This month the Dojo wraps up a year-long look at the work of the late great Steve Ditko by filling up this month with Ditko-related posts. In fact, every post this month deals with the work Ditko in some shape form or fashion. We'll take a look at his later work at DC such as Stalker, Shade the Changing Man, The Demon, and Man-Bat. Then there's the work he did late in his career at Marvel on such characters as Captain Universe, Captain Marvel, and of course his last great work for the company --Speedball. I won't have time to deal with all of the many, many characters and concepts he put his hand to.
And that's not even mentioning his parade of great work for the up-and-coming Indy marketplace such as Static, The Missing Man, and the Mocker among others for publishers such as Pacific, Eclipse, Renegade, Defiant and others. Finally, I need to carve out time to look at Ditko's purest work such as Mr. A and The Question among a cavalcade of other heroes. Add to that the many essays Ditko wrote expressing his strong, vibrant and quite biting opinions, there is more than enough to fill a month. Below are just a few of the things I hope to turn my hand to this month of total "Ditkomania".
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My rando question for the month… “Where do we put Ditko in the Pantheon of Comic Book Artists had he not been involved with Spiderman? Great blogs the past weeks by the way, on Ditko. I was not familiar with most of this. Cheers. Charlie Horse 47
ReplyDeleteSome years ago I did series of posts ranking my favorite artists and Ditko came in at #17. I was surprised he was that low in the rankings. After a year of reading his stuff, it might behoove me to revisit that listing.
DeleteGood gosh, more Ditko? Bring him on! After all this, you gotta raise him in your ratings. If some others have changed, it'd be fun to see an updated list.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree. I can't see him falling out of the top ten at this point. I'm considering updating the listing for next year.
DeleteDitko's Blue Beetle and Cap Atom at Charlton and his black and white strips for Warren have raised him up a few steps in my own personal top 20.
ReplyDeleteDitko was one of comic's most important talents. His philosophy was wacky, but his consistency was remarkable.
DeleteRip - how far back in time does your list of favorite artists extend? Would it include Lou Fine , Reed Crandall, Mac Raboy, Eisner, Cc Beck, Barks…? If so I do not see how Ditko gets into a Top-10 list?
ReplyDeleteI make a distinction between "favorite" and necessarily "finest". Sometimes I recognize the greatness of a talent (Mort Kuntsler for instance) but he might not rank that high on a "favorite" list because I only became aware of most of his work later in life. My "faves" tend to be artists I fell in love with in the first decade, though there are exceptions to that. Crandall and Fine are on the list but far from the top. Eisner and Kirby are the two rank high and started early in the field. I definitely need to take a look at my rankings and get on that early next year.
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