It Stalks the Public Domain - If Looks Could Kill

http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories is the place to go for the full list of these.

"If Looks Could Kill" is a 6-page horror story from Charlton's THE THING #15 [1954]. A very strange little story about a doctor who gets kidnapped by a hypnotist who seems to have some enormous powers in his eyes, but can't think of anything better to do with them than penny-ante kidnap schemes. Then it gets really bizarre, with a lot of twists in the handful of pages. A pretty cool little story, and Ditko does a great job of picking out some key bits to give his special touch. Check out that close-up on page 3, for example.

The usual links:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

Enlarge images through clicking.

Upcoming Ditko - Indy and reprints of reprints

Dark Horse has some reprints of Marvel's INDIANA JONES comics of the 1980s. They don't specify exactly which issues (anyone have the first volume know where it left off?) so I'm not sure which Ditko issues are included, but presumably at least the first one, #21. He did eight in all, so the bulk of them would probably appear in a hypothetical volume 3. And oddly, it looks like their Warren reprints are going to include reprints, so CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 5, will include a few stories that will already be in the EERIE ARCHIVES

And the softcover MARVEL MASTERWORKS get up to the first slim HULK volume, Ditko inks on one issue, full art on another.

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INDIANA JONES OMNIBUS: THE FURTHER ADVENTURES VOLUME 2
David Michelinie (W/A), Herb Trimpe (W/A), Larry Lieber (W), Archie Goodwin (W), Jackson Guice (A), Steve Ditko (A), and others
On sale Oct 21
FC, 368 pages    $24.95
TPB, 6" x 9"

Clouds of war gather ominously over Europe . . . the Great Depression grips the world... but one globe-trotting archaeologist’s thirst for adventure and discovery remains undaunted by his times in The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones!

Writer David Michelinie continues to team up with notable comics artists Steve Ditko, David Mazzucchelli, Herb Trimpe, and Jackson Guice to entertain Indy fans everywhere! This massive volume collects twelve full issues of the 1980s ongoing series—along with the official adaptation of Temple of Doom—for the very first time.

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CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 5
Various (W/A)
On sale Oct 28
b&w, 240 pages    $49.95
HC, 8 3/8" x 10 7/8"
Enter a world of the finest in scary storytelling and dazzling artwork! Creepy Archives Volume 5 continues the critically acclaimed series that throws back the dusty curtain on a treasure trove of amazing comics art and brilliantly blood-chilling stories. From the gorgeously painted full-color covers to the exquisite black-and-white interiors, this groundbreaking archival series resurrects some of the finest graphic storytelling ever printed. From “The Rats in the Walls” to “It That Lurks,” these are infamous tales to chill the blood.
• Featuring the artwork of comics legends Steve Ditko, Reed Crandall, Angelo Torres, Alex Toth, and more!

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MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE INCREDIBLE HULK VOL. 1 TPB
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY & STEVE DITKO
Cover by JACK KIRBY & DEAN WHITE
Dr. Robert Bruce Banner may have the appearance of a mild-mannered scientist, but after being caught in a gamma bomb explosion, he became the unstoppable engine of destruction known as the Incredible Hulk! Hot off the success of the FANTASTIC FOUR, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's atomic update on the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde tale, mixed the joy of giant monsters with Cold War intrigue and added a heavy dose of psychological drama to create a formula that even decades later has readers clamoring for more. So for each and every purple pants loving Hulkophile, the MARVEL MASTERWORKS are proud to present the Hulk's original six-issue solo series in one amazingly restored volume. You'll meet Bruce Banner, Rick Jones, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross of the U.S. Army and the lovely Betty Ross for the first time. You'll see the Hulk's first appearance as the gray goliath before he turned that familiar shade of green. You'll watch the Hulk bust knuckles with the far-out Toad Men, the subterranean Tryannus, monstrous Mongu, and the Metal Master, and to make it that much better, the incomparable Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko illustrate it all. Collecting THE INCREDIBLE HULK #1-6
176 PGS./All Ages ...$24.99

--Link-- Not quite Ditko in NEW YORKER

Over here for a look at a recent NEW YORKER cartoon that might seem familiar.

