Back in the day, when I used to read comics with greater avidity, Dr. Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts was one of my all-time top favorites. In fact, being Master of the Mystic Arts seemed like a pretty nifty life-niche, and I freely admit that certain memories of Strange were incorporated in the creation of Victor Renquist. For some time, I’ve wondered why the good doctor has not returned, seeming – in modern terms – a triangulation of Raymond Chandler, H. P. Lovecraft, and Harry Potter. The good news is that Dr. Strange is back, although looking uncommonly like Prince, and not, alas, in his own book, but as a major guest star in Spider-Man Fever #1.
“The plot is simple enough, Stephen Strange has ordered a book on Albion Crawley, a turn of the century occultist who wrote about some crazy spider gods. Upon arrival, the book releases some spider demon who becomes involved in a conflict between Spider-Man and the Vulture. Spider-Man appears to go tripping the light fantastic in Strange’s bath tub and all holy hell breaks loose. No seriously, that’s about it for this first issue, other than an intriguing last panel cliffhanger. Yep, this is some seriously messed up psychedelic comics. The art is the real star here with Brendan McCarthy melding some blend of Riley Rossmo style lines with the day glo world of Madman. It looks like a spider comic on acid and honestly, it reads a bit like one too.” (Click here for more)
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The secret word is Dormammu
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5 comments:
Always dug the cat w/ the head of flame.
"Spider-Man Fever?" Wha? Hope there's a shot for it.
The Dread Dormammu was way cool.
The artist on this comic, Brendan McCarthy, is an English treasure (see almost all the best 2000 AD comics).
I love Doctor Strange too. I particularly love the series of comics where he basically made his way through the collected works of Lovecraft, taking on Dagon and all manner of eldritch (and probably cyclopean) characters.
The trouble is that the good doctor was never really a big popular success. Even during the classic Steve Ditko days the character didn't have a comic all to himself but shared Strange Tales with something more conventional like the Human Torch and then Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, and despite the title of the comic, Dr. Strange was always the backup feature. I think he's been kept around as much as he has more because the creative people like him than the public has any taste for him.
Sometimes I feel the same way myself.
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