Doctor Strange (comic book)

The original Strange Tales series ended with issue #168 (May 1968). The following month, Doctor Strange's adventures continued in the full-length Doctor Strange #169,[1] with Nick Fury moving to the newly launched Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Expanded to 20 pages per issue, the Doctor Strange solo series ran 15 issues, #169-183 (June 1968 – November 1969), continuing the numbering of Strange Tales.[2][3] Thomas wrote the run of new stories, joined after the first three issues by the art team of penciler Gene Colan and inker Tom Palmer through the end. Colan drastically altered the look of the series, as Thomas recounted: "…he had his own view of what these other worlds should look like. Everyone else sort of copied Ditko's versions of those extra dimensions, which were great and wonderful. When Gene came on, he didn't feel a real rapport with that, I guess, so his extra dimensions tended to be just blackness and smoke and things of that sort… Sometimes it was a little strange for a dimension Doc Strange had been to before to look different when drawn by Gene, but nobody complained."[4] Thomas recalled in 2000 that he returned to work a day late from a weekend comic book convention to find that Marvel production manager Sol Brodsky had assigned Doctor Strange to writer Archie Goodwin, newly ensconced at Marvel and writing Iron Man. Thomas convinced Brodsky to allow him to continue writing the title. "I got very possessive about Doctor Strange," Thomas recalled. "It wasn't a huge seller, but [by the time it was canceled] we were selling the low 40 percent range of more than 400,000 print run, so it was actually selling a couple hundred thousand copies [but] at the time you needed to sell even more."[5]

Doctor Strange's starring role in the Marvel Premiere series segued to the character's second ongoing title, Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts, also known as Doctor Strange vol. 2, which ran 81 issues (June 1974 – February 1987).[6] Doctor Strange #14 featured a crossover story with The Tomb of Dracula #44, another series which was being drawn by Gene Colan at the time.[7] In Englehart's final story, he sent Dr. Strange back in time to meet Benjamin Franklin.[8] In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Englehart's work on Doctor Strange with artists Frank Brunner and Colan ninth on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels."[9]

The series ended with a cliffhanger as his home, the Sanctum Sanctorum, was heavily damaged during a battle. The title was discontinued so that the character's adventures could be transferred to another split book format series, Strange Tales vol. 2 #1–19 (April 1987 – October 1988) which was shared with the street heroes Cloak and Dagger.

Strange was returned to his own series, this time titled Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme, which ran 90 issues (November 1988 – June 1996).[10] The initial creative team was writer Peter B. Gillis and artists Richard Case and Randy Emberlin, with storylines often spanning multiple issues. During this time the series became part of the "Midnight Sons" group of Marvel's supernatural comics.[11][12]

Jackson Guice's cover for Doctor Strange #15 (1990) used Christian music singer Amy Grant's likeness without her permission,[13] leading to a complaint saying that the cover gave the appearance that she was associating with witchcraft. A US District Court sealed an out-of-court settlement between Grant and Marvel in early 1991, with a consent decree in which Marvel did not admit to liability or wrongdoing.[14][15][16]

In 2015, Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo teamed up for the fourth volume of Doctor Strange.[17] Writers Dennis Hopeless and Penciler Niko Henrichon took charge during the Secret Wars event in issues 21-24, with Bachalo still providing covers. Writer John Barber and Penciler Niko Henrichon took charge for issues 25-26. After the Marvel Legacy renumbering, Writer Donny Cates and Pencilers Frazer Irving and Chip Zdarsky took over at issues #381-390.[18] Donny Cates teamed up with Nick Spencer and artist Rod Reis for the 2018 four issue miniseries Doctor Strange: Damnation.[19]

A fifth Doctor Strange series was launched by writer Mark Waid and artist Jesus Saiz in August 2018.[20]