Who Is The Question?

When it comes to Ditko heroes there is no question that the epitome is The Question. By this time Ditko had created or co-created Captain Atom, Spider-Man, Dr.Strange as well as this zippy new Blue Beetle. But it's clear to my eye that The Question is the hero Ditko always wanted to create, and actually he did it twice. More on that anon. But to answer the query Ditko poses on his very appearance "Who is the Question?"

Created in the back pages of "The All-New" Blue Beetle, The Question was in fact hard-hitting reporter and ginger Vic Sage. Sage worked in the rough and tumble streets of Crown City, investigating corruption and crime regardless of where it led and who in positions of influence and power might be embarrassed or implicated. Vic Sage spoke his own mind, a mind guided by strict adherence to reason and evidence. He works for Worldwide Broadcasting and is assisted by his tough as nails team of Fred Pine, Al Kert, Bob Hasel, and the lovely Nora Lace. His boss is Sam Starr who stands by Vic in thick and thin. He is harassed by Star's son Syd and daughter Celia. The latter two are looking to find ways to get rid of Sage since his journalism often agitates advertisers and high muckamucks alike and so potential earnings. 

Vic espouses the philosophy of Objectivism and demands that he be treated by its tenets as well. He doesn't expect his employer to keep him out of loyalty but because it's in his ultimate best interests to get the truth out. Likewise his staff are not there because of him, but because they too like all "good" citizens need a world in which the rules are applied fairly. It's a bit much really to swallow and offers up a slender view of mankind. Emotions are seen as needless in the running a just society and in fact compassion and charity are deemed actual detriments as it undermines the clarity with which all folks should shoulder their burden and produce for themselves. 

Aside from philosophy what sets The Question apart from other heroes is his face, or specially the lack of one. Vic Sage gets his Question identity thanks to the work of Professor Rodor who designed a mask which covers the face but doesn't appear to offer up any openings and a handy gas that when released will changed the colors of suits so as to make The Question a hero who can leap into action on a moment's notice. (Much easier than the endless costume woes confronted by Spider-Man.) The Question punches out villains with a fighting style reminiscent of Will Eisner's The Spirit though he doesn't seem to get beat up and pummeled as much. 

After his appearances in Blue Beetle, The Question was featured in a single comic titled Mysterious Suspense #1. This issue was offered up after Dick Giordano had led a migration of Charlton talent, including Steve Ditko over to DC. (Correction: The real story is that Giordano was tipped off about the changes happening at DC by Steve Ditko who had already jumped over to the DCU.)

Some years later DC bought the "Action Heroes" after the collapse of Charlton and tried a number of ways to fit them into the DCU. There was success with Blue Beetle, failure with Captain Atom, and The Question as revised by Denny O'Neil was Ditko's character much at all, save they looked sort of the same. 

Over twenty-five years ago (yikes) DC celebrated The Question and Ditko by making Mysterious Suspense part of their Millennium reprint series. No other Charlton hero was afforded this honor, and likely The Question got it not only for the work of Ditko, but also because the hero inspired Rorschach of Alan Moore's Watchmen series. Sadly, today when The Question is mentioned that's the first thing anyone brings up. I mention it last on purpose to try and bring balance to the universe. To read the one and only issue of Mysterious Suspense go here. 

To get all of the Dikto Charlton Question stories seek out the second volume of Action Heroes from DC's 

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Mr. A - Good Or Evil!

Steve Ditko was born on this date in 1927. Ditko was one of the great original artists in the history of comics, a man dedicated to his philosophy and worldview. He created some of the most iconic images in the history of the form in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man and Strange Tales starring Dr. Strange. He created The Creeper for DC. As the Dojo has explored all year, he was long associated with Charlton Comics, a place where he was left alone to create his comic pages as he chose. He created many characters, but none speak more directly to his Objectivist philosophy than the enigmatic Mr. A. 

