Strange Tales Primer
Series Overview
Strange Tales started off as a horror and science fiction anthology title in 1951. It outlived a lot of the other similar titles of the Atlas era of comics. By the 1960s the super-hero boom was in full swing. With the popularity of the newly release Fantastic Four, the Human Torch began appearing in solo-stories starting with Strange Tales #101. The rest of each issue was filled with science fiction stories.
I can totally relate with this robot.
As superheroes were becoming more of the mainstay, the title began slowly phasing out the science fiction tales. The Human Torch stories featured regular guest appearances by the Fantastic Four and some of their rogues, such as the Sub-Mariner, the Puppet Master, and the Mad Thinker. The title also introduced some regular recurring Marvel villains such as the Wizard, the Trapster (then called — no word of a lie — Paste-Pot Pete), The Eel, Plantman, and the Beetle. Strange Tales Annual #2 also featured the first team-up between the Human Torch and Spider-Man.
By issue #123, the Thing also regularly joined the Human Torch on his solo adventures. These Human Torch stories, in the grand scheme of things, aren’t really watershed moments in Marvel history, but he and the Thing also met the Beatles this one time!
With growing popularity of superheroes made Strange Tales a testing ground for new characters that eventually led to these characters getting their own titles (Marvel had to get past a publishing deal that limited the number of books they published first, long story, but that ended in the late 60s) With Strange Tales #110, they introduced Doctor Strange who became a regular feature starting in Strange Tales #114. That same issue saw an end to regular one-off science fiction features in the title with both the Torch and Strange dominating the page count.
Strange Tales #134 was the last solo Human Torch/Thing story on the title. The following issue saw Doctor Strange took top billing on the title with Nick Fury and the Agents of SHIELD becoming a backup feature. This arrangement continued until Strange Tales came to an end wtih issue #168 in 1968. By that point, Marvel’s publishing limitations were removed and they started swapping out their anthology titles with books based on the heroes that were in there. In the case of Strange Tales the series was split up into a Doctor Strange solo title, which continued the numbering from Strange Tales and a solo Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD series that started with an issue #1. Strange Tales was later revived in 1973, incidentally taking up the legacy numbering from the title as though Doctor Strange didn’t take over the numbering. Strange Tales ran from issue #169 to 181 ending in 1975. The Strange Tales series was rebooted multiple times in 1987, 1998, 2009, and 2010 respectively.
Index Scope
This index only covers the Marvel Age issues of Strange Tales of the 1960s covering issues #101 to 168. Right now I’ve only indexed the superhero stories for the most part. Some of the science fiction stories are considered part of Marvel continuity, but I’ve got bigger fish to fry before I get to indexing those so you’ll have to make due with what’s here. I’ve also only done the Human Torch issues. I’ll get around to the later Doctor Strange/Nick Fury issues in the future.
The Atlas era stuff has not been index either, but it will end up in the Atlas Era section whenever I get around to it. The 70s revival will also be covered there as well. Get it? Got it? Good.
