Doctor Strange!

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have already seen this one. Here, however, is a nice hi-res scan whereas the shots featured on Instagram and Facebook were a simple pic taken with my phone.

This is, as far as I can remember, my very first Doctor Strange. The Sorcerer Supreme and I have had only a passing acquaintanceship. As a kid, I just wasn’t very big into magicians. I know it sounds pretty arbitrary but while I can swallow super-powered super heroes, I had a hard time buying into magic users. To me, magic was just too ill-defined as a super power. It didn’t make sense. It could be anything. I need rules! Maybe I had some undiagnosed OCD as a kid, but I needed powers with set boundaries. The Human Torch controlled fire. Superman could fly and was super-strong. Doctor Strange had… magic spells. It seemed like he could pull a new one out whenever the story needed it. It was too easy. Too convenient.

My aversion to Doctor Strange changed when I read a reprint of his origin story as drawn by the immortal Steve Ditko in the back of an issue of Marvel Tales. The story was great. It was a perfect redemption story. Even though I enjoyed it, it still wasn’t enough to make me a reader of the regular Doctor Strange series.

I think my next exposure to Doctor Strange came in the pages of The Defenders. I started late with The Defenders. I remember well that my first issue of Marvel’s non-team was #112, the beginning of a new story arc featuring the Squadron Supreme that would lead directly into the classic Squadron Supreme mini-series, which is one of my all-time favorite comic book stories by the way! By this time, Doctor Strange was largely absent from the team he’d founded. He was for the most part relegated to an occasional guest star in this book. Still, this was probably the most regular dosage of the Master Of The Mystic Arts that I’d ever read.

I won’t say I actively disliked Doctor Strange. He just didn’t excite me and demand that I read his stories the way Spider-Man, the X-Men and other characters did. Having said all this, I have the Doctor Strange Essentials sitting unread right on my shelf. This volume reprints all of those early legendary Ditko stories I’ve always heard about but never read. One day, I’m going to have to sit down and crack that one open and see what all the fuss is about. I have a feeling I’m really missing out!

This piece, like some of the others I’ve posted recently, is a reward sketch done for one of the supporters of our most recent Die Kitty Die Kickstarter. Keep your eyes out for news of our next Kickstarter. Dan Parent and I will surely offer this reward as an incentive again. It seems to be one of our most popular options. I love all the different requests I get.

What other characters and comic book runs would you recommend? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Thanks, Everybody!

 

 

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8 comments on “Doctor Strange!”

  1. Dennis Roy

    For some reason, a long comment I tried to post would not go through. I saved it, but I don’t know what I can do about posting it, if for some reason there’s some maximum number of characters before a post won’t go through.

    • Dennis Roy

      Actually, that’s true of several replies I tried to post. Again, I saved the comments, but short posts seem to go through while longer ones don’t.

      • fernando

        Feel free to post your replies in “parts” if you need to, Dennis. I haven’t encountered a maximum but maybe there is one.

    • fernando

      Hmmm… I’m not sure if there is a limit, Dennis. I’ve written a few long replies too and they’ve gone through without a problem. I hope you keep trying to post your reply. It may have been a momentary glitch.

      • Dennis Roy

        Is there something you can see (as a site admin) that has “replies awaiting moderation” or something? I wonder if longer replies automatically get tagged and won’t display until they’ve been approved by the moderator (which would be you).

        • fernando

          Yes. All comments are sent to me for approval. I haven’t seen any of your missing posts otherwise I would’ve given them the OK right away.

          • Dennis Roy

            I know it’s been months since I’ve posted any comments, but I remember posting some pretty long comments on other topics, so I wonder what changed about the way this site treats posts since I’ve been gone. Or could it be something to do with the computer I’m posting from? That doesn’t really seem likely, but maybe I should try posting from a different one.

          • fernando

            Whatever it takes, My Friend. Your insights are always welcome here and were it completely up to me, I certainly wouldn’t curb their length. Some of the spam bots that I have to frequently clear out, however, might make me regret my open-door policy.

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