The birth of Spidey

[Fedoraman]

Is Stan Lee a glory hogging, scene stealer?

 

Or is Steve Ditko a reclusive nut?

 

 

 

I personally believe that Stan filled in the void left by Steve. We crave the interactivity that Stan provides.

 

I know Steve believes in his objectivism to the core but why choose this medium to express it knowing the fan base? Why not write Atlas Shrugged 2? Or at least a graphic novel?

 

I have read his later work and to be honest, he sounds like a 13 year old girl and moaning about credit when he was no where to be found when the questions were asked by his own choice. It seems to me Steve, that if you want to be the "bell of the ball" you have to give back to your fan base and actually respond to these questions instead of being a spaz who whines uncontrollably in fan-published works about credit but refuses the opportunity to give his side when presented with the opportunity (In Search of Steve Ditko). Either embrace it like Stan, or STFU.

 

I personally wish that Steve and Stan would collaborate for 40 or so more issues of ASM in a what if capacity - just to see where the mythos would have gone afer #38 - but personalites being what they are we were lucky to get 39 issues (including AF #15) from these two. My respect for Kirby grows more and more everytime I read yet another one of Ditko's whine-fest magazines published lately...

 

 

Sue or let it go Ditko...

[Mr 9.8]

Ditko is still alive?

[rodan57]

Sue or let it go Ditko...

 

I'm pretty certain that these are not his only two choices. Whether or not he irritates anyone by his actions probably doesn't bother him in terms of Objectivism or any other philosophy.

 

I just wish I had the opportunity to personally thank him for 41 brilliant issues of Spider-Man, 35 unmatched tales of Dr. Strange, the inking job on FF #13, and the host of short truly strange tales that graced the pages of AAF, TTA, TOS, JIM, ST, World of Fantasy and Strange Worlds.

[oakman29]

Sue or let it go Ditko...

 

I'm pretty certain that these are not his only two choices. Whether or not he irritates anyone by his actions probably doesn't bother him in terms of Objectivism or any other philosophy.

 

I just wish I had the opportunity to personally thank him for 41 brilliant issues of Spider-Man, 35 unmatched tales of Dr. Strange, the inking job on FF #13, and the host of short truly strange tales that graced the pages of AAF, TTA, TOS, JIM, ST, World of Fantasy and Strange Worlds.

 

Who cares what Stan Lee and Ditko are fighting about,look at the many issues they graced us with.I thank both of them for making my chidhood just a bit more imaginative.

[Marvelfangirl]

Ditko is still alive?

I believe he's still alive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but I could be wrong

[rodan57]

Steve Ditko: Wikipedia (thumbs u

[nmtg9]

Sue or let it go Ditko...

 

I'm pretty certain that these are not his only two choices. Whether or not he irritates anyone by his actions probably doesn't bother him in terms of Objectivism or any other philosophy.

 

I just wish I had the opportunity to personally thank him for 41 brilliant issues of Spider-Man, 35 unmatched tales of Dr. Strange, the inking job on FF #13, and the host of short truly strange tales that graced the pages of AAF, TTA, TOS, JIM, ST, World of Fantasy and Strange Worlds.

 

Who cares what Stan Lee and Ditko are fighting about,look at the many issues they graced us with.I thank both of them for making my chidhood just a bit more imaginative.

 

What he said

 

It's up to Steve how he goes about his business nowadays. He is in his 80's now and I am sure he doesn't want to sue - it's not about that for him.

[BradleyX2]

I just wish I had the opportunity to personally thank him for 41 brilliant issues of Spider-Man, 35 unmatched tales of Dr. Strange, the inking job on FF #13, and the host of short truly strange tales that graced the pages of AAF, TTA, TOS, JIM, ST, World of Fantasy and Strange Worlds.

 

 

Why do you hate Incredible Hulk #6?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MedicAR]

Yes, Steve Ditko is still alive.

 

No, he is not a recluse.

[ivegotneatstuff]

hmmm interesting.. that wikipedia link has this on the ditko page

'

After Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee obtained permission from publisher Martin Goodman to create a new "ordinary teen" superhero named "Spider-Man",[12] Lee originally approached his leading artist, Jack Kirby. Kirby told Lee about his own 1950s character conception, variously called the Silver Spider and Spiderman, in which an orphaned boy finds a magic ring that gives him superpowers. Comics historian Greg Theakston says Lee and Kirby "immediately sat down for a story conference" and Lee afterward directed Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages. "A day or two later", Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, and, as Lee recalled, "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".[13]

 

Do those 6 Kirby pages exist?? I would LOVE to see that... that must be worth a pretty penny if they weren't destroyed

 

 

 

[Fedoraman]

I found this interesting review about the book STRANGE AND STRANGER: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell. Give it a read:

From Spider-Man to Ayn Rand

By DOUGLAS WOLK

Published: August 15, 2008

When an anonymous donor recently gave the Library of Congress Steve Ditko’s original artwork from the 1962 comic book “Amazing Fantasy #15,” the issue in which he created Spider-Man with the writer Stan Lee, barely anyone took notice. One of American comics’ great visual stylists, Ditko also had a hand in the development of both Iron Man and the Hulk, but his characters’ subsequent mass-media careers have made him neither rich nor particularly famous. He drew his greatest work for a flat page rate; Lee, his collaborator, was the grinning public face of Marvel Comics, while Ditko has refused all interviews and public appearances for decades. The comics scholar Blake Bell’s overview of Ditko’s career, illustrated on nearly every page, is anecdotal and critical rather than strictly biographical. Bell didn’t have much of a choice: the endnotes reveal that he corresponded with Ditko for several years, but that in 2003 the cartoonist decided that both author and publisher were “anti-¬Ditko” and repudiated them.

