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Gerry Turnbull
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: Scotland
Posts: 8767
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 8:24am | IP Logged | 1
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sold with a drawing of Mr.A for $1500 last year
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Joe Hollon
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 13682
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 8:37am | IP Logged | 2
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I find myself becoming increasingly fascinated with Steve Ditko. Last week I stopped to check out a comic store I had never been to and stumbled upon "Steve Ditko's 160 Page Package." A collection of short stories by Mr. Ditko from 1999. I also purchased Essential Doctor Strange vol 1 this week and have begun reading it. After reading some stuff about Ditko online I even went on to research the "objectivist" philosophy (I think that's what it's called).
I just can't get how he can be such an amazing recluse. There are only two photographs of him I have ever seen...he hasn't done an official interview of any type since the mid 1960s...he co-created one of the most successful pop culture icons in American history (Spider-Man) and hasn't had any association with him for 40 years. I just wonder what Ditko thinks when he walks into Wal-Mart and sees a rack of Spider-Man toys, or coloring books, toothbrushes, etc. What about when he sees TV shows covering the multi-million dollar movies based on his creation?
It drives me crazy but I guess Ditko should be commended for living his life the way he really wants to. Most celebrities who have a reputation of being reclusive really aren't and just create that image to make them seem "cool." Obviously, that's not the case with Ditko.
On a similar note, there are two "Ditko Rejection Letters" posted on comicsartfans.com where Ditko responds to autograph requests telling the fans he doesn't sign anything...but then the letter is signed! Pretty cool.
Maybe someone on here can give me some more insight into Mr. Ditko.
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Joe Zhang
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12857
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 9:24am | IP Logged | 3
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If Ditko opened himself up to fandom, he would likely end up taken for
granted and ridiculed. I think what he is doing is a smart way to spend
his golden years.
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Bill Collins
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Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11264
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 9:24am | IP Logged | 4
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It strikes me that his handwriting has a simliar feel to his artwork.
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James Hanson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 February 2006
Posts: 2396
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 10:08am | IP Logged | 5
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Steve Ditko is just a flat out incredible sequential artist. Just a
really unique art style. If I were to compare him to a rock band, he's
the Pink Floyd of comicbook artists.
A cool side note, I believe he taught for a little while at an art
school in Manhattan that offered a degree in sequential art. Could you
imagine being a young comic book artist and being taught by the guy
that was a third of Marvel's Holy Trinity?
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Gregg Allinson
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4252
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 10:34am | IP Logged | 6
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After reading some stuff about Ditko online I even went on to research the "objectivist" philosophy (I think that's what it's called).
Read The Fountainhead. It might take you a while (it is about a thousand pages), but it's pretty much the final word on objectivism.
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Jay Matthews
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 October 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2468
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 10:40am | IP Logged | 7
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Atlas Shrugged is the one that's over a thousand pages, and was at least conceived of by Rand as the "end all and be all." She worked most of her significant essays into as speeches by the character. But it is more about economics than the Fountainhead.
The Fountainhead would seem to be the most germane to interest in Ditko, with individual vision and artistic passion being central.
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Chuck Dixon
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 174
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 11:03am | IP Logged | 8
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I cannot begin to imagine the heartbreak Steve Ditko has suffered over the decades after choosing to no longer have anything to do with his most personal creation. The character of Spider-man has become more and more popular each year and is now a billion dollar movie franchise and an icon equal to Superman or Batman in the eyes of a worldwide public. He's been shut out of all of that and, far worse, left with no say in the character's creative direction.
When in negotiations for ownership or participation in a character I've created I always come at it from the angle that, bottom line, I never want to be sitting in a movie theater with tears in my eyes as a creation of mine is used without any financial remuneration to me.
Compound that to infinity for the series of indignities that Mr Ditko has suffered all these years with Spider-man appearing everywhere from the movie sceen to toilet paper.
Even without his reclusive ways and dedication to a strict ethos this would have driven me to a hermitage.
I met Mr Ditko briefly a number of years ago. I think I successfully contained my urge to go geek on him as I have idolized him since childhood. We had a brief, informative conversation and I found him to be gracious and funny.
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James Hanson
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Joined: 14 February 2006
Posts: 2396
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 11:05am | IP Logged | 9
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Isn't his most personal creation Mr. A or the Question?
Also, I think I've read elsewhere that he's refused any financial compensation from the various Spider-Man projects.
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Chuck Dixon
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Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 11:27am | IP Logged | 10
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Trust me, Peter Parker IS Steve Ditko. His whole heart and soul went into the creation of that character and his world. If you were privy to more details of Ditko's life you would know it's very nearly auto-biographical. Except, of course, the getting bit by a radioactive spider part.
Mr A is, by definition, his least personal project. Just a dramatization of his beliefs in objectivism.
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Christopher Arndt
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Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 278
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | 11
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Yes. If Chuck Dixon hadn't said it I would have.
Mr. A is not a representation of Steve Ditko but a personification or dramatization of his philosophy or beliefs.
The Question is a more commercially palatable version of Mr. A and always has been while under Ditko's hand. Mr. A is owned by Ditko and not for the purpose of profit. The Question is what he sold to Charlton to sell comic books.
I actually think it's a shame that the Question got away from Ditko and it's an almost equal shame that the Question has not been written so much by people with a mindset so close to Ditko's or at least written so much in resemblence to the original visions and stories.
"you used your heat vision on Doomsday just as the Justice Lord did."
"that was different--" "IT'S THE SAME!" The cartoon was closer to the original comic.
I would be forced to agree with Chuck about Peter Parker.
I would be forced to argue with anyone who claims that the Peter Parker character "represents the everyman" or "is the everyman" or that he ever was "the everyman". Geez.
I would be forced to actually be utterly confused by Ditko and Dr. Strange. Ditko invested a lot of work, effort, creativity, time, and swear into Dr. Strange. But from what I read of Randian objectivist philosophy there isn't much in the way that Strange's world meshes with Ditrko's or Rand's. I thought objectivists weren't much into the ways of mysticism or altruism. There is much in the way of the Master of the Myster Arts that wouldn't land him the spot as Ayn's favorite person.
I want to know what Ditko did with and for the Creeper. What was in his head and what was the Creeper supposed to mean? I only have read one Ditko Creeper and it was in a World's Finest Comics issue. I don't know if he wrote it and at the time I didn't read the credits.... I simply recognize the art style in my mind's eye. Soooo... what was Creeper to Ditko? and I know that modern creeper is NOT what I read back in the seventies.
Every one of his projects and characters that much in the way of investment that he didn't own got turned into somethng distant. His most personal creation is a billion-dollar icon with a multitude of public interpretations. His least personal creation is owned by him.
I wish to meet the man.
CJA
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Joe Hollon
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Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 13682
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| Posted: 21 May 2006 at 12:46pm | IP Logged | 12
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Chuck Dixon wrote: "I cannot begin to imagine the heartbreak Steve Ditko has suffered over the decades after choosing to no longer have anything to do with his most personal creation."
**************************
Thanks for responding. I guess what I'm thinking is, wouldn't it be pretty easy for Ditko to earn back some of what he has been "shut out of" if he really wanted it? Legions of comics fans would line up to heap praise upon him. I'm sure he could get a deal similar to what Marvel gave Stan Lee (at least in terms of Spider-Man). Also, as James Hanson said above I think I recall reading that Ditko refused anything to do with Spider-Man including $$$. That's why I really wonder what he thinks. Is he embarassed by Spider-Man? Wishes he never had anything to do with it?
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Topic Closed)
