MYSTIC GARB : DR. STRANGE APPAREL - part 1 : CAPS and TIES

Welcome to the first of a series of posts that will seek to catalogue my extensive collection of Doctor Strange (and related 6-Dimensions characters) apparel!

This is a series that I have been meaning to do since DAY ONE on this blog.
Seriously, every time I wanted to get to this series, something would preempt its inclusion.

New Years, spring-time, summer, even "Fashion week" came and went and still I missed the opportunities. So now, the week before Halloween, I feel I might be able to justify this series as a showcase of Marvel apparel that, theoretically, could be seen somewhat as "costume" wear.

LAST YEAR, I showcased all of the official Doctor Strange costumes by Ben Cooper (post found [HERE]), so I thought that this year I'd use this series as a take on the "lazy trick-or-treater's" easy way out.

Think about it, those old Ben Cooper Halloween costumes were just plastic smocks with the name and picture of the character on the chest. If you were lucky, there was a mask. So, who's to say that t-shirts, baseball caps and other apparel couldn't be acceptable?

OK. Preamble complete, I'll try to keep the verbiage to a minimum and just let the pictures tell their thousand words.

And as usual, click on pics to make "Supreme" sized!

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First up, possibly one of the RAREST of the RARE items in the Doctor Strange collector's wish-list. This could be seen as the "crown jewel" - ironically enough.

The DOCTOR STRANGE Baseball Cap!

Shown here in its protective crystal sarcophagus...
ok, it's just a plastic hat case.

Produced circa 1994, this was to be one of a series of the Marvel caps, produced by AMERICAN NEEDLE, that were released for sale from 1993 - 1994.
However, while several other character hats were released officially, the Doctor Strange cap never hit store shelves.

Allow me to remove the cap from its plastic case to show it to you in greater detail.
And ONE detail is very important indeed: looking at this next photo, you'll note the word: "SAMPLE" stamped on the underside of the brim.


This was a production sample, perhaps what would have been the final product, or perhaps not.
We'll never know since the Dr. Strange cap was never released to market.

There's no way to know for certain how many of these production samples survived, or even how many there were to begin with.
All I know is that it took me several years to track down.

I DO have another character cap; DR. DOOM - that I purchased when it was originally for sale - and which I'll also showcase here today. DOOM was one of the first hats to be officially released.

Doom shall not be contained!

However, I'll get to the Doom cap in a moment.
Let's get back to STRANGE!

A purple cap with red accents, it also features embroidered artwork and a logo for Dr. Strange.


The embroidered artwork here is taken from the artwork of Ron Lim from the cover of Doctor Strange - Sorcerer Supreme # 25.



The logo chosen was the one that originated during Dr. Strange's first official series (the one that spun off of his run in STRANGE TALES), and was also resurrected during the 1980's-1990's "Sorcerer Supreme" title, as you could see in that previously shown issue's cover..

In my many years of searching this is the only Dr. Strange cap that I have found.
It's never been worn and looks much better in real life - the photos simply don't do it justice.

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Back to DR. DOOM; I had purchased this, ordering it directly via the PREVIEWS catalogue while I was working in a comic shoppe at the time.
Like many of the ancillary items in my collection, this was purchased on the hope that if enough people supported a fledgling product line, eventually they would get to release a Doctor Strange version of the item.

Thinking that the line would last longer than the few months that it did, I intended to order a second Dr. Doom cap since I actually WORE this one quite a bit.
Sadly, the line was discontinued before I had the chance.

Featuring embroidered art - the front is based upon John Byrne 's artwork.


while the side panel is based on classic Jack Kirby artwork.

The logo is taken from the most excellent:
DOCTOR STRANGE / DR DOOM : TRIUMPH & TORMENT original graphic novel.


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*UPDATE*

04-30-2013

While I won’t wear my one 1-of-a-kind Doctor Strange cap, that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t wear a 2^nd “1-of-a-kind” Doctor Strange cap.

And thus, I had sewed onto a new baseball cap, assorted Doctor Strange PATCHES, to make a special edition just for me.

I’m not much of a baseball cap wearer. I have one for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but that’s primarily for the big golden “P” in the front. “P” is for PTOR. I couldn’t care less about any particular team. Not since I was a kid (and my two faves were the NY Mets – and, coincidentally, the PA Pirates). But I wanted a hat that spoke of what I like – what type of mojo works for me.

Well, this, while a bit garish, is it.

The third eye sits atop my brow.

All without serious meditation or soul-searching.

Doctor Strange heads/busts on either side & the made-for-TV movie logo at the back.

While I do wish that the heads were smaller, their placement - set further back - and the curve of the cloak’s high-collar frame the logo in the back quite well.

With the Eye of Agamotto up front, twin “Doctor Strange” heads set back on either side, and the “Dr. Strange” logo from the 1970’s TV movie around back, this hat shows that I've always got Doctor Strange "on my mind".

Incidentally, I am nearly 100% sure that the maker of these patches (a seller from Argentina) used one of MY uploaded pics of the title screen for the movie logo as visual data for the patch-making machine; which makes this patch yet another of my little unintentional offerings to the world-at-large (as I detailed in this post [HERE]).

*END UPDATE*

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Let's move down from head wear to neck wear, and show two neckties that feature Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom.

This one, produced in the mid-late 1990's is a montage of assorted Marvel characters.
Obviously, Dr. Strange is well represented - by the artwork of Marshall Rogers.

Fine silk - made in Italy.
Produced exclusively for the "Tie Rack".

And then there is this tie of Dr. Doom with artwork by Steve Rude.

Produced by Ralph Marlin and released in 1996.

There was supposed to be a Dr. Strange neck tie released in the mid 1960's available from the various Marvelmania ads that were shown in the early issues of some Marvel comics.
In 20 years of my active searching, I have never found even the slightest hint that such an item was ever released to market. Sadly, many Dr. Strange items that are solicited never garner enough interest to reach production.

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Come back tomorrow for the 2nd installment of this series:

MYSTIC GARB : DR. STRANGE APPAREL
- part 2 : SOLO APPEARANCE T-SHIRTS