After Englehart left the book with issue 18, there are about five issues by Marv Wolfman, plus another three by Jim Starlin, before Roger Stern takes over. In the second volume of Doctor Strange, nobody wrote more issues than Roger Stern. His first stint ran from issues 27 to 37, with mostly Tom Sutton as artist. Although just going by the credits, Ralph Macchio was taking over more of the writing by the last few (Stern gets "scenario" credit, Macchio gets "script".) I don't actually own any of those issues.
After Stern departs, Chris Claremont and Gene Colan take over for about 8 issues. I had no idea Claremont ever wrote Doctor Strange, but given Claremont's love of astral plane stuff, and Strange's fairly active love life, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. My impression is that after Claremont, Frank Miller was supposed to take over, to the extent Marvel even had ads in their comics hyping that, but it never happened. Instead, Stern came back with issue 47, and stayed until issue 75 (minus a couple of fill-ins here and there). Early on, he has the Marshall Rogers/Terry Austin art team, and this stretch includes Clea and Strange breaking up, and that issue where Stephen's astral form is running around ancient Egypt in the margins of that Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four issue where they're prisoners of Rama-Tut.
I own two stories from this run. One is Strange's rematch with Dracula. A Dracula who's enlisted the support of a bunch of Darkhold worshipers to increase his powers dramatically. Even with Strange getting an assist from Hannibal King, Blade, and Frank Drake (a trio Marvel would eventually put in a series called Nightstalkers in the '90s), Strange can't meet the King of Vampires head on, and has to use misdirection and a circular approach to defeat. Dan Green and Terry Austin are the penciler/inker team for most of that story, although Steve Leialoha draws the conclusion. Green's Strange is a bit older looking than Colan's was, his eyes are narrowed a lot, face a bit thinner. Which matches that he's wiser as well. He doesn't just charge in to confront Dracula directly. He knows the risks, and takes steps to put himself at an advantage.
The other story arc follows soon after, as Stern and Paul Smith send Stephen into the Dark Dimension. After they broke up, Clea returns to her home to lead a rebellion against Umar, who is currently running the show and presenting herself as a kinder, more compassionate ruler than her brother Dormammu was. Strange has purposefully been keeping his distance from Clea, not wanting to risk pointing Umar at her. Umar becomes convinced Strange is involved anyway and attack him, so he figures he might as well get involved.
Smith's version of Doctor Strange spends a lot more time practicing magic shirtless than Green's version. And Stern seems to play a bit with the idea that Stephen is largely oblivious to the fact women find him attractive. He and the Black Knight end up on a cruise ship (which is ultimately attacked by Umar), and Dane is amused (and a little jealous) of how many women are eye-humping the ol' Sorcerer Supreme.
The first issue of Stern's run I owned was actually the last, where he and Sal Buscema have Stephen find a young woman trapped within some strange form that's missing half her soul. The issue is more interesting to me because it starts with Stephen venturing into Hell to try and save the Richards' from Mephisto.
It's a weird little sequence because Mephisto is stronger than ever due to the Dire Wraiths' efforts in Rom: Spaceknight to turn Earth into a new Wraithworld, so when Forge's Neo-Neutralizer shuts that down, Mephisto finds himself on "E" all of a sudden. And also because Mephisto was after Franklin Richards for his immense psionic powers, and when Reed figures this out and tells Strange to free Franklin, the kid fries Mephisto with zero effort. Stephen doesn't react outwardly, but inside he's basically like, "Ho-leeeee shit." Like I said, kind of an odd introduction to Dr. Strange.
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