Strange Tales is a Anthology Comic created by Marvel Comics, debuting in 1951. The series introduced a number of notable Marvel characters, including Doctor Strange, Fin Fang Foom, and the super-spy version of Nick Fury.
Strange Tales was originally a horror anthology but gradually shifted towards stories about monsters and sorcerers.
Eventually, in 1962, it added an ongoing series set in the Marvel Universe, starring superhero the Human Torch in his first solo stories. This became the lead, with the one-off stories remaining as back-up strips.
In 1963 the ongoing Doctor Strange stories started as well, and Strange Tales swiftly became a split book for the two heroes, dropping the one-off stories altogether. A little later the Human Torch solo series became The Human Torch and the Thing, before leaving the book entirely — at which point it was replaced by the new Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. spy series.
Strange Tales then remained a split-book with Doctor Strange and Nick Fury until the end of its run, effectively ending in 1968 with #168. A new Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1968) comic continued that series, while a new Doctor Strange series kept the Strange Tales numbering but not the title, starting with #169.
In 1973, Marvel attempted to revive the title in an unusual manner, continuing Strange Tales from #169 (i.e. duplicating the numbering carried over to Doctor Strange) rather than relaunching with a new issue #1. The revival dropped the split-book format and changed its star every few issues, with Brother Voodoo, the Golem and Adam Warlock all taking turns as the lead.
Since its cancellation, the title has also been reused multiple times over the years, usually for series with some connection to Doctor Strange. One short-lived revival, beginning in April, 1987, was as a shared title containing two separate short stories in each issue, one featuring Doctor Strange and the other about Cloak and Dagger. This volume ran 19 issues, ending in October, 1988, when each of the two contained titles would be re-launched in their own separate series.
In 2009-2010, it was an anthology featuring humorous takes on the Marvel Universe by various indie comic creators. As of July 2022, the most recent example is the Strange Tales webcomic.
Strange Tales provides examples of:
- Anthology Comic: For the first few years, it contained multiple unrelated stories in each issue. Towards the end of the run, after the Human Torch series debuted, it moved to a split book format with two Marvel Universe series in each issue, and getting more or less equal billing.
- Art Initiates Life: Comic artist Frank Johnson creates a magical construct, named Zzutak, by using magical paints.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: Gorgolla is a gargoyle from outer space.
- Breakout Character:
- Doctor Strange debuted here, eventually taking over the series.
- Fin Fang Foom is easily the most enduring and prominent of all the pre-Marvel monsters and still has quite a presence in modern media. Just about every hero you can name has encountered the big green guy at some point.
- Nuclear Mutant: One story involves an ant getting mutated by a nuclear explosion and becoming gigantic, intelligent, and verbal. It would later go on to be known as Grottu, King of the Insects.
- Super Rug-Pull: Issue #89, the first appearance of the Chinese alien dragon Fin Fang Foom, Fin attacks a bunch of Chinese soldiers by grabbing up a chunk of the Great Wall of China and snapping it like a whip. This makes no sense but is totally awesome.
- Voodoo Zombie: In the story "March of the Dead" from issue #171, Baron Samedi and A.I.M. join forces to create an artificial zuvembie workforce by means of a machine that blanks the mind of anyone strapped to it. They build a base underneath a cemetery in Haiti and from there organize abductions to supply the machine. Baron Samedi leads the zuvembies into various attacks on government facilities to steal valuable tech, and Brother Voodoo is asked to investigate. Looking for a lead, Brother Voodoo patrols the cemeteries until he is accosted by the zuvembies rising from beneath the earth. Under the impression he's dealing with true zuvembies, he sends Daniel to possess one of the soulless bodies, but this doesn't work because the zuvembie machine targets the mind rather than the soul. The miscalculation gets Brother Voodoo captured, but once inside the underground base he frees himself and destroys the zuvembie machine, which in turn frees the captives from its zuvembifying effect.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Strange was initially called "the master of black magic," but was also explicitly a champion of good against evil.
- Dark Messiah: Kaluu, an old rival of the Ancient One, becomes this during the "black magic" Strange Tales story of the 80's, telling Strange that if he wants to save the world from an invasion of demons he's got to be willing to do anything, such as ignoring individual lives in danger, or even be willing to sacrifice the occasional innocent if that's what it takes to give him enough power. Once the world is saved, however, he helps Stephen's other allies bring him back to the light, and explicitly admits that while Earth might need someone like him, it's probably for the best if Strange stays with white magic from now on.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Doctor Strange's astral form is often referred to as his ectoplasmic form in many of the Steve Ditko stories.
