Fun Times With Killjoy!

It's just barely possible the finest and most effective comic blending philosophy and good storytelling in Steve Ditko's canon might be his deliriously entertaining Killjoy. Killjoy (we never know him in any other identity) is a raucous red hero who descends into a wild and action-filled universe to capture criminals, right wrongs and makes sure that everyone knows why.
 

He first appeared to the world in the pages of Charlton's E-Man #2, the obligatory back-up feature turned over to Steve Ditko without apparently much if any editorial direction. He manufactures a slapstick demon of right who leaps and bounds into the comic book pages, using their very structure to hide himself from his enemies. 

He got a second appearance in the rear of E-Man #4 and then it was off to the hinterlands of Steve Ditko's vaunted imagination. He reminds me very much of Deadpool, a hero who seems aware of his four-color status and plays on that to the delight of the readers and himself. 

The two Killjoy adventures from Charlton are reprinted in the very first Ditko Package. 

And a third Killjoy avdventure shows up in the All-New 176-Page Package. It's twice the length of the original outings and sadly nowhere nearly as entertaining. The compression of the back-up space brought out the best in Killjoy it seems. 

If there are other Killjoy stories out there, I'd love to know about them. Mr. A was a hero who felt the need to go on at length about why this or that needed to happen and then he'd take action, or perhaps in some cases no action. Killjoy does it all silently at hyper speed and it's much more fun to watch and still the points are made. To read Killjoy's two Charlton outings check out this very groovy link. 

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Odd Man Out There!

There was a moment in time when DC Comics was my "favorite" comic book publisher, whatever that means. I bought my Marvels with deliberation and I chased Charlton with ardor, but in an era when cover price changes were coming almost on a monthly basis, it seemed to me only DC was attempting to offer up variations in its product which attempted to add value to their offerings. Then just as quickly as the thought occurred to me what we now call the "DC Implosion" struck and it took much of that added value with it. DC had offered up a lot of its lesser known heroes in nifty back-up series and in the aborted effort to bring Steve Ditko's The Creeper back to the newsstands the extra was a little something called "The Odd Man".  (You can see him tucked neatly in the center of the ironic ad by artist Joe Staton for "The DC Explosion". )

The one and only Odd Man story appeared first in the second issue of Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, the infamous in-house publication of just thirty-five issues produced to secure copyrights on a large batch of his unpublished material. Much of this "unpublished" stuff has now over the decades been publishedd in various collections and so it is with Odd Man which finally saw the light of day in its original albeit black and white form in the Beware the Creeper reprint tome. An altered version had been published back in the day in the pages of Detective Comics #487, so that was where I'd first encountered him. 

He's just as the name implies, an "odd" man, a detective who breaks one of the most wildly colored costumes to fight crime yet seen. He uses weird props like extending coat tails with lead weights to knock out surprised foes and gloves that pop off with mist or some such. In civilian life he's Clay Stoner (I cannot imagine Ditko ,meant to imply what that does indeed imply but maybe) who is a gumshoe in River City when he's not in his brightly-colored togs for fighting crime otherwise. He's like a clown of crimefighting, a reverse Joker so to speak. 

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A Sweeter Gwen For Our Times!

Just to clarify, this type of fetish artwork is not necessarily my cup of tea. But that said I'm not going to deny that Eric Stanton and his partner Steve Ditko don't create some evocative and erotic images in Sweeter Gwen -- Captive of Bondage Manor, a slapstick yarn about an innocent but beautiful naif assaulted by a cadre of villains who want a map she's unaware that she even has. (I happens to be in a place she might not see it all the time.) The point of these stories is to get lovely buxom women into situations of bondage as swiftly and as handsomely rendered as possible. Ideally they will be in some state of undress, and that's key for the very specific audience for these "serials". It's not nudity that makes these types of fetish comics effective, but the promise of potential nudity stopping short with much evocative lace and leather. I was a bit gobsmacked by the prices paid for these pages, which were delivered a few pages at a time for five bucks or so a pop. (That's 60's money by the way.)

Sweeter Gwen -- Captive of Bondage Manor is an homage to John Willie, a groundbreaking fetish artist who was one of Stanton's artistic heroes. Willie had created a character in his The Adventures of Sweet Gwen who was effectively identical to the lovely damsel in distress we find in this comic. 

