April 16, 2009

Questar #5 [1979]

Ditko had a story in each of the first five issues of William G. Wilson Jr.'s science fiction magazine QUESTAR, with "The Rescue" in this issue being the final one. Only a 2-page story, unlike the 6-pagers in the previous issues.

The story is pretty basic, space hero Kace rescues his girlfriend Niela from some weird alien creature. In a nice change from the norm for these kinds of stories, Niela gets in a few shots of her own, and the dialogue is pretty snappy. I'm sure some people will be glad to hear there's not much philosophical preaching, other than Kace saying the villain will "get none of [his] tears" when the villain's weapon backfires on him.

The real star is the artwork. Ditko's work for QUESTAR is always very detailed, apparently drawn at a larger size than was standard for his DC/Marvel/Charlton work of the same era, and his inking is just stunning. It's an added bonus that this great work also got the best production Ditko's work had seen up to that point, still looking brand new on bright white paper after 30 years, unlike anything those other companies published then.


1 comment:

  1. Just saw you mention this over at the Ditkomania Facebook page....

    What stunning artwork. Such a master at black & white art.
    His always inventive alien/dimensional landscapes are in full effect here. And that 3rd panel is phenomenal. I'd like to see one of the talented gents over at the DM Facebook page give it try and color it!

    ReplyDelete

Followers

Powered By Blogger