A very Happy 88th Birthday to cartoonist Steve Ditko!
With a
career now in it’s 62nd year, Ditko continues to produce new work. For
the last 7 years he’s been publishing new material in a series of 32
page comics. His publishing partner, Robin Snyder, with whom Ditko has
been working with for over 25 years, has even taken to Kickstarter for their last 9 projects! It’s been great to be able to support them (and
get one’s name listed in the books!).
Co-creator of SPIDER-MAN
and DR. STRANGE, creator of THE CREEPER, HAWK & DOVE, SHADE THE
CHANGING MAN. Plus decades of stories and creations for a myriad of
publishers, most notably Charlton Comics. His signature character has to
be MR. A, the uncompromising eradicator of evil who’s appeared in
Ditko’s creator owned material for decades.
Info on ordering Ditko’s current output can be found at the Ditko Comics site.
Steve Ditko has been an influence on me for more than half my life, and today, as I continue on with my own career as an independent creator, even more so. Both for the originality
and uniqueness of his work, and his steadfast principled
individualism. The fact that he's still producing new work well into his 80s is a testament to the voice of the artist that never quits expressing itself.
A very Happy Birthday to Steve Ditko, comic book creator extraordinaire!
(Mort Todd's colored version of his cover to DITKOMANIA #72)
Steve Ditko, as artist, is the co-creator of Spider-Man & Dr. Strange, and on his own has created such characters as The Creeper, The Question, Shade the Changing Man and his signature character, Mr. A.
(Larry Blake's cover to DITKOMANIA #75)
Born November 2, 1927, Steve Ditko continues to create new comics, published by himself and Robin Snyder. His latest book was DITKO #5-FIVE ACT, featuring such characters as The Madman, The Outline and The Cape! At age 83 his physical output has slowed down, and he's not going to be drawing at the same level he was 20 or even 30 years ago. But his determination to create new stories, and publish them himself, remains for me a continued source of inspiration.
For the last year or two, I've been contributing to the DITKOMANIA zine on a regular basis. My most recent illustration was this one for their Halloween issue, featuring a review of Ditko's sole Tomb of Dracula story, published in the late 70s.
The fact that Ditko was born on November 2, the same day as my character Diego de La Muerto, a.k.a. El Muerto (which is also El Dia de Los Muertos) surprised me when I made the connection years ago. My first exposure to Ditko's work was back in the mid-seventies, with reprints of his early Spider-Man & Dr. Strange stories available in Marvel reprints at the time. His work has always struck me for it's combination of quirky cartooning and surreal imagery, combined with his knack for innovative storytelling devices and layouts.
Happy 83rd Birthday, Steve Ditko!
To order Ditko's self-published comics from the last 20 years or so, visit this page, courtesy of the Ditko Comics Web Blog run by BobH.
To order copies of the DITKOMANIA zine, edited & published by Rob Imes, visit this page.
So the other day I'm working on my new comic book story. Penciling some pages, listening to some music. As I break for lunch, the mail arrives. What could be better than working on your own comic book, and at the same time, receiving the latest comic book from one of your favorite creators?
Artwork © Steve Ditko 2009
It's the latest in a series of new comics by one of the truly great artists of comics, Steve Ditko! Yep, the Co-Creator of Spider-Man & Dr. Strange, the man who created Mr. A, The Creeper, The Question and many other characters and comics in his 50+ year career is back with a whole new series of comic books!
Published by Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko, (in essence making Ditko a self-published cartoonist!), these new Ditko comics feature all-new material, written and illustrated by Ditko. He's been publishing all of his creator-owned comics and graphic novels through Robin Snyder for the past 20 years.
The new book, DITKO PRESENTS, follows "DITKO, ETC" which was released in Oct. 08, "DITKO CONTINUED", "OH NO! NOT AGAIN, DITKO!" and "DITKO ONCE MORE". That's five 32 page comic books in less than a year, without the traditional distribution method the majority of comics use, and from a creator in his 80s! If Steve Ditko self-publishing new comic books isn't an example to DIY creators, then I don't know what is!
I would guess that his books are bought by what you could call the hard-core Ditko fans, with not much (if any, actually) coverage in the 'comics media' (as it is).
Ditko's new books are what I call pure expression, he's creating the type of stories he wants to tell and making them available to whomever wants to buy them. Simple as that. No Tweeting, blogging, Myspace, Facebook and DeviantArt posting to let the world know about the new books. (Full disclosure, I use all the previously mentioned social networking tools myself!). There is a blog, STEVE DITKO COMICS WEBLOG, run independently by a fan of Ditko that contains a page showing all the Snyder/Ditko books in print.
These new books contain about 4-5 new stories in each issue, sometimes the stories will run over several issues. Ditko's a one-man anthology factory! He's created a new collection of characters for these books, with names like The Cape, Miss Eerie, The Outline, The Grey Negotiator, Hero and even the return of what has to be Ditko's signature character, MR. A!
The new book, DITKO PRESENTS, features a couple of new characters. One of them really knocked my socks off.. MISS EERIE!
Artwork © Steve Ditko 2009
She's like POLICE WOMAN meets DEATH WISH! Miss Eerie is hell-bent on some type of vigilante/revenge quest, and she goes about it packing a Colt .45 and smashing down doors, and faces, with her foot! All this in 8 pages. Man, I hope to see more of this character, as she's unlike anything I've ever seen from Ditko. He doesn't do many female hero characters, so this is a real treat. And she's not a cheesecake pin-up girl either, just a force of retribution who happens to be a woman.
What I love about all these books is their very spartan nature: the books are printed in black and white, not a drop of color throughout. Interior pages are on newsprint. The entire covers are hand-drawn, even the logos. The only computer lettering is on the inside front cover editorial/ordering page and the front cover indicia. 32 pages of all new art and stories.
Another thing I love about these new books is the sense of humor evident in the design. With titles like "OH NO! NOT AGAIN, DITKO!" and such, how can that not bring a smile to your face?
Artwork © Steve Ditko 2009
With a career now in it's 56th year, it's really great to be buying new Steve Ditko comic books as they're released. Ditko gets a lot of flack for his brand of storytelling and subject matter (Objectivist philosophy), but as long as he's doing exactly the types of stories he wants to, on his own terms, that's all anyone can ask of an artist. Our choice as readers is to buy the books, or not. Clear as black and white.