While gazing upon lovely dames in pretty much any state of dress or undress is not unpleasant to me, I confess little interest in this form of kinky presentation, and at the risk of protesting too much I think like many this has perhaps caused me to overlook something quite obvious. Steve Ditko was a fetish artist. He was not as I had previously thought a colleague who helped touch up an image here and there for his studio mate who was a fetish artist, but instead he was part of an artistic team which intentionally created narratives within the confines of the fetish field. It's a bit of a surprise to find this out about a guy who despite his reclusive nature has had his work work feverishly examined for decades now. 

Looking at Sweeter Gwen it's obvious that Ditko has inked Stanton's lush pencils, bringing a focus and edge to the work not apparent in Stanton's work alone. The team of Stanton and Ditko is a pretty darn good and I can only have hoped to have seen them work together in the traditional comic arena in which I spend most of my time (or maybe I did and didn't know it). Ditko zealously claimed that his work spoke for him and in the instance of Sweeter Gwen - Captive of Bondage Manor it does so in spades. To bad he was ashamed of it apparently. 

I wonder if the name "Gwen" ever came up in other comics Ditko worked on?

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Eric Stanton And The Bizarre Underground!

Steve Ditko is a fascinating figure in comic book lore. His reputation as a recluse and his famous breaks from traditional ways of pursuing the craft, of insisting of doing it his way are some of the things which make always fertile ground to explore. No less a detail of that territory is his long professional  relationship with sex fetish artist Eric Stanton. The book Eric Stanton and the History of the Bizarre Underground does a masterful and highly entertaining job of covering the career of Stanton as well as showcasing the publishers he worked for, men who would often as not end up in jail for selling their materials through the U.S. mail. 

For much of the time that Eric Stanton produced fetish artwork he shared a studio with Steve Ditko and despite Ditko's efforts over time to play down his role in that work, this book reveals that he was much more involved than has been generally acknowledged. And likewise it's just possible that Stanton gave Ditko a hand with is work, especially a little gem title Spider-Man. 

Stanton's real name was Ernie Stanzoni and he would change his name quite a bit during his career and life. He started in art alongside Ditko in classes taught by Jerry Robinson. After working with the offbeat artist Boody Rogers on books like Babe, he discovered that narrative comics weren't his primary interest. He was an artist who found illustration more up his alley and he used those skills working for folks like Irving Klaw. Klaw was one of those publishers who specialized in photography mostly, selling images of partially dressed dames to interested men across the country. Thanks to the fame of Bettie Page we remember those days with some nostalgic glow for a simpler time when women took off almost all their clothes for the delight of men. Other publishers such as Edward Mishkin and Stanley Malkin were eager to publish Stanton's work when Klaw was unable to do so.  It was of course much more grim than that and all you have to do is read up about Page herself to know that. 

In the 50's and 60's Stanton moved from underground publisher to publisher as one fell into legal trouble or fell out of cash. His artwork always seemed to be a draw for the customers aside from the photos. Other artists like Gene Bilibrew (Eneg) were also active in these markets. The call was for artwork which was not explicitly sexual as that was instantly tagged by the government, but for odd quasi-fashion fetish material that seemingly confused the issue of sexual arousal for censors. Bondage and Sado-Masochism were a large part of the kind of artwork that Stanton delivered though in a decidedly soft-core mode. The extent to which he was a part of this scene or just a documentarian of sorts is unclear though there's little said to suggest the former. In the 70's when what we truly understand as pornography became more widespread Stanton himself began to produce more provocative material. Also he began to produce Stantoons, a regular collection of his images. 

Throughout is career Stanton was eager to keep a low profile, not to call attention to his art or himself for the sake of his children. That more than anything seems to be the reason that he didn't really press issues like his hand in the creation of Spider-Man, contributing in all probability details such as the web-shooters and the tender Aunt May (Stanton seems to have actually had an Aunt May). It's also been noted that Dr. Strange often featured elements of sado-masochism bondage in the nature of the traps that Doc and Clea and others encountered. The fact is that Ditko and Stanton worked together on each other's gigs and while that's something Ditko was reluctant to claim, if in fact to deny, it is manifestly evident from some of the work produced, especially a highly successful comic narrative called Sweeter Gwen. More on that tomorrow. 

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Beware The Creeper Comes All Over!

Above was the first glimpse of Steve Ditko's new creation for his new employer DC Comics. The Creeper offered a strange silhouette for an eager fan. I remember thinking he must look something like a lion given what appears to be a robust mane. He does have that classic Ditko oddball elegance of movement. 

