Let It Be!

When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, Let it Be.

And in my hour of Darkness

She is standing right in front of Me

Speaking words of wisdom, Let it Be.

Let it Be, Let it Be

Let it Be, Let it Be

Whisper words of Wisdom, Let it Be. 

And when the broken-hearted people

Living in the world agree

There will be an answer, Let it Be.

For though they may be parted

There is still a chance that they will see

There will be an answer, Let it Be. 

Let it Be, Let it Be

Let it Be, Let it Be

Let there be an answer. Let it Be. 

Let it Be, Let it Be

Let it Be, Let it Be

Whisper words of Wisdom, Let it Be. 

Let it Be, Let it Be

Let it Be, Let it Be

Whisper words of Wisdom, Let it Be.

And when the Night is cloudy

There is still a light that shines on me

Shine on until tomorrow, Let it Be.

I wake up to the sound of music

Mother Mary comes to me

 Speaking words of Wisdom, Let it Be. 

Let it Be, Let it Be

Let it Be, Yeah Let it Be

Oh, there will come an Answer, Let it Be. 

Let it Be, Let it Be

Let it Be, Yeah Let it Be

Oh, there will come an Answer, Let it Be. 

Let it Be, Let it Be

Let it Be, Yeah, Let it Be

Whisper words of Wisdom, Let it Be. 

"Let it Be" by The Beatles was my late wife Lizzie's favorite song. Like Gwen Stacey, my Liz was a beautiful blonde, and I was the "Joe" who was lucky enough to wed her. It's traditional at the Dojo for me to take off a week in early May in remembrance of the woman who shared my life for forty years. She left me far too soon. It's been nearly a decade since she passed on, and I have found some life in retirement and some happiness in another love, and in my two girls who have grown into fine women. I also welcomed a grandson into the world this year. Lizzie always wanted a grandchild and it's bittersweet that she never got the chance to meet him. She'd smile that smile I fondly remember beaming at me so often even in the toughest moments, and she'd be most happy. I'll be back in a week, and until then to one and all in these times of trouble, just let it be. 

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Marvel Masters Of Suspense!

These two hefty volumes title Marvel Masters of Suspense hold between their covers the complete non-superhero work of Steve Ditko for the company. The first volume showcases Ditko's earliest work for the company when he returned to comics work after a long break because of a breakdown in his health which caused him to return home to Pennsylvania to recover. He drew mystery tales and even a western. His first tenure at Atlas ended when Martin Goodman discovered a glut of unpublished material and ordered all of it be printed before commissioning more. So Lee was forced to slash the staff. So Ditko returned to Charlton Comics where he went on to co-create Captain Atom. 

These earliest stories in this first volume still show an artist trying to meld his inspirations into an original style. Most of the stories though come from Ditko's later tenure when he was working for both Charlton and Marvel. 

The second volume contains some of the best work Ditko created for Marvel, some say the best of his career. Ditko is an artist, not unlike Kirby, who developed fans throughout his career, and they seem to like what he was doing best when they discovered him. I'm no different. But to my eye, Ditko is still developing in these stories, becoming a completely original talent having fused his influences into an original style. The stories by Stan Lee are ideal for Ditko's amazing talent to render the "everyman". These are small stories, almost always tucked away behind a Jack Kirby story about the latest giant monster from space, beneath the sea or the ground, or a product of mad science. These stories by Lee and Ditko owe more to The Twilight Zone than the movies inspired by King Kong and Godzilla. (Ironically at about this same time Ditko was drawing Konga and Gorgo for Charlton.)

Lee was always looking to strike out in different ways and when the comic Amazing Adventures featuring a new hero named Doctor Droom lost traction it was converted into Amazing Adult Fantasies. It was a vehicle just for those cozy Lee and Ditko yarns of mystery and weird intrigue. And for the first time Ditko was given a chance to make a book truly his, even including the cover images. Below are those covers. 

But alas, this comic too failed to find a sufficient following and faced cancellation. But before they could give it the heave-ho, Lee decided it might be a place to try out a new superhero he'd concocted in tandem with Steve Ditko. Perhaps you've heard of him. 

Despite being cloaked beneath a "King" Kirby cover, this new hero in the fifteenth and final issue of Amazing Fantasy (the "Adult" was removed because some fans said it made them ashamed to be seen with the comic) marked a turning point for Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. More on this Spider-Man in a few weeks. 

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Ditko At Marvel - The Early Years!

The month of May will be busy as I am squeezing in most all of Steve Ditko's early Marvel Comics work. That includes his earliest work for the company as well as his later work on fabulous mystery tales with Stan Lee from the pages of Amazing Adult Fantasy and elsewhere. And without a doubt it will include his epic work on both The Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Ditko also worked briefly on The Incredible Hulk and The Invincible Iron Man. It is during this era in which Ditko's fame grows with the new fandom which sprang up around the House of Ideas. Even today when most folks who think of Steve Ditko at all, think of his work on Spidey and Doc Strange, if they think of him at all. 

