More on Ditko at Warren

With the recently announced reprint of Ditko's Warren work, some more about that stuff.

The stories are:


Room With A View - Eerie #3 [1966]
The Spirit Of The Thing - Creepy #9 [1966]
Shrieking Man - Eerie #4 [1966]
Collector's Edition - Creepy #10 [1966]
Black Magic - Eerie #5 [1966]
Beast Man - Creepy #11 [1966]
Deep Ruby - Eerie #6 [1966]
Blood Of The Werewolf - Creepy #12 [1966]
Fly - Eerie #7 [1967]
Second Chance - Creepy #13 [1967]
Demon Sword - Eerie #8 [1967]
Where Sorcery Lives - Creepy #14 [1967]
Isle Of The Beast - Eerie #9 [1967]
City Of Doom - Creepy #15 [1967]
Warrior Of Death - Eerie #10 [1967]
The Sands That Change - Creepy #16 [1967]

All but the last are written by Archie Goodwin.  The last one is written by Clark Dimond and Terry Bisson.

I posted about a couple of them here:

Creepy #16 [1967]Eerie #5 [1966]
Eerie #9 [1967]
Eerie #10 [1967]
Creepy The Classic Years [1991]

Look for a few more soon.

I've asked this before, but still don't have an answer. The following illustration appeared in a previous collection of reprints when Harris had the rights to the old Warren stuff, CREEPY THE CLASSIC YEARS [1991]:

Looks like it could have been intended as a letter column header or some similar purpose.  Does anyone know if it actually ever appeared in the magazine, or anywhere else prior to the 1991 book?

And, big longshot here, but someone once sent me a quote from a later Warren editor (maybe Bill Dubay?) about what Ditko replied when the editor tried to commission some more work from Ditko for Warren years after the sixteen published stories. I can't find the e-mail now, and I don't want to quote it from memory without a citation. Anyone else ever see that quote?

Trick or Treat

boo

A convention tale...

So, I'm at a comic convention, which is probably always a mistake, but anyway, I'm digging through some bargain bins, which is what I do (Ditko finds were minor, but included some of his 1980s Marvel work (some INDIANA JONES, a Speedball short), the last WORLD'S FINEST with a Creeper story I needed, a few Charltons. I was hoping for a lot more 1970s Charltons, after finding a stack of them for $1 each last year, but no dice).

Anyway, just as I find a few early issues of BADGER I need, a light shines in my face, and I glance around and see it's a TV crew. So I go back to checking which issues of BADGER I need. Well, what would you do? Then the TV guy for some unfathomable reason decides to interview me. And I'm not even dressed as a Jedi Knight! Seriously, bizarre, you few reading this who have met me know I'm sort of the exact opposite of telegenic. Anyway, I don't think I really did too well with the interview, was a bit distracted, and probably should have gone with my first instinct and just asked them to get that camera out of my face, so I doubt it'll make it to air. For the most part I rejected the premise of every question I was asked (comics as an investment, fantasy as the main appeal of comics, the Batman movie having anything to do with anything). They seemed kind of surprised by the fact that I had a list of every comic I own on an electronic device (which I geekily call Mother Box, though I didn't think to call it that on camera, which I regret), and that I have about 13,000 comics, all of which I've read or intend to read.

But the reason I'm posting this on the Ditko weblog? The reason I was distracted? Because I kept wishing I had a dog so I could re-enact this scene from the DITKO PUBLIC SERVICE PACKAGE...

I love that book, so, so much.

Speaking of Creepy...

The following illustration appeared in a previous collection of reprints from the mag, CREEPY THE CLASSIC YEARS [1991]:

Looks like it could have been intended as a letter column header or some similar purpose.  Does anyone know if it actually ever appeared in the magazine, or anywhere else prior to the 1991 book?

Update, Robin Snyder informs me that he was preparing a CREEPY revamp for Harris, including creators like Richard Corben, Henry Boltinoff, Rudy Nebres, Pat Boyette and Robert Kanigher, and the Ditko header was done for the first issue of that.

Mr. A. - The Shirt

This ad that appeared in DITKO PUBLIC SERVICE PACKAGE [1991], and I believe some issues of CBG around that time, always cracks me up.

Why? well take a closer look:

You know you're hardcore when your stance on compromise extends to fabric blends!

I'm kind of sorry now that I didn't order the t-shirt. Anyone get one? Or the sticker? Mort, are you out there? Any chance there's a case of shirts sitting somewhere? XL preferably, but hey, I need a good incentive to trim down, so L will do.

And I still hope we someday see that origin of Mr. A. (I think one of the few images from the series to make it out into the wild is the one linked to here).

Dark Dominion query

  

I picked up a handful of early Defiant comics cheaply, and I noticed that the ad for the Dark Dominion #0 card set (first image above) has two cards that definitely appear, given the small size, to be drawn by the announced art team of Ditko/Leialoha, and which don't appear in the actual card set (the 150 card standard set, at least, I don't know about the insert cards), as well as the demon image which also seems to be Ditko/Leialoha and appeared in a promo for the series (second image above) that still said it would be Ditko/Leialoha mere weeks before it came out. I'm not sure about the third image, another early ad for the series, which has hints of both Ditko and Leialoha, but doesn't quite seem right, but that may be it being blown up larger than intended.

So, my question to those who paid more attention to the line than I did, is there any other Ditko artwork for the series that only saw print in promotional and advertising material?

Also, regarding the published card set, the 117-card / 26-page story definitely seems to be Ditko inked by someone other than Leialoha (apparently credited to Keith Wilson and Grey in a later issue). I'm not so sure about all of the 33 "character cards" that round out the set. Most of the fronts are definitely Ditko, others seem not to be, or heavily inked. The backs don't seem to have as much Ditko, but there are some images that definitely seem to be Ditko or someone trying really hard to make it look like it is, but the images are pretty small.The ad mentions other insert cards. 9 foil stamped cards with a hidden image viewable with a special lens, 4 cards with DD characters with other Defiant characters, drawn by both Ditko and the artists of the other books and, most surprisingly, 10 cards with original Ditko art. Given that contents of the set changed at the last minute, can anyone confirm if those extras exist as described? And given the success of the set, have any of those Ditko originals, if they exist, ever been seen, or are they probably buried in an unopened case in a warehouse or landfill somewhere?

Have I mentioned how stupid I think releasing a comic in this format is?

A cover gallery

Books published by Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko (except THE LONELY ONE and OUT OF THIS WORLD, published by Robin Snyder), September 1988 to April 2008.  Most of them still available.

Five by Gill & Ditko

A sampling of some of the Gill/Ditko collaborations over the years.

"Captain Atom on Planet X" from Space Adventures #36 [1960], as reprinted in The Action Heroes Archives #1 [2004]

Gill and Ditko created Captain Atom back in 1960, one of the earliest new super-heroes of the Silver Age, and it's a good combination of classic super-heroics, science fiction and early space-age standards. In this story, Captain Adam finds out that a recently launched US spy satellite, Planet X, is going to be targeted by rockets from unfriendly nations, and flies out to space to protect the satellite. A simple enough story, but with a few nice bits of humour and some room for good Ditko visuals. Although in retrospect you can't help but wonder how the Ditko of a few years later would have felt about Captain Atom helping to "negotiate a lasting peace". Negotiate? Why would a man knowingly take poison...

"The Peacemaker" from Konga #13 [1963], as reprinted in The Lonely One [1989]

Konga was based on a movie about a monkey who mutates into a giant gorilla. The original adaptation by Gill and Ditko was pretty good, but what I really enjoy are some of the later stories which feature some unlikely but fun continuing adventures of our misunderstood hero. Quite different from the typical "giant monster on the loose" story, there's a lot of humour in the stories, and Konga comes across as a very sympathetic character. It's one of my favourite Gill/Ditko works. In this story, Konga heads down to South America to escape the Arctic chill which gave him a cold, and finds himself foiling the plans of a communist dictator.

"Escape" from Ghost Manor #15 [1973], as reprinted in Steve Ditko's 160 Page Package #3 [1999]

Gill and Ditko did a lot of one-off stories in the 1970s Charlton comics, many reprinted in this 1999 collection from Robin Snyder. It's a good variety of stuff, quite a few with some visually inventive little bits, some less serious and others more horror based. This story is about a WWII prisoner of war camp, where the commander and his men are excessively cruel (to the point that they even have to fake reports of the deaths of prisoners to their Nazi superiors). A spy is put among the prisoners and reveals their escape plans to the camp commander, leading to the death of four prisoners. Fortunately, in horror stories death is never the end, and the ghosts of the prisoners exact some fitting revenge.

"Freedom's Star" from E-Man #5 [1974]

This is a fairly goofy back-up story presented as a "pilot" for a possible ongoing series featuring Liberty Belle, a super-heroine who also runs a modelling agency in her identity as Caroline Dean. In this story she's called in by the President to prevent the hijacking of a space mission, and ends up replacing the potential hi-jacker and going up to Skylab III to prevent an attack by space pirates. Boy, almost hard to believe this didn't get picked up for a series, isn't it? Anyway, Gill pretty clearly played this concept for laughs, and that combined with Ditko's sense of 1970s fashion make for a potent brew.

"A Man Possessed" from What Is... The Face #3 [1987]

ACE Comics reunited Gill on scripts (over plots by Ron Frantz) and Ditko on pencils with three issues of this title in 1986 and 1987. More on the first issue here. In this issue, Tony Trent continues to fight crime under the identity inherited from his grandfather, but finds himself framed for a murder. He also finds out that that there's more to the Face mask than he knew, as a vision of his grandfather leads him to a Chinese temple and some clues about never-revealed secrets, and eventually fights the bad-guys in a foggy airport where a big drug-buy is going down. Gill writes a good script, with a lot of opportunities for Ditko to draw some good action scenes.

Ditko did the following drawing for Robin Snyder's History of the Comics v3#2 [1992], along with a short note on Gill titled "First Choice" (both reprinted in Steve Ditko's 160 Page Package #3 [1999]), where he said "I know Joe's scripts made my stay [at Charlton] and the work enjoyable and worthwhile. Our efforts are worth saving and still enjoyable in reviewing with a long list of favorites."

Joe Gill R.I.P.

Mark Evanier reports that Joe Gill passed away recently. Gill of course had a long collaboration with Ditko, primarily at Charlton, including the original Captain Atom stories. I highly recommend the recent CHARLTON SPOTLIGHT #5 for a look at Gill's career.

Look for some posts on Gill/Ditko comics later this week.

Always remember...

I'm a bit late to the party, but there you go. Click on the link for as much of an explanation as there is for this.

Welcome

Modelled after my Jack Kirby Comics Weblog, this will be an attempt to post on every single comic publication I have with Steve Ditko artwork (currently about 500 out of about 2000 eligible books, both numbers will probably grow by the time I'm done). At first I'm only going to be posting here about once a week, but after the Kirby weblog has exhausted its supply of material (sometime in 2007) I'll probably go up to daily.