It turns out the first Creeper story I ever read was The Brave and the Bold #80 yarn title "And Hellgrammite is His Name!', a potent tale of weird crime by Bob Haney and Neal Adams, an artist just beginning to put his stamp on the "Darknight Detective". This is a story in which the Creeper comes to Gotham City to warn one and all about the danger of a new villain, the Hellgrammite, some bizarre blend of human being and insect. No one knows him save for his reputation as a likely criminal and so his partnership with Batman for this one issue is a tenuous one at best, but they deliver. And it's a cracking good story. 

Oddly the next Creeper story I got hold of was the Justice League of America issue by Denny O'Neil and Dick Dillin with Sid Greene inks in which a wannabe hero dubbed "Mind-Grabber Kid" is jealous of the League and makes  a compact with some aliens to defeat them, convincing said aliens that the JLA are actually tyrants. The Creeper is in them mix but it's a busy issue and despite Batman's recommendation he's still seen with skepticism by the other heroes. Sadly the copy I read and had for many years was coverless and I didn't get to enjoy this awesome Neal Adams cover for a long while. 

I did not get hold of this issue of Detective Comics in which The Creeper confronts Batman again, this time seemingly a villain and an especially crazed murderous one at that. It appears the Creeper's powers have spun out of control and he's being used by a scientist with a peculiar tie to his past, but who does not have Jack Ryder's interests at heart at all. The Creeper does survive this encounter and it seems almost at the end of his 1971 story dedicated to Steve Ditko that the Creeper's career might be over. Denny O'Neil seemed to want to give him a proper send off. The art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano is especially good, and in black and white as I have it in a Showcase volume really shines. 

But it's not the end as some years later the Creeper comes back in Detective Comics and gives Batman both a hand and fits as he's wont to do. In these issues he and the Bat deal with The League of Assassins and its leader Ra's Al Ghul. 

His clash with the Joker in that infamous villainous clown's own series is wonderful issue drawn by Ernie Chan and written by O'Neil. The two cackling creations are wonderful together and despite this being Joker's house the Creeper gets the advantage. 

Apparently the story written again by O'Neil and this time drawn by Ric Estrada and Bill Draut which appears Super-Team Family #2 was originally intended for another issue of 1st Issue Special. Maybe it's a follow up or maybe it was replaced when a Ditko story was available. 

One of the nifty things about DC's later Bronze era output was their attempts to play with format and offer the reader more value for their dimes. DC did a much better job of that than Marvel, but alas they were not rewarded with additional sales, just the opposite. Those additional pages created space for back-up stripos and Creeper had one for three issues of Adventure Comics written by Mike Barr and drawn by Joe Staton. 

Given the Creeper's muddled reputation as a hero or a villain he's a perfect choice to play a role in The Secret Society of Super-Villains. He is tapped by the team in the ninth issue for possible membership and sees a chance to go in as a mole to break up their plans. His scheme only lasts a few issues.  

Joe Staton is the artist again for a masterpiece of the Bronze Age, the one hundredth issue of Showcase which tried its best to feature all the varied characters which had appeared during its healthy run of debuts and such. It's wild adventure which I've always regarded as a prototype for the Crisis on Infinite Earths which ended the Bronze Age some years later. It's a fun fun book and the Creeper is a key character. 

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Aside from that it was left to The Brave and the Bold to keep the Creeper's light lit. Writers Bob Haney and Alan Brennart respectively and Jim Aparo do their best in a couple of issues several years apart. 

As the Bronze Age of comics comes skidding to a halt and a new era blooms, the Creeper is again tagged for a back up feature, this time in the pages of The Flash. It's a trio of tales written by Carl Gafford and drawn wonderfully by Dave Gibbons. 

When the Creeper returns it will be into a brand new refurbished DC Universe, all neatly reshaped and polished for a new era. Alas Steve Ditko will never return to draw any more. 

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Beware The Creeper Comes Back!

In 1975 the mavens at DC Comics decided to give The Creeper another try-out on the newsstands and to that end the seventh issue of 1st Issue Special was pressed into service. This featured a story drawn by the Creeper's creator Steve Ditko. One curious detail about the cover above is the tiny detail of the dog and fire hydrant. (You can almost see them.) This cover was designed by Carmine Infantino and handed to Ditko to finish and to show his displeasure with such an arrangement he has that pup show its disrepect to that hydrant in the natural and time proven fashion. 

