When we were kids, Brent had a big comic book collection. They were all kinds of titles, but mostly Batman. Some Marvel comics were mixed in, and among those was a comic containing a Dr. Strange story. I was fascinated by that comic. I read it again and again. The colorful shapes and funky magic phrases really captivated my imagination.
I recently went looking for an anthology that might contain that comic, and I found it. The anthology contains the first appearances of Dr. Strange, so I’m getting in on the beginning of the story.
By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth!
The artist is named Steve Ditko. People seem to really like him or really not like him. I’ve started at the beginning of the book, and haven’t yet gotten to the comic I remember so well. I’m making slow progress because I get sleepy so quickly at night. The good news is, that means I’ll have bedtime reading material for a long time.
His colors are Superman-ish, but with a Shakespeare-ish twist. Interesting. I’m assuming he’s a good guy, since he has his own comic, yes?
Yeah, Ditko undoubtedly had vision. I think his abstraction and complexity were somewhat offensive to my young proto-conservative childhood sensibilities and part of the reason I was so DC over Marvel. But then again I think a lot of the Marvel devotee rhetoric embraces the complexity because the readers were in their high school years when they could appreciate it more, and you and I quit comics cold turkey at age 14 when we left home.
Story-wise, I certainly preferred the black-and-white good vs. evil that DC presented. I still prefer that ideal. I don’t mind heroes being complex, but I don’t like them to be paralyzed when it comes to deciding whether or not to save a bus full of children because they’ll miss a date with their girlfriend. I want a hero to inspire me to be better.