Steve Ditko In The 1960's!

Steve Ditko in the 1960s is a delightful tome assembled by J. Ballman. He researched and gathered most all of the surviving fanzine responses, reviews, and interviews concerning Steve Ditko and his work, most notably The Amazing Spider-Man from the decade. There is some minor coverage of Captain Atom and other work at Charlton as well as a peek at what Ditko got up to at DC after he left Marvel, but the overwhelming majority of the material is about Spidey. We begin with announcements of a new comic book character from Marvel and follow the fan response as Ditko wins over the community with his dedication and with is willingness to engage the fanzine makers on their terms. He responds to written interviews with terse but clear answers, and we see him withdraw from that practice as the decade develops. Finally, we see him reflected by the fans as the only artist for Spider-Man, the most sensational creation of the decade. 

The heart of this package though is a piece titled "Steve Ditko and Memories of Another Day" by Bernie Bubnis who shares with the reader his earliest contacts with Ditko in those bygone days of 1962 and after when the artist shared a studio with Eric Stanton. Bubnis became a regular visitor to the studio, finding in the somber and quiet Ditko a man he could respect, more than he could respect his gangster father. Ditko's fiery sense of injustice is seen ablaze when he learns that Bubnis has been beaten, but that fire is tempered by the streetwise advice of Stanton who knows that it will only be worse for Bubnis if they intercede. Not only does Bubnis share these recollections of early days, but he also frames those tales with a visit he made to Ditko's studio in 2017 with his wife. Great stuff and for someone who has been a Ditko fan as long as I have been, it's fantastic to finally get a glimpse of the real flawed man beneath the reputation. 

 

This volume is an absolute treasure trove for any Marvel fan of the era when comics were more important than movies, and Steve Ditko was an idol. 

Rip Off

The Amazing Neighborhood Spider-Pillow!

I'd imagine most comic book fans of any era not only have burned into their memories the artwork and stories of their golden era but the ads of that time as well. I know that for me comics were such treasures, discovered and acquired at great cost of money, time and energy that these glorious four-color pamphlets were sucked dry of their entertainment content almost completely, and that included the wonky ads they might contain.

One of the weirdest in my time was the ad above for inflatable plastic pillows starring some of Marvel's mightiest.  What struck me at the time and still does is the absolute randomness of the images used in this merchandising effort. I'd imagine when the Stan and the others at Marvel realized the success they'd tapped into with their new comics, they were eager to cash in. Certainly riding trends until they bust, had long been the working model for Martin Goodman.  Now Marvel seemed to be ladling out merchandising rights all around and some of it was profoundly strange.

These pillows for instance.

We have a dynamic Thor portrait by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta. I don't recognize the exact source for this one but I'm sure someone can tell me.

Likewise this Ditko image for Spider-Man, which is a bit more subtle in how it integrates the artwork onto the total pillow for a clever effect. 

Here's a look at another version of this ad, this time with newcomer Captain Marvel thrown in for no discernible reason save to jazz up the image.

Weirdly I found this product starring Sub-Mariner as rendered by Gene Colan and Vince Colletta. It looks like it ought to be part of the same merchandising push, it certainly has that random art quality.

These are two handsome plastic pillows with proper Jack Kirby imagery and seem a bit more classically composed. I doubt they are part of the same push, but are delightful in their own way.

I think I've seen the Thor pillow in real life somewhere, but I forget now where that would've been. I don't remember ever really wanting these items, but I sure remember seeing that delicious ad.

Rip Off

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!

There are some great pin-ups Steve Ditko contributed of "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man". The poster above was a six-foot wonder delivered to fans in a handy-dandy tube. 

Some amazing art for a set of posters. Getting remuneration for jobs like this was just one of the sticking points for both Ditko and Kirby in Marvel's early years. Despite that injustice, they are great to look at nonetheless. 

Rip Off

Marvel Masterwork Pin-Ups!

Marvel Masterworks Pin-Ups is one of my absolute favorite Yoe Books. It gathers between its pages most if not all of superhero pin-up pages which appeared in Marvel's comics over the course of about two decades or so beginning with the very first Fab 4 pin-ups from Fantastic Four #2 and ending with John Byrne's pin-ups for Fantastic Four Special Edition from 1984. In between there are scuds of images of both heroes and villains by the likes of Kirby,  John Buscema, Gene Colan, Dicky Ayers, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, John Romita, Bill Everett, and Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith. Most of them are by the "King", but coming in second is "Sturdy" Steve Ditko. Below I've gathered his Spidey images from the book. 

The oddball grace of Ditko's early version of Spidey is neatly showcases in this image  Amazing Spider-Man #3. 

It is a more muscular Spider we see here from the first Amazing Spider-Man Annual. 

This pin-up from Amazing Spider-Man #20  has always been a favorite of mine as it shows Peter Parker, a figure no less important to the success of the early Spidey stories.  

This a grand image from Amazing  Spider-Man #21, which of course served as the cover this Yoe collection. The way the light frames Spidey is outstanding. 

And this image from Amazing Spider-Man #23  might well be my favorite of the lot. There's not only the entirety of the Spider-verse cast represented with headshots, but we have a very mysterious and threatening image of Spider-Man himself. He's become so common that it's easy to forget that Spider-Man would be downright scary if you met him in one of those dim Ditko alleys. 

Rip Off

The Amazing Spider-Man - Great Responsibility!

It's in this second Epic Collection volume that The Amazing Spider-Man by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee finds its purest expression. Ditko had been taking an ever-increasing role in plotting the series, and he had even pried repeated credit for doing so. As the creative relationship between Lee and his master artist dissolved, Spider-Man became increasingly a completed work that Ditko delivered to Marvel's doorstep for mere dialogue. Even though I was not there when all this was unfolding, I still regard these issues as the finest ever produced on the long series and the ones which made the character the juggernaut he has become for the corporate masters who now control his fate like so many J. Jonah Jamesons.  

While Peter Parker is desperate to get money for the sick Aunt May, he is forced by circumstance to ignore threats, and this gives rise to the rumor that he's become a coward. 

But things get better at home and so our hero is able to rejuvenate his reputation by taking the battle to his enemies, giving hope to those who stood by him. That iconic image of Spider-Man by Ditko swung through all the episodes of the cartoon show. 

J. Jonah Jameson's hatred of Spidey gets out of control yet again when he funds the creation of The Scorpion. When his home-grown super-villain turns on him, it's up to our hero to swallow hard and save the day, proving yet again that no good deed goes unpunished. 

Marvel really seemed to want to make a big deal out of the friendly rivalry of its two teen heroes Spider-Man and the Human Torch. No issue does it better than this one, and the Beetle was a great baddie, ideal for Ditko's artistry. 

The Circus of Crime turn on the Ringmaster and elect the enigmatic Clown as their leader as they go about committing crime in the NYC area. 

This is the single oldest issue of the run I own and I have no memory of how I chanced upon it. I love this cover, a perfect one featuring an upside-down Spidey battling a vicious Green Goblin. Marvel was slowly setting up the Goblin as Spidery's main nemesis, though Doc Ock might have something to say about that. 

Spidey lies down on the psychiatrist's couch in this one when he thinks he might be going gaga. But as we all knew it was merely an old enemy returning to wreak vengeance on our hero. 

J.J.J. never learns his lesson and hires another scientist to build a machine to capture Spidey. It's a close call nonetheless, though our hero has to sacrifice his costume to survive the day. 

This is my favorite Spidey cover by Ditko. It's got amazing perspective and loads of mystery, even if the Crime-Master wasn't a heavy hitter. Spider-Man is still without his original costume and must make do with a store-bought replacement, one that doesn't fit very well. The Crime-Master is pure Ditko. 

Some will argue with me, but I think the series peaks with this two-part tale of the Crime-Master. Spider-Man never looked better than when he was battling gangsters and these two issues were loaded with that kind of action. Ditko got, to some degree, the kind of ending he wanted as a precursor to the reveal of the Goblin. 

Molten Man is a great menace, and one with a tie to our hero. Peter Parker's graduation marks well how the series has been moving along in pretty much real time. A more adult hero gives the storytellers advantages, but it does rob the hero of some of his most remarkable aspects. Time will slow down greatly after this issue. 

The "Ditkoverse" crosses over in the second Annual and the team-up between Spider-Man and Doctor Strange is a doozy! 

The Scorpion returns and proves to be one of our heroes most blood-thirsty villains. Ditko gets another winner with this cover and how it shows both what's above and below the water. 

This is a neat small story of a humble second-story criminal. The glaring error in this one is that Lee doesn't realize that Ditko was setting up his magnum opus with the appearance of the Master Planner's henchmen in this one and the captions indicate the baddies belong to the Cat, when that makes no sense. The creators are not talking by this time and it shows. 

As Aunt May is again stricken by illness, Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man goes on his most significant quest when he seeks a radical new medicine. When the henchmen of the Master Planner take that crucial cure, the stage is set. 

Our hero is desperate to save his beloved Aunt and the baddies need to get out of his way. It's a bold image Ditko gives us here to showcase Spidey's fury. 

Some say this is the finest issue of the series ever. I don't quiet agree, but it's a mighty one indeed. The end of the only three-part storyline in Ditko's tenure on the series, it comes to a magnificent climax in an artistic tour de force. 