- Before he showed up in-person, Dormammu was one of the beings whom Doctor Strange would invoke when casting spells
- When Eternity first shows up, there is no indication that he is the Anthropomorphic Personification of the universe, although he is depicted as a being of incredible power.
- Epunymous Title: Dr. Strange debuted in the Strange Tales comic series.
- Genius Loci: One early story had Strange investigate a haunted house that turned out to be an extradimensional entity who had taken the shape of a house in order to study Earth.
- Guile Hero: While Strange wields considerable power, he often finds himself outgunned or stuck in magical traps, forcing him to rely on trickery or exploiting weak spots to win.
- The Man Behind the Man: The first longer arc of the series sees Dormammu circumvent his oath to stay away from Earth by allowing Mordu to channel his power, thus turning him from Strange's inferior rival to a nigh-unbeatable powerhouse.
- Necessarily Evil: Dormammu is a vicious tyrant, but his power is what keeps his own people safe from their even-worse enemies, making it problematic to remove him even if that were possible.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: While similar to other superheroes in some ways, Strange's stories were always a bit trippier and, well, stranger than his peers', often involving psychadelic-looking other dimensions and astral battles raging unseen across the globe, putting them more in the realm of urban fantasy than the loosely scientific one of other titles.
- Revealing Cover-Up: One issue has some villains plant a bomb in Strange's sanctum and then cleanse it of every evil influence they left behind. When Strange returns home, he quickly realises that something is wrong, because there should still be evil influences from the previous villain he faced down in the sanctum.
- Role Called: Strange Tales was eventually renamed Doctor Strange.
- Smug Snake: Baron Mordu constantly brags about his magical prowess, but is ultimately a weasel who poses no real threat against Strange without Dormammu supplying him with extra power. And even with that he proves too easily rattled and lacking in finesse to beat Strange in a fight.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: When Strange finally got rid of Dormammu, several baddies who he'd previously banished, including Kaluu, Mordu and Umar, were able to return. Strange could only defeat Umar by releasing Sealed Evil in a Can Zom to chase her back to the dark dimension. Defeating Zom caused enough people around the world to gain dark magical powers, which made the Living Tribunal show up to purge the universe before it could become a danger to the multiverse... Suffice to say, there were a lot of times when Strange beat one baddie only to end up with an even worse one.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Strange considers the secrets of magic to be this. At one point he wipes the memories of a bunch of Flat-Earth Atheist scientists who had experienced the supernatural, causing them to go right back to scoffing at him and calling him a fraud, on the basis that most people are better off not believing in magic.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: And how!
- The first few issues of the series give the Human Torch a secret identity, despite the fact that over in Fantastic Four his identity is as public as the rest of the team's. Even the creative team quickly seemed to realise how stupid this plot point was, as before long it's revealed that Johnny's friends were merely pretending not to know that he's the Human Torch out of respect for his privacy.
- Johnny's powers are depicted very creatively. His flames are often portrayed as being more like a Green Lantern ring's constructs than realistic fire, with things such as giant scissors made of flames being able to cut things. In another notable instance, Johnny is able to create a flame duplicate to follow Paste-Pot Pete in the latter's first appearance, which acts autonomously.
- Despite how flexible the writers are with Johnny's flame powers, it also doesn't take much to extinguish his flame. A notable instance is in the first appearance of Plantman, when the villain is able to extinguish Johnny by commanding some trees to shake some dew onto him. In the modern era, such a miniscule amount of water being able to stop Johnny would be laughable.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: Issue #114 featured the Torch meeting Captain America, who initially seemed to be the real deal, but was found to be the Acrobat in a disguise with Latex Perfection. Johnny ends the story reading an old Captain America comic and wondering if the real deal will ever come back — and then the narrator admits this story was a test run to gauge reader interest in such a thing, asking the readers to send letters about it. The rest is history!
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Science Marches On: A tragic case with the Asbestos Man, who tried to counter the torch with a suit made out of the fireproof material. years later he died of cancer, offscreen. - Team-Up Series: Became this after turning into Human Torch and The Thing.