A Steve Ditko Special!

Fantastic Giants #24 (t is a continuation of the numbering of Konga) was one of the earliest comic books I ever got my little mitts on and it's a book that has at its center not a character but an artist. Steve Ditko (shown enigmatically as a quasi-human ink bottle) is what this book is about, his artwork on some vintage projects as well as two new stories by the maker of so many fascinating Charlton yarns. 

Konga was once upon a time a movie and then Charlton adapted it to comic book form. Ditko drew the adaptation and many of the better Konga stories from the reasonably long run of the title. This volume showcases that wonderful Joe Gill written and Ditko drawn debut story. 

On the other side we have Gorgo, another very successful giant monster flick adapted by Charlton using the same team. The oddly touching tale of an enormous monster and her giant offspring taking a walking tour of London is exceedingly well told. Given the price of special effects, both the Konga and the Gorgo stories add to the luster of the cinematic renditions. 

In addition to the classic giant monsters we get a then-modern Ditko tale called "Mountain Monster" which might've fit into Ghostly Tales or The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, but is given special prominence here. This story written by Dave Kaler gives us Ditko at the top of his powers just as the lead character of this story is at the top of that mysterious mountain. 

And finally there's the secret gem of this set, the other new story scripted by Dave Kaler called simply "With the Help of Hogar" which set in the depths of Africa offers Ditko the chance at a splash page, one of his best. Ditko didn't create impactful splash pages like his colleague Jack Kirby and but for Kirby might never have done. But when he was given the nod he created some of my favorites such as the outstanding splashes in the first Spider-Man Annual and the debuts of the redesigned Captain Atom and Blue Beetle. This image above really lives up to the book's title, and gives us a "fantastic giant", a creature which seems to lumber out of the pages of a Lovecraft story brimming with utter weirdness. 

All this heady stuff indeed for a youngster just shaping his initial impressions of what comic book art should be. A Steve Ditko special indeed and the true "fantastic giant" in this tome is the artist himself. 

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