Welcome to the 5,000th post on Reporting on Marvels and Legends!
Strange got his second shot at an ongoing in 1974, although it published somewhat erratically the first 2+ years. Steve Englehart's run went covered the first 18 issues, and seems to be maybe the most highly-regarded, non-Ditko run with the character, at least in some circles of comics fandom. I only have one issue of it myself, and it's this one.
This is the second half of Strange's first run-in with Dracula (the first half of which was in Tomb of Dracula #44, which we'll get to someday). Wong got ambushed and snacked on by Drac, and Strange went hunting for him, planning to destroy him so Wong's soul could resume possession in his body. Except Strange lost and got bit himself. His astral form's free, so he uses it to mess with the vampire's mind for a bit, torment and goad him with illusions of his deceased wife to lure him out over the ocean.
Except he let the ruse slip a little too soon, and Dracula evades the sun.
They fight it out, and Strange wins by calling on the power of God to not only kill Dracula, but bring Wong back to life and make himself not a vampire anymore. Pretty slick.
The color printing doesn't do Colan's art any favors. It tends to wash out or obscure too many details, especially in faces. I doubt that's on Tom Palmer so much as the limitations of the technology of the day. One thing I notice here is that, in contrast to a lot of artist who draw Strange's Cloak of Levitation like a living, responsive thing that almost floats off his shoulders, Colan draws it as a limp cloth that drapes and clings heavily on him. I'm guessing because Strange isn't himself, even when he's up and moving, with the taint of vampirism on him.
Dracula's cloak, in contrast, has more of that living energy to it. Billowing out as he leaps, hanging loose to help him almost blend with the shadows. Although, since he can change into a bat or mist, then change back in the same outfit, I'm not sure what his clothes are actually made of.
As it turns out, Dracula actually tricked Strange into thinking he destroyed the Lord of Vampires. But he's not interested in continuing the fight either, so he lets it drop. And that's largely where things are left, for the next seven years.
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