Steve Ditko... 1 1

[trmoore54]

Roy...take a look at the old guy, lower right on the UT 23 cover and this Gruto JIM 67 cover for example...

 

 

 

Ditko had an inherent, and uncanny, understanding of how the colors would play on the comic medium to show and accentuate a light source (a modern day Rembrandt if you will )...ASM 28 for that matter...the yellows and golds literally GLOW off the covers...that's just one aspect...

 

Sure, some call his style quirky or unusual...I just find it absolutely unique and compelling...as a would-be artist (and I firmly believed for years I would become a comic book artist as a kid) myself, I must attest, I copied Ditko far more than I did Kirby (even though they're toss-ups #1 in my book) as individual captions were just packed with emotion and style...I think of R. Crumb a lot in the same realm with Ditko with the attention to detail...some have mentioned his skill with clothing and folds and shadows etc. it's all there man!

 

ucleben mentioned about taking an actual in-hand look at his OA...and they get into this a bit in the book Strange and Stranger...he was an absolute master with both pen and brush when it came to inking...I could be wrong but he may have inked his own work percentage-wise amongst the top artists as much as any other...

 

I can't really compare the newer artists as I basically stopped reading comics after about the mid-to-late 70s...as for new artists that have caught my eye I would put Frank Miller up near the top...and I do marvel at many of them when I get my Heritage catalogues but I just don't know the stories...

 

Wally Wood (though I was not a collector of his) is astounding! I think I realize Neal Adams is solid but again he was not embedded in my life...if I could throw anyone under the bus it would be Don Heck...just hated his work and when he would take over a Kirby series I would practically wretch in protest...

Edited April 29, 2009 by trmoore54

[Duffman_Comics]

Tony

Do you have daring love 1 and fantastic fears 5?

 

Yes, I have both of them. I didn't post either because neither has a Ditko cover, only interior stories. I haven't scanned the cover of Fantastic Fears #5 yet but here's the cover of Daring Love #1.

 

 

that guy's head could be Ditko, no? could he have pencilled the cover? or is the artists known?

 

Guy's head looks like Jack Kamen's work

[TheShadowKnows]

Tony

Do you have daring love 1 and fantastic fears 5?

 

Yes, I have both of them. I didn't post either because neither has a Ditko cover, only interior stories. I haven't scanned the cover of Fantastic Fears #5 yet but here's the cover of Daring Love #1.

 

 

that guy's head could be Ditko, no? could he have pencilled the cover? or is the artists known?

 

Guy's head looks like Jack Kamen's work

This is a gilmour book.Im sure it is just a staff artist.Nobody famous.

[MedicAR]

Tony

Do you have daring love 1 and fantastic fears 5?

 

Yes, I have both of them. I didn't post either because neither has a Ditko cover, only interior stories. I haven't scanned the cover of Fantastic Fears #5 yet but here's the cover of Daring Love #1.

 

 

that guy's head could be Ditko, no? could he have pencilled the cover? or is the artists known?

 

Guy's head looks like Jack Kamen's work

 

I had been trying to place the artist's name, and that's it! Thanks!

[Tony D]

 

 

 

I haven't had a chance to scan all my copies of UNUSUAL TALES yet, so, it was nice to see some one else post them, trmoore54.

 

Were you aware that the Ditko panel on the cover of UNUSUAL TALES #31, is actually a panel from the Ditko story in KONGA #1?

 

[Tony D]

Tony

Do you have daring love 1 and fantastic fears 5?

 

Yes, I have both of them. I didn't post either because neither has a Ditko cover, only interior stories. I haven't scanned the cover of Fantastic Fears #5 yet but here's the cover of Daring Love #1.

 

So Tony what dont you have?You never see that Daring Love 1.I have a rag copy.Yours is the second one I have seen.

 

Here are the comics, which don't have Ditko covers but contain Ditko art. The only Ditko comics I don't have are some Atlas and Marvel pre-hero comics. I've been working on acquiring all of them. Unfortunately, I sold all my Marvel super-hero comics over twenty years ago and I had a complete set of them from 1961 to about 1971. I should have kept the ones with Ditko stories.

 

Captain 3-D #1

 

Strange Fantasy #9

 

Fight Against The Guilty #22

Edited April 29, 2009 by Tony D

[Tony D]

I almost forgot.

 

Black Magic #27

 

Black Magic #28

 

Black Magic #29

[TheShadowKnows]

It is a real pleasure checking out your books.I have a pretty good Ditko collection myself and its nice seeing what im missing.

Dennis

[Tony D]

The first grouping of my Unusual Tales issues with Ditko covers.

