It's very obvious that Steve Ditko was inspired by "THE RAVEN", both for the character of Dr. Strange, who, in the early episodes looked like Vincent Price, but also for the magic battle at the end fo the film, which contains not only bolts of mystic energy but "shields" to block attacking energies.
The movie came out in January 1963; the first DS story appeared in STRANGE TALES #110 (cover dated Jul'63, which means it came out in April 1963).
Observing the evolution of the artwork, I came to the conclusion some time ago that the "origin" story, while published 4th, was actually created 9th in sequence. It's in that story Strange begins to resemble Ronald Colman, who played "Robert Conway" in the 1937 film "LOST HORIZON". Watching that film again recently, it also became clear to me that the "The Ancient One" was based on "The High Llama", played by Sam Jaffee, while "Clea" was based on "Sondra", played by Jane Wyatt. Further, there's one episode where Strange is on the run for his life around the world, and runs across The Ancient One's accountant-- who, whatta ya know, is a dead ringer for "Mr. Chang", played by H.B. Warner.
"Baron Mordo", meanwhile, is based on "Pendragon", played by Torin Thatcher, from 1962 film "JACK THE GIANT KILLER".
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patrick-413
10 years ago
That's some enlightening scholarship, profh. I'll have to watch Lost Horizon again with all that in mind!
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jdsuggs
8 years ago
Just wanted to add my agreement with patrick-413 below, profh-1- great detective work and great post! Interesting and a pleasure to read.
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