5 Behind the Scenes Facts about Doctor Strange

Marvel's Doctor Strange is due out this weekend and the comic fans at the library are excited. To get ready for the Sorcer Supreme's big movie debut, we looked him up in our collection and found a few tidbits on his creators.

Here are a few facts from behind the scenes of the Master of the Mystic Arts

He was created as a back up feature in Strange Tales

The character was created by Steve Ditko and got his name from the split magazine he shared with the Human Torch. Ditko created the character in a way he created many characters: a broken and flawed man journeys to the East where a wise and ancient mystic teaches him to be more selfless.

He's been featured in plays

In the controversial 1965 play The Beard, poet Michael McClure featured Doctor Strange's monologe from Strange Tales #130 as a centerpiece.

One writer was removed from the book because he took extra vacation

When Roy Thomas added a day to a vaction to elope with his girlfriend, he retured to a lecture from Stan Lee and Sol Brodsky and the news that he had been replaced by Archie Goodwin.

Stan Lee announced Steve Ditko's leaving the comic at Princeton University

While at a speaking engagement, Lee said, "I feel as badly about it as you do. He's a very peculiar guy. He's a great talent, but he's a little eccentric. Anyway, I haven't spoken to this guy for over a year. He mails in the work, and I write the stories and that's the way he liked to work. One day he just phoned, and he said, 'I'm leaving.'"
While speaking, boos, groans, and hisses from the crowd drowned him out.

Some of the stories came from... less than medicinal places

Writer Englehart and artist Frank Brunner would get high and Brunner would talk about "what would look really cool, and I would talk about where I could go with Dr. Strange's consciousness," Englehart said. They would also take LSD with other Marvel writers and artists and walk around New York City at all hours of the night and day. It was then they thought up a living mystical New York where statues came alive with the help of Doctor Strange's powers.
Brunner eventually left when the production schedule became too much and worked on the return of Howard the Duck.

Source:

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe