Doctor Strange 170, page 6: Dan Adkins

I’m going to go to town a bit on this one. Apologies in advance.

With regard to drawing Doctor Strange, Stan Lee told Dan Adkins to “swipe Ditko,” and apparently Adkins followed his boss’s orders. Look at that left hand in panel one, for example. And look at the psychedelic cloak hem which mirrors the trippy background swirls.

Adkins cut his teeth on Doctor Strange. After drawing the character for more than half a dozen issues of Strange Tales, Adkins debuted as the lead artist when Doctor Strange gained his own title in 1968; and while he did some Ditko-swiping, Adkins left his own mark on the character as well in the shape of the head and the weight of the body, in his poses, and particularly in the rich inking. Something clean and pure and personal and individual occurs when an artist inks his own pencils.

In any event, I love how that single finger breaks the top panel, extending ever-so-slightly into the gutter as if crossing the plane between phenomenal and noumenal realms. And I also love how Adkins or the letterer contrasted the zig-zaggy outlines of the word balloons in panel one - as Strange tries to communicate with mystic spirits - with the traditional, ovoid shape of the word balloons in the following three panels as he communicates with the earthly servant.

And two smaller choices in the top panel that reflect Adkins’ close attention: first, the small area of cross-hatching in the lower right corner of the pillow, and, second, the folds of the cloak that continue under Strange’s right arm. How easy it would have been for Adkins to continue to brush black ink into both areas; however, had he done so, he would have lost those additional textures.

So many small, artistic choices go into each page, each panel.

Thank you, Bechara and Nostalgic Investments!