Happy Birthday to the late GREAT Sturdy Steve Ditko!

[K7P5V]

Happy Birthday to one of the greatest artists that Spidey has ever had...

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

It's Ditko Day! Celebrating The Greatest Comic Artist

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

CBH's Alex Grand travels to Johnstown, PA for the 2021 Ditko Comic Convention
hosted by the Bottleworks Ethnic Art Center and the Ditko Family. Steve Ditko,
his Bottleworks art exhibit and the Ditko convention is discussed here with
Ditkoverse coordinator and nephew, Mark Ditko as well as comics editor and
writer Carl Potts, writer-artist Javier Hernandez, visual lecturist Arlen Schumer and
former senior VP at MGM David Armstrong. Each one shares an aspect or anecdote
about Steve Ditko that most people don't know about. Where do Ditko hands come from?

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

The man had a tremendous impact.

Kinda funny that such a famous character was created by someone so reclusive.

It really is a shame that, for all the fame his name carries, it's not nearly enough thanks to his reclusive nature. He and Stan could not be more opposite and one could argue that Stan gets too much credit where the creation of Spidey (just Spidey, Stan's contributions with the rest of the Marvel U are indisputable) is concerned and Steve not nearly enough. It's also pretty well documented that Steve had much more to do with the writing/story construction of those first 38 issues of ASM than some might imagine. With those issues being the "Bible" of Spidey and all but a few of Spidey's most famous villains being introduced there, Steve's influence cannot and should not be underestimated.

While it is Stan that get a majority of the credit when it came to the Marvel Universe, but isn't it also true that Lee has gone on record over the contributions that Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby gave to the Marvel U ?

Of course Stan has given them credit; my point is just that Stan's PR-friendly persona could not help but steamroll (intentionally or not) right over the quiet and industrious Jack Kirby and the downright reclusive Steve Ditko. Stan was a Hollywood-ready personality and just so he became the poster boy for the Marvel U almost right out of the gate----of course, the fact that he authored and co-created just about every major Marvel character recognized today (with a few notable exceptions like Wolverine and Punisher) was a big part of it. Again, the original point is that Stan Lee has become almost synonymous with Marvel to the average consumer whereas Ditko and Kirby's names are not as recognizable.

Everyone recognizes that Spider-Man and Doctor Strange are Steve Ditko's greatest MAJOR marvel characters...

[Webhead]

What an artist.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Happy Birthday to the great Steve Ditko!

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Happy Birthday to Stephen John Ditko, the true creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, the artist behind those great Warren horror comics with Archie Goodwin, and a character designer behind the likes of The Question, Blue Beetle/Ted Kord, Captain Atom, Hawk and Dove, The Creeper, Speedball, Squirrel Girl. Watchmen is simultaneously a homage and a deconstruction to the man, the myth, the legend with Dave Gibbons borrowing from his pioneering use of the 9-Panel Grid and real NYC backgrounds and his great eye for character design and Alan Moore engaging in his respectful but critical look at Ditko's objectivism and right-wing glorification of vigilantism.

I wrote about Ditko and explored his life and his involvement with Spider-Man multiple times this year, and it was a privilege to get into the nuts and bolts of the Lee-Ditko run, to put it under the hood and going panel-by-panel.

https://elvingsmusings.wordpress.com...spidey-really/
https://elvingsmusings.wordpress.com...tural-history/
https://elvingsmusings.wordpress.com...reated-spidey/

There's a lot of new stuff and ideas in those comics people haven't picked up or written about. Like Ditko inserting homages to Classical Painting casually in this panel, there might be others but it's clear that Ditko had ideas and a sense of ambition. And people need to study his works more, because only about 2-3% of what's in those comics have been written or discussed about imo.