 

Unusual Tales #6

 

Unusual Tales #7

 

Unusual Tales #8

 

Unusual Tales #9

 

Unusual Tales #10

 

Unusual Tales #15

[Tony D]

I've posted this before on another thread but I think it belongs here also. From

 

Blazing Western #1, January of 1954

 

here is Ditko's first western story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MedicAR]

A big thanks to everyone for posting the covers and stories here! I've got a whole new want list now!

 

 

[TheShadowKnows]

A big thanks to everyone for posting the covers and stories here! I've got a whole new want list now!

 

Is that a good thing....

[MedicAR]

Honestly......no. I may as well just put everything in the Overstreet on my want list.

[AtlasFan]

...if I could throw anyone under the bus it would be Don Heck...just hated his work and when he would take over a Kirby series I would practically wretch in protest...

 

I must interject here. Don Heck was one of the most prominent Atlas artists of the 50s and early 60s. He had a distinct style and did fantastic work on fantasy, westerns and war titles..not to mention the early adventures of Iron Man.

 

His work on the pre-hero fantasy titles is just as good, IMO, as the stuff Kirby and Ditko were doing.

 

I understand your statement. At the dawn of the Marvel age, Heck was asked to ape Kirby's style and, I always found it lacking -- especially some of his later Avengers work.

 

Not to de-rail this thread...but is one of the most dynamic Atlas covers, done by the master:

 

A classic....a shame Don never did more pre-hero covers!

 

 

 

[Duffman_Comics]

I've posted this before on another thread but I think it belongs here also. From

 

Blazing Western #1, January of 1954

 

 

here is Ditko's first western story

 

 

Thanks for posting the story - I do love a western yarn.

 

Why, I didn't realise prominent old time actor Ed Begley (father of, surprisingly, Ed Begley Jr), was so involved in funny books in the fifties. GCD doesn't give a writer credit of the story, but I'll bet he saw a few movies back in the day.

 

I also notice that every time the "Utah Kid" is mentioned, the font for the word "Utah" is wildly different to any of the other lettering.I reckon it was a last minute editorial decision to change the name (maybe "Texas Kid" was already taken?) and this resulted in a hamfisted white-out and re-letter job to effect the change.

 

Still a nice story. Ditko's depiction of the dead steer at the waterhole is particularly memorable

[TheWatcher]

I have a low grade copy of Black Magic 27, so I was able to scan the story a while back:

 

 

[Unca Ben]

"I must interject here. Don Heck was one of the most prominent Atlas artists of the 50s and early 60s. He had a distinct style and did fantastic work on fantasy, westerns and war titles..not to mention the early adventures of Iron Man.

 

His work on the pre-hero fantasy titles is just as good, IMO, as the stuff Kirby and Ditko were doing."

 

Count me in as a Don Heck admirer too. Some great stuff.

[Tony D]

Here is the complete four page story from 2-GUN WESTERN #4 of which I previously posted only the splash page

 

 

 

 

[rodan57]

"I must interject here. Don Heck was one of the most prominent Atlas artists of the 50s and early 60s. He had a distinct style and did fantastic work on fantasy, westerns and war titles..not to mention the early adventures of Iron Man.

 

His work on the pre-hero fantasy titles is just as good, IMO, as the stuff Kirby and Ditko were doing."

 

Count me in as a Don Heck admirer too. Some great stuff.

 

I am also a lover of Heck's early work especially because he was inking his own work.

 

I have a suspicion that Heck was like Ditko in that he provided a lot of the magic in his work at the inking stage.

 

Blake Bell's site has some interesting comparisons between Ditko's pencils and inked work. The two examples provided below are not reproduced in high quality so one must look closely (or go to the original comic book) to see the true beauty in his inked line.

 

 

Worth a look: Blake Bell's Ditko Looked Up

[Unca Ben]

"I must interject here. Don Heck was one of the most prominent Atlas artists of the 50s and early 60s. He had a distinct style and did fantastic work on fantasy, westerns and war titles..not to mention the early adventures of Iron Man.

 

His work on the pre-hero fantasy titles is just as good, IMO, as the stuff Kirby and Ditko were doing."

 

Count me in as a Don Heck admirer too. Some great stuff.

 

I am also a lover of Heck's early work especially because he was inking his own work.

 

I have a suspicion that Heck was like Ditko in that he provided a lot of the magic in his work at the inking stage.

 

Blake Bell's site has some interesting comparisons between Ditko's pencils and inked work. The two examples provided below are not reproduced in high quality so one must look closely (or go to the original comic book) to see the true beauty in his inked line.

 

 

Worth a look: Blake Bell's Ditko Looked Up

OH YEAH!!! Thanks Rodan57!!! It's been a while since I visited that site, it was worth looking again!