Whats the most important back-up story in a comic?

[Aman619]

livin in SF taking all those drugs, Im not surprised!!

[PovertyRow]

livin in SF taking all those drugs, Im not surprised!!

 

Truth be told felt the same way living in pseudo-conservative Beacon Hill, Boston! Was then I first read and wondered at ST 110 - yes - another victim of an insane "not collecting comics no more" phase!

 

[shadroch]

How about the First Appearance (and subsequent stories) of Dr. Strange?

 

This has my vote!

 

I'm not sure I consider Dr Stange in Strange Tales,to be a backup story. I think books like ST,TOS,and TTA as being split books ,rather than books with a main character and a backup. I realize that he wasn't an established star when he first appeared,but from his name-it seems he was destined to,at least, co-headline this book.

To use an example; The Green Lantern run in the back of The Flash was a backup story.The stars of these split Marvel books were more like co-stars,imho.Another example might be in the 70s when DC combined Lois Lane,Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl into one Superman Family book.They were all co-stars,not backups.

[Mister_Comics]

Batman Family did the same.

 

But then they would stick in some HAWKMAN, RED TORNADO or ELONGATED MAN story. I would think of them as back up stories and not part of the "FAMILY" so to speak. Even though the cover may refer to those stories in a small way.

I don't have any of the Superman Family books but I'd guess they did the same.

 

And I liked to add BATGIRL and CATWOMAN solo stories to the list of important back-up stories. Batagirl for one of the few female heroes to have a story line. And Catwoman because she was the 1st female villain to have her own stories.

[blowout]

I'm not sure I consider Dr Stange in Strange Tales,to be a backup story.

 

Where were all the Dr. Strange covers then? There is no doubt back in the early days that the Torch was the big hitter and Dr.Strange was an untested back-up character.

[joe_collector]

Where were all the Dr. Strange covers then? There is no doubt back in the early days that the Torch was the big hitter and Dr.Strange was an untested back-up character.

 

Yep, and that's one reason that Martian Manhunter was taken out of consideration for "First Silver Age DC", as the lack of covers meant he was only a nominal back-up character.

 

It's also pretty obvious that Dr. Strange was just another ST back-up story to the headlining Human Torch, as Stan didn't even publish his origin until 5 issues later.

[shadroch]

Of all the SA Marvel books,Strange Tales is my weakest super-hero title,both in terms of knowledge and possesion.

I also only have Vol.#1 of the Gerbers Cover guide so I don't have easy access to ST covers.While willing to be convinced,I'm not yet.

Please answer these questions:

1) What is the first DR Strange cover?

2) Which is the first cover blurb he recieved?

3)I believe this is one of the most important-how is he treated in the house ads? I quick search of books I have laying waited to be organizes gave mixed results. TOS 58 from 10-64 doesn't have a house page and the next book I could find was from Avengers 12(1-65) which was ambigiuous.

 

I don't hold his lack of origin as much of a stigma. His 1st appearence was 110,his origin was in 115 and he was not in each issue inbetween(I think)

I just don't put Dr Strange in the same catogory as Marvel backups such as Tales of Asgard,Tales of the Watcher....(see a pattern with Marvel backup story titles?)

Interesting debate.

[Aces]

Was the first cover 121?

 

edit:

I don't have many issues from the 120s for some reason.

121-129 are thin in my box.

[Zonker]

Was the first cover 121?

 

edit:

I don't have many issues from the 120s for some reason.

121-129 are thin in my box.

 

Grand Comic Database ST covers 104-150

 

Looks to me like Dr. Strange started getting barely a sliver of a cover beginning with #118. #123 is a legitimate split cover, but looks like Thor is also crowding out Doc even there! #130 looks like the first Dr. Strange-centric image, but no real solo cover until (it looks like) #146.

[Mister_Comics]

 

Quote:

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Where were all the Dr. Strange covers then? There is no doubt back in the early days that the Torch was the big hitter and Dr.Strange was an untested back-up character.

 

 

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Yep, and that's one reason that Martian Manhunter was taken out of consideration for "First Silver Age DC", as the lack of covers meant he was only a nominal back-up character.

 

It's also pretty obvious that Dr. Strange was just another ST back-up story to the headlining Human Torch, as Stan didn't even publish his origin until 5 issues later.

Dr. Droom in AMAZING ADVENTURES (6/61) was also treated this way. No covers of him, but yet he was the 1st silver age hero in MARVEL comics. Martian Manhunter never had a cover in all the time he was in DETECTIVE, but yet he is the 1st silverage hero for DC. Everyone says its the FLASH only because of his 1st app. in SHOWCASE. But Manhunter did show up before Flash in Showcase.

[shadroch]

OK,I went to the website provided by Zonker and came up with some interesting results.

1) ST101-109 have only the torch story listed as a feature story.Dr Strange is listed as a feature in each of his appearences. Even in the early isssues that have more than 2 stories,only the Torch and DR Strange ones are listed as features. Now,I don't know if this database

is retroactively calling the Dr Strange storys features or where they get their information,but this seems to indicate that THEY, at least didn't, consider them to be backup storys.

2) Then I read that the first several Dr Strange storys

were only five pages in length.I'm not sure what the minimum number of pages a story needs to be to be considered a feature story,but it seems like it should be more five pages.

So, in conclusion- I have been convinced that the early Dr Strange appearences are backup storys.

[blowout]

So, in conclusion- I have been convinced that the early Dr Strange appearences are backup storys.

 

If you had actualy read the books then you would never have doubted it.

[shadroch]

Well,thats true.Just didn' feel like going out and spending a grand or two on them.I read all my comics,including the Avengers2-6 I've picked up this year.ST 110 will be one of the last of the 12 cent Marvels I pick up.Unless one falls into my lap.