Steve Ditko was one of the first true ‘superhero’ artists I ever saw, and certainly the first whose work I fell in love with. Back in the early 70’s Marvel formed a UK subsidiary which took to printing it’s monthly stories, in groups of characters, in the British, weekly format. The Mighty World of Marvel hit the English newsagents around 1972 and featured the origin stories of ol’ Spidey, The Hulk and the Fantastic Four and, even with it’s shoddy print stock and mono colour I couldn’t help but be entranced by the works of Jack Kirby and my hero Steve Ditko. It was the way Ditko drew the human form in motion, the way he could express movement and fluidity in a static ‘cartoon’ that triggered a life-long passion for comic book art.
The following is an excerpt from Marvel Wiki covering the Marvel years, I just love Roy Thomas’s quote at the end.
Ditko studied at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City under Jerry Robinson and began professionally illustrating comic books in 1953. Much of his early work, beginning in the early 1950s, was for Charlton Comics (for whom he continued to work intermittently until the company’s demise in 1986), producing science fiction, horror and mystery stories, as well as the first Captain Atom stories in 1960-61. Later in the decade, he would also begin drawing for Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursor of Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics
Ditko and writer-editor Stan Lee created Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), and shortly thereafter Doctor Strange, in Strange Tales #110 (July 1963). Ditko also drew many stories of the Hulk, first in the final issue of The Incredible Hulk (#6, March 1963), and then in Tales to Astonish, launching the character’s feature in issue #60 (Oct. 1964) of that split book, and continuing through #67 (May 1965). Ditko designed the Hulk’s primary antagonist, the Leader, in #62 (Dec. 1964).
Often overshadowed by his Amazing Spider-Man work, Ditko’s “Doctor Strange” stories were equally remarkable, showcasing surrealistic mystical landscapes and increasingly head-trippy visuals that helped make the feature a favourite of college students, according to contemporaneous accounts. Eventually, as co-plotter and later sole plotter, in the “Marvel Method”, Ditko would take Strange into ever-more-abstract realms, which yet remained well-grounded thanks to Lee’s reliably humanistic, adventure/soap opera dialog. Ditko’s tenure on “Dr. Strange” culminated in the introduction, in Strange Tales #146 (July 1966), of Ditko’s grand and enduring conception of Eternity, the personification of the universe, depicted as a majestic silhouette whose outlines are filled with the cosmos. It was a ground-breaking creation at a time long before such cosmic conceits were commonplace.
Whichever feature he drew, Ditko’s idiosyncratic, cleanly detailed, instantly recognizable art style, emphasizing mood and anxiety, found great favor with readers. The character of Spider-Man and his troubled personal life meshed well with Ditko’s own style and interests, which Lee eventually acknowledged by giving the artist plotting credits on the latter part of their 38-issue run. But after four years on the title, Ditko left Marvel; he and Lee had not been on speaking terms for some time, though the details remain uncertain. The last straw is often alleged to have been a disagreement as to the secret identity of the Green Goblin, but Ditko himself has stated in print that this was not the case.
Writer and future Marvel editor Roy Thomas said in a 1998 interview that, “I’ll never forget the day I walked into one Marvel office not long after Ditko quit, and here’s John Romita drawing Amazing Spider-Man and Larry Lieber drawing the Spider-Man Annual and Marie Severin drawing ‘Dr. Strange’, and I joked, ‘This is the Steve Ditko Room; it takes three of you to do what Steve Ditko used to do’ “
You can read the full article covering his years at the non-Marvel mag’s HERE
I think there have been many better artists over the years but I truly believe there have been very few as good.
This is the first of many showcase Galleries and it represents less than a millionth of the pool of works Ditko produced over the years. He did some great works under the Charlton and DC banners but for me his best works will always be in the pages of Spider-man and Doctor Strange.
Like all the Showcase galleries this will be updated and added to as material comes to hand and I’m more than happy to post any material that you would care to submit.
Showcase – Steve Ditko Steve Ditko was one of the first true ‘superhero’ artists I ever saw, and certainly the first whose work I fell in love with.
