Our previously-listed spotlight this week falls on a Marvel landmark! An unassuming back-up story in Strange Tales #110 saw the debut of Doctor Strange, a man of mystery and master of magic who was probably not originally conceived as a series star. After all, just a short while prior, the very-similar, though lesser-powered, Doctor Droom had crashed and burned in the first Marvel series of Amazing Adventures. But Doctor Strange had a secret ingredient that Doctor Droom had not: the illustrative powers of Steve Ditko, who conferred upon the Doctor and his environs a genuinely otherworldly quality, eerie and evocative, which kept the readers coming back for more. Rising to the challenge, scripter Stan Lee soon developed the Doctor’s adventures from short twist-ending one-offs to phantasmagorical sagas, and the Doctor has been the mystic nexus of the Marvel Universe, culminating in the hugely successful film starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Not that you could have predicted any of that from this issue’s cover, which doesn’t even mention Doctor Strange, but focuses solely on the Human Torch battling the Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete, in their pre-Frightful Four days! Never mind, we do promise you it’s in there! This copy of a landmark issue is a CBCS slabbed copy, graded at 5.5 (FN-), with minimal corner and edge wear, and deep vivid cover colour and gloss. On sale at £1,500.