Puppet Posting: Strange Tales #110: Dr. Strange, Master of Black Magic!

This is the first part of an ongoing series where I will be reviewing Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Doctor Strange, covering his appearances in Strange Tales #110-111 and #114-146.

Doctor Strange is part of a long lineage of magician characters, stretching back to Chandu, a radio series starting in 1931 that was adapted to film the following year (and featuring Bela Lugosi as the villain). Stan Lee cites Chandu as the main influence for Strange in his intro "It All Started With Chandu" (2005), though the initial idea for the Master of the Mystic Arts came from Ditko, and not Lee. In his 2014 essay "A Whole New Dimension", Dean Mulaney, a publisher who specializes in preserving newspaper comic strips, suggests Ditko was influenced by Mr Mystic, a Will Eisner creation that ran alongside The Spirit and Lady Luck, debuting in 1940.

Edmund Lowe as the eponymous character of Chandu the Magician (1932)

There were many characters of this type, generally Americans who studied magic in the East, attributing mysticism and black magic to people of colour and foreigness. They often went on globe-trotting adventures, doubling as stage magicians and crime fighters. There was Zatara, whose astral projection was drawn as a see-through silhouette, similar to how Strange’s white astral form is portrayed. Mandrake the Magician, first appearing in 1934, introduced the trope of the magician having an ethnic sidekick, the African prince Lothar. Zatara had the East-Indian bodyguard Tong, while Dr. Strange has the (as yet unnamed) Wong as his servant. These characters are often portrayed with slicked-back, dark hair and thin, split pencil-mustaches, combining dapper suits and top hats with capes and turbans to meld western fashion and eastern mysticism.

Zatara and Tong on the cover of Action Comics #14

Harry Blackstone, a real stage magician who had his own comic series, in Super-Magician Comics #2

Mandrake and Lothar flying

Zatara (left, Action Comics #8) and Dr Strange (right) astral projecting

The first appearance of Wong

Originally, the character was to be named Mr Strange, but Lee worried that the name would be too similar to Mr Fantastic, so it was changed to Dr Strange (not to be confused with Dr. Carlo Strange, an Iron Man villain who showed up a few months earlier in Tales of Suspense #41) (Marvel Age of Comics). The story itself is a pretty low-key 5 pager, which in many ways feels like an earlier Strange Tales short that Dr, Strange wanders into, with its billowing smoke, noir-esque shading and cool colour palette of blues, pinks, and purples. At its core, its a crime story about an unnamed man haunted by guilt. The man says that he’s “heard a name--- spoken in whispers--- Dr. Strange”, and seeks out the Master of Black Magic for help. Strange goes into the man’s dream to find the root of the problem, and discovers that the man is being tormented in his dreamscape by the demonic presence of Nightmare, Strange’s “ancient foe”, because of his crimes. The man tries to kill Strange while he is astrally projecting himself into the dream realm, and Strange has to call on the Ancient One (simply referred to as “Master” here) to activate the eye amulet and save him. Then, the man confesses, which Strange says is the “only way you can ever sleep again”.

Dr. Carlo Strange in Tales of Suspense #41

The panels are laid out in a pretty strict 9-panel grid, which are occasionally sliced vertically into thinner panels to build momentum and convey a sense of montage. Even though Lee claims it was a pretty rushed affair, Ditko’s pencils and inks are incredible. His faces and expressions always look a bit off and grotesque, which suits the eerie atmosphere of the book perfectly. The surrealism of the dream realm is something I don’t think any other Marvel artist at the time (or perhaps any other comic artist working, period) could have pulled off. Sure, Kirby can draw interdimensional monsters, gods, and cosmic wars better than anyone, but the slightly Lovecraftian phantasmagoria that makes Strange so special is something only Ditko was capable of. There’s so many incredible images in these 5 pages, and not a single panel feels wasted. We wouldn’t get an origin story until a couple issues later, and Strange’s solitary, aloof persona only deepens the mystique around him, drawing the reader in further. Like Ditko, he is not a man who chases the spotlight, but those in the know can see how important he truly is.