Eerie #5 [1966]

Archie Goodwin writes the 8-page story "Black Magic" for Ditko to provide the full ink-wash treatment.  In this tale, the wizard Valdar, confident in his long-studied mastery of black magic, aspires to raise the dead, despite the warnings of his old teacher.  Unfortunately for him, he's unaware of one of secret that the master kept from the apprentice.

A great story by Goodwin, with some smart dialogue and a clever twist that is completely fair, well forshadowed and still a surprise. Ditko matches him all the way, with one of the best of the stories he did with the ink-wash effect. The smokey demons Valdar conjures in the first scene set the mood nicely, and the effect of the final spell gone wrong are about as scary as anything he ever drew.

It Stalks the Public Domain - Dead Reckoning

Have I mentioned http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories lately?

"Dead Reckoning" is a 7-page Ditko story that appeared in Charlton's SPACE ADVENTURES #11 [1954]. Amusing little story taking common themes in crime fiction of the time and pretty much just translating them wholesale to a science fiction setting (with the conceit that one of the characters is a fan of 20th century detective stories). A lot of fun, as contrived as parts of it are.

Ditko's very much doing his version of the EC style of the time, an influence which pops up occasionally in his work of this era, and one could easily see this story fitting comfortably in an issue of WEIRD SCIENCE, with the alien landscapes, sexy female lead and tale of treasure and betrayal.

Also, those floating lips on the splash panel, just creepy.

The usual links:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

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It Stalks the Public Domain - Dead Right

http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories is the place you want to be.

Oh, this is a sweet bit of early Ditko from Charlton's STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #18 [1954]. The 6-page "Dead Right" features a reporter and photographer visiting the London home of a man named Mr. Mord, who creates grotesque wax heads of notorious killers. One head in particular horrifies the reporter, who has his photographer secretly snap a picture of it, which leads him to discover Mord's secret.

Ditko really knocks this one out of the park, from the creepy heads to the Mr. Mord's ever-present cat to the murder scene to the scarred face. Definitely one of my favourites from the era.

The usual links:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

  

 

It Stalks the Public Domain - Inheritance

Part of a series, as you'll see here: http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories

The 5-page "Inheritance" was the cover featured story in Charlton's THE THING #14 [1954], and tells the story of two archeologists who discover the secret of a family curse in the tomb of Tutankamen. It's a pretty good story, although there seem to be some odd gaps in the script, as it if it was edited down from something longer.

It's a great example of early Ditko art, with a lot of visuals he would later use in other Egyptian based stories. Check out that great grinning statue on the bottom of page 1, and those panels in the "waterfront dive" on page 4.

The usual links:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

  

 

Adventure Comics #476 [1980]

The 9-page "Crown or Coffin" is the tenth of the twelve Starman stories by Paul Levitz, Steve Ditko and Romeo Tanghal, and can be considered the end of the first major storyline, if there had been a second major storyline. Having established the background, the major players are together, with Oswin capturing Starman, the Empress and Merria with the help of Mn'torr's staff. Fortunately Jediah is able to escape, and manages a last minute rescue to set up a final confrontation, a resolution to the main conflict, and sending Starman off to find Mn'torr.

As always, good solid old-school space opera, with Tanghal a solid compliment to Ditko's pencils.

It Stalks the Public Domain - You Are the Jury

http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories

"You Are The Jury" is a quick and clever little 4-page science fiction story from Charlton's SPACE ADVENTURES #11 [1954].

The opening is a nice little visual of looking through the eyes of an alien defendant in a trial, as we then get a flashback to his crime, which takes place on a visit to Earth where he gets into a card game with some circus folk. Man, I always knew that circus folk would be the end of civilization as we know it.

Anyway, not a masterpiece by any stretch, but a solid story with some nice artwork.

The usual links:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

  

 

It Stalks the Public Domain - Doom in the Air

Hey, kids! Comics! http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories

Below is the 8-page "Doom in the Air" from Charlton's THE THING #14 [1954].

