc). Truly a work of genius.

This amazing book is the work of artist Martin A Holmes, and copies can be bought from Lulu here: https://www.lulu.com/shop/martin-holmes-and-martin-holmes/the-ogron-ooo-monster-book/paperback/product-p66r58r.html

Sitting on the same table, alongside the Ogron Ooo Monster Book was another, hefty, tome. This was called ScribblOgrons. At 208 pages this is not to be dropped on your foot, and, like the Ogron Ooo book, it focusses on Gruntleigh's adventures. It's a Cartoon Art collection, but there is text as well ... all in colour with cartoons, one-frame funnies, comic strips, features on Daleks and all manner of other Doctor Who creatures, a feature on 'Davros Tries on a Hat Day', life in the Ogron Army, letters from Gruntleigh, Adric features, as does Nyder ... it's a fast moving, incredibly detailed and fascinating collection of Ogron-related funnies.  It's actually hard to do it justice in a mere review!

If you have a sense of humour and like the madness which could arise from being an Ogron trying to get by in the world of Doctor Who then this might be right up your street. It's certainly the most original use of the Doctor Who universe I've seen in ages, and there's so much here that it's going to keep me occupied for months and months!

There's some pages looking at Og-TV - in other words, Ogron-ised versions of some television favourites like The Ogoodies, The Prisogner, Blake's Ogrons, The Ogod Life, Hey! Hey! It's the Gruntleighs ... and many more. Another page discusses politics on the Ogron planet of Ograviss. Another discusses the Master ... yet another looks at Davros' pets.  And the book goes on, page after page with incredible cartoons and funnies and just crazy stuff which is both head-shakingly weird but hilariously funny!

Look, just go and grab yourself a copy off Lulu and you'll see ... you'll see ...

Martin Holmes certainly wins the famous No-Prize for the most fun publications seen in an age!

Available from: https://www.lulu.com/shop/martin-holmes/scribblogrons-paperback/paperback/product-w44ppp9.html