Master Of The Woody Arts!


It's possible my first "encounter" with the work of Wally Wood came by way of enjoying the work of his acolyte Dan Adkins. Adkins had been an assistant to Wood in some of his most potent Silver Age days, helping immensely on the THUNDER Agents from Tower. Adkins was drawing Dr. Strange when Marvel's mage was awarded his own magazine (taking over the numbering of Strange Tales).


Adkins produced pages with a bit more dynamic force than Wood at this time and his finishes, at least on his own work evoked the soft clarity of his mentor.


But Adkins only lasted as regular artist on the feature for its first few issues aside from several before the breakout, and he left to become mostly an inker for Marvel from that point on.



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Comments

  1. RussJune 3, 2020 at 11:14 AM

    My understanding is that he was just not able to keep up with deadlines as a pencil artist without a lot of swiping. But Adkins was one of the most faithful and meticulous inkers a penciler could hope for. Except for the original artist, he was able to really enhance the work of guys as diverse as Barry Smith, Gil Kane, and Paul Gulacy and did some great inks on Kirby and some really surprising inks on Gene Colan. The pieces he did for Warren are really well-crafted.

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    1. Rip JaggerJune 4, 2020 at 9:12 AM

      Exactly. He was meticulous apparently, so much so that getting it done was a problem. Half an issue of Strange Tales was one thing, but one full comic each month was apparently too much. I especially liked what Adkins did over John Buscema's work too.

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  2. tonymbezi53June 3, 2020 at 3:07 PM

    Hi yes Dan Adkins really should have drawn more but his collaboration with Gene Colan gave a very dark and mysterious look which was second only to Steve Ditko.

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    1. Rip JaggerJune 4, 2020 at 9:13 AM

      I'm in the Tom Palmer camp on the ideal Colan art for Doc Strange, but Adkins was no slouch by any means.

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