As you'll see, this story starts off looking like a western, as a man is arrested for a murder, but the proper authorities who want to give him a fair trial are intercepted by the three sons of the murdered man, who want to mete out their own frontier justice. Then it gets weird, as the story jumps to the atomic age, and starts to play on the fears of that era in an odd revenge story with a radioactive twist. This is great stuff, with a lot of curveballs in the narrative, a much snappier script than is common for these stories and loads of great visuals from Ditko (pay close attention to the backgrounds of several scenes, and that scene at the bottom of page 5 is just gorgeous).

In both the writing and the art this is one of my favourite early Ditko stories.

Interesting side note, this story has several parallels with the Swamp Thing story "The Nukeface Papers" (SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #35-#36 [1985]) by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Totleben. From some info provided by Steve Bissette this appears to be a coincidence, as the creation of Nukeface dates from Totleben's sketches in the late 1970s (certainly a time when radiation and nuclear safety fears were high), and Totleben was unaware of the Ditko story (which was never reprinted by Charlton) and Bissette didn't see it until he got a copy of the original 1954 comic a few years after the 1985 story was done and noticed the similarities. It's not clear if Moore would have seen the story, even though Charlton comics were often reprinted in the Alan Class comics in Britain pre-Code stuff like this wasn't common (and unfortunately there's no index of those reprints), and in any case the core idea pre-dates Moore's involvement, or any of the team even working on Swamp Thing. Still, a fascinating comparison, especially the closing images of each story.

The usual links:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

Weird War Tales #99 [1981]

Ditko draws the 5-page George Kashdan scripted story "Man's Best Enemy" for this issue of DC's surprisingly long-running series of war stories with horror, fantasy or science fiction twists. In this one, Corky the dog gets attacked by vicious escaped guinea pigs from a bombed out German lab. He immediately gets more aggressive, and soon escapes from his kennel and terrorizes the countryside as a result of whatever twisted experiments were going on in that lab.

Not a great story, but a few of Ditko's images of the crazed rodents and the mad dog are really good, and there's a decent fog effect on the last page that makes the twist ending a little better than it would be otherwise.

It Stalks the Public Domain - The Evil Eye

As usual, check out http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories

This time around we have "The Evil Eye", a 7-page story from Charlton's THE THING #14 [1954].

As you'll see, this is one of the most gruesome of Ditko's early stories. Warren Cairo plans to kill off his wife in a car crash, while planning an alibi for himself so he can inherit her fortune. Unfortunately, the wheelchair bound Gerda has a few things up her sleeve. Not to give too much away, but the bottom of page 5 isn't for the faint of heart.

And check out that really effective use of tonework on the shot of the body going into the water on page 6. That's some really fine technique that the scan really doesn't do justice.

The usual links:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

  

 

Marvel Comics Presents #10 [1989]

Almost a decade after he drew ten issues of the series featuring the Kirby created hero, Ditko returned to plot and pencil an 8-page adventure of Machine Man for this anthology title. "Machine Man Meets the F. F... ...Failure Five" is inked by Dave Cockrum and scripted by Mike Rockwitz.

"Failure Five" is a robot made from scraps by a low-level government scientist which has gained intelligence and wants to steal Machine Man's body. This leads to first the kidnapping of MM's friend Peter Spalding and then a confrontation between the two robots (with MM series regular Colonel Krag also showing up).

It feels like Ditko might have had something else planned for this story that didn't make it into the script. The art, however, is really nice. Cockrum was a really good fit for Ditko (I think this is the only time Cockrum inked Ditko), the robot villain design is nicely wacky and the mixture of that and MM's stretching arms makes for some good stuff in the fight scenes.

It Stalks the Public Domain - Car Show

Continuing a look at early Ditko stories. See http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories for the list.

A rare early Ditko foray into humour, with the 3-page "Car Show" from Charlton's FROM HERE TO INSANITY #10 [1955], one of many humour comics to pop up in the wake of the success of Kurtzman's MAD. Nothing really hilarious in the script, maybe if I was more familiar with cars of that or any other era I'd get it. Ditko does have a lot of nice touches in the art, like his signature being attached to the first panel with a paperclip, that charred panel, the slashed panel.

By the way, if you think that the pages might be out of order, you're not alone. They actually appeared with that charred panel last in the recent reprint in STEVE DITKO: EDGE OF GENIUS, and that actually made more sense to me than this order. Thanks to Nick Caputo for confirming that the order below is indeed the order it appeared in the original comic.

