Doctor Strange by Frank Miller

Frank Miller was on the rise. He was soon to take over writing Daredevil, a book he was already drawing and getting noticed for. In February 1981, this Marvel house ad appeared, announcing that he and Roger Stern were going to be the new team on Doctor Strange. But it wasn’t to be. According to Roger Stern:

“I’m afraid that the story of why Frank never drew Doctor Strange isn’t very interesting. As I recall, Frank was under consideration for some sort of James Bond project, so he bowed out of drawing Doc – temporarily, we thought at the time – to get ahead on his other deadlines. Luckily, Marshall Rogers came along and delivered six very tasty issues. And after that… well, by that time Frank was really caught up in writing and drawing Daredevil (and later, Ronin), so we never did get to work together on Doctor Strange.”

A scan of the original art floats around the web. Here’s some fresh colour on it, and a cover treatment of what might have been.

As published.

Original art scan.

Cleaned up art.

New colour.

Art prepped for cover version.

Re-created trade dress added.

Cover version.