The Kindness of "STRANGERS"

A friend, and benefactor of the Sanctum Sanctorum, (whose true identity I'm keeping secret so as to protect his modesty,) has sent me a most wonderful gift.

Part Christmas present, part "congratulatory gesture" for my blog, this wonderful person has made me the proud owner of an original page of Marvel comics artwork.

From DOCTOR STRANGE : Master of the Mystic Arts # 29,

Cover by Frank Brunner

Page # 11 - penciled by Tom Sutton, inks by Ernie Chan, with words by Roger Stern.

I present it here in all it's awesomidity!

CLICK to awesomeify!

original piece, signed by Tom Sutton

How it appeared on the printed page.

For you reading this blog, I have to tell you... and you're probably not going to believe this... but that page has nearly always been one of my favorite pages of Doc art.
Truth.

That image of DOC in that old-world Trenchcoat (quite probably supposed to be an 'Inverness coat') has long been an iconic image for me.
I've never mentioned it on the blog (at least I don't recall doing so) but I bear more than a passing resemblance to Strange, and for a very long time, I've OWNED a big billowy coat similar to that one.
So it is that every time I see that page, I always get the impression of what people are thinking (and usually have SAID - especially the "Dracula" comments) when it's ME walking around looking like that.
(Honestly, I can't begin to tell you how many times I've heard that. Numbers that high tend to be theoretical.)

When I was much younger, as a kid, Sutton's art seemed a bit curious to me, wonky at times, and that page (with that look for Doc) would stop me dead in my reading, pull me out of the story and make me think "what if...?", what IF Strange had that kind of look instead of the mystic raiment?

Strange as a "plain-clothes" mystic detective is something that I've bandied about in my head from time to time. Back in the mid-late 1980's I had a friend take photos of me in a (different) black trenchcoat, with grey streaks in my hair, in a visual attempt to figure out if that kind of take on Strange would work.

I still have the pics. I'll have to find them and put them up here one day.

Oddly enough, if the Doctor Strange movie is made, they will probably aim more for that look than the Cloak of Levitation and tunic.

Anyway, a deep heartfelt "THANK YOU" to the wonderful patron!
May his amulet never tickle!

This is now one of the few original pieces that I own, and it is a VERY welcome one.
Besides that great iconic image of Doc in one of his too-groovy-for-the-room civilian outfits, the page also has him in his mystic garb, also shows him using his powers as well as his astral form. With the inclusion of Nighthawk it also serves as a part of my "6-Dimensions" aspect of collecting and covers the Defenders.
It's got almost everything!

I can't say thanks enough.