Ditko also does the unrelated cover to this issue.

In addition to being a genre oddity for Ditko, this comic is also a bit of a scheduling oddity. It's dated June, 1955, and is the only comic book with Ditko art to have a 1955 cover date, following a very prolific 1954. The last work Ditko had published before this was a cover 6 months earlier, and the last story was 10 months earlier. His work wouldn't show up again for another 10 months, and that would be for his first brief stint at Marvel, he wouldn't have another story in a Charlton comic until early 1957. So it's not really clear if this was a story (and cover) that just sat in inventory for a while (the comic book industry was in considerable turmoil at the time, this is also the first "post-Code" Ditko story) or if Ditko did indeed draw it in the middle of a period where, for whatever reason, he didn't do any other comics.

Click images, you know the drill.

 

Most scans in this series adapted to my personal tastes from those found, and available for free download with registration, at the Golden Age Comics Download site. To buy some Ditko comics go over here for ordering info on his available creator owned material co-published with Robin Snyder (new book coming soon) and head over here for info on all recent and upcoming books with Ditko from all publishers (some better than others). And be sure to check out DITKOMANIA, the Ditko fanzine, currently running bi-monthly and with some great art and articles.

It Stalks the Public Domain - Comeback

You know the drill, all of them listed here: http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories

"Comeback" appeared in all its 5-page glory in Charlton's THE THING #15 [1954].

Circus freak shows were always a good setting for classic horror comics, so no surprise that Ditko had one with that setting in his early days. The feature of this sideshow is Flexo, the rubber man, who dreams of great wealth, and doesn't care if he earns it or takes it. Seeing the new girl in the show, Satana, the Devil Woman, has a fortune in gems along with her snakes, he drugs and kills her, but is soon enough broke again, and then finds out that crime does not pay.

Decent enough story, and a few really good Ditko visuals, like the old snakes that so often figure into Ditko stories.


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And some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

ROM #59 [1984]

This is the first issue of Ditko's extended run on this series, joining original writer Bill Mantlo and lasting until the final issue of the book with #75. The 22-page story "A World Alive" starts with some quick catch-up, as we're in mid-story. Mantlo does a pretty good job throughout the book re-establishing the major points of the series, so this is a good introduction to ROM, an alien cyborg Spaceknight who has spent the previous 58 issues defending the Earth from his long-time foes the Dire Wraiths and their escalating attacks. The latest wave has the Wraiths infecting insects, so of course Ant-Man finds his expertise required. Ant-Man uses his shrinking powers to send ROM and his companion Starshine down into the body of an infected ant to discover the roots of the problem.

Very neat visual gimmick throughout this story of the pages featuring ROM and Starshine shrinking generally keep them the same size from panel-to-panel while everything around them grows, revealing greater detail as we get further down and some odd perspectives. Keeps it very visually entertaining in the midst of a pretty talky comic.  Also, Ditko gets to give his 30-year-old skills drawing ants a workout, and that's always neat.


Bob Layton is the inker for this issue, and I kind of liked the very slick, modern shine he puts on the artwork, the kind of style I wouldn't want to see on most Ditko work, but that I'm glad we did get to see a few times (Layton would ink one more issue of ROM).

It Stalks the Public Domain - What Was In Sam Dora's Box?

http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories

"What Was In Sam Dora's Box?" is the 7-page story under consideration this time around, originally featured in STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #18 [1954] from the good folks at Derby's finest comic book publisher, Charlton.

Zach Marrow is found dead with a bloody knife in a small-town doctor's home, and the doc then narrates the story of the last few month that led to that, starting with the return to down of Sam Dora, who had been sent away some years earlier but returned after his parents died, and who always walked around with a sealed box on his shoulder.

Strange little story, with a very odd twist at the end. I'm not sure that Ditko really manages that final panel reveal as effectively as he could have, but there's a lot of great stuff along the way.

Also, the colouring on this story has some especially fine and subtle touches, moreso than you'd expect for a Charlton comic of the era.

