Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: May 10, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Script: (pgs. 1-5) Stan Lee.. (Our vacationin’ sorcerer)
Script: (pgs. 6-10) Denny O’Neil.. (Our sorcerer’s apprentice)
Art: Billy Everett… (Our peerless prestidigitator)
Lettering: Sam Rosen.. (Our naive necromancer)
Amulet polisher: Irv Forbush.. (Our stowaway)
10 pages
| Previous | #577 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #147 | Reading order | Avengers #32 |
| Strange Tales #147 | Strange Tales | Strange Tales #148 |
“Zowie! He’s the ever-lovin’ gearest! Far as I’m concerned, the mods have had it! That crazy cape really comes on strong!”
“Man! Like there’s a boss bunch’a threads! That dad is gotta be what’s happenin’!”
The first issue of Dr. Strange without Steve Ditko. I think the first Spider-Man stories without Steve Ditko actually went pretty well. That John Romita guy is doing all right. But what even is Dr. Strange without Steve Ditko?
Stan Lee never cared about Dr. Strange. He never understood the character. He never understood the character’s appeal. He accepted the character had fans and was fine with that.
You can see this in his treatment of the character. The gap between the early issues, the character rarely being featured on the cover, the story always the back story of each issue, behind Human Torch and then Nick Fury.
He wrote the character for dozens of issues, but almost all the writing really came from Ditko.
On the other hand, Stan Lee loved Spider-Man. And you can tell. There are eternal disagreements over how much of the character and stories come from Lee and how much come from Ditko. But it was a much more collaborative process than Dr. Strange ever was, at least early on. And Stan Lee loved the character of Spider-Man like a son.
So when Ditko left Spider-Man, Lee put everything into making sure the next issue would keep the readership. He found the best artist for the job, told an extraordinarily eventful story, and plainly put his all into assuring readers that Spider-Man would continue to be great after Ditko.
For the first issue of Dr. Strange without Ditko… Lee writes half the script then hands the back pages to his new hire to write, a guy who’s scripted like 5 comics by this point. He just doesn’t care.
This is the second recent comic to refer to Stan Lee as being on vacation. Some reprints of this issue omit that, and change the credits to read “Smilin'” instead of “vacationing'”.
Bill Everett isn’t a bad choice for artist. He created Sub-Mariner and Daredevil. He’s been doing solid work illustrating the Hulk. But Ditko brought something wild and unique to these pages, while Everett is, well, less wild.
Though I’ll give him some credit for this image. He’s certainly taking his best shot at being Ditkoesque.
