Saturday, December 19, 2020

Doctor Strange #1: The Yaffa edition

Page Publications' Doctor Strange #1 was published 23 December 1977:


The cover originally appeared on Marvel Comics' Doctor Strange #2:


The stories are as follows:

Through an Orb Darkly, originally published in Doctor Strange #1, June 1974 
A Separate Reality, originally published in Doctor Strange #2, August 1974 
Amidst the Madness, originally published in Doctor Strange #3, September 1974 

This issue includes black and white printings of the covers to Doctor Strange #'s 1 and 3.

Amidst the Madness is the title of the framing sequence for a reprint of The Domain of the Dread Dormammu! and Duel with the Dread Dormammu! which originally appeared in Strange Tales #126 and Strange Tales #127 respectively.

This issue includes full-page in-house advertisements for The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four.

Doctor Strange #1 was recycled as Doctor Strange #3, June 1980:


It was also recycled as the digest-sized Mystic Arts Master c.mid-1982:


The three stories in this issue were previously published in Australia by Newton Comics in Doctor Strange #'s 1 and 2. These issues reprinted the covers to Doctor Strange #'s 1 and 3 respectively, which means the young Australian reader needed the first two Newton issues and this Yaffa edition in order to have the first three US covers in colour printings.

I have previously dated this issue c.November 1977, however I have since seen a copy with 4 written by a newsagent on the rear cover, and 23 12 written on the front cover, hence my designating the publication date 23 December 1977.

Update 29 June 2022:

Yaffa recycled Doctor Strange #1 as an unnumbered digest-sized issue shortly after #7, c.April 1982:



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