Mr. A- The Best Deal

[David Swan]

"The Best Deal" was published just last month (November 2014) in Mr. A #15 which means he was 86 when he produced these stories. Were there really 14 other Mr. A comics? It was published by Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko and contains two Mr. A stories the first being "The Best Deal". According to Wikipedia Steve Ditko said in 2012 of his self-published stories, "I do those because that's all they'll let me do". What I read from that quote is that Ditko would like to do more mainstream stuff but there is no interest which is quite sad. Mr. A is more than just a footnote in the history of Steve Ditko. Mr. A now literally seems to be the focus of his creative output in his declining years.

 

"The Best Deal" opens in Border City and dialogue balloons show the entire city to be highly corrupt or at least corrupt as far as Ditko is concerned. Ditko has a very, dark depressing view of humanity. Even those who are not necessarily corrupt have succumbed to the ideas of moral relativism and *gasp* compromise. Let me get to the gist of things to keep this as short as possible. Some very vague corruption is occurring and Mr. A arrives to take some crucial evidence from a crook after delivering his trademark black and white card that turns all black in the crooks hand. He delivers the evidence to the police but the evidence points to a group of do-gooders who defend their actions.

 

Whereas many comics tend to use the corrupt industrialist as a villain Ditko likes to use the social do-gooder. It would be a mistake to think that Ditko is implying that evil people are using social cause groups as a front. Ditko literally sees those who are concerned with social good to be at best misguided, at worst evil. Mr. A's alter ego, Rex Graine, is a newspaper reporter at the Daily Crusader. The owner wants Graine gone but when he acquired the newspaper from his brother (Henry Reder) there was a stipulation that he could never fire Graine. The brothers wife and the owner are predictably physically ugly and angry (Ditko has no use for subtlety) and they refuse to run Graine's corruption article because it has "no real social concern" One would think business corruption IS a social concern but go figure. Mind you there is nothing to suggest that Mrs. Reder is protecting the corruption because she has any involvement, just that she only wants social concern articles.

The next line is perhaps the most telling in the story. Mrs. Reder says, 'All business is dirty evil business. We have to be concerned first with the social ills, minorities, the needy not the greedy' As I noted in my previous journal if a fool or an evil person says something in a Ditko story then Ditko believes the opposite. The message the reader should gather is that we should NOT be concerned with social ills, minorities or the needy and SHOULD be concerned with protecting the greedy. When Mrs. Reder says, "the newspaper must be responsible to the HIGHEST SOCIAL GOOD!" there is no indication that she isn't completely serious. We as the reader know she is villainous only because she has an ugly snarl as she says it. It would take someone plugged into the Objectivist/Conservative mindset to 'get it' that social good = evil. Just to drive the point home the brother adds, "My brother, his policy is part of the corrupt system of greed over need". In this case since the brother (who is likely an Objectivist) supports greed over need then that is GOOD. Graine understands Mrs Reder and Iges, the owner, but managing editor Otten seems more conflicted even though he tells Graine to get off the corruption case. Could he be... PRAGMATIC! (tip: pragmatism is bad in the world of Steve Ditko)

 

Mr. A finally takes down all the crooks despite the best efforts of his newspaper and the police. Ditko closes by once again showing the breadth and depth of corruption in Border City. Rex Graine sits at his desk silently castigating the compromisers, those who find virtue in helping the unearned, those who hate and fear extremists and those who see moral equivalence. The End.

 

See more journals by David Swan

[SW3D]

Either I am very tired and mentally drained, or best confused, but I can't make heads or tails about what Ditko is trying to say... or maybe I'm just resistant to his worldview.

 

It's sad to see him so focused on the same old stuff, albeit something that has obviously declined in terms of quality and rationale... I would think in his advanced age he would do something light hearted and perhaps more upbeat.

 

Could share a picture of this comic? How did you obtain it?

 

SW3D

[David Swan]

"Either I am very tired and mentally drained, or best confused, but I can't make heads or tails about what Ditko is trying to say... or maybe I'm just resistant to his worldview"

 

I suspect it is simply disbelief that this could possibly be Ditko's worldview. The scary thing is that Ditko is far from some lone crackpot. His view is shared by far more people than most would imagine.

 

 

"I would think in his advanced age he would do something light hearted and perhaps more upbeat."

 

This worldview has become his life and even in the 60's and 70's when he was working on more mainstream stuff he expressed this views to coworkers even if his beliefs weren't necessarily bleeding into his work.

 

"Could share a picture of this comic? How did you obtain it?"

 

Unfortunately I don't have a scanner handy currently. These comics are pretty easy to get on EBAY for less than the cover price. There is also a site called Ditkoclub.com that sells Ditko comics.

[SW3D]

I will check out ditkoclub.com... thanks for the tip and for these awesome journals. Keep 'em coming.

 

SW3D

[lambfan68]

"I do those because that's all they'll let me do". What I read from that quote is that Ditko would like to do more mainstream stuff but there is no interest which is quite sad.

 

I thought I've read that Ditko routinely turned down work because the stories didn't mesh with his world view (ie: flawed heroes). If that's the case, then people probably just stopped offering him work because it was too much of a bother.