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Finding Ditko
09.25.07 / 09:30PM / Joe / comments: 0
 This is just great. Every comics fan - and even pop culture fans in general - should check this out: "In Search of Steve Ditko," a recent BBC documentary. I heard it about a couple weeks ago, but figured I'd have to watch until it popped up on BBC America or A&E... but it was briefly available on YouTube and I was lucky enough to catch it there.
Ditko, for those of you not into comics, was the original artist on Spider-Man ('62-'66). Whereas Stan Lee came up with the concept and name, Ditko designed the costume, the web-shooters, and within a few issues he was writing the stories wholesale. The question of who created Spider-Man has long been a comics bugaboo, since huckster Stan was billed as the creator and writer since pretty much day one, in spite of Ditko's obvious and lasting contributions. In latter years, Stan yielded some credit back to Ditko, but, as you can see in the documentary, Stan the Man may not necessarily have his heart in that decision.
What makes Ditko such a fascinating subject was that he walked away from the character after some dust-ups with Stan Lee... essentially and intentionally leaving behind untold millions of dollars in merchandising that could have been his. He has refused interviews and appearance requests, and although he has done a few spare pages in the years since his Marvel/DC heyday, he chooses to remain untouchable and unreachable. I hope Marvel is keeping a Ditko war chest somewhere, because although Ditko may be an old crank who turns up his nose to make a point, his heirs may not be of such fortitude.
The comics industry began by eating its young, by chewing up and tossing aside the talented men and women who labored over the four-color page. It was not a well-respected field, haunted by geeks and run by gangsters (read Gerard Jones "Men of Tomorrow"). Even though these people created some of the most enduring American cultural icons of the century, they were poorly compensated and lived paycheck to paycheck. In latter years, reparations were made - some would say too little too late - but the tight fists of the publishing companies did open up to reward the creators. And today, the business is all about "name" talent, and fandom of particular artists or writers rivals the fictional characters themselves. Steve Ditko, about to turn 80, may be the last lost master of the form.
 The special covers Spider-Man, naturally, but also Ditko's other creations... Dr. Strange, the Creeper, Hawk & Dove, the Question, and Mr. A. When I was a lad, and we went to the local library, every summer I would check out the same History of Comics book and it had reprints of the seminal Spidey and Doc Strange stories. The original Ditko Doc has this horrid angular look to him that just fascinated me.
(Although they keep showing a Ditko drawing of Marvel's incarnate galaxy character, Eternity, during the Dr. Strange bit. Methinks someone in the editing suite was a bit confused.)
 
Keith Giffen did a Mr. A parody in the Son of Ambush Bug miniseries (1986), reffing the character's famous no-gray-areas attitude on injustice.
I'm sure that "In Search of Steve Ditko" will turn up somewhere on US television, where I will gladly watch it again. Aside from the rare appearance of crazy hair monster Alan Moore, and the interviews with legends like John Romita (who explains why he took over the art duties after Ditko left with "I had to pay my mortgage!"), plus the unbelievable twist ending with Neil Gaiman... you get to see the normally affable Stan Lee squirm when Ross puts him in the hotseat. How often does that happen. |
