Steve Ditko is one of the titans of the comic book industry, and aside from Jack Kirby possibly the most celebrated and documented artist on this list. So it might be a surprise that he's this low relatively on the list of favorites. The great Ditko created some of my absolute favorite heroes and was the anchor artist at Charlton Comics for a very long time and a centerpiece of the "Action Heroes" line with his Cold War co-creation Captain Atom and his Silver Age revision The Blue Beetle and a little fellow called The Question. Some years later he came up with Static, a character who appeared among the embers of the final Charlton fires. All the comic book world admires Ditko for his most successful marketplace character - the Amazing Spider-Man, created in collaboration with Stan Lee and of course the pillar of the Marvel Universe. He also gave us Dr. Strange of course and many decades later he returned to Marvel to make Speedball. At DC he created The Creeper and The Hawk and the Dove. But in all that time and with all that success Ditko remained a relative recluse, a devoted adherent of the philosophy of Ayn Rand which Ditko promoted in the comics which were true to his heart.
Ditko's character Mr.A (the early template for The Question) remains arguably his most pure if pedantic creation. For all those accomplishments, I have to say that while his storytelling was often precise and clear and his ability to create fascinating heroes was remarkable, I often did not like the look of his characters, especially the girls as well as other artists. My favorite period is the bold period when he was drawing for both Charlton and Warren (his second stint at the former). His Marvel stuff shows his evolution as an artist, but many like the more whimsical early material. I like it too. As he continued in comics his drawing became less and less capable thought his relentless desire to communicate seems never to have left him.
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Loved his Marvel and Warren work, as well as some of his earlier stuff, but his preachy Objectivist strips are tedious in the extreme and, like Kirby, his later art style was far too cartoony for my tastes.
ReplyDeleteI concur on the politics. It made finding the adventure difficult at times, if not impossible. I treat them like essays.
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Ditko is the greatest, next to Kirby of course. This list took a tumble into one of Ditko's astral realms. ;)
ReplyDeleteThe astral realms indeed. Just saw Dr.Strange on TV and was reminded of how they evoked the Ditko magic.
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Ditkos Dr Strange is a gem,as of course is his Spider-Man work. I also loved his early Charlton work especially his Blue Beetle and those amazing short mystery strips at Atlas/Marvel which are some of my all time favourites. As an artist in his prime (for me pre 1973) he was wonderful but he seemed to tail of in quality quite quickly after that. His self penned work like Kid I found tedious in the extreme.
ReplyDeleteI think we agree on Ditko's prime just about exactly. When he was good, he was very very good.
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He was a valuable player wherever he went, I think. He filled in when Iron Man was faltering and designed the new armor. He came to Stan with the idea of Dr. Strange, and came up with a structure to revive the cancelled Hulk series in Tales to Astonish, again on his own initiative, which he also brought unsolicited to Stan. He helped get the art to Daredevil #1 done when the book fell behind schedule. He was the one who suggested and devised the new Blue Beetle for Charlton, and practically carried that company on his back all the way to the end. When he landed the Creeper gig at DC, he was apparently the one who suggested Dick Giordano be hired as well, which had quite the impact for Batman, DC and Continuity. He even helped with production work in the opening days of Wally Wood's Witzend. These are not the behaviors of an anti-social crank, but a generous, creative spirit.
ReplyDeleteBecause he'd been burned in his early exchanges with fandom, where he was initially very supportive, he withdrew from the press and got a reputation for being a recluse. Because he had rather strongly defined and stern moral beliefs, some regarded him as a hostile fanatic. But those who had personal encounters with him have, in public interviews, described him as a gentle soul with a mischievous sense of humor. There's an awful lot of joy and whimsy in the Charlton material, particularly in the 70's books.
I strongly disagree with his right-wing politics, but I admire the hell out of him as a creative force, who not only invented many of our favorite comics, but also lived successfully on terms of his own creation.
I've never read that he was impolite just wanting to be quietly left alone. I get that and he's more than entitled. He was a man who lived as he wanted to I think, and that's no small accomplishment.
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For me one of my favourites, his work on early Marvel/Atlas and Charlton were brilliant storytelling, okay he had his views but i feel it did not detract from the excellent work on Spiderman and Doctor Strange story telling his best, with his work on Warren then Charlton some of my favourite stories, the Creeper and Hawk and Dove never had long to develop but for me The Question (although a diluted Mr. A was my all time favourite , Mysterious Suspense number 1 will be treasured by me forever.
ReplyDeleteI think I forgot to mention one of my faves in my write up -- The Destructor. Paired with Wally Wood he knocked out a couple of outstanding comics for the ill-fated Atlas-Seaboard.
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