Questar #1 [1978]

QUESTAR was a science-fiction and fantasy magazine launched in 1978 by William G. Wilson Jr., who had previously published the fanzine THE COLLECTOR which had a few Ditko stories. Ditko writes and draws stories in the first five issues of QUESTAR, starting with "Cosage the Cosmic Agent" in #1, a six-page science fiction story.

The story isn't too much, just a generic cosmic space hero, who pursues an evil conqueror who attacked a planet and kidnapped the daughter of the president. Typical bold hero and cruel villain. The art works a lot better than the story, with a lot of detail (and really sharp reproduction which a lot of Ditko's colour work of the era didn't get), several really good silent sequences and some imaginative settings. It's also a really dense story, with over a dozen panels a page and a lot going on in them, it kind of feels at time what a comic strip drawn by Ditko would be like.

The story was reprinted in colour in CHARLTON ACTION FEATURING STATIC #12 in 1985.

The Outsiders #13 [1986]

Ditko did the pencils for 7-page backup in this issue featuring team member Black Lightning, written by Mike Barr and inked by Jerry Ordway.

"...Ten Minutes" is the story about how Jefferson Pierce ends up confronting three fairly inept but well armed young robbers at an all-night convenience store, and you can guess from the title how long it took him to handle them.

Fairly straightforward story, I think building on a few character points that were being made in the main story, based on the scattering of other OUTSIDERS issues I read from that era. Ordway's inks are pretty good, not quite as overpowering as he often is on some pencilers. Parts of it seem a bit stiff, which might be Ditko's layout style conflicting with Ordway's slicker finishing look.

(Black Lightning created by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden. Outsiders created by Jim Aparo and Mike W. Barr)

Upcoming Ditko - Coyote v4

Steve Englehart continues the reprints of his 1980s Epic series through Image later this year, with the fourth book containing the last two chapters of the Djinn backup series that Ditko pencilled. Shame the four chapters are split among two books, but worth getting if you don't have the original issues.

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COYOTE, VOL. 4 TP
story STEVE ENGLEHART
art CHAZ TRUOG, STEVE DITKO, TODD McFARLANE, FRANK SPRINGER, ART NICHOLS & RICHARD HOWELL
cover TODD McFARLANE
128 PAGES FULL COLOR NOVEMBER 22
$14.99

Women have always been a delight for Coyote (even if they tried to kill him) but he's never met anyone like Slash, who can kill with a look. Still, look who's drawing her origin: TODD McFARLANE, in his first-ever published work. Todd's also on board for the start of a new SCORPIO ROSE series, right beside STEVE DITKO with the whirlwind finale of THE DJINN and CHAZ TROUG with the ongoing adventures of everybody's favorite varmint. Well, everybody except Tally, who's become a Coyote herself - and Cassie, with a Shadow Cabinet target on her back - and the hooker who traded Jesus for a totem - and the Venusian who eats brains. Women! Collects COYOTE #9-12

Phantom 2040 #1 [1995]

Ditko pencilled all four issues of this 1995 mini-series, based on an animated cartoon of the era that took Lee Falk's comic strip character into a near-future science fiction world. Which, yeah, is kind of an odd direction to take a traditionally jungle based character, but that's animation for you.

"Generation Unto Generation" is a 20-page story presenting the first part of the origin of the new Phantom (not sure if it's directly based on an episode of the cartoon). Young Kit Walker of Metropia is approached by Guran, a friend of his father, who vanished 16 years earlier and, as he finds out, was the previous Phantom, with a brief rundown of the classic Phantom history. Kit takes on the identity of the Phantom just as an old enemy of his father plans an attack on the city involving robots, hypnosis and other things. Good enough story, and Ditko does a good job with the action bits. The brief bit of him drawing the Phantom history makes me wish he was doing a historical Phantom series.

The inking is by Bill Reinhold, who does a really good job. As I recall, he mentioned back in an issue of DITKOMANIA that he made an effort to add elements of the style of some of Ditko's classic work to the looser style Ditko used when pencilling work for others. It's one of my favourite of the later examples of someone else inking Ditko, and overall this series is probably my favourite of Ditko's mainstream work in the 1990s.

The issue also features a two-page centerspread poster of the character, pencilled by Ditko and inked by John Romita, I think the only time that combination has ever been seen. As with most things inked by Romita it ends up looking more like Romita with a light flavour of the penciller, but still nice to see.

Marvel Team-Up #101 [1981]

A minor bit of Ditko in this issue, a 5-page backup story called "Don't Let the Sun Come Up On Me", written by Mike Barr and featuring Nighthawk, also the star of the Spider-Man team-up story by other creators that leads the issue (Marvel had just bumped up the cover price and page count of their comics a few months earlier, so this short follow-up story was probably commissioned at the last minute to fill in the extra pages).

I don't know much about the character, other than he was a member of the Defenders, but Ditko does a good job with the design. The story features Nighthawk having a crisis of confidence, which leads to him rather clumsily almost dropping a wall on a young girl. Of course he saves her in the end, and learns a thing or two himself. Not sure if it was intentional on Barr's part, but the sequence does evoke a rather famous scene in a later Ditko Spider-Man. Not quite up to that level, but Ditko does have an affinity for those kinds of scenes, where he gets to show various levels of struggle and desperation in the body language and faces.

Upcoming Ditko - Tales of Suspense Masterworks

Will return to regular posting on this weblog soon, but for now, the first "Upcoming Ditko" to announce in a while, coming in October, a companion piece to the recent reprint of the first 10 issues of TALES TO ASTONISH. Ditko in every issue, mostly 5-page stories, a few of them never reprinted, plus a bit of inking Kirby.

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MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA TALES OF SUSPENSE VOL. 1
Written by STAN LEE, LARRY LIEBER & VARIOUS
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, DON HECK, JOE SINNOTT, AL WILLIAMSON, BILL EVERETