A Tribute to Steve Ditko

We have lost one of the greatest comic book creators with police finding him in his apartment on June 29th.  He was private and his life and work was explored in the documentary by British chat show host and comics fan, Jonathan Ross, with In Search of Steve Ditko.  You can see it on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfxVO0fLHvA. Ditko left the army and enrolled in the Cartoonist and Illustrator School to learn under Jerry Robinson.  His first published work was in Daring Love #1 (1953).  Ditko worked at the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as an inker.  He pencilled for them Black Magic #3 (1953).  Ditko then worked with Charleton Comics co-creating Captain Atom in Space Adventures #33 (1960). This character was brought into the DC universe and was the inspiration for Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen. 

Steve Ditko first worked for Atlas Comics which later became Marvel Comics with Journey into Mystery #33 (1956). The creation of Spider-Man is a bit unclear, Stan Lee said in a 1977 Quest magazine article, “How I Invented Spider-Man”, “When the time came to create a teenaged hero for Marvel Comics, I decided to depict him as a bumbling, real-life teenager who by some miracle had acquired a super power.”  He said of Ditko, “Steve Ditko was as fine a draftsman and graphic continuity artist as one could find.”  It seems like Lee was developing Spider-Man with artist Jack Kirby, in The Steve Ditko Reader (2002) by Greg Theakston, Lee said about the artwork of Kirby’s six pages, “I hated the way he was doing it.  Not that he did it badly - it just wasn’t the character I wanted; it was too heroic.”  Of course Kirby’s artwork was known for being heroic, so Lee was probably looking for a younger artist.  Steve Ditko recalled in an interview with Comic Fan #2 (1965), “Stan Lee thought the name up. I did costume, web gimmick on wrist & spider signal.”  

Spider-Man first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962) before getting his own title starting with The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963) which had Spider-Man surrounded by the Fantastic Four!  Jack Kirby is credited for both covers along with Ditko.  Steve Ditko brought something unique to comics, Spider-Man moved in dynamic poses, his Peter Parker looking like an ordinary teenager with glasses not a super hero.  One of the most stunning pages in comic books was Amazing Spider-Man #33 (1966) which has Spider-Man trapped under tons of iron and just struggling for pages.  He designed many of Spider-Man’s classic villains who have shown up in the films, Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #14 (1964), Doctor Octopus who appeared in issue #3 (1963), Amazing Spider-Man #4 (1963) featured Sandman, then there was the next series of movies with The Lizard in issue #6 (1963) and Electro first appearing in Amazing Spider-Man #9 (1964). The latest Spider-Man featured The Vulture who was in the second issue (1963) and there is the rumored Mysterio who first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #13 (1964).  Still, Ditko left the title with Amazing Spider-Man #38 (1966) apparently over disagreements with Stan Lee.  

One of Ditko’s strangest and well known characters was Doctor Strange introduced in Strange Tales #110 (1963).  It is powerfully imaginative, surreal, and the best of comic books.  His final arc with Doctor Strange was in Strange Tales #130 (1965) to 146 (1966). It was an incredible work dealing with other dimensions and his rival, Baron Mordo.  I saw it in a reprint and was so stunned that I worked on collecting all of the issues.  He left Marvel and went back to Charlton where he created the Silver Age incarnation of the Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, in Captain Atom #83 (1966).  In 1967, he also created The Question in Blue Beetle #1 (1967).  Both characters had analogues in Watchmen with Kord becoming Night Owl and The Question turned into the enigmatic Rorschach.  Watchmen is essentially a dark twist on Ditko characters.  Moore says in the Ditko documentary, “Steve Ditko got some much of his DNA in all of the characters he created…”. At DC Comics, he co-created Hawk and Dove in Showcase #75 (1968) who are going to be featured in the Titans streaming show. He collaborated with Wally Wood pencilling Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon (1969) 

He returned to Marvel and one of the strange titles that I first saw his artwork was Rom Spaceknight where the cyborg character finished his war with alien Dire Wraiths using his Neutralizer.  It was of course based on an action figure produced by Parker Brothers.  I found Ditko’s artwork from that period kinda stiff, but I went back and picked up those issues.  In 1992, Ditko did the artwork for Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special (1992) which was the debut of Squirrel Girl, a character that is set to debut in the New Warriors television show.  Steve Ditko fascinates me not only as a comics creator with a rich and wide range of heroes and villains, but as a creator who felt he had to leave on his own terms. His name was left off of the creator credits in the Spider-Man films, but eventually showed up.  Looking at the movie and television success of his characters, it is amazing to see the interest in what Steve Ditko created, and his artwork that is at the heart of these characters.  Steve Ditko was one of a kind. 

#SteveDitko, #CaptainAtom, #TheQuestion, #HawkandDove