The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell is an insightful biography of the artist and I'll be using it to guide me during the course of this year as I examine the work of Ditko at Charlton, Marvel, DC, Atlas-Seaboard, Tower, Dell, Eclipse, Defiant, and so many more companies for which he worked. I hope to keep this year-long overview mostly chronological, but I won't become limited by that when it comes to examining themes in his work.
Here are some of the collections I have in my library featuring the work of Ditko, and I hope to consult all of them at some point this year, in addition to some I haven't yet thought of.
Look for these reviews of Ditko's work on Sundays throughout the year.
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I had no idea there were so many Ditko books, I only have the excellent Marvel Dr Strange Omnibus and the Creativity of Steve Ditko book ( noted above) and a few smaller collections including a Static black and white book ( slightly larger than A3 sized ) Love those covers
ReplyDeleteI have more, especially of Spider-Man and Doc Strange, both of which I've collected several times. I hope to feature some of those vintage collections as the year tumbles along. I only recently gathered up the more recent material and the 70's Charlton collections. Great stuff!
DeleteAs someone who's bought nearly every reprint of Ditko's Spider-Man, I recommend the new Taschen Marvel Library series, which is shot from the original comics and is about as close to tricking your brain into thinking you own a vintage collection without the smell of newsprint. They started with mongo-sized, pretty expensive versions, but are now doing smaller (still a little over Omni-sized) editions. The first volume of Spider-Man, with the first 21 issues plus the first annual, ads, letter-pages, and special back features, retails at $80, but you can find it online for less. Not for everybody, but I'm personally looking forward to more.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. I'll give them a look-see. I like the idea of getting the back-up pages.
DeleteI had high hopes for The Creeper. I was aware of him, but didn't get my hands on the original run until years later, maybe 1972. Like a lot of Ditko's characters, it was a littler generic and rushed on character development. Scientist creates a serum and a gadget, protagonist uses them accidentally or as a last resort. I found Jack Ryder basically unlikable on any level, but really liked The Creeper character. I had found out later on that Steve was ill during this era, which I'm sure contributed to the lack of development.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jack Ryder is unlikeable, but I always thought that was intentional. The look of the Creeper is fascinating indeed.
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