Category: Comic Books

A Kick of Ditko

DitkoPkg

Robin Snyder’s Kickstarter project, reprinting the Ditko Public Service Package #2, is out and it’s here. Besides myself, financial contributors to the project include Mark Evanier, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Ross, whose name comes after Dennis F. Rogers.

DitkoSnyder

This is my first Kickstarter project, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the other two I’ve joined come out.

Truth, Justice, and the Humanist Way

Superman #215, April, 1969
Superman #215, April, 1969 – Page 14, panel 4

On my Kindle Keyboard I’m in the middle of reading Larry Tye’s excellent book about the ultimate illegal alien, Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero. The Boston Globe has a piece by Tye about Superman’s moral compass. The article is at this link, and it requires a login. If you have trouble logging on, click here.

The Superman radio show of the 1940’s with Bud Collyer led to the Superman movie serials with Kirk Alyn, which in turn led to the 1950’s TV series with George Reeves. On occasion the radio series took Superman back to his original comic book roots as a social crusader, and in Tye’s op-ed he points out a 16-part 1946 story called Clan of the Fiery Cross. It can be heard at this page on Archive dot org.

The Ditko Public Service Package

Legendary comic book artist Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and the creator of Dr. Strange, has long been an adherent of Ayn Rand’s so-called Objectivism. I read both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead in college, while studying for my B.A. in Economics, and I think Rand’s ideas are ludicrous, but I enthusiastically support Ditko’s work.

The Ditko Public Service Package on Kickstarter, run by Robin Snyder, Ditko’s publisher, is reprinting an unusual book that came out over twenty years ago. The campaign has two more weeks to go, and I am very pleased that the fund has more than the $4900 that’s needed for the project. I contributed $106, with the extra six bucks for shipping.

Joe Sinnott, from Bing to Beatles

Joltin’ Joe Sinnott’s granddaughter Erin has been posting a very enjoyable weekly series of video Q&A’s with Joe on his Facebook page. Joe’s fans and friends know that he’s a big fan of Bing Crosby, and this week’s question comes from a fellow Der Bingle fan, who’s none other than my co-conspirator in fanboy endeavors, Dennis F. Rogers.

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Joe’s praise for Bing singing the plaintive Hang Me, Oh Hang Me makes it deserving of a listen, so here it is.

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I’m pleased no end that Joe Sinnott also has a connection to the Beatles, because when they came to America in 1964, Joe had the distinction of being picked to illustrate the authorized comic book of their story…

… and here’s Joe talking about drawing the Beatles. A couple of years later he would be in the thick of his legendary run with Jack Kirby on The Fantastic Four.

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