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1st Dr Strange cover

Started by gadzukes,

57 posts in this topic

Ditch Fahrenheit

Ditch Fahrenheit

Posted
Posted
Would he have been Stephen Suspense if he first appeared in Tales of Suspense? How about Dr. Alex Astonish?

 

Dan

 

Or Marcellus Mystery if he first appeared in JIM?

 

I like it. Stan Lee had that alliteration thing going didn't he.

 

Dan

 

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inconceivable

inconceivable

Posted
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Would he have been Stephen Suspense if he first appeared in Tales of Suspense? How about Dr. Alex Astonish?

 

Dan

 

Or Marcellus Mystery if he first appeared in JIM?

 

I like it. Stan Lee had that alliteration thing going didn't he.

 

Dan

 

 

Fin Fang Foom.

 

Dan

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

Posted
Posted
Would he have been Stephen Suspense if he first appeared in Tales of Suspense? How about Dr. Alex Astonish?

 

Dan

 

Or Marcellus Mystery if he first appeared in JIM?

 

I like it. Stan Lee had that alliteration thing going didn't he.

 

Dan

 

 

Fin Fang Foom.

 

Dan

 

Not to mention Clark Kent (phonic alliteration), Lana Lang and Lois Lane . :insane:

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Jaylam

Jaylam

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The rare 'variant' cover to Strange Tales #110...

 

 

Strange-Tales-110.jpg

 

If that was the cover to ST110 it would be a Ga-Freakin'-Zillion dollar book!

 

 

So true. If Doc had been on the covers like this from the beginning, the Human Torch would have been gone from the title long before #135.

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Bronty

Bronty

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To me the cover of ST 110 is super boring. It has the 1st Dr Strange on the inside which makes the issue special, but I started wondering if there was a 1st cover appearance that was sought after.... apparently not.

 

Geez, even ST 115 which has the Origin of Dr Strange, doesn't have him on the cover.

 

Dr Strange didn't get much love early on.

 

With the way they can do CG in movies now, I think Dr Strange is going to blow peoples socks off when he hits the big screen.

 

I like the ST 110 cover, but yeah there's really no early cover to get excited about. 118 is too minor. Ff27 is Kirby instead of ditko. There's just no big splashy signature ditko cover and it would need to be ditko when it comes to this character.

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01TheDude

01TheDude

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yeah 118 is just a head shot --- nothing exciting about that

 

the FF 27 while not Ditko he is at least center stage

in the same month, he also appears in ST 121 on the bottom portion of the split cover in an action sequence (I believe that one is Ditko) although less impressive. He has similar split covers/head shots in ST 122-128 (ST 129 back in the box)

 

The first primary character cover is ST 130, although one could say 1/3 the page is Torch/Thing related too. But for my money-- the 130 cover stands out as the one that truly features him more or less. It is the first time he doesn't appear to be the second banana/act

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Petey's Wheatcake

Petey's Wheatcake

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If Spider-Man, Iron Man, or the Hulk had a first cover appearance as pedestrian as ST 118 it would still be in demand simply because collectors would want to say that they owned the first cover featuring their favorite character. It will eventually be the same for Dr. Strange.

 

Even if I wasn't already collecting all his early appearances, I'd go out of my way to get 118 because of it's significance. Although I do agree that Dr. Strange 169 would be higher on my list of priorities.

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Unca Ben

Unca Ben

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I found it interesting that the first and only Strange Tales issue to exclusively feature a Ditko Dr. Strange on the cover was #146, Ditko's final issue.

 

When SHIELD began being featured in the book, Dr. Strange was only shown twice on the cover, not including one headshot. Many of the covers didn't even mention the Dr. Strange story.

During this time, the other two split books would alternate covers between the two featured characters. Not only that, but the other two split books changed their mastheads so that the featured characters shared equal billing, and their names were predominant in the book's title.

Not Strange Tales. Only Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was in the title. No mention of Dr. Strange.

 

Even with the Torch issues, Dr. Strange only dominated one cover, issue #130. Usually he got a small panel insert, if anything at all. Or if the cover was split, the Torch story usually got the larger section, with the exception of the above issue 130.

 

 

Even more interesting, once Ditko left, Strange Tales started alternating covers between the two features starting with the very next issue, and four issues later the masthead changed giving Dr. Strange equal billing.

 

It makes me wonder if the "creative differences" between Lee and Ditko affected Stan's editorial decisions on the book.

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KirbyJack

KirbyJack

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The lack of cover appearances, and Stan's otherwise ubiquitous "hard sell", was intended to create a specific mood.

 

We were supposed to discover Dr. Strange, not have him bursting from the cover, Kirby-style. One heard of the Doctor in hushed whispers, from the cool kids. The Baxter Building was on top of a skyscraper; Doc's brownstone was hidden in shadows.

 

Magic is mysterious, and Stan tried to surround the character with mystery as much as he could. I like how he handled Doc.

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BizarroChuck

BizarroChuck

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The lack of cover appearances, and Stan's otherwise ubiquitous "hard sell", was intended to create a specific mood.

 

We were supposed to discover Dr. Strange, not have him bursting from the cover, Kirby-style. One heard of the Doctor in hushed whispers, from the cool kids. The Baxter Building was on top of a skyscraper; Doc's brownstone was hidden in shadows.

 

Magic is mysterious, and Stan tried to surround the character with mystery as much as he could. I like how he handled Doc.

 

+1

 

My thoughts exactly

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