I actually enjoyed all artists that lend their creativity to the Doctor Strange titles and always looked for back issues of Strange Tales at Comic Cons back in the 1970s. Luckily the comics were dirt cheap back then and I was able to purchase a bunch of those beautiful Silver Age books. I paid an average of 30 to 50 cents a book and to me that was a steal! I always felt the artist borrowed from each other to mantain continuity not really swiping someone else’s work. Also keep in mind artist were instructed to draw characters a certain way. DC was known for that as well as Marvel.
I actually ENJOYED this era of DOCTOR STRANGE, especially once he started wearing the mask. I thought the art was exceptionally dynamic with some great inkers coming in. That story with him tackling Juggernaut was genius, IMO. I remember coming across that book as a back issue at a comic shop in the early 80s and being blown away by that story. I do agree that once Ditko left Dr. Strange, Severan and others came on board and tried to mimic Ditko's style to lend continuity to the art. That may be the way to go for a minute, but I feel that a book works better when an artist/penciller is allowed to grow and thrive in his/her own style. In the case of Dr. Strange, they seemed to keep swapping artists in and out too frequently, which may have given the run a very uneven feel for many readers. However, I happen to like most of the artists who were chosen to work on this comic, so I was not turned off at all. And again, I thought the stories were pretty exciting entries.
It kind of reminds me of when Roy Thomas and Neal Adams did their timeless, great run on X-Men but it was too late to save the book. The Roy/Gene/Tom combo came to late as well.
I think it is interesting that, despite Jim Steranko’s work, “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” didn’t last a whole lot longer than this version of Doctor Strange. Perhaps Strange Tales shouldn’t have been split.
Steranko rarely did entire 22-page issues aside from 3 or 4 Nick Furys and 3 Captain America. So the reason for the excitement of an ongoing Nick Fury was the promise that Steranko would stay on. Not a knock about him, he simply needed more time and less pages. Dr. Strange would have stayed strong. I like Dan Adkins but his first issues of the Dr. Strange title were pretty but stiff, not the Marvel Manner, imho. If it started with Thomas and Colan, it would have done better.
@@allencthulhu That was an odd period for the X-Men. The All-New All-Different X-Men didn't arrive yet when I started on comics. So I'd read these neat X-Men comics with the "Originally presented in X-Men #40" and I wondered if they were still alive in 'present day'. I assumed they had died.
It's really pretty simple - if you don't have Ditko, Kirby or Colan doing your book, you don't have a book. Yes, Romita and Buscema were fine as relief pitchers, but that's about it.
If John Buscema is a relief pitcher, then I guess he becomes Mariano Rivera after he pencils Silver surfer #4. Quite possible the most beautiful comic book in the entire Marvel canon.
I couldn't disagree more. Romita and Buscema were better artists than Ditko or Kirby. Colan is my favourite Doctor Strange artist, and Englehart my favorite Strange writer. Romita's Spiderman was the best ever.
Respectfully agree to disagree on that point. Romita & Buscema were celebrated talents in their own right. And Romita had been doing comics longer than many realize, just not superhero comics.
"A double-feature book splitting up then being canceled" reminds me of Hawkman and The Atom, but in reverse. Their separate books merged (I guess due to low sales), then that book was also canceled.
@@TighelanderII Believe it or not, Iron Man and Daredevil sales were so poor in the early '70s, there was talk of combining the books into a split-book. The closest they got was a brief reprint title.
I can only speak for me. Dr Strange never felt like part of the Marvel Universe. He was not a superhero. Once Ditko left the book there was no reason to read it. Not a genre I read.
That's a good point.. The Doctor Strange in The Defenders was much more of a superhero take that never lined up with his regular series. I sorta pretended that they were different Docs.
Mind blown! I totally get why this era was a misfire, but just because something is a misfire doesn't mean it's bad. Giving the split-books characters their own series, plus a lot of new books and reprint books caused Marvel to compete with itself.
