June 1940: The Doctor Is Strange

This house ad appeared in the pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories.

Strange doctors have been prowling around superhero comics almost from the beginning.

The first Dr. Strange, or Doc Strange, debuted as the lead feature in Pines/Nedor’s Thrilling 1 (Feb. 1940), the creation of writer Richard Hughes and artist Alexander Kostuk.

In the wake of the spectacular, multi-media success of Superman, rival superhero characters could have powers similar to Superman’s, or a costume similar to his, but they’d better not have both.

That mistake made Fox’s Wonder Man a 1939 one-issue wonder.

“Just as Fox had wasted no time before launching his Superman rip-off, DC wasted no time before suing him,” comics historian Don Markstein noted.

Powered by a solar atomic drug he called Alosun, Doc Strange acquired Superman’s abilities — super-strength, flight, invulnerability — but wisely eschewed the fancy dress.

Strange also appeared with Captain Future, The Black Terror and Fighting Yank in Nedor’s version of World Finest Comics, called America’s Best Comics. His last adventure was published in November 1948.

In 2001, renamed Tom Strange, the character was revived by the inimitable Alan Moore in his superb Tom Strong title.

Doc’s first name was Hugo, and that may ring a bell. Coincidentally, Prof. Hugo Strange was an early Batman villain, introduced in Detective Comics 36 (Feb. 1940), and the first foe to figure out Batman’s secret identity.

In May 1963, Marvel Comics got into the act — but not yet with Dr. Stephen Strange. Tales of Suspense 41 introduced Dr. Carlo Strange, a lightning-born criminal genius who threatened Earth until his daughter betrayed him by aiding Iron Man.

Stan Lee must have liked the sound of the name “Dr. Strange,” because two months later (Strange Tales 110, July 1963) he reused it for the first appearance of Steve Ditko’s legendary superhero magician, Dr. Stephen Strange.

Of course, you could argue that there’s yet another Dr. Strange, whose first name is Adam. The intrepid archeologist-spaceman almost certainly has his Ph.D, but just doesn’t make a big deal about it.