DALLAS, TX.- Dan Adkins' 1968 cover art of Strange Tales #164 – depicting the mystical Doctor Strange – tied Heritage Auctions' Doctor Strange cover art record for $71,700 in Heritage Auctions' $7.4 million Comics and Comic Art Auction Aug. 5 in Dallas.

Just two months out from the Nov. 4 premier of Doctor Strange, the character's first-ever featured film, it is no surprise that the cover of Strange Tales #164 tied with Bill Everett's cover of Strange Tales #152, sold by Heritage Auctions in November of 2014.

Doctor Strange was created by character conceptualist Steve Ditko in July of 1963, debuting in Strange Tales #110. Originally an egotistical neurosurgeon, Dr. Stephen Strange lost full mobility of his hands in an automobile accident. Crushed by the inability to preform surgeries, Strange searches the world for a healer to revitalize his hands. On his quest, Strange encounters the “Ancient One," whom opens Doctor Strange's mind to the psychedelic construct of magic, mystery and malevolence that is reality.

"The movie Doctor Strange is anticipated to be a superhero movie unlike any other," said Greg Holman, Comics Consignment Director at Heritage Auctions, "fully encapsulating the mind bending, magical inception of the one-and-only Sorcerer Supreme, played by Benedict Cumberbatch."