I got a reply / letter from Steve Ditko! 0

[The-Collector]

Anyway it is an awesome letter. I am very jealous.

 

You're jealous of a grumpy letter?

 

Yeah.

[Captain Canuck]

Here are 2 examples of verified Steve Ditko signatures:

 

From the 60's:

 

From 92:

 

You can see how parts of his signature have changed over time.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Captain Canuck

[tonystarkben-migration]

That's awesome

[FullHulkSmash]

I see your point, but you can simply type in his name into google and his new york office comes up. So it's not really a secret....

 

Yes, but some posters here would not have an opportunity to get up on their high horse.

[Sqeggs]

What I don't get about these letters being written and signed by Ditko's assistant -- if that's what people are arguing -- is why handwrite the letters? Wouldn't it make more sense and be easier to have a form letter printed up that Ditko could sign (or have an assistant sign for him)?

[sterlingcomics]

I see your point, but you can simply type in his name into google and his new york office comes up. So it's not really a secret....

 

Yes, but some posters here would not have an opportunity to get up on their high horse.

 

It's etiquette...actually folks trying to be considerate of someone's personal space. Nothing more from what I've seen.

[Nick Paulus]

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not an expert but ALL of those signatures look very different to me! I would say they were all signed by different people.

[TheLiamSturgess]

I would say they are all real, but he purposely switched them around to avoid collectibility.

[Bronty]

I like that he wrote you a letter essentially saying he could not write you a letter.

 

Not that he wouldn't write a letter. He wouldn't sign anything or do interviews.

 

I did laugh when he created his own signature block, like the signature wasn't clear enough.

 

Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko

 

Right, its a signed letter that says he won't sign anything for you So awesome.

[mr_highgrade]

I've met Steve Ditko a few times and I am almost sure he doesn't have a assistant. Chainnball and I spoke to him in person last year for almost a half an hour and he was very pleasant.

Here's a sample of his hand writing from around 5 years ago.

He wrote Robin Snyder's address right in front of me.

Then I ordered these newsletters that Steve told me get since I was interested in his latest work.

They go for $3 to $5 each and are about 4 to 5 pages long.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2012 by mr_highgrade

[tonystarkben-migration]

You met him? that's awesome - does he just look like any average Joe from the street?

[Chespirito]

In 2007, Mark Maddox, the VP of Challenger Oasis Inc. was able to easily contact Ditko's daughter (Frida Jolene, who is married to Jonas Maddox, Mark's son); this was for a fund-raiser for the Children's Nuerofibromatosis Syndrome Foundation. His daughter urged her dad, Ditko himself, to make a brief appearance in the event, and he agreed. Once word got out about the small venued event, which was supposse to take place in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Crown Plaza, the 150 seats (At 250 dollars per seat mind you), sold out in only 3 days, and it wasn't even an open bar. Anyways Ditko gave a speech and was supposse to give one of those Giant checks to Ms Willerham (CEO of the Foundation), but once on stage, Rickyta H'Osher (the organizer of the event), handed him the Giant check and a white T-Shirt with the signatures of the 10 celebrities that attended the event; Ms H'Osher asked Ditko if he could please sign on the T-shirt, right next to the Linda Carter signature; anyways, while Ditko was holding the check and the shirt, he paused and looked around the room for a few seconds, and froze-up for a good moment. Then he dropped the items while he was still up on stage and whispered to Ms H'Osher:

"So this was the plan I see, all this to get my signature?"

 

Then he looked clear across the room, directly at Mark Brooks, and yelled from the top of his lungs:

"WHEN I SAY NO AUTOGRAPHS, I MEAN IT!!!!!!!"

..then he furiously stormed off stage...

 

All I remember, is the guy sitting next to me saying: "Who the hell was that?!!

[Bosco685]

 

You are truly crazy. And I like it!

 

[tonystarkben-migration]

did that really happen? crazy

[Unca Ben]

did that really happen? crazy

No.

 

It's an ongoing joke by Ches to bring some humor into the subject of Ditko's stand on fandom vs. the desires of (some) said fans.

[ComicConnoisseur]

What I don't get about these letters being written and signed by Ditko's assistant -- if that's what people are arguing -- is why handwrite the letters? Wouldn't it make more sense and be easier to have a form letter printed up that Ditko could sign (or have an assistant sign for him)?

People from Steve Ditko`s generation actually took the time to handwrite letters. I have seen countless letters written between my grandfather and grandmother. They really put in effort in them to communicate their feelings and thoughts. When you wrote a letter it was like an art,so much different then the countless texts we get everyday that usually go like this

'How r u doing?"

'Fine'

"bye"

In one way we have regressed communicating with one another.

Yep we are faster communicating,but most texts are like what Seinfeld says are about nothing.

Edited September 20, 2012 by ComicConnoisseur

[comicwiz]

I wrote a letter to Steve not too long ago and wasn't really sure whether I'd receive a reply, much less if my letter would get there (I accidentally used a Canadian stamp instead of a U.S. stamp so I was waiting for my letter to be returned with insufficient postage).

 

Anyhow, I got the idea to write to him because I started reading Amazing Spider-Man to my Son from the Marvel Masterworks. One of the things we would do is pick out our favourite poses while reading the stories together. The question then came up about who the artist was, and what might have been his favourite pose. Rather than making it up, I decided to write to Mr. Ditko asking him.

 

He signed the letter very similar to the ('92) milestone edition of ASM 1 that Captain_Canuck shared on page 9.

 

Pretty thrilled overall that he replied.

[MR SigS]

THANKS,

 

here is the link

 

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t422/tonystarkben/CCF18092012_000012_zps81d60e7e.jpg

 

That is about as awesome as it gets. To be personally and politely denied by the Co-Creator of Spider-Man.

 

 

[Sqeggs]

What I don't get about these letters being written and signed by Ditko's assistant -- if that's what people are arguing -- is why handwrite the letters? Wouldn't it make more sense and be easier to have a form letter printed up that Ditko could sign (or have an assistant sign for him)?

People from Steve Ditko`s generation actually took the time to handwrite letters. I have seen countless letters written between my grandfather and grandmother. They really put in effort in them to communicate their feelings and thoughts. When you wrote a letter it was like an art,so much different then the countless texts we get everyday that usually go like this

'How r u doing?"

'Fine'

"bye"

In one way we have regressed communicating with one another.

Yep we are faster communicating,but most texts are like what Seinfeld says are about nothing.

 

I can see why Ditko would hand write the letters, but people are claiming (I think!) that his assistants are writing the letters. In that case, it would seem to make more sense to have a form letter printed up for Ditko (or his assistant) to sign. Having the assistants write out the letters seems both time consuming and misleading because the recipient is going to believe he has a letter written by Ditko himself.

[smallclone]

there have been letters like this posted on fanmail.biz for years.

 

almost anyone that writes him will get a response. its not ditko. he has someone that answers his mail. its an authentic signature it just wasnt signed by ditko.

 

 

there are a bunch addresses on that site that will get you a response. many are legit. many are not. i got a really nice eastwood 8 x 10 signed by clint eastwoods secretary.

 

i find this response kinda funny. i mean how would this poster know these letters that have been going around for basicly decades now, with all the handwritting being the same NOT actually being from steve ditko?

 

would you even know what steve ditko even looks like today let alone that his sig isnt real on the bascily grumpy letters he writes?