(D.1 - 1973 Comic Art Publishers)

One would be hard-pressed to find a more obnoxious hero than Steve Ditko's Mr. A. Created at just about the same time as Charlton's The Question, most folks see Mr. A as Ditko's Comics Code-approved Question unleashed into the wild of Indy publishing where he can really cut loose and express his opinions about justice and merit and who should live and who should die. Let me just say, that if you're a criminal and you're hanging by your fingertips over a deadly precipice don't think the "heroic" Mr. A. is going to give you a hand. That's not his style. If your misdeeds brought you to this dangerous point, then you will just have to solve it on your own...or die. 

How do I know this? Well, that's exactly the dilemma Mr. A. was confronted with in his debut adventure in the pages of Wally Wood's Witzend first issue. A juvenile delinquent named "Angel" is tearing it up with all sorts of ill-mannered and criminal behavior resulting ultimately in kidnapping and attempted murder. Mr. A. stops that attempt, but when Angel needs a hand to save his life after their fight, Mr. A. specifically says he would not be doing that. Through his inaction he allows the criminal to fall to his death. Is that justice? Is that heroism? It's sure cold blooded, that's for certain and sounds more like warfare. 

You see the thing is that in Mr. A.'s universe there is no gray...literally and figuratively. In these stark black and white comic book yarns we are presented with crimes and actions which some, in a charitable nature, might deem mistakes rather than crimes. They might consider the perpetrators to be confused by upbringing or environment which send mixed messages about what is right and what is wrong and the limits of civilized behavior in regard to these concepts. Mr. A. is not having any of that. There is "Good" represented by the white half of his business card and there is "Evil" represented by the black portion. There's gray, no blending or smudging, there are only absolutes determined by rigorous adherence to reason. Emotions and the charity they elicit are for weaklings and milksops. 

At first glance this hard-edged support of the good and condemnation of the evil seems worthy and even heroic. But for all the conversation, the question never even much asked in Mr. A.'s adventures is what is "Good" and what is "Evil". It's sort of assumed we all know that. A lot of it has to do with property rights as far as I can tell, with the stuff owned by those who produce being held sacrosanct and protected from the evil moochers and takers. Little suggestion of a deeper understanding of why those have what they have and those who haven't don't. Like the mythological "American Dream" it's suggested that work will inevitably lead to good outcomes and doing otherwise is just inviting disaster. Suggestion that society might stack the deck is not really confronted or is just dismissed. Like the amateur social engineers who have taken a tiny bit if Any Rand's philosophy to justify unlimited avarice, in Mr. A. the distinctions are just assumed to be obvious, detectible with only a little bit of "common sense" as is all too often evoked. 

Mr. A. lives in an Old Testament universe in which an eye for an eye is the bedrock premise of justice. I suspect that Mr. A would find Jesus Christ's attitudes about poverty and charity and mercy just mewling nonsense having little to do with the rockem' sockem' real world we all live in. Mr. A never smiles, in fact he's incapable of smiling as his face is literally a solid mask evoking classical Caucasian handsomeness. He looks through the eyeholes of his perfect mug onto a landscape less perfected and in sore need of transformation. He's all too ready to pitch in. 

Mr. A. is actually hard-hitting investigative reporter Rex Graine, but unlike his Charlton counterpart Vic Sage, there's no suggestive of fancy gimmicks to change identities. Graine goes to his closet and puts on the stark white gear that announces Mr. A is back in town. His face actually a helmet of sorts to hide his human identity during these times when mere humanity will not do the job. He doesn't have superpowers, merely a dominating will and a creator who sees to it that his unblinking philosophy will win the day each and every time. There's no gray in Mr. A.'s universe and there's no doubt nor growth. He is not a realistic human, but rather he is a concept given human form. Reading Mr. A.'s adventures becomes increasingly difficult over the years as the prose dominates the story, slowing any hint of suspense or narrative momentum. It's rather like forcing everyone t read all the plaques as they journey through the museum. It's enlightening perhaps, but it takes a long time and can wear you out. 

(D. 2 - 1973 Bruce Hershenson)

(D. 3 - 1975 Bruce Hershenson)

(D. 4 - 1975 Bruce Hershenson)

These four independent / underground comics have been in my collection for decades. It was fun to dig them out and give them another go, despite Ditko's relentless philosophy. 

