Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #176886 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Customer Reviews

Lee and Ditko introduce the Master of the Mystic Arts
I did not start reading Doctor Strange until the Master of the Mystic Arts got his own comic book and stopped sharing "Strange Tales" with Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., at which point he was being drawn by Gene Colan one of my favorite artists. By that point in the history of the Marvel Universe Doctor Strange's original artist, Steve Ditko, was working for Charlton Comics, which in our estimation was below even Archie Comics on the comic book scale. Having already formed a negative opinion of Ditko's artwork it was rather strange, for lack of a better word, to see he was the original artist on Spider-Man. But Ditko's work on Doctor Strange I just totally dismissed.

Now, several decades later, I am able to look at Ditko's entire run on "Doctor Strange" from a fresher perspective. One reason is because of these "Essential" volumes put out by Marvel, which reprint dozens of a particular issue in black & white. In reading over the first couple of volumes of "The Essential Spider-Man" I found myself paying more attention to Ditko's artwork than I did when it was in color. What I discovered was that Steve Ditko was a master of composition. His figures always seem to have these forced postures (like George Perez, only more so), but his shifting perspectives from frame to frame and his arrangement of characters are superb. I will go so far as to say I think that Jack Kirby, John Romita, Gene Colan and anybody else you want to name are not as good in this regard as Ditko.

The other point of comparison for these first Doctor Strange stories (Volume 1 collects "Strange Tales" issues #110, 111, and 114-168) are the heights the character reached during the Steve Englehart-Frank Brunner period (see: "Doctor Strange: A Separate Reality"), when once again the character got his own comic book (the second time emerging from "Marvel Premier"). Although I found these stories by Stan Lee and Ditko to be better than I remembered (or expected for the new ones), the best Doctor Strange stories will be coming up in the next pair of volumes. Hopefully "The Essential Doctor Strange" will get that far, but I know we have a waiting list for a whole bunch of other second and third volumes.

One think that is painfully clear is the Doctor Strange was a second-class citizen in the Marvel Universe. Not only did he have to share "Strange Tales" (first with the Human Torch, then with the Human Torch and the Thing, and finally with Nick Fury), but unlike other split titles, Doc did not get half the covers (either in terms of each month or every other month). You can understand this once Jim Steranko was drawing "Nick Fury," but this was true from the start. Maybe it was become the Master of the Mystic Arts was off in his own dimensions, literally, or because for some strange reason Lee and Ditko did not offer by an origin for Doc until they had already published the first three stories. It could be that Lee was laying on the weird names in the mystic spells a bit much or that Ditko's drawing of magic was a tad hokey. Whatever the reason what we have here is good, but not great. However, the character does get there for a while down the mystic road.

An interesting extension of the Marvel universe
Stephen Strange a vain and greedy surgeon searches for the Ancient One when he loses his ability to earn. Overcoming his faults he becomes a disciple along with Baron Mordo who becomes Strange's main human nemesis.
Stan Lee's master of the mystic arts started with a series of very short stories wherin he openly aided people troubled by supernatural events and assisted the police. These being tester stories to see how the public would react. The tales grew to 7/8 page fillers before eventually taking a full part in the Strange Tales series. The early tales centred around Mordo and Nightmare with a few decent ghost stories.
The series takes off with a tale involving Loki and Thor, the ONLY tie in here with the regular Marvel universe.
The tales get really serious with Dormammu and the Mindless Ones and the first appearance of, the yet unnammed, Clea.
The masterpieces are a series of epic tales featuring Dormammu and Mordo, then Dormammu and Eternity and ending with The Living Tribunal and Nebulos. The last tale with Yandroth and his daft robot is an unfortunate weak spot but it does look good.
The artwork is superb apart from a few glitches with the Marie Severin issues, the transfer to black and white may not help but those early tales drawn by Steve Ditko and those of Dan Adkins are stand-outs.
With the high standard set by the other Marvel Essentials series the 5 star bar is set so high that it would not be proper to give it 5 stars but it certainly deserves 4 stars.
And I didn't mention "by the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth" once..... (damn.......)

A monochrome trip down memory lane with the good doctor.
Essential Dr Strange collects Strange Tales #110, 114 and 116 thru to about 160 something. That's not really true though, as you don't get all of the issues listed. This is because Strange Tales was mostly a comic for The Human Torch, so they don't give you the half of the mag with him in, just the covers and the Dr Strange stories.
I had a little trepidation about buying this book, as it is in black and white and not the original colour. Though, while I still believe it is just Marvel being cheapskates, it does work on the most part for Dr Strange. The single colour gives it an air of mystery and intrigue that works well with the stories, though I can see it not working for other essential titles, like Thor and the Silver Surfer.
The writing is pure 60's cheese. No sentence ends with a full stop, always an ! a ? or a !!. This can get a bit annoying, though you do tend to get used to it as you move along the tales.
The dialouge also feels the 60's cheese, but it's less self-congratulatory than in books like the Avengers and the Amazing Spider-Man.
The nice thing about the book is that it's got all of the stories that appearing in Strange Tales, and doesn't just collect the arcs. This can occur in some of the more recent trades, and you can end up with stand-alone issues missing from your collection.
You get to see Dr Strange grow as a character throughout the book. His original cape and amulet are replaced with his trademark ones as you go along and you see his standard villains, (Nightmare, Baron Mordo and Dormammu) evolve also in the stories. Nightmare starts out as a black shadow but becomes a more monsterous character.
Overall, if you can stand the lack of colour, Dikto's often weird attempts at drawing people and Stan Lee's writing, you're in for a treat if you buy this book. May the Hoary Hands of Hogarth protect you.