The Society of Illustrators in New York has a new exhibition featuring original Marvel Comics art. The Art of The Avengers and Other Heroes runs through October 20th.
Category: Comic Books
Mr. A. Machine
Before and after working for Marvel Comics, Steve Ditko was an artist for Charlton in Derby, Connecticut. In its Atlas days, before returning to superhero comics, Marvel was a step down from National Periodical Publications, aka DC, with Charlton at the low end of the comic book publishing business.
When Atlas nearly collapsed in 1957, Stan Lee kept the company going by using a large stash of previously unpublished inventory stories. But Stan had to lay off his reliable stable of artists who had drawn those inventory stories, including my pal Joe Sinnott. Joe was desperate for work and he found it at Charlton by anonymously penciling thousands of Romance story pages for Vince Colletta.
Ten years later comic books were back in a big way, and Marvel was taking over the top spot from DC. Joe had returned to the Bullpen, but Steve Ditko left for reasons that will never be fully explained. Ditko returned to Charlton, where he drew mystery stories, undoubtedly for a fraction of the page rate that he was earning at Marvel plotting and drawing Spider-Man and Dr. Strange.
One of the ways that Charlton saved money was by not having staffers who were specialists in hand lettering. Instead, Charlton had A. Machine. One of the fixed links I have on this blog is for Charlton Comics: The Movie. The team behind the project have uncovered the secret identity of A. Machine, and they will reveal it in their upcoming documentary.
An Avenging World Without Ditko
Credit for getting the word out about Steve Ditko’s passing apparently goes to Graig Weich.
The Washington Post has comments about Ditko from Neil Gaiman.
My buddy Denro says that Craig Yoe has a unique story and personal remembrance of Ditko meeting Jim Henson.
A is A
Steve Ditko, one of the true giants of comic book creators, has died. Ditko was Ditko, and he was a one-of-a-kind original who was born to draw comic books.
It’s reported that Ditko was found dead in his New York apartment on June 29, and that he had probably been dead for a couple of days.
I have been pledging to Ditko’s Kickstarter campaigns from the beginning, and the last one ended on the 4th of July. I have to wonder when his publisher, Robin Snyder, learned of Ditko’s death. He lived alone, and perhaps it was Robin who called the NYPD to request that a well-being check be made.
Other than the available sketchy facts, and my speculation, there are my feelings about the loss of Steve Ditko. Something I have said before is that if you aren’t a Silver Age comic book fan, there is no way I can convey to you how deeply I feel about Ditko’s compelling artwork. To use a bit of Stan Lee hyperbole, it got under my skin and went all the way to the marrow of my bones.
From what I know, saying that Ditko was co-creator of Dr. Strange is incorrect. In a Marvel Comics blurb from Stan Lee upon the character’s first appearance in 1963, Lee said the character was Steve’s idea. And now he’s being played by Benedict Cumberbatch! Something else I’ve said before is that it’s utterly amazing to me that the comic book characters I loved as a kid, starting over 50 years ago, are now generating billions of dollars in movie ticket sales. It’s un-f-in’ believable. And yet, here we are.
I’m rambling a bit here, but I’m stunned by this inevitable, sad news. Ditko’s greatest character is probably Mr. A, who was an inspiration for the Watchmen character Rorschach, along with Ditko’s The Question. Mr. A is anything but mainstream, but he is the embodiment of Ayn Rand’s “A is A” philosophy of Objectivism. Although I do not agree with Ditko’s closely held personal views, I sincerely respected his right to believe in them, and I am truly grateful for having had the opportunity to provide direct support to him through Kickstarter.
About Face
As explained previously, I deactivated my Facebook account due to a slew of offensive spam ads in my newsfeed. When Prue suggested watching a video on Facebook, I went back in to take a look. (I originally joined Facebook at Prue’s request.)
To my surprise, I was able to log in as if I hadn’t deactivated the account, which I don’t think is how it’s supposed to work. But at least I didn’t see any of those really stupid ads.
Scrolling down the newsfeed I spotted a happy accident, like the one I posted last year, where two items, presented one on top of the other, made a visual joke. Both examples also happen to have comic book connections. In this one the Marvel Comics X-Men character Storm, as drawn by the late Dave Cockrum, comes to life in the face of Mindy Kaling.
To Infinity and Beyond!
With nothing else to do here today in hot ‘n’ sunny AZ, I saw “Avengers: Infinity War.” Last night I did some preparatory homework by watching “Thor: Ragnarok” on Netflix.
Without having the very confusing Thor movie under my story arc belt, I would have been lost trying to follow the start of the even more confusing Infinity War. Having not seen the Black Panther movie, I ended up nevertheless suffering from continuity exhaustion.
The only thing I didn’t see listed in the closing credits was the kitchen sink, but it must have been in there, because everything else was! Without giving anything away, one comment I will make is there’s a scene in Infinity War that’s identical to Captain America being rescued in Avengers #4 — except it isn’t Cap, it happens in space, and the Avengers aren’t the team that does the saving.
Oh, wait. There was one other thing I didn’t see in the closing credits. Steve Ditko’s name. He co-created Spider-Man and created Doctor Strange. Maybe he’s in there but I missed it.