Steve Ditko turned 85 years old today. With a career spanning nearly 60 years, the legendary comic book artist continues producing new work even today.
The original artist and co-creator (along with writer Stan Lee) of SPIDER-MAN, as well as DR. STRANGE (for Marvel Comics), Ditko when on to create plenty more comics and more characters throughout his decades long career.
I first became a fan of his work when my older brother Albert handed me a collection of Marvel Comics he had collected in the late 60s/early 70s. Ditko's artwork stood out from the bunch, a peculiarity to the way he drew caught my eye. It was good old fashioned super-hero art, but it had a uniqueness to the way it was crafted. Of course, as a kid I didn't word it that way, but I was aware of his particular style fairly quickly.
Flash forward to the early 2000s... By now I had a few years under my belt as a self-published cartoonist. And my love for Steve Ditko's work hadn't waned at all. If anything, as an artist and publisher, I admired him on other levels as well. I'd tell friends of mine that I got so much inspiration from Ditko as an artist and as a creator who often would rather publish his own work through a trusted individual like Robin Snyder as opposed to the editorial-heavy publishers he had worked with in the past.
So my friends one day told me "Well, why don't you just write him and tell him how you feel?" It was that simple! Why the heck don't I just write him!?
So, I composed a brief letter, telling Steve Ditko how much I admired his comics as a kid, and as I got older I eventually published my own work. And I cited his inspiration in doing things exactly how he chooses to do them and the heck with second-guessing what the 'public' might want. I even sent him a copy of my comic book EL MUERTO. I certainly didn't expect him to read the book or review it, but I definitely wanted to give the man a gift to thank him for all the decades of pure enjoyment his work has given me.
A few weeks later, I open my P.O. Box on my weekly visit and see an envelope. He wrote back! I was quite aware at that time (2003) that Ditko was a very private person, not doing any interviews or personal appearances since the late 1960s. But he was known to write people back. Not an 'anti-social recluse' as many people have commented, just a person who prefers his privacy and wants only his work to speak for himself.
Upon opening the letter, I slowly read, and reread Steve Ditko's letter to me. That he thanked me for the 'copy of El Muerto' was just the icing on the cake!
On this blog, I've often written about Ditko, and will continue to do so, no question. But for now, I'd like to end this post by sharing with you a one page comic I created a few months ago on Steve Ditko. A brief auto-biographic comic. You can go to my Deviant Art page for a larger image. Just open the link here, and once you see the image click on it once and it'll enlarge for a readable version.
One last piece of art I'd like to share (which I actually finally finished this morning after leaving it aside for months!). An homage to that great Spider-Man Vs Mysterio image at the top of this post (from THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Annual #1, 1964). This features two of my comic book characters, EL MUERTO and THE COMA:
I've always loved the original image, as not only is Mysterio (and Spider-Man) one of the most uniquely designed characters Ditko has ever created, but the way he bends the character's bodies to fit the composition above all else is so great. The way both characters are invading one anothers space is very climatic and bold. It's a true superhero comic drawing: Everything is made to make the image look dynamic, regardless of how much he has to distort the figures and skewer the composition to fit what the artist has in mind.
So I basically substituted my characters for the originals, and added the Coma's interdimensional environment as background. But I really wanted to mimic the original composition as a creative exercise. I do these type of homages because I want to free myself from the way I usually work, to temporarily try a study of another artist's dynamics. Hopefully I then learn something in the way of creative composition & figure drawing, which helps me stretch my own skills. Plus it turned out to be a pretty neat image!
Thanks Mr. Steve Ditko, for the almost 40 years I've been enjoying your considerable body of work. Happy Birthday!
I'll be at the LONG BEACH COMIC CON this weekend, November 3 & 4. You can find me at in Artist Alley at Table #1400.
In addition to being an exhibitor all weekend, I'll also be conducting a free comic book workshop for kids. This runs from 12-12:45pm on Saturday in the Kid's Area.
Along with my usual assortment of comics and other items, I'll have plenty of copies of my new book DEAD DINOSAURIO, along with some Sketch Cover Variants, featuring hand-drawn, colored sketches on the cover.
