Comic Book Legend Steve Ditko

Doctor Strange, Hawk and Dove, The Creeper, Spider-Man, and The Question all spotlight  Steve Ditko's genius for comic book hero design.

A painted portrait of Steve Ditko by Drew Friedman.

From yee Wiki:

Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko (born November 2, 1927) is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist and co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

Ditko studied under Batman artist Jerry Robinson at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City. He began his professional career in 1953, working in the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, beginning as an inker and coming under the influence of artist Mort Meskin. During this time, he then began his long association with Charlton Comics, where he did work in the genres of science fiction, horror, and mystery. He also co-created the superhero Captain Atom in 1960.

During the 1950s, Ditko also drew for Atlas Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics. He went on to contribute much significant work to Marvel, including co-creating Spider-Man, who would become the company's flagship character. Additionally, he co-created the supernatural hero Doctor Strange and made important contributions to the Hulk and Iron Man. In 1966, after being the exclusive artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and the Doctor Strange feature in Strange Tales, Ditko left Marvel for reasons never specified.

Ditko continued to work for Charlton and also DC Comics, making major contributions, including a revamp of the long-running character Blue Beetle, and creating or co-creating the Question, the Creeper, Shade, the Changing Man, and Hawk and Dove. Ditko also began contributing to small independent publishers, where he created Mr. A, a hero reflecting the influence of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Since the 1960s, Ditko has declined most interviews, stating that it is his work he offers readers, and not his personality.

Ditko was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.

The Ditkophile: Scarcities

 

Steve Ditko's high school yearbook portrait

The name Steve Ditko probably means very little to you if you aren’t a comics fan, but if you are, then the name is well known to you -- Steve Ditko is the co-creator of Spider-Man, the original artist who envisioned the character along with Stan Lee.

 

Aside from Spider-Man, Ditko was also the co-creator, again with Lee, of the cosmic Doctor Strange. The surreal panels of Doctor Strange's mystical dimensions were some of the most vividly psychedelic ever seen in comics, and they contrasted sharply with his rendering of Peter Parker’s mundane world.

 

At the time that Ditko’s input on the plotting of the Spider-Man title tightened, so did his interest grow in the Objectivist philosophy of Russian-born novelist, Ayn Rand.

 

When Rand’s stark black and white moralizing started creeping into the Spider-Man stories, Stan Lee balked, and soon the two men stopped speaking to each other. Eventually Ditko left, leaving behind a character that would go on to become a billion dollar enterprise. He would never draw Spider-Man again and has essentially erased himself as much as possible from the character’s history.

 

It’s not much of a stretch to imagine that Ditko sees himself as a real-life Howard Roark, Rand’s fictional architect in The Fountainhead -- a man who refuses to compromise his vision. Rand’s philosophical influence was even more obvious in Ditko's self-published vigilante character, Mr A.

 

There have been hardly any interviews with Steve Ditko. While really not a hermit or a recluse, he’s an intensely private person and refuses most interviews, although there are stories of him speaking to a fan bold enough to ring his doorbell, but often standing in the doorway, seldomly inviting them into his studio.

 

In his BBC documentary, In Search of Steve Ditko, British talkshow host Jonathan Ross tracked Ditko down in New York City and called the artist on the telephone.

 

As expected, Ditko politely refused his request for an on-camera interview. But when Ross and comics writer Neil Gaiman showed up on his doorstep, he did in fact entertain them, though not on-camera.

Yearbook photo

Yearbook photo

Steve Ditko-Eric Stanton studio photo

Ditko-Stanton studio photo.

Blue Beetle model sheet.

Unpublished Mr. A. #3 cover. Colored by Mort Todd.

Unpublished Mr. A #1 cover. Colored by Mort Todd.

In Search of Steve Ditko is a BBC Four documentary. It was first shown on Sunday, September 16,  2007.

The documentary is part of the Comics Britannia season and follows Jonathan Ross' attempts to track down comics artist Steve Ditko (known for Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Mr. A etc.).

YouTube: BBC - Jonathan Ross - In Search of Steve Ditko, Part 1 of 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfxVO0fLHvA

Robin Snyder has a new Steve Ditko Lazlo's Hammer Kickstarter page:

There's a comics legend on Kickstarter. Steve Ditko‘s publishing partner Robin Snyder is looking to republish Ditko’s Lazlo’s Hammer.

A hammer has a power available to all as a tool or a weapon. One man dramatically and publicly revealed what makes it creative, productive or destructive. See and read how anyone can be its victim or its abuser. See and read Laszlo’s Hammer by Ditko coming next.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1704592942/laszlos-hammer-by-robin-snyder-and-steve-ditko

The Ditkophile: "The Destroyer of Heroes" from Blue Beetle #5, 1968

Blue Beetle #5 (1968) - "Blue Beetle Faces the Destroyer of Heroes"

Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) must put an end to the crusade of Our Man, a delusional defeatist who believes that heroes are evil and all heroic artwork must be destroyed. Steve Ditko gives us a great cover and art in this issue, and he even injects some Objectivist philosophy into the story that give insight into his views of the nature of art and man.