In Search of Steve Ditko - Part 3
Before there was Dr. Strangelove, there was … Dr. Strange!
1 comment September 25th, 2007
Posts filed under 'In Search of Steve Ditko'
In Search of Steve Ditko - Part 2
That’s Fabulous Flo Steinberg, Marvel’s Corresponding Secretary, and cancer survivor, in the preview frame.
Add comment September 24th, 2007
In Search of Steve Ditko - Part 1
The links to the BBC program by Jonathan Ross, In Search of Steve Ditko that I discuss here have been pulled from YouTube. The customized YouTube player is very impressive, because it supports play lists and presents them in a very slick way. But alas, my attempts at adding play lists to the Flash video player haven’t gone well. So I’ll post the Ditko documentary in separate installments. This is a tiny 320×240 video, and letterboxed at that, scaled up to 440×330.
3 comments September 24th, 2007
Take A Comic Book, Any Comic Book
In the documentary I just posted, In Search of Steve Ditko, there’s a scene where host Jonathan Ross pulls a comic book out of his collection to show to his guests. It’s House of Secrets #92, a DC title that introduced the character Swamp Thing, illustrated by Berni Wrightson. This elicited a huge laugh from me.
As I explained in my post about the Ditko program, being a comics fan at 15 was tough. Due to social pressure I almost gave up the hobby, and would have if not for my friend Morris, who had placed a small ad in the local free weekly “penny seller,” saying he wanted to start a comic book club. My mother gave me permission to meet Morris, despite his being ten years older than myself. I suppose the fact that he was a married father helped.
Meeting Morris was an event with enormous implications, beyond keeping me from quitting my comic book habit. He was a lean and bearded hippie, with wire rim glasses. Shortly after we met, Morris, who is Jewish, bought what he once called a Nazimobile — a new VW Bug (Volkswagen Beetle). Kids who saw Morris picking me up and dropping me off from our trips to buy comic books thought Morris was very cool indeed. The improvement in my social standing at school, and the changes in my life resulting from that, were profound to say the least.
Anyway, during my first visit with Morris, the very first comic book he pulled out of his collection to show me was the then-recent comic House of Secrets #92, which I hadn’t seen because the drug store where I bought comics hadn’t carried it. Having several copies of the issue, Morris let me keep the comic as an introductory present, and I still have it.
Add comment September 22nd, 2007
In Search of Steve Ditko
The BBC documentary about comic book creator Steve Ditko is available on YouTube. Being lazy, I waited for Mark Evanier to provide the link. It’s a particularly good link, because it will play through the entire 60-minute program.
[NOTE: Well, this sucks. The playlist is gone and the player is SNAFU. Evanier's embedded player is likewise broken. Once again I emphasize that when I can download from YouTube I do it. Click here to watch the program.]
This sort of material is, in a way, validation of a hobby that I held onto so strongly, but only with some difficulty, in my youth. If you knew how tough it was to be enthusiastic about comic books at 15 back then, you’d appreciate how satisfying it is to see the people who created those comic books treated with the same respect as professionals in any other legitimate business. Much of the credit for that must be given to Stanley Lieber, otherwise known as Stan Lee.
Stan has always been a tirelessly upbeat promoter of the industry, and his praise for the work of others is undeniable. Every single Marvel Comics “Bullpen” artist — from Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, to Gene Colan and John Romita, to Don Heck and Dick Ayers — did some of their best work for, and with, Stan.
As great a creative force as Jack Kirby was, his dialog was extremely stilted, to the point of sometimes being unreadable. As powerful as Kirby’s art was, the editors at Marvel’s competitor DC weren’t wrong in calling his characters ugly. Ditko’s drawings of people were likewise unattractive, to the point of being grotesque. Stan, as editor and art director, was essential to making it possible for Kirby and Ditko to realize their fantastic visions, and for making their work palatable to Marvel’s primary buying audience — children.
Having said that, I was a bit dismayed that Stan’s normally jovial composure broke somewhat when Jonathan Ross pressed him on the point of giving Steve Ditko co-creator status for Spider-Man. I fully appreciate the legal and financial ramifications of saying a character worth hundreds of millions of dollars belongs not to a corporation, but to people. Taking the next step and saying credit rightfully belongs to two people, not just one, further complicates the matter.
In the documentary, Stan explains that Ditko refused to accept use of the word “consider” in a letter that Lee wrote to Steve, acknowledging his contributions to the creation of Spider-Man. Lee seems to want to brush off the word as if it carries no implication, yet he uses it again when Ross insists on a clarification. The adult in me understands and accepts Lee’s position. The fan in me is disappointed.
Finally, the question that I must ask, if only to the virtual wind of the Net, is “why is this show from the BBC and not PBS?”
1 comment September 22nd, 2007