Ticket information available here. If you can't make it out to the convention but would like to get DEAD DINOSAURIO, please visit my Web Shop here.
Thanks and hope to see some of you at the show!
On Sunday, October 28, I attended the MUERTOMANIA 2 event held by Solidarity Ink, a print shop & gallery in the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles.
The event was held in their parking lot, with an art exhibit, dedicated to deceased wrestlers, taking place inside their gallery space. What made this event extra special was that they had live Lucha Libre, with a group of masked wrestlers performing several matches to an enthusiastic crowd. First time I ever had a booth with live wrestling occurring a few feet away!
I contributed a piece to the art show, dedicated to one of my favorites, the late, great Macho Man Randy Savage!
This painting of El Rayo de Jalisco, was created by an artist who works at a car wash, and who's trying to organize a union for his fellow workers. It's a beautiful piece created by a true man of the people:
And of course no Lucha Libre art show would be complete without EL SANTO, the most famous masked Mexican wrestler of all:
Throughout the day I had many great encounters with people . For some reason (but perhaps not surprising considering the demographics), my print and Poster Comic of THE WANDERING JEW & CATHOLIC BOY caught people's attention. One lady mentioned her son was making his First Communion, so that was the appeal for her. (I later realized I could launch a whole line of CATHOLIC BOY products for First Communion celebrants!) And another woman stopped by and bought the BATICALACA Poster Comic. She told me that her and her brother used to watch the BATMAN ANIMATED SERIES when growing up, and the Poster Comic reminded her of those good times with her brother. Later it crossed my mind that I didn't ask her if her brother was alive, but regardless, it's a nice feeling that something I created sparked a positive memory in someone.
Like the NUVEIN DIA DE LOS MUERTOS (which I wrote about in Pt 1), this event was free to the public and promoted as an all-ages event. There were plenty of families visiting that day, with parents encouraging their children to celebrate this uniquely Mexican festival. I'm always glad to participate in events like these as I believe an appreciation of one's culture only adds to a person's character and outlook on life.
A rare break in the day for Ernesto Vasquez, whose group, SOLIDARITY INK, organized the entire event.
I met Ernesto some years ago at a comic book convention, and it's great to see him running this organization in addition to his own work as an artist. We talked about the struggles and rewards of running community arts organizations and also about the work involved in putting on events such as these Dia de Los Muertos festivals.
These friendly gals hosted a table where people could decorate their own sugar skulls:
Me with a group of gents dresses as the trio of legendary luchadores: Mil Mascaras, Blue Demon & El Santo!
(Photo by Karla Saucedo)
This event, with it's dual focus on Dia de Los Muertos and Lucha Libre, is one of the more unique ones I've had the pleasure of participating in. The staff, the other vendors, and especially the visitors, were all great people to meet. One of the kids (Abraham) who picked up a copy of DEAD DINOSAURIO would stop by once in a while to talk, he even came by to tell me he was leaving. What a class act! Later he came back to the booth, to my surprise. "I thought you were leaving", I told him. He said that he wanted to get another copy of DINOSAURIO, as he wanted to give one to his best friend! Abraham even stopped by once to show me part of his Halloween costume, NERD BOY!
He said that maybe one day I could put that character in one of my comics, and I told him that he should make the comic himself. He liked that idea, and I encouraged him to work on it when he could.
Like I've mentioned, I had a great time at these two events. This coming weekend, November 3 & 4, I'll be at the Long Beach Comic Con. You can find me in the Small Press area at table #1400. And I'll also be conducting a free "Let's Make Comics" workshop on Saturday from 12-12:45 in the Kid's Area.
Thanks for reading. And if you'd like to buy your own copy of DEAD DINOSAURIO, please visit my Los Comex Web Shop.
I first became a fan of his work when my older brother Albert handed me a collection of Marvel Comics he had collected in the late 60s/early 70s. Ditko's artwork stood out from the bunch, a peculiarity to the way he drew caught my eye. It was good old fashioned super-hero art, but it had a uniqueness to the way it was crafted. Of course, as a kid I didn't word it that way, but I was aware of his particular style fairly quickly.