Story in a bit, first the links I like to include:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

Clicks to bigs:

  

 

Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #31 [1972]

Ditko does the 8-page story "The Heart Of Jeremy Mith" in this issue, also doing the cover for the story. This is about a rich young man with a poor heart who wants to buy a healthy heart. A stranger named Jeremy Mith shows up and offers to sell his heart for a dollar, and so it isn't murder just agrees to try to die of natural causes in the near future. Of course, it turns out he has ulterior motives, but didn't think through his plans.

Interesting visual hook in this story, the panels have a theme of being part on index files from the files of narrator Doctor Graves.  They start off fairly standard, but as the story progresses they get more scattered, including being used as inset panels, leading up to a really explosive layout in the final page. That visual theme is also part of the cover layout.

This story and 19 others by Ditko are reprinted in the still available 1999 collection from Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko.

It Stalks the Public Domain - Von Mohl Vs. The Ants

More classic Ditko at http://tinyurl.com/ditko-stories

"Von Mohl Vs. The Ants" is a 7-page story from Charlton's STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #20 [1954], and one suspects that the anonymous author had read Carl Stephenson short story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" not too long before.

In this version of the story, Hugo Von Mohl is a rubber plantation owner in Africa, cruel to his workers, ruthless to his competitors. Then a sudden attack of the dreaded red ants threatens the area, and Von Mohl insists on staying behind to fight them any way he can, which involves a lot of blowing things up, shooting things and burning things. In the end, well, you'll see, not quite the ending Leiningen got.

Lovely work by Ditko in this one, especially the close-ups of the ants, and some of the lush jungle scenes.  And Von Mohl, with his scars and moustache and monacle, is a great looking Ditko character, a shame he'd never appear again, but we'd see his kind later.

The usual links:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Subscribe to DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from

Clicky to biggy

Blue Ribbon Comics #1 [1983]

While Ditko was the regular artist for Archie's 1983 revival of THE FLY under their Red Circle imprint he also drew the wraparound cover for this first issue of BLUE RIBBON COMICS, which contains reprints of the original version of The Fly from 1959, by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Al Williamson and Angelo Torres.

Rudy Nebres on the inks, and there's some pretty heavy and lush brush work going on there, as you'd expect, so a lot of the Ditko doesn't come through until you look closely at the anatomy and composition. Good looking book overall, with some nice reprints inside.

It Stalks the Public Domain - Family Mixup

List and links, over here.

The last of five Ditko stories from Charlton's THE THING #15 [1954] is the 5-page story "Family Mixup". Pretty much your bog-standard EC-style plot of an unhappy couple planning to do each other in for insurance money, only to find their fates sealed in a more ironic fashion.

Not really among Ditko's best from the era, either, although the title page is nice, as is the panel of the couple begrudgingly making nice to divert suspicion on page 2, and the twin nightmares on page 3.

Most scans in this series adapted to my personal tastes from those found, and available for free download with registration, at the Golden Age Comics Download site. For comics on paper first head over here for ordering info on his available creator owned material co-published with Robin Snyder (including the upcoming DITKO PRESENTS) and head over here for info on recent and upcoming books with Ditko from all publishers, including the fanzine DITKOMANIA.

Click images to big-up them.

Monsters Attack #2 [1989]

MONSTERS ATTACK #2 [1989] is the second of five issues of this magazine from Globe Communications, all of them featuring a short story written and illustrated by Steve Ditko. In this case it's the 5-page "It's All In His Head". The table of contents list the finisher as "E. O'Brain", who I believe may be editor Mort Todd, but I haven't confirmed that yet (see comments). It's pretty good, anyway. The linework is a little rough around the edges, but I do like some of the use of tone work, assuming that was part of "finishing".

A strange little story, with some echoes of the classic "Dream World" from TALES TO ASTONISH #26 [1961], with the gimmick of someone waking up from a series of nightmares, never knowing what's real. This one has the added visual of bodies flying into pieces (also a motif he's used a few times, like with Missing Man), and actually has an explanation in the end. A very nice little story, with Ditko taking a couple of visual ideas and running with them to extremes. I'd definitely like to see a collection of all of his stray bits of work from various magazines like this, QUESTAR and CRACKED.