 

Ditko drew his first comics as a professional in 1953, developing his haunted, alienated imagery in Z-grade horror and crime series. He quickly formed a longstanding affiliation with Charlton Comics, a Connecticut operation that published funnybooks to keep its presses running, paid the worst rates in the business and let artists draw more or less whatever they pleased.

 

By the early ’60s, Ditko was doing his best work for Lee at Marvel, and the 40-odd Spider-Man stories he illustrated (and often plotted), built around images of frail, twisted bodies pirouetting through space, looked like no other comics before them. Neither did his magnificent tales of the “master of the mystic arts” Dr. Strange, avant-garde in every way except their unfailing narrative clarity — with a few squiggles, Ditko could evoke an alien dimension as surely as a Manhattan water tower.

 

He split with Lee and Marvel in 1966. By then, he’d fallen under the spell of Ayn Rand and Objectivism, and started producing an endless string of ham-fisted comics about how A is A and there is no gray area between good and evil and so on. “The Hawk and the Dove,” for instance, concerns two superhero brothers who … oh, you’ve already figured it out. Ditko could still devise brilliantly disturbing visuals — the Question, one of his many Objectivist mouthpieces, is a man in a jacket, tie and hat, with a blank expanse of flesh for a face — and his drawing style kept evolving, even as his stories tediously parroted “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead” at the expense of character, plot and ultimately bearability. By the ’70s he was regarded as a slightly old-fashioned oddball; by the ’80s he was a commercial has-been, picking up wretched work-for-hire gigs. Bell suggests that, following the example of Rand’s John Galt, Ditko hacked out money¬making work, saving his care for the crabbed Objectivist screeds he published with tiny presses. And boy, could Ditko hack: seeing samples of his Transformers coloring book and his Big Boy comic is like hearing Orson Welles sell frozen peas.

 

The portrait that emerges here is of an artist whose principles have ossified into bitter perversity. Bell relates stories of Ditko’s refusing to draw vampires because Objectivism rejects the super¬natural; quitting a series because of a dispute over coloring production; and using a priceless old page of his original artwork as a cutting board. Ditko isn’t easy to love. As vivid as his work is, it’s never been pretty, and he’s never returned to his most famous creations for a victory lap or courted attention beyond acknowledgment of his work. The raw, nightmarish visions of his art are all he offers, and all he’s ever needed to offer.

 

I think I have to read this book.

 

Sad that he threw away a successful career and continues to snub the very fanbase that adores his work in exchange for a marginalizing ideals that no longer make sense in today's world. I wish he would change.

[MedicAR]

He doesn't really snub his fans, in fact, he's actually quite friendly. He simply doesn't attend conventions, sign autographs or accept commissions. He prefers to be left alone, not just by fans, but by most people in general. He seems to like to communicate by letter writing.

 

You could certainly argue that he threw away a successful career, but how certain are you? His artistic style has not really changed since the early 70's, and most fans today think it's clunky and outdated.

 

His ideals and personal philosophy are very different from the majority of beliefs that people hold today. Part of that philosophy is a lack of "hero worship" which is why he avoids his fans. From his point of view, he created his artwork and whether you love or hate it makes no difference to him. He did his part and now he is done with that art and moved on to something different. While he has not let go of the Spider-Man issue, he also refused a small fortune offered when the first movie came out. I think he simply wants the credit. He was still unhappy when Stan Lee wrote a letter with a phrase to the effect of "...I consider Steve Ditko to be co-creator of Spider-Man..." because of the words "I consider" being there, he took it to mean that it was Stan's opinion rather than a solid fact.

 

All of this being said, I would love to see him change his opinions and attitudes about his fans. I don't think he realizes how much love there is for him to this day...

[Jamie Coville]

Yes I think everybody should read Blake Bell's book about Steve Ditko, it's a really great book. Not only is there a lot of history about Ditko, but an examination of his work over the years that you don't see in other history books. Plus there is a LOT of great Ditko art to admire, including one complete small story.

 

I would also love to see the 6 pages that Kirby drew. I think they would better show what Kirby did, or didn't, contribute to the Spider-Man world. Assuming he didn't come up with the name (which is highly debatable) or look, there's the issue of Peter Parker's name and look. Or other characters like Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

 

 

[ivegotneatstuff]

Didn't Aunt May and Uncle Ben make a cameo in some other comic prior to Spider-Man/Amazing Fantasy? It was a cameo and they were addressed as "Aunt May" and Ben or something...what comic was that?? and who drew it? This is gonna drive me nuts!

 

 

[ivegotneatstuff]

I found it! It's Strange Tales #97 featured here... Isn't that pre Amazing Fantasty 15? Regardless, its obviously Ditko that drew them

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=50&Number=3434890&Searchpage=1&Main=170410&Words=%26quot%3Baunt+may%26quot%3B+ivegotneatstuff&topic=0&Search=true#Post3434890