This volume from SD Publications gathers many of the Mr. A comic stories as well as the Avenging World material. Sadly, not all the Mr. A material is in one place. 

Tomorrow, we take up The Question.

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Ditkomania Month!

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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Ditko At Charlton - 1975!

Ghostly Tales - Ditko at Charlton: 1975 gives us more Ditko stories, but his long partnership with Joe Gill gets interrupted many times as new names offer up scripts for Ditko's pen. This volume gets the page count up again at around two hundred and seventy-five pages, but there are fewer covers. That is the case despite there being more Charlton ghost host books this year. Added to Ghostly Haunts, Ghostly Tales, Haunted, The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves and Ghost Manor would be Beyond the Grave, Creepy Things, Monster Hunters, Scary Tales and Midnight Tales. (The latter had been around, but Ditko hadn't contributed until issue twelve.) 

(This drawing by Tom Sutton of the classic ghost hosts is not in this volume.)

New ghost hosts in addition to Winnie the Witch, Mr. Bones, Dr. Graves, and Mr. Dedd are Dee Munn, Mort Tishin, Baron Weirwulf, Baroness R. H. Von Bludd, as well as Professor Coffin and Arachne. The truth is we see little of the hosts in this volume as the stories have more of a generic flavor, at least the ones by Ditko. In addition to Joe Gill, we are treated to scripts by Joe Molloy, Gary Petras, Michael Pellowski, Britton Bloom, Brock J. Hanke, and Nick Cuti. One cute touch is that Gill signed one of his stories as "Hiram Walker".

(Surprisingly this cover by Ditko is not included in this tome.)

In addition to the ghost stories, we get a two-part Captain Atom story which had been mostly prepared but never published before the CPLGang did so in Charlton Bullseye #1 and #2. This one had been plotted but it was up to Roger Stern to provide a script and John Byrne to provide inks. Also from Charlton Bullseye is an unpublished Gill-Ditko effort called "Moonshot". 

It was in this year that Charlton began to use painted covers quite a lot in place of the classic look. This is most likely why we get so few Ditko gems. Here they are. 

And that wraps up my Halloween special look at SD Publications Famous Comics collections. I would anticipate that we will see at least one more for 1976 and personally I'd love to see one for Gill and Ditko's late 60's work as well. Some of those stories can be found in the two Yoe Books collections The Art of Steve Ditko and The Creativity of Steve Ditko. 

Happy Halloween! 

The Dojo is not done with Ditko yet. Next time we get into the hard stuff. 

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Wayne Howard's Midnight Tales!

Wayne Howard is one of those eccentric talents who tapped into something special. An acolyte of Wally Wood, there's no denying Howard's debt to the work of Wood. He was an assistant to the great man himself for a time. But then he went and took that "Woodesque" approach and carved out his own niche.

At Charlton he found a place he could thrive. His earliest work has a really full-bodied character to it. In later years his work became a bit flatter in its way, losing some of the vitality of the early days. But he never lost the charm that infused his characters. They always had distinct qualities that enlivened them.

Howard found some small success as an inker for the Big Two, but his work is mostly found at Charlton where he even created his own title, the reasonably successful Midnight Tales. For eighteen glorious issues he oversaw a ghostly book like few others. Talents like Joe Staton and Don Newton contributed regularly and along with Howard gave this book its own distinctive flavor. But what set this book apart were the tremendous gags used for the detailed covers. They are one-offs and not necessarily connected to any particular story inside the book.

Here the beautiful niece of Professor Coffin, the lovely Arachne. She was the eye-catching hostess of Midnight Tales alongside her academic uncle Professor Cyrus Coffin, the Midnight Philosopher. This tempting double-spread poster was included in the fifth issue of Wayne Howard's Charlton tour de force. I found it here.

Wayne Howard passed away in 2007, too young. He'd left comics behind and avoided talking about them. But those of us who are his fans will never forget them. Here's what Mark Evanier had to say about this talent. Here's a link to a site where you can read some of those great stories.

 

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