Sunday, February 10, 2013

Dr. Extraño!

Collecting everything Dr. Strange includes finding foreign printings of the Dr. Strange comics first published in America. Especially appealing to me are covers that are unique to that country and not just the original cover with a logo in a different language (although I have many of those as well!)

Some of the hardest ones to find are issues of the vintage Doctor Extrano series that was published in Spain from publisher Ediciones Vertice. The series ran 14 issues and featured original art on the covers never published in the USA. A few were painted re-creations of the American covers done by unknown Spanish artists, others were original works, and all of them had that surreal beauty that made these things one of my grails to track down in the last few years.

These books are rare as hen's teeth, even in Spain. I've never seen one ever listed on eBay, and when my friend visited Barcelona two years ago, he found one copy of one issue in a comic shop and the owner wanted £200 for it. I told him to pass.

Luckily, this year I finally managed to track down the entire series! Their condition isn't mint, but that's not super important to me. They all have black and white interiors and measure about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide. Similar to Manga comics in size and binding actually...

So, without further ado... A gallery of DOCTOR EXTRANO!

Doctor Extrano #1

Doctor Extrano #2

Doctor Extrano #3

Doctor Extrano #4

Doctor Extrano #5
Doctor Extrano #6

Doctor Extrano #7
Doctor Extrano #8

Doctor Extrano #9
Doctor Extrano #10
Doctor Extrano #11

Doctor Extrano #12

Doctor Extrano #13

Doctor Extrano #14

I also found some reprints of the second solo Dr. Strange series published by Mundi Comics:

Mundi Comics #53, reprinting Dr. Strange Vol. 2 #1

Mundi Comics #56: Cover never published in America!

Here's a more recent Spanish reprint of the Strange Tales series from the 90's. This one uses the cover from the "Dr. Strange: Through The 6 Dimensions" book, which has never been used on any comic in the US:

Capa Y Punal (Cloak and Dagger) #12

Finally, a Marvel promotional magazine from Spain:

Marvelmania #3
 

More Dr. Strange foreign covers are on their way and I'll be sharing more in the next few weeks.