Ogden Whitney was famous in the 40s for Skyman. After serving in WWII, he returned to the feature in Big Shot, and did the longest continued story, "Skyman in Space" (I'm not sure if it had that overall title). Regarding "Herbie", that is such a "punk" strip. I think it would fit right into an underground comic. Whitney's alcoholism makes me think that (like many that served in war) he saw things that he couldn't deal with that eventually consumed him.
That's usually the case, unfortunately. I've been buying the occasional stray issue of Herbie in the wild at comic conventions. It was definitely punk/underground with great stories and art.
I remember reading The Origins of Marvel Comics (By Stan Lee!) ha ha, and Stan the maniacal one, ( you Know, I have absolutely no idea what maniacal means, but it looks like it fit there!) Stan said he was doing lectures at college campuses all over the country, afterwards they have a q&A with Stan, And a lot of the students thought that Stan was going back and using ancient words and ancient whatever to come up with his spells, he didn't tell the students that he just made it up off the top of his head haha, he also said that some students wrote their term papers or some other thing I can't remember what they called it but some kind of assortation, no I don't think that is the word I'm looking for, but I can see how Doctor Strange is real popular It was college students who were experimenting with psychedelics or you know marijuana, but I don't suppose it was a real money maker, so it kept getting canceled ! Thanks a lot drew, your show is a lot of fun ! These comics you show are a Ton of fun !
There were a lot of dry periods in Doc's title, then, in my opinion three brilliant runs with top-notch quality of art and story. 1) Steve Englehart/Frank Brunner, 2) The 1980s Roger Stern era with top artists Marshall Rogers, Michael Golden, Kevin Nowlan, Dan Green, and Paul Smith 3) Roy Thomas and Butch Guice. What's great is that every single Doctor Strange issue from 1963-1995 has been reprinted in Marvel Masterworks, Omnibus and, my favorite, Epic Collection format!
Actually, it did. Namor had 72 issues until the series was cancelled in 1974. Some pretty good creators, tool . Marie Severin, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, and the return of his creator, Bill Everett (which was amazing that he was still a great artist after decades).
@@drewgeraci8434 Yes. 72 issues isn't a short run, but it did end. All of them were back issues to me. There was nice art there. It was nice to see Everett return. I don't think that later titles with the character were as successful. Marvel didn't have much luck with their expansion titles, and in general back then. X-Men, Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, SHIELD, and Not Brand Echh! getting cancelled, plus Marvel Superheroes going to reprints.
As someone who’s read all the main silver age marvel titles, I think that doctor strange was ahead of its time. Strange wasn’t really a hero, he was a bad guy who was trying to change. Also the art was the most innovative at the time. I really enjoyed silver and Bronze Age doctor strange.
i always thought if Steranko could do Dr. Strange it might be wild.. but I did like the masked era because I'm sure they thought he needed to be a super hero
I actually enjoyed all artists that lend their creativity to the Doctor Strange titles and always looked for back issues of Strange Tales at Comic Cons back in the 1970s. Luckily the comics were dirt cheap back then and I was able to purchase a bunch of those beautiful Silver Age books. I paid an average of 30 to 50 cents a book and to me that was a steal! I always felt the artist borrowed from each other to mantain continuity not really swiping someone else’s work. Also keep in mind artist were instructed to draw characters a certain way. DC was known for that as well as Marvel.
I actually ENJOYED this era of DOCTOR STRANGE, especially once he started wearing the mask. I thought the art was exceptionally dynamic with some great inkers coming in. That story with him tackling Juggernaut was genius, IMO. I remember coming across that book as a back issue at a comic shop in the early 80s and being blown away by that story. I do agree that once Ditko left Dr. Strange, Severan and others came on board and tried to mimic Ditko's style to lend continuity to the art. That may be the way to go for a minute, but I feel that a book works better when an artist/penciller is allowed to grow and thrive in his/her own style. In the case of Dr. Strange, they seemed to keep swapping artists in and out too frequently, which may have given the run a very uneven feel for many readers. However, I happen to like most of the artists who were chosen to work on this comic, so I was not turned off at all. And again, I thought the stories were pretty exciting entries.
