In 1961 I was six. My uncle (mom’s
older brother) owned a family grocery store. In addition to food, he sold
newspapers, magazines, and comicbooks. That’s when I first discovered comics.
Whenever we visited Uncle Frank, I would park myself on the newsstand and read comics
for the entire time we were there. I would—quite literally—read any and all
comics that were on the newsstand. Everything from Marvel & DC to Harvey Comics,
to Archie, to Gold Key, to whatever was there. Then, in August of 1962, I
discovered Amazing Fantasy #15, Spider-Man, and of course, Steve Ditko. For me,
Steve, Stan, and Spidey were the most amazing things I had ever discovered.
For the years that followed, I
became a huge fan of Steve, and his work—on Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Hawk and
Dove, The Creeper, The Question and dozens of other characters, including his
independent characters, like Mr. A, Static, Killjoy, Shade the Changing Man, The
Question, and more. More to the point, and in hindsight, I was actually aware
of Steve long before I discovered Spidey, due to Steve’s extensive work on
multiple monster and mystery comics for Marvel, Charlton, and elsewhere.
I was immediately attracted to Steve’s
artwork which is marked by clean, angular line work, deep urban shadows, and an
unmatched ability to convey psychological tension, vulnerability, and bizarre
surrealism. Some key characteristics of his art are his inking and composition:
His lines were precise with minimal use of white-out, employing feathering for both
texture and solid renditions delivering dramatic contrasts. The exaggerated body
language he employed for his characters giving them a rubbery, dynamic agility
especially noticeable seen in the acrobatic, contorted poses of Spider-Man. He gave
his characters individualized distinct, anxious faces, with no two characters
looking alike. Unlike the idealized pristine, square-jawed all-American heroes
of the time, his faces were far more expressive, nervous, or simply weary capturing
angst and internal burdens of each character.
In titles like Doctor Strange, he
delivered worlds of uncanny absurdist surrealism, pioneering mind-bending, psychedelically
geometric, and organically extradimensional landscapes that felt indisputably
otherworldly. This distinctive style was particularly well-suited for
characters like Doctor Strange, where he created visually striking and
imaginative landscapes that stayed with the reader. His antagonists very often
looked like warped, eccentric urban characters rather than monolithic brutes,
giving them a unique psychological edge in their appearances.
In September of 2025 I was invited
to attend DitkoCon
in Steve’s hometown of Johnstown, PA, and it was a totally cool experience. I
got to meet many of Steve’s nieces and nephews, tour the Ditko museum, and
hob-knob with some very cool comicbook celebs. For that event I took the first
two comicbook articles I ever wrote and combined them into a special magazine
about Spidey. The two articles The Ditko Days (Amazing Heroes
#5, 1981) and Here’s Johnny (FantaCo’s Chronicles #5, 1982).
I combined those two articles with a piece I wrote about Steve Ditko and Robin
Snyder’s Kickstarter #9 from back in 2014. I’ve been invited back to attend
DitkoCon 27 next September.
In 2025 I backed an IndyGoGo
crowdsourcing pitch, and acquired a trio of Ditko comic reprints. What I
came away with were Steve Ditko’s Mr. A. The Lost Adventures, Steve
Ditko’s Static #1, and Steve Ditko’s Fantastic Giants. Now,
as I’m actively looking forward to attending DitkoCon ’27, I figured it was as
good a time as any to review these seminal comics.
Back in 1990, Mort Todd
commissioned Steve to create a new mini-series of his most personal and
controversial hero, Mr. A. However, this new series would be the first time MR.
A would appear in color (by his publisher, Mort Todd). Unfortunately, due to a
number of reasons, the series was shelved. Mr. A: The Lost Adventures
#1 includes three stories; The Best Deal, Exploder, and Mr. A
and the Knifer. These stories are all classic Ditko, brought to life in
full color with Mr. A. dispensing justice in his typical fashion. This first
story deals with crocked businessmen and corrupt politicians in Mr. A.’s city
and how Mr. A. deals with them With swift, harsh finality.
Next up is the Exploder who is
determined to blow up various art pieces unless he gets what he wants. Thankfully,
Mr. A. is around to put an end to his explosive ways. Finally the Knifer has a
father complex, in that he wants to be more successful than his father and is
going around knifing people. That winds up in a cliffhanger that is scheduled
to conclude in issue #2 (not yet available)
With Fantastic Giants, Ditko
explores his monster side. This comic reveals the origin how the behemoth, Konga,
went from a tiny primate to a giant colossus. It also includes three other
bonus stories from the Charlton era, featuring other giant creatures from the
mind of Ditko. Konga is Ditko riffing on the legend of King Kong, by giving us
the tale of a monstrous gorilla. We follow Konga from Africa to the arctic, to
a land populated with dinosaurs and other Kaju even as he is being chased by
humans. This comic has two short back-up stories. Imagination where a young lad
wanders into the woods only to discover that he has become smaller and
everything around him as grown larger. The second story has an explorer
searching for a secret substance that he believes will increase his stature,
only to learn the harsh truth.
Static is an iconic superhero
where Stac Rae acquires superpowers from a special suit that turns him not Static
where he has the power to do amazing things. Soon he gets caught up in an
adventure when a pair of thugs make off with one of the professor’s inventions.
When they push Stac into one of the professor’s devices his suit becomes
supercharged, and Stac chases after the thugs. A second Static has him, the
professor and the professor’s daughter, Fera. As he is forced to don the suit
again to once more keep the Professor’s inventions from being stolen.
In addition to these two Static
adventures, is the first appearance of Steve’s Killjoy character. Killjoy who was
essentially designed as a humorous version of Mr. A. Killjoy is a silent,
satirical superhero who blends slapstick comedy with Ayn Rand's Objectivist
philosophy as he spends his time battling crybaby criminals. There are those
who say that it could be said that the character was one of the inspirational
characters for Deadpool.
These comics and others can be
found on the Ditkoverse website.
Oh, and just for fun, I want to
talk about this very cook Spidey Little Golden Book that I was a recently
gifted with (No, it has nothing to do with Steve Ditko, but it is Spider-Man,
and I’ve been trying to find a place to talk about it for some time now, and
this seemed to be an ideal spot. As with other (more traditional Little Golden Books)
it is a picture book targeted at young readers as a way to introduce them to
The Amazing Spider-Man. It gives a brief background as to how Peter Parker
acquired his powers, as well as a series of encounters as Spidey chases down
several villains from his rogues’ gallery. It is ideal for young readers, and
yes, even I got a kick out of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment