The all-time auction record for a Doctor Strange comic belongs to Strange Tales #110 (July 1963), the first appearance of the Sorcerer Supreme created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko: a CGC NM+ 9.6 copy sold for $150,000 at Heritage Auctions in April 2024 — one of only five copies in that grade on the CGC census. Our eBay estimation tool does not index the Strange Tales, Doctor Strange, or Marvel Premiere series: no eBay median from that tool is cited in this guide.
Doctor Strange is one of the most original creations of the Marvel Silver Age. Born from the collaboration of Stan Lee (script) and Steve Ditko (art), the character debuted in Strange Tales #110 (cover-dated July 1963), a title he shared with the Human Torch — Doctor Strange does not appear on the cover at all. Five pages were enough to establish an entire universe: surgeon Stephen Strange, the mystic arts, the Ancient One, his disciple Wong, and the lord of nightmares, Nightmare. The character's full origin — how a gifted surgeon, his hands destroyed in an accident, seeks healing in Tibet and instead finds his true calling — is told three issues later in Strange Tales #115 (December 1963).
This guide sticks to the verifiable: auction records documented by Heritage Auctions, GoCollect, and the specialist press. This site's eBay tool returns no medians for the relevant series. Where no reliable public figure exists, we stay qualitative rather than fabricate.
Doctor Strange key issue ranking (documented records, Silver Age and Bronze Age)
eBay medians are not available through our tool for these series; the ranking draws exclusively on documented sales. The Strange Tales #110 CGC 9.6 record set at Heritage Auctions in April 2024 is the only top-tier reference figure currently verifiable for the entire run.
| Issue | Significance | eBay data (tool) | Documented record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #110 (Jul. 1963) | 1st appearance of Doctor Strange, Wong, the Ancient One, Nightmare | Series not indexed — no median available | $150,000 · CGC 9.6 · Heritage Auctions, April 2024 |
| Strange Tales #115 (Dec. 1963) | Origin of Doctor Strange — first complete account of Stephen Strange's transformation | Series not indexed — no median available | $16,730 · CGC 9.6 · Heritage Auctions, 2017 |
| Doctor Strange #169 (Jun. 1968) | First issue under his own title (continuing Strange Tales numbering) | Series not indexed — no median available | Not publicly documented |
| Marvel Premiere #3 (Jul. 1972) | Bronze Age revival — Lee/Windsor-Smith, first full-length solo since 1969 | Series not indexed — no median available | Not publicly documented |
| Doctor Strange vol.2 #1 (Jun. 1974) | First dedicated ongoing series (Englehart/Brunner) | Series not indexed — no median available | Not publicly documented |
Record sources: Heritage Auctions, GoCollect, sellmycomicbooks.com. This site's eBay tool does not cover the Strange Tales, Doctor Strange, or Marvel Premiere series.
Strange Tales #110 (1963): the first appearance at $150,000
Released to newsstands in spring 1963 (cover-dated July 1963), Strange Tales #110 packs the birth of one of Marvel's most enduring heroes into five pages. The story, "Dr. Strange Master of Black Magic!", is written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko — a duo already in stride on The Amazing Spider-Man. The cover spotlights the Human Torch; Doctor Strange is not mentioned anywhere on it. That initial obscurity makes the character's subsequent rise all the more remarkable, and the issue one of the most coveted grails of the Silver Age.
In April 2024, a CGC NM+ 9.6 off-white-to-white copy sold for $150,000 at Heritage Auctions — one of only five copies in that grade recorded on the CGC census. The figure represents a dramatic climb from the same grade's earlier appearances at auction: the 9.6 brought $66,000 in 2014 and $60,000 in 2016 based on available market data. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has played a significant role in that trajectory: Doctor Strange (2016, Benedict Cumberbatch) grossed $677.8 million worldwide, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) $955.8 million — the fourth-highest-grossing film of that year.
Strange Tales #115 (1963): the origin at $16,730
Published in December 1963, Strange Tales #115 is the second key that every serious Doctor Strange collector targets. It is here that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko tell the full story of Stephen Strange for the first time: a brilliant surgeon whose hands are irreparably damaged in a car accident, who travels to the ends of the earth seeking a cure and finds something far greater — mastery of the mystic arts under the Ancient One's tutelage. The issue also features a Sandman story (in the Human Torch section) and a Spider-Man cameo, making it an unusually rich Silver Age crossroads.
In 2017, a CGC NM+ 9.6 copy of Strange Tales #115 sold for $16,730 at Heritage Auctions. That is the most reliably documented public record for this issue in high grade at this time. The gap relative to Strange Tales #110 reflects the natural hierarchy of the Silver Age keys market: the first appearance commands a consistent premium over the origin in virtually every comparable pairing. Lower- and mid-grade copies (CGC 4.0 to 6.0) remain active on the secondary market at considerably more accessible levels.
After Ditko: Doctor Strange #169 and the Bronze Age revival
When Steve Ditko left Marvel in 1966, the Doctor Strange feature in Strange Tales continued briefly before the title was split. With Doctor Strange #169 (June 1968), the character finally received his own title — a direct continuation of Strange Tales' numbering. This first solo series was written by Roy Thomas and drawn initially by Dan Adkins, then by the team of Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, who brought a hallucinatory, experimental quality to the page. The run lasted fifteen issues (#169–183) before cancellation in 1969.
The revival arrived in 1972: Marvel Premiere #3 (July 1972) marked Doctor Strange's return in a full-length format, scripted by Stan Lee and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith. That Bronze Age opening led directly to the pivotal run by Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner, which launched Doctor Strange vol.2 (June 1974) — the series that defined the character for the next generation of readers. No public auction record has been found for these Bronze Age issues, but they represent legitimate collection keys, particularly in high-grade CGC condition.
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