Kraven the Hunter comes back for more from our hero and finds it. Ditko's artwork is moving past its prime on the series and shifting toward a new more robust look. 

The Molten Man is back and it's all Spidey can do to corral him. We get a glimpse of a villain who is struggling against his new nature. 

The Looter is on the loose and he is the evidence that Ditko's new Objectivist philosophy has taken firm control of his creative direction. 

Some nifty robots are on the scene as Spider-Man tries to survive a desperate baddy's attempt at a comeback to crime. 

By the time of the arriveal of a "a guy named Joe" Ditko has said what he wanted to say and moves on from Mighty Marvel. So many villains, so little time. By the end of Ditko's run on the book, Peter Parker had graduated and is an adult. Perhaps Ditko imagines the story he wanted to tell is done. But now he moves on to to other pastures. As the cover suggests it was "Nuff Said!". 

Rip Off

Spider-Man '67 - Season Two!

It's definitely a change, but I have to say I prefer this second season to the first. The stories were slightly more complex and had a vaguely more adult feel to them. This is especially so of the origin story in the first two episodes of season two. The art on those was pretty good and the story very much like a Spidey comic. I love the backgrounds in this series, the colors are vibrant and intoxicating often making up for admittedly lackluster animation.

Now after that beginning things get strange. But knowing that fantasy masters like Lin Carter on the writing and Gray Morrow on the art design are at the helm I can't be surprised all that much that Spidey spent most of the season out of the city and in some vague jungle/alien setting up to his webs in plants and weird bat-things. One thing I noticed was that many of the stories really threw curveballs, in that Spidey would begin his adventure normally enough with crime and thugs but then there would be a shift and he'd find himself in the future, underground, or on a bizarre island somewhere.

I consider these adventures to be similar to the kinds of adventures that Spidey would have in Marvel Team-Up in which he'd often venture into territories radically different from the classic big city crime story he's rooted in. The MTU Spidey would travel in time, go into space, venture into lost worlds and do all manner of things bizarre by his standards. This second season had that kind of feel to it.

Here a dozen things I learned watching this second season of Spider-Man:

1. The sky is often green and always dramatic as if a storm is about to erupt.

2. Purple gorillas are seen by the criminal set as effective disguises for some reason. Maybe it's a DC thing.

3. Spidey can pilot experimental jet planes and has ready access to them on a whim, and no one misses them when they fly away.

4. Mole Men are ridiculously stupid, getting duped by the same criminal in two episodes. And they like to gong a lot.

5. Giant doors are common in many alien landscapes, as if Kong himself were on the other side.

6. Spidey loves to swing and swing and swing and swing and swing though the city, often attaching his web line to no discernable object.

7. Villains are most often green, the sure sign of villainy in the Bakshiverse.

8. Peter Parker plays baseball.

9. Parker sure hangs out with a lot of different girls, but I'm guessing he's not a FWB (Friend with Benefits), accounting for that gloomy puss he wears most of the time.

10. Manhattan is a remarkably sturdy cityscape and can survive multiple sinkings of various buildings and even detaching from the earth and flying into the sky.

11. Martians look amazingly like ancient gods of Norse and Greco-Roman mythology.

12. The power of flight is achieved by putting a blender on your head.

Ralph Bakshi produced a wacky cartoon, that's so bizarre that I wouldn't mind watching it again in a few years. The stories are at once patterned and unpredictable. Spidey seems mostly trusted by the police, even admired by them save for the last episode when inexplicably he's seen as a baddie and a threat. The villains are cackling madmen, but interesting looking by and large.

Things happen in the Bakshiverse that require no explanation, they just are. And in the context of these stories, I can accept that. You might even dub this season of Spidey stories his "Weird Adventures" and be very close to capturing the feeling they have.

Next time it's Season Three.   

Rip Off

Ditko's Iron Man!

Iron Man is credited to Stan Lee and Don Heck. Heck along with Jack Kirby and later Gene Colan all had hefty runs on the character. But a crucial but brief tenure on the series was held down by Steve Ditko. Ditko debuted on the Tales of Suspense series under a Kirby cover when Shellhead confronted the weird menace of Mr. Doll. 

To combat Doll's strange voodoo-like curse, Iron Man adopted a new sleeker armor. Designed by Ditko, this red and gold armor became the standard look of the character for many decades with various small changes over time.

In the next issue Ditko drew a story in which Iron Man battles a deluded Angel. This battle is strangely even as clearly Marvel thought they might have a future star in the high-flying X-Man. 

 

Marvel was getting excellent at cross-promotion of its comics, using every series as a chance to suggest another character to a potential reader. Paul Reinman inked both issues of Tales of Suspense that featured Ditko's art. And just like that, Ditko was gone, but not forgotten. 

Rip Off