Is there much Ditko DC Cover art out there?

[Mister Trent]

Also, from the 1960s, Ditko produced some work for Dell. This equated to a small handful of stories and just one cover. For the 4th and final issue of NUKLA, Ditko provided artwork for the whole book (inked by Sal Trapani.

 

Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to trade the cover away from Scotty Moore.

 

NUKLA # 4 Cover - September 1966

 

 

 

[Mister Trent]

To expand a bit more, on Clem's original question . . .

 

Is there much 1960s Ditko Superhero Cover art out there?

 

We've already established that any work returned to Ditko himself is unlikely to see the light of day for the forseeable future . . . but what about his 1960s Superhero covers known to exist in collector circles?

 

From his most celebrated creation, Spider-Man, I know of two covers that undoubtedly exist - #s 28 and 30 - with several more reported to have changed hands privately in recent years.

 

 

From his first superhero creation, Captain Atom, I own the # 80 cover, and Stephen Fischler has previously told us that in addition to the # 89 cover, he also owns the # 78 - which is Ditko's 1st all-original Captain Atom

cover art (all the earlier stories, from the character's run in SPACE ADVENTURES, had 'mechanical' covers - created from paste-ups of images taken from interior pages).

 

 

I also own the cover art to NUKLA # 4, Ditko's only cover work for the DELL publishing outfit.

 

 

For BLUE BEETLE, I have heard that the cover to # 1 is known to exist.

 

Of his late 1960s creations for DC, THE CREEPER and HAWK & DOVE, I've only ever seen the cover to CREEPER # 4 surface (offered by Heritage a short while ago).

 

 

This totals 8 covers, though taking into account the ASMs likely to exist outside of the aforementioned #s 28 & 30 - my guess is that there's not a great deal more surviving examples (of the 1960s Superhero cover art). My guess-timate would be no more than about 12 - 20 covers in all.

 

News of any further examples would be welcome . . ?

 

 

 

 

[clemso]

Hey Terry,

 

Thanks for all the research on Ditko's existing covers. It truely highlights how scarce his OA covers are and more so in the Super Hero genre. I must admit I have a bit of a soft spot for Captain Atom as I remember reading it as a young lad. They used to do these little B&W reprint books in the UK (as you know) and the Captain was regularly reprinted along with all sorts of monster stories.

His costume is very reminicent of Captain Marvel (or the other way round)

 

Clem..