dread dormammu – Coke & Comics

Strange Tales #126, Story B

The Domain of the Dread Dormammu!

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee Prince of Prestidigitators!
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko Lord of Legerdemain!
Lettered by: Art Simek Nabob of Necromancy!
10 pages

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The last few issues of Dr. Strange have essentially been filler. Forgettable stories, with Ditko not even supplying his own finishes on the art. I begged your indulgence, promising they had something good in the works. They did. This is it.

Lee and Ditko’s work on Dr. Strange is recognized as one of the best runs of comic books ever. For the next 20 issues, we’ll see why.

Generally speaking, Ditko does the heavy lifting on this series. But, assuming all the narration is attributable to Stan, he does his share here with some evocative prose.

There is a world half-hidden between the real and the imaginary!

A world in which the impossible is believable, and the incredible is commonplace…

Dr. Strange enters the Realm of Darkness, ruled by the Dread Dormammu. Dormmamu is a powerful sorcerer the Ancient One himself had once fought and been unable to defeat. Now, Dormammu plans to expand his domain and conquer Earth. Only Dr. Strange can stop him.

Strange Tales #125, Story B

Mordo Must Not Catch Me!

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
How proud we are that Stan Lee wrote this sensational thriller!
How fortunate we are that Steve Ditko drew these magical masterpieces!
How triumphant we are that Geo. Bell inked these priceless panels!
How ecstatic we are that Artie Simek lettered these deathless phrases!
10 pages

This is the actual first page for the comic, found online. The Masterworks version colors the characters white, as though both in their astral form. Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #16, where most of the scans below come from, colors all the astral forms a weird bluish color, and the front page from that issue follows suit.

The Masterworks also colors Mordo’s disciples white. They are garbed in green in the original and light blue in the scan below.

This is the last of the “filler” issues of the Dr. Strange stories. One more issue until Ditko returns to full art duties and the series kicks into high gear. As these go, this issue’s actually pretty good. Despite the story where Dr. Strange and Mordo battle for the 77th time.

The most egregious coloring error in my reprint is the coloring of Dr. Strange’s cloak. It is quite possibly an intentional error, aimed at consistent marketing to match Dr. Strange’s cloak at the time of the reprint. But, quite obviously, Dr. Strange’s cloak should be blue, as it is in any other reprint of this story.

Strange Tales #124, Story B

The Lady from Nowhere!

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: June 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written inside a haunted house by: Stan Lee
Illustrated inside a gypsy’s tent by: Steve Ditko
Inked inside a hidden cave by: Geo. Bell
Lettered inside… because it was raining outside by: S. Rosen
9 pages

Dr. Strange gets more than his usual amount of cover real estate. Some 15% of the page devoted to his story. Enough to actually depict the story within. The second time that’s happened. Strange’s day will come.

For the second of three issues, we have to put up with George Roussos finishing Ditko’s art. There’s a payoff that makes it all worth it, though. When Ditko resumes the full art duties in two issues, he’ll give us 20 of the best comics ever made.

The first page asks, “Can you guess the identity of the Lady from Nowhere??” This puts me in a bind I’ve been in before. The issue reveals her identity on the final page. I’m not a fan of spoilers and don’t want to spoil things for you. That said, this comic is over 55 years old, so it’s not like you haven’t had ample time to read it.

Even if I don’t spoil the ending in my write-up, I do like to give a listing of all the characters in this issue afterward, which would reveal who the Lady is. Tell you what. I’ll give you some hints and see if you can guess before we reach the character listing below. This is her second Marvel Age appearance, after the Iron Man story in Tales of Suspense #44. (Clicking the link will probably give away the answer.)

We’d actually already met her in one of our PRELUDE posts, when we read Venus #1. It’s not absolutely clear how or if these three versions of the character are related.

Strange Tales #120, Story B

The House of Shadows!

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: February 11, 1964
Cover: May 1964
12 cents
Written at midnight by: Stan Lee
Drawn by candlelight by: Steve Ditko
Lettered at twilight by: S. Rosen
9 pages

Dr. Strange gets a blurb on the issue’s cover, but no picture.

Dr. Strange has a new tagline. No longer the “Master of Black Magic”, he is now “Master of the Mystic Arts”. This one will stick around for quite some time until Dr. Strange earns a higher title. The stories themselves will still occasionally mention his mastery of black magic for a little while longer.

Ultimately, this seems a simple story. Dr. Strange and a haunted house. There is a twist that the house itself is an interdimensional being acting the part of the ghost. But that’s the type of twist we are used to from many comics of this era. There is some societal commentary about television and the news and audiences to be found. The fact that a news program is dedicating time to what seems to be a publicity stunt about a haunted house tells us something about the world. The fact that audiences don’t believe the reporter when he claims to be in danger speaks to something as well.

Strange Tales #116, Story B

Return to the Nightmare World!

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: October 8, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko
8 pages

Since when is 8 pages feature-length?

We see Dr. Strange and Nightmare go at it again. Nightmare is the ruler of the Dream Dimension. He has found a way to put some humans into an endless sleep, which will trap them as his prisoners.

This greatly reminds me of the 1988 DC comic, Sandman #1, by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. That tells the story of Sandman, also ruler of the dream dimension, and the plot of the issue involves a very similar sleeping sickness.

Strange Tales #115, Story B

The origin of Dr. Strange

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: September 10, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Steve Ditko
8 pages

We learn the origin of Dr. Strange, one of the greatest superhero origins ever. Probably the second-greatest. It will thus be only the second Marvel Age story I give the (presumably) coveted 5-star rating.

A brilliant surgeon cared only for wealth and fame. When an accident damaged his hands, his desperate quest to be able to operate again led him to seek out a mystic healer. There he learned of the nature of black magic and the threat to the world posed by Mordo. He spent years studying under the Ancient One to become a master of black magic.