Marvel Premiere #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Premiere #4 is the second chapter in Doctor Strange's long-awaited solo revival after a 32-month absence from headlining his own title, and it marks the first comic book work by Frank Brunner on the character — the artist who would soon become the defining visual voice of Strange's Bronze Age. The issue introduced the serpentine New England town of Starkesboro, its reptilian Serpent-Men cult, and supporting cast members Ethan Stoddard, Bethel Doan, and Lemuel Joad, all of whom debuted here, while setting the multi-part Sligguth arc in motion and explicitly steering Doctor Strange into cosmic-horror territory that owed a clear creative debt to H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth.' By deliberately positioning Strange against Lovecraftian menaces rather than straightforward supervillains, the issue helped establish the darker, more literary tone that would come to define the entire Marvel Premiere run and ultimately distinguish Strange's character from every other Marvel hero of the era.
In "The Spawn of Sligguth!", Stephen Strange is drawn into a dark mystery when Ethan Stoddard seeks his aid after his fiancée falls under the influence of the cult of Sligguth in Starksboro. With the Ancient One warning of a sleeping Cosmic Obscenity, Strange confronts the cult’s sinister reach—only to be overwhelmed by their fanatical followers. Written by Archie Goodwin and Roy Thomas, with interior art by Barry Smith and Frank Brunner, and a cover by Barry Smith and Tom Palmer, this 1972 Marvel Premiere issue delivers a chilling, otherworldly tale rooted in ancient dread.
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The issue's tangled production history reflects the editorial upheaval of mid-1972 Marvel: Stan Lee, transitioning from editor to publisher, asked incoming editor-in-chief Roy Thomas to plot and script the issue, but Thomas — suddenly working five days a week at the office instead of two or three — handed the dialogue off to Archie Goodwin once Barry Windsor-Smith had delivered what Thomas later recalled as primarily layouts rather than finished pencils. Windsor-Smith completed full pencils for only the first three pages and layouts for the remaining seventeen, with newcomer Frank Brunner finishing and inking the rest of the story — a division confirmed by the 1976 reference book The Brunner Mystique and corroborated by both Thomas and Brunner in separate interviews. The cover's exact penciler remains disputed, with the Grand Comics Database crediting Windsor-Smith while Mike's Amazing World of Comics attributes it to Brunner, though both sources agree that Tom Palmer inked it.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Cover date: September 1972; on-sale date: June 27, 1972 (confirmed by The Comic Reader #85 and the Library of Congress copyright record).
- Story title: 'The Spawn of Sligguth!' — plot by Roy Thomas, script by Archie Goodwin, pencils shared by Barry Windsor-Smith (pages 1–3 full pencils, pages 4–20 layouts) and Frank Brunner (finished pencils and inks, pages 4–20); lettered by John Costanza; edited by Roy Thomas.
- First appearances of Ethan Stoddard, Bethel Doan, Lemuel Joad, and the Serpent-Men of Starkesboro (Earth-616), the reptilian cult town that is Marvel's pastiche of Lovecraft's Innsmouth.
- Marks Frank Brunner's first published work on Doctor Strange — his comics debut came after Roy Thomas recruited him specifically for a Doctor Strange run with a Lovecraft-inflected monster motif, as Brunner recounted in a 1999 Comic Book Artist interview.
- The issue's splash page credits the story as 'featuring concepts created by Robert E. Howard,' specifically citing Von Junzt's Nameless Cults; however, the Grand Comics Database and multiple researchers note the Starkesboro narrative draws far more heavily from Lovecraft than from Howard, and that names like Sligguth, the Thanatosian Tomes, and Starkesboro itself appear to be original coinages by Thomas and/or Goodwin rather than authentic Howard material.
- The issue continues the serialized threat introduced in Marvel Premiere #3 — an unnamed 'cosmic obscenity that slumbers' (later revealed as Shuma-Gorath) — with the Ancient One explicitly warning Strange of its imminent return, advancing the multi-issue arc that would climax in issues #9–10.
- Reprinted multiple times: in Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 2 TPB (2005), Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange Vol. 4 HC (2010), and Doctor Strange Epic Collection: A Separate Reality TPB (2016), as well as in international editions including a Brazilian reprint (Superaventuras Marvel #3, 1982) and a French black-and-white reissue.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Le Fils de Satan #5 (1976), Superaventuras Marvel #3 (1982), Essential Doctor Strange #2 (2005), Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange #4 (2010), Doctor Strange Epic Collection #3 (2016), Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts Omnibus #1 (2024), Marvel Creator Collection #1 (2025)
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