In this singular issue Creeper finds himself battling the Human Firefly, a hood just busted out of prison and aching to remake his reputation. The Firefly was a vintage Batman villain first and last seen in Detective Comics #184 from 1952, about the time Ditko was first breaking into comics. The script for the story was by Michael Fleisher, and Mike Royer inked Dikto's pencils. But Ditko wasn't done with his creation, he had more Creeper stories to tell. 

The try-out sparked a revival in the back pages of World's Finest beginning with issue #249. 

The Creeper was rarely featured on the covers, though his smiling yellow mug and lustrous green motop was nestled alongside the logo with the other back-up features face in this densely packed dollar comic. All the stories were written and drawn by his creator Ditko. 

The stories in these issues have a much broader comic feel than the original series had shown nearly a decade before. The Creeper is working for Cosmic Broadcasting as part of a security team. 

Joining his cast are his boss Sam Hagen along with spry blonde dame named Fran Daye and a galoot named Dump. One odd detail is that a fly always seems to be hovering around Dump's head. 

The Creeper comes up against new baddies like The Disruptor and a lug called simply the Monster. He also has to deal with the return of Angel Devlin who was instrumental in the origin of The Creeper in his very first story. 

Apparently there was some thought to busting the Creeper out into his own comic again, but the infamous DC Implosion put the skids to that idea. The issue of Showcase #107 would have allowed The Creeper to return to his place of birth but it was only seen in the Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 for many years. Creeper does rate an appearance on both of the CCC covers though. 

This is a wild wild issue with two double-page splashes and a cameo by Ditko's Odd Man. (The Odd Man was touted to have a back-up feature, but the implosion ended that aspiration.) 

And that's a wrap on The Creeper, at least as produced by his maker Steve Ditko. The Creeper did prove somewhat popular and did get around for some time by dint of other talents. That's tomorrow's subject. 

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Beware The Creeper Comes!

Beware The Creeper the title says and it's no small warning. The Creeper was one of Steve Ditko's remarkable and memorable additions to the DC universe when along with other Charlton talents such as Dick Giordano, Pat Boyette, Sergius O'Shaugnessy, Steve Skeates, and Jim Aparo landed on those halcyon "House of Krypton" shores. The cover above is my favorite image of the Creeper, his posture all bent and the water oozing and dripping, a deadly "Menace" looming behind him. Ditko did his heroes proud with this one especially Will Eisner. 

But before that debut issue, we were first told to Beware the Creeper in Showcase #73. In this issue WHAM tv reporter Jack Ryder runs afoul of a bunch of thugs led by Angel Devlin and in the course of his adventures gathers the odd bits of his bizarre costume and meets Professor Yatz who is the man who uses his new inventions to give the Creeper his new powers. A fluid is injected into the wounded Ryder to save his life and a device is implanted beneath his skin which allows him to alter his appearance with the press of a button. 

I'd seen the Creeper in other comics drawn by Neal Adams and Dick Dillin, but the first time I was able to read this debut story plotted and drawn by Ditko and written by Don Segall was when it was reprinted in on of those juicy giant 100-Page Detective Comics issues which made DC so alluring at the time. 

It would many a few decades before I got my mitts on the Showcase issue itself as well as the original Beware the Creeper run. 

The Creeper's main enemy in most of the issues of the original series was Proteus. Proteus was a man who could be anyone, could alter his features and sneak up behind you at a moment's notice. Proteus seems to have been killed after their first encounter but that doesn't prove to be the case and in stories written by Sergius O'Shaugnessy (Denny O'Neil).

"The Isle of Fear" finds the Creeper on a long-lost island remarkably close on which an old society has been put upon on modern criminals eager for a safe haven from the law. 

As Creeper's fight against Proteus continues he gets new cast members such Rip Cord who join regulars his boss Bill Brane and self-absorbed weathergirl Vera Sweet, who sometimes afflicts Jack and at other times gives him a hand in his investigations. 

It's notable that Denny O'Neil seems to take on more of the plotting and scripting control as he sheds his "Sergius O'Shaugnessy" identity. Inkers join up such as Mike Peppe and give Ditko's pencils a different and frankly less effect look. For the most part, this era of Ditko always looks better when he inks himself.

In the sixth and final issue of the original run under this handsome Gil Kane cover we have only a part of a Ditko issue with journeyman Jack Sparling finishing up this final Beware the Creeper tale, at least for the time being. I an only imagine that Ditko has once again sought greener pastures as he leaves Hawk and Dove too, in the capable hands of Gil Kane it's to be noted. 

But Steve Ditko will return to DC and to the Creeper, but more than a few years will pass. More on that tomorrow. 

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