It kind of reminds me of when Roy Thomas and Neal Adams did their timeless, great run on X-Men but it was too late to save the book. The Roy/Gene/Tom combo came to late as well.
@@drewgeraci8434 - Great point!
Steranko doing strange was the sh@$___t!❤😂💙
the art gets really good by the late 1960s and it gets into the Cthulu mythos. Frank Brunner's work on it is wonderful.
He and Englehart really did some far out stories!
I think it is interesting that, despite Jim Steranko’s work, “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” didn’t last a whole lot longer than this version of Doctor Strange. Perhaps Strange Tales shouldn’t have been split.
Steranko rarely did entire 22-page issues aside from 3 or 4 Nick Furys and 3 Captain America. So the reason for the excitement of an ongoing Nick Fury was the promise that Steranko would stay on. Not a knock about him, he simply needed more time and less pages. Dr. Strange would have stayed strong. I like Dan Adkins but his first issues of the Dr. Strange title were pretty but stiff, not the Marvel Manner, imho. If it started with Thomas and Colan, it would have done better.
@ this is, also, around the time that X-Men got the soft cancellation and only did reruns for a few years.
@@allencthulhu That was an odd period for the X-Men. The All-New All-Different X-Men didn't arrive yet when I started on comics. So I'd read these neat X-Men comics with the "Originally presented in X-Men #40" and I wondered if they were still alive in 'present day'. I assumed they had died.
Nice point!
Dan Adkins was the bomb
The Gap Band agree: ua-cam.com/video/17lkdqoLt44/v-deo.html
Agree!
It's really pretty simple - if you don't have Ditko, Kirby or Colan doing your book, you don't have a book.
Yes, Romita and Buscema were fine as relief pitchers, but that's about it.
Romita was much more than a relief pitcher. The Romita version of Spider-Man that became the definitive version of the character for decades.
If John Buscema is a relief pitcher, then I guess he becomes Mariano Rivera after he pencils Silver surfer #4. Quite possible the most beautiful comic book in the entire Marvel canon.
I couldn't disagree more. Romita and Buscema were better artists than Ditko or Kirby. Colan is my favourite Doctor Strange artist, and Englehart my favorite Strange writer. Romita's Spiderman was the best ever.
Respectfully agree to disagree on that point. Romita & Buscema were celebrated talents in their own right. And Romita had been doing comics longer than many realize, just not superhero comics.
This is an INSANE take.
"A double-feature book splitting up then being canceled" reminds me of Hawkman and The Atom, but in reverse. Their separate books merged (I guess due to low sales), then that book was also canceled.
The thought of Hawkman and the Atom in a series seems as bad as having Dr. Strange join S.H.I.E.L.D.
Atom/Hawkman was a great pairing. Funny how often it's forgotten.
@TighelanderII nah. SHIELD was never very good except briefly with Steranko. Then it was just more generic spy nonsense.
@@TighelanderII Believe it or not, Iron Man and Daredevil sales were so poor in the early '70s, there was talk of combining the books into a split-book. The closest they got was a brief reprint title.
@@drewgeraci8434 Yes. I'm aware of that. Also, after "Marvel Superheroes" went to reprints, it featured reprints of both.
I can only speak for me. Dr Strange never felt like part of the Marvel Universe. He was not a superhero. Once Ditko left the book there was no reason to read it. Not a genre I read.
That's a good point.. The Doctor Strange in The Defenders was much more of a superhero take that never lined up with his regular series. I sorta pretended that they were different Docs.
I definitely love that cover to 173. Funny I would be re-reading these just as you do your review, uncanny timing.
Mind blown! I totally get why this era was a misfire, but just because something is a misfire doesn't mean it's bad. Giving the split-books characters their own series, plus a lot of new books and reprint books caused Marvel to compete with itself.
