Strange #182

History

Editions Lug had published Strange continuously since January 1970 as the primary vehicle for Marvel Comics translations in France, transitioning from a small-format bi-chrome pocket to a full-color comics-format magazine by issue eleven. The magazine operated under the constraints of France's Commission on Youth Publications, which required Lug's in-house studio to modify artwork — removing bladed weapons, softening onomatopoeia, and occasionally excising entire panels — to meet censorship standards; this editorial discipline is documented by French comics historians as the reason Strange survived while predecessors like Fantask and Marvel did not. By 1985, in the mid-period of founder Marcel Navarro's oversight and shortly before the death of Auguste Vistel would begin Lug's gradual decline, Strange had settled into its mature anthology rhythm: four serialized US strips per issue, each running roughly one episode per month, with detachable posters inserted periodically. Strange #182's original painted cover, in keeping with the series' long-standing practice, would have been created by Jean Frisano, who had provided distinctive painted cover art for the magazine from issue #25 onward.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published by Editions Lug (Lyon, France), dépôt légal February 1985; 104 pages in the standard large comics format (approx. 17 × 25.5 cm), with a detachable X-Men poster (featuring Diablo, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde/'Etincelle') and an X-Men maze game on the reverse.
• Reprints Iron Man (US vol. 1) #182 (1984) — 'Deliverance,' written by Denny O'Neil, art by Luke McDonnell — the celebrated chapter in which a homeless Tony Stark hits rock bottom during his alcoholism relapse orchestrated by Obadiah Stane's psychological campaign against him, while James Rhodes continues as Iron Man.
• Reprints Amazing Spider-Man (US vol. 1) #225 (Feb. 1982) — 'Fools… Like Us!' — written by Roger Stern, penciled by John Romita Jr., inked by Bob Wiacek; part of the critically admired Stern/Romita Jr. run on the title.
• Reprints Alpha Flight (US vol. 1) #3 (Oct. 1983) — 'Yesterday Man' — written and drawn by John Byrne, introducing the debut Alpha Flight serial ('La Division Alpha') within Strange, which had replaced the long-running ROM: Spaceknight strip beginning at Strange #179.
• Also reprints an installment from the Denny O'Neil/Klaus Janson Daredevil run; credited creative contributors across the issue include Dennis O'Neil, Frank Miller, John Byrne, Klaus Janson, Bob Wiacek, Roger Stern, Luke McDonnell, John Romita Jr., and Steve Mitchell.
• The issue was subsequently bound into Strange Recueil (collected album) no. 61, which gathered issues #182–184, released April 1985 — one of Lug's regular album reprints for the newsstand and bookshop trade.
• Strange magazine operated throughout its Lug era under self-imposed editorial censorship to satisfy France's Commission on Youth Publications, meaning artwork in any given issue — including this one — may contain modifications to violence and weaponry relative to the US originals.
• Strange #182 appeared during a transitional period for Editions Lug: founder Auguste Vistel died in the mid-1980s, beginning the company's eventual sale to the Semic Group in 1989, which makes mid-decade issues like this one part of the last years of the original, fully independent Lug editorial era.

Cast · 40 characters

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