Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Happy Birthday Steve Ditko!

Happy Birthday Steve Ditko!  He was a very private person 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 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.  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!  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.  Spider-Man No Way Home hits theaters on December 17th.  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).  His final arc with Doctor Strange was in Strange Tales #130 (1965) to 146 (1966).  Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is opening next year in theaters on May 22nd.   Ditko 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.  At DC Comics, Ditko co-created Hawk and Dove in Showcase #75 (1968) who are going to be featured in the The Titans streaming show.  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.  In 1992, Ditko did the artwork for Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special (1992) which was the debut of Squirrel Girl, a character in the animated film, Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors (2018).  Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man, died in 2018, but we still his creations on screen and in comic books!  Happy Birthday Steve Ditko! 


#SteveDitko, #CaptainAtom, #SpiderMan, #DoctorStrange #TheQuestion, #HawkAndDove, #SquirrelGirl 

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