Introducing Captain Atom -- Ditko At Charlton 1960!

Introducing Captain Atom - Ditko at Charlton 1960 is as the title advertises. It gathers together the work by Steve Ditko produced for Charlton during that year. All of the work here was also written by Joe Gill and he is the focus of the collection as much as Ditko himself. In this year, Ditko was working for Marvel and Charlton as well as others from time to time. 

For those who might not know, Joe Gill was a writing workhorse for Charlton Comics. When I first discovered Charlton, I saw his name so much, I assumed it was a house name like "Kenneth Robeson", a name shared by many writers. Little did I realize the fecundity of Joe Gill's mind. He wrote with precision and skill, but mostly speed, hammering out scripts for Charlton's array of artists for wages at their cheapest in 1960 since this was after the company's famous flood, an event used by the owners to slash pay to the talent. 

Beneath this wraparound cover is an essay titled "Into Outer Space" highlighting the fascination with space which marked the era and the historical events which sparked that fascination. "Introducing Joe Gill" offers up a short bio of the great writer himself. "The Life Story of Steve Ditko" offers a nifty chronology of the artist from his beginning right up to his demise and beyond. In between we are offered a bevy of stories by Gill and Ditko arranged by the titles in which they appeared. 

Below is a cover gallery of those issues involved which featured Ditko artwork on the cover. At this stage, art from interior stories was rearranged by the editors for covers. 

Much more on Captain Atom in April, but March will be for monsters. The Dojo welcomes one and all. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Space War #8!

Space War #8 was published in late 1960. Ditko drew only "The Contaminated Spaceman" for this issue. You can read it at this link. 

And here's that same constructed cover on a British reprint. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Space War #6!

Space War #6 was published in 1960. Ditko drew "The Blue Men of Bantro" for this issue which is where the cover art is derived. You can read it at this link. 

Here's another look at that artwork in a British reprint. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Space War #5!

Space War #5 was published in 1960. The comic features one story by Ditko titled "Exiled to Earth". You can read it here. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Space War #4!

Space War #4 was published in 1960. It features one Ditko drawn story titled "Dreamer in Space". The cover is made up of panels from that story. You can read it here. 

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Space Western Comics #45!

Space Western Comics #45 was published in 1953. It's the last round-up for Spurs Jackson. The art is by Stan Campbell and at least one story is by Walter Gibson. You can read it at this link. 

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Steve Ditko - Outer Limits!

The Steve Ditko Archives Volume 6 is titled Outer Limits, and this final volume in the Fantagraphic series showcases Ditko's work for Charlton in the years 1958 and 1959. The stories in these volumes have been arranged according to the order in which Ditko produced them and not in the order they were published. The science fiction and fantasy stories have hit a formula at this point of a disenchanted protagonist must confront the weird and unusual in order to be punished or find enlightenment. As the years have gone by and comics under the Code have drifted further and further from the EC Comics mode, enlightenment is more common than cruel cosmic justice. 

There's a lot of space opera and oddly as a counterpoint quite a few western tales. These stories are from issues of Charlton's Black Fury and Rocky Lane's Black Jack series, both of which starred coal-black stallions as they main character. In these simple days of Roy Rogers and Trigger, such comics were not uncommon at all, a somewhat bizarre mini-genre of its very own. While he did not interior work for Cheyenne Kid, Ditko doe supply a cover for the series. 

Of the covers produced in this time are some of my very favorite Ditko images. The lyrical and delicate image of an undersea realm for Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds is astounding in so many ways. It's at once beautiful and compelling as we see our own civilization stumbling across this weird and strangely lit undersea world filled with creatures new to our experience., 

 

I've remarked elsewhere about this Out of this World cover, my all-time favorite Ditko cover image, so tender and so elegantly composed. You'd never think this showcased a battle, a battle I imagine fought in complete silence. 

A little more rooted in the pulps is this Outer Space cover. Some folks really hate the practice at Charlton to mar their cover art with blurbs for contests and such. I find these ads all part of the cover experience and clearly Ditko has left room for these announcements. Covers were meant to get you to buy the book and not just a piece of art for its own sake. 

This sidewalk creature on this Unusual Tales cover is one of Ditko's weirdest concoctions and an urban nightmare for certain. I wonder if folks adrift inside the digital worlds of their cellphones think of the landscape like this when they inevitable crash into some of their surroundings. 

The Steve Ditko Archives from Fantagraphics were lovingly put together by Blake Bell, a man dedicated for many years to achieving a clearer understanding of the elusive Ditko and his art. These tomes are a wonderful gateway into the earliest years of one of comic's greatest talents. 

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