Since the death of Steve Ditko a few months ago we have lost the superb comic book illustrator Russ Heath and former Marvel writer Gary Friedrich, whose run on Sgt. Fury I enjoyed very much. On the same day as Gary’s passing, longtime Marvel artist Marie Severin also passed away.
Category: Comic Books
Now I’ve Seen Everything
My good friend Bismo from B-Movie Blues… on stage at Terrificon in Connecticut… with legendary comic book writer/editor Roy Thomas… doing a couple of Elvis songs?? It was a fantastic scene, and a once-in-a-lifetime event that was straight from the Bizarro World!
For an extra special bonus, before joining the ranks of Elvis impersonators, Thomas visited with my pal Joltin’ Joe Sinnott, who was one of Roy’s most valuable artistic assets at Marvel Comics.
A Randian View of Steve Ditko
An article in The Objectivist Standard has a remembrance of Steve Ditko by someone who seemed to have been inspired by Ditko’s comic book stories to look into the the ideas of Ayn Rand.
Fanboys Assemble!
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.
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When Atlas nearly collapsed in 1957, Stan Lee kept the company going by using a large stash of previously unpublished inventory stories.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.