General History
Doctor Strange is one of the oldest Marvel Characters. He was created by Steve Ditko and made his debut in Strange Tales #110 in July of 1963.
Strange Tales originally contained mystery/suspense/horror types of stories. In issue #101, the book became more superhero oriented when a Human Torch story was featured in each issue along with a secondary non Human Torch story. Doctor Strange was created to fill one of these secondary story lines in issue #110.
Doctor Strange stories became standard. In issue #135, he began sharing the comic with Agent of Shield (Nick Fury) stories. The Doctor eventually took over the book and it was renamed Doctor Strange and continued with the number 169 in June of 1968 and continued through issue #183.
In 1972, Dr. Strange appeared in an important 12 issue run of Marvel
Premier (#3-#14). Doctor Strange eventually got his own title starting with issue #1 in June of 1974. This is one of my favorite Dr. Strange covers (Frank Brunner). Since then, Doctor Strange has appeared in many of his own series as well making guest appearance on covers and stories of hundreds of other comic books. He usually makes appearance in all major Marvel events, usually in some pivotal role. He has also appeared in several publisher crossovers such as DC/Marvel All Access and Image Comics Unholy Union alongside Witchblade and Darkness.
Dr. Strange has been a member of several teams and founded one of the most powerful teams in the Marvel Universe - The Defenders. As with most comic book characters, his powers ebb and flow based on the writers, but Doctor Strange has always been a force to recon with defeating demons, gods and cosmic entities.
Doctor Strange has also appeared on countless collectables since the 1960s and appeared in a TV pilot, TV animated series and in Movies.
Origin Story
The Doctor's origin story has been retold in many comics over the years. The story has stayed pretty consistent, but occasionally whomever is writing the comic will change it a bit. The original origin story appeared in Strange Tales #115 in December 1963.
Stephen Strange traveled to India in search of the Ancient One ,who he believed had magic healing powers. The Ancient One tells Stephen that he does not waste his magic on the unworthy. He gets mad and comes after the Ancient One, who freezes him in mid air then reads his memories. The Ancient One learns Stephen was once a famous surgeon who was greedy and arrogant. Stephen was in a bad auto accident and suffered severe nerve damage to his hands that would prevent him from operating again. He eventually heard about the Ancient One from some dock workers and ventured to India. The Ancient One does not cure his hands, but offers to train him. Stephen is still mad and refuses. A snow storm comes in stranding him there (work of the Ancient One?). The Ancient One introduces Stephen to his pupil, Mordo. Stephen discovers Mordo is plotting with Dormammu against the Ancient One. Stephen attempts to warn the Ancient One, but Mordo cast a spell that placed an iron clamp on his mouth that kept him from speaking about Mordo's treason. After finally coming to the realization that magic was real, and the only way he could stop Mordo was becoming the Ancient One's pupil, so he could learn magic o defeat Mordo. The Ancient One removes Mordo's spell and tells Stephen he know of Mordo's plans on this time. Dr. Strange would train under the Ancient One for years becoming the Master of Black Magic.
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