A recent photo of Mr. Ditko in his studio.
I could spend the day talking about Steve Ditko. Half of you know him as the co-creator of Spider-Man (along with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, depending on who’s telling the story), and half of you know him as the crazy as a shit-house rat genius of comics that are too weird to be readable. Delightfully, he’s both, and if you’ve never seen In Search of Steve Ditko, you’re about to spend some time doing just that:
That’s just part one, but you’ll be continuing on to the other parts after it’s over, trust me.
Twenty some-odd years ago, I got to speak to Ditko on the phone once or twice, about a Ditko story we published in Vortex Magazine back when I was editor of the book. It’s a story I’ll keep private, as neither Steve nor I come off especially well in the story, and you don’t need to hear about two jackasses while both of us are still alive.
Instead, watch the documentary began above, and recall his magnificent contribution to our biz.
Happy Birthday Mr. D. You are one of the originals.
Ty the Guy OUT!
Here now, a fairly obscure piece of Bonus Ditko: A page from THE DESTRUCTOR, a short lived Ditko series for the spectacularly failed ATLAS comics of the mid-70s. Ditko inked by Wally Wood! A little bit of heaven for those in the know…
Ty Templeton's ART LAND!! 
Leave it to you to know the greatness that was the Destructor (and to know it even was :-)) — Happy Ditko Day to the secret-weapon writer-artist who deserves his own doc!
Happy to say I bought that comic when it was new! And I still own it.
Me too on both counts, proudly. Man, are we old! 🙂
Okay, if we’re playing nerd-cred, not only do I have both of the Ditko/Wood issues of Destructor, I have the two issues inked by Allen Milgrom as well as EVERY SINGLE ATLAS COMIC EVER PUBLISHED, except a one issue of Tippy Teen. I had an obsessive need to complete the Atlas comic collection after purchasing about two thirds of it off the comics racks in the Seventies.
Yes, but do you have *two or more copies* of everything Atlas ever published? That’s how obsessive Adam McGovern, Boy Speculator was 🙂 — with just a few gaps, like one or two of the rare black-and-whites, that I’ve plugged on flea-market hauntings more recently. I do, however, have one copy at most of each of the *new* line…
Nice to meet a fellow Seaboard-o-phile. I keep promising myself I’ll write up a big blog post about Atlas someday, as it is a minor obsession with me. But I think it would have eight readers, tops. I confess to paying no attention at all to the “relaunch” of the names of some of the Atlas line…I’ll probably pick them up as back issues at some point. Just for fun.
Well, not meet, but recognize?
Thanks for linking this, Ty. It’s odd…the older I get, the more I continue to look back at older comics and, in most cases, re-asses them. I once rejected a lot of the artists I initially grew up with…but now see them in a totally different light, especially in terms of layout, story flow and actual draftsmanship. Ditko is one such. What a great documentary by someone who obviously actually knows comics.
“Well, not meet, but recognize?”
Our secret identity as Seaboard-junkies isn’t to be entrusted to just anyone. Now we’ve recognized each other and can exchange the secret password. (What was that again? “Make Mine Martin”?)