Ogden Whitney was famous in the 40s for Skyman. After serving in WWII, he returned to the feature in Big Shot, and did the longest continued story, "Skyman in Space" (I'm not sure if it had that overall title).
Regarding "Herbie", that is such a "punk" strip. I think it would fit right into an underground comic.
Whitney's alcoholism makes me think that (like many that served in war) he saw things that he couldn't deal with that eventually consumed him.
That's usually the case, unfortunately. I've been buying the occasional stray issue of Herbie in the wild at comic conventions. It was definitely punk/underground with great stories and art.
BTW, thank you for filling me in on Whitney's Skyman. I never heard of it until now.
@@drewgeraci8434 Big Shot (with Sky Man, Tony Trent (the Face), and Sparky Watts) lasted longer than Captain America (by a whole month!)
@@drewgeraci8434 In the space story, Sky Man meets Hitler, but the hero has amnesia and doesn't know who he is.
The 30 second answer is-Ditko left.
But that’s not good content 😂
I remember reading The Origins of Marvel Comics (By Stan Lee!) ha ha, and Stan the maniacal one, ( you Know, I have absolutely no idea what maniacal means, but it looks like it fit there!) Stan said he was doing lectures at college campuses all over the country, afterwards they have a q&A with Stan, And a lot of the students thought that Stan was going back and using ancient words and ancient whatever to come up with his spells, he didn't tell the students that he just made it up off the top of his head haha, he also said that some students wrote their term papers or some other thing I can't remember what they called it but some kind of assortation, no I don't think that is the word I'm looking for, but I can see how Doctor Strange is real popular It was college students who were experimenting with psychedelics or you know marijuana, but I don't suppose it was a real money maker, so it kept getting canceled ! Thanks a lot drew, your show is a lot of fun ! These comics you show are a Ton of fun !
I never found the character particularly interesting even when Steve Ditko was doing it. For me he worked best with the Defenders.
There were a lot of dry periods in Doc's title, then, in my opinion three brilliant runs with top-notch quality of art and story. 1) Steve Englehart/Frank Brunner, 2) The 1980s Roger Stern era with top artists Marshall Rogers, Michael Golden, Kevin Nowlan, Dan Green, and Paul Smith 3) Roy Thomas and Butch Guice.
What's great is that every single Doctor Strange issue from 1963-1995 has been reprinted in Marvel Masterworks, Omnibus and, my favorite, Epic Collection format!
GREAT HAUL LIKED AND SUBBED! GOOD INFO
Namor's book didn't last much longer.
Actually, it did. Namor had 72 issues until the series was cancelled in 1974. Some pretty good creators, tool . Marie Severin, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, and the return of his creator, Bill Everett (which was amazing that he was still a great artist after decades).
Sub-Mariner lasted quite a while!
@@docsavage8640 Yes, I was mistaken.
@@drewgeraci8434 Yes. 72 issues isn't a short run, but it did end. All of them were back issues to me. There was nice art there. It was nice to see Everett return. I don't think that later titles with the character were as successful.
Marvel didn't have much luck with their expansion titles, and in general back then.
X-Men, Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, SHIELD, and Not Brand Echh! getting cancelled, plus Marvel Superheroes going to reprints.
@@drewgeraci8434 Was there a book that replaced his book on the schedule? Master of Kung Fu, Luke Cage, and Marvel Two-In-One came out in 1974.
As someone who’s read all the main silver age marvel titles, I think that doctor strange was ahead of its time. Strange wasn’t really a hero, he was a bad guy who was trying to change. Also the art was the most innovative at the time. I really enjoyed silver and Bronze Age doctor strange.
Despite my comments about the art in this volume, I really do like it. I mostly spoke of not being "commercial" or "two-fisted action."
i always thought if Steranko could do Dr. Strange it might be wild.. but I did like the masked era because I'm sure they thought he needed to be a super hero