Here are the volumes I'll be reading to get this swift overview of Ditko's Marvel output. 

And while I'm reading all of that, I'll be watching the 1960's version of the animated Spider-Man series which ran for three seasons, and which brought to the small screen some of Ditko's most delicious villainous designs. 

And as has become custom here at the Dojo, I will also be taking a week-long hiatus during May, but more on that later. 

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Children Of Doom!

"Children of Doom" is a story I've examined before, but this time I'm focusing on it as an atomic fable. The yarn of how the story was composed is interesting in itself as it was put together quickly when a scheduled story for Charlton Premiere failed to appear and that Denny O'Neil (under his Charlton pen name of "Sergius O'Shaunessy") wrote it quick and artist Pat Boyette (who typically did pencils, inks and letters for his jobs) handled the rest. It's weird and oddly compelling, even if it doesn't totally make sense all the time. 

We begin at the end with a story told in flashback of how an atomic Doomsday device was made to scare mankind into peace. But a tinpot dictator used other technology to create massive firestorms which were the targets of missiles from space which caused the firestorm to overspread the entire planet. It resulted in mutations of three kinds -- firestarters, blind soothsayers, and mysterious others who stay hidden from the mass of humanity who survive but just barely.

The astronauts who fired the missiles think they can get their ship to Venus where they think they might survive and there they encountered a mutated human, one of the mysterious hidden variety who is apparently able to transport himself across space, and they bring him back to Earth.

But all that folderal activates the Doomsday device and only the weird powers of the mysterious and shunned mutants can save the day for the rest of humanity which hangs on by a thread as the story winds up. It's not a happy tale, it's not really a sad tale, it's an enigmatic fable which does and doesn't make sense at the same time. 

But one thing it is for certain and that's a parable preaching against the dangers of war and particularly atomic war, as if that needed preaching against. But there we are. This story is widely reprinted but I read it this last time in The Unknown Anti-War Comics from Yoe Books. 

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Captain Atom In The Rough!

This gorgeous cover shows off Steve Ditko's watercolor conceptual artwork for the "new" Captain Atom costume which debuted in Captain Atom #84. I might be in a distinct minority on this, but this is my favorite Captain Atom look, distinctive, colorful and cheery! His old gold costume was pretty dang good, but this one was better. And sadly, nothing they've designed at DC (and there have been oodles) has surpassed either of these two originals. The artwork here is used as a cover for an issue of the fan published CAPA-Alpha. 

(Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar)

(George Perez & Dick Giordano)

Here's that classic costume used for Captain Atom's DC's Who's Who entry. The actual entry is by artists Denys Cowan and Rick Magyar who attempt to evoke Ditko's classic feel. I like the way George Perez and Dick Giordano render him on the cover. (There's very little that Perez drew that I didn't like to be truthful.)

(Steve Ditko & Rocke Mastroserio)
But nothing beats the classic. It's been grand fun revisiting Captain Atom these past several weeks. More radioactivity from Charlton tomorrow as we wrap up the month. 
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Captain Atom In Space Adventures!

I first read Captain Atom's earliest adventures in these four issues of Space Adventures published by Charlton Comics in 1978. I still have fond memories of finding these issues on the newsstand, back in those days when grocery stores were still a primary location for getting hold of comics. Charlton was raiding its backlog to keep afloat during a grim time in the comic book marketplace. I fell in love with the charming Joe Gill and Steve Ditko stories and have never looked back. I've since purchased these stories in the original as well as copious reprintings since. 

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Atomic Reactions - Nukla!

Nukla was one of Dell's unsuccessful attempts to tap the supehero trend of the 60's. Perhaps more than any other publisher, the folks at Dell seemed to lack all sympathy with the superhero concept, and so they mostly farmed out the few attempts they had to others, notably folks who often worked for Charlton. Nukla is the work of Sal Trapani, who along with his esteemed brother-in-law Dick Giordano and Steve Ditko fashioned the four issues of Nukla. Veteran writer Joe Gill was tapped to supply the scripts, a situation which is somewhat ironic since he along with Ditko had fashioned Captain Atom, the hero who Nukla is clearly based on.

To give Nukla a 60's cachet, he is C.I.A. agent Matt Gibbs, a U2 spy plane pilot,  fitting him directly into the political fabric of the age. He caught in a nuclear explosion and as usually happens in comics survives and in fact is transformed. Always preferring to wear his stylized pilot's uniform he gives off a vaguely military feel in the four issues of his comic which have him battle spies and maniacs across the globe. 

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