These two volumes of Doctor Strange from Pocket Books gather together almost all of Steve Ditko's epic run on the character he created. The covers are by Frank Brunner who was most associated with the character at this time in the late 70's.
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I bought the first one in late 1978 but until today I was completely unaware that the second one even existed!
ReplyDeleteThey are two beauties from a that long-ago time when the world was ruled by the mass market paperback.
DeleteIt's a pity Marvel seems to have abandoned cheap reprint formats such as these paperbacks and the Marvel Essentials series: they're a great way for bring new fans in.
ReplyDeleteCheap is a relative term I suppose when comic books regularly are near five bucks. But I loved the Essentials and their more expensive cousin the Epic line. Omnibus volumes seem to be all the rage today.
DeleteMarvel don't seem to have any confidence in the digest format which is a shame as they are a great way to find old classics and an affordable price. They also recently produced a whole series of 1960s collected editions under the heading Mighty Marvel Masterworks which weren't digest size but we're smaller than normal around 3/4 the size of the original comic they featured Dr Strange, Silver Surfer, Namor, Thor, FF and the Avengers etc. I started to collect a few of these but sadly they seem to have abandoned as well .
ReplyDeleteThe Masterworks line was set up to show off new scans of early comics which have since being incorporated into the Omnibuses. The cover price may have dissuaded more casual buyers.
DeleteI gathered up a bunch of these little gems, but alas I never got hold of any of the Spidey ones.
DeleteI've still got my copies of those two books and would never give them up.
ReplyDeleteMy two copies are with until the long goodbye as well.
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