Back in June, I closed out my post about Doctor Strange #18 — the last issue of the series written by Steve Englehart — with the observation that while there would be great Dr. Strange comics following that author’s departure, they’d mostly achieve that status more on the basis of their artwork than of their writing.  I also noted that the first such book, Doctor Strange Annual #1, would be coming up for discussion as early as October.

But now that this story’s moment has actually come, I feel the need to qualify my previous assertion, at least a little bit.  That’s because as magnificent as the pictures produced for it by artist P. Craig Russell undeniably are, their impact is virtually impossible to separate from what Russell also brought to the project as its conceptual originator and primary plotter; in other words, as a writer.  Ultimately, this comic is a remarkable work of the literary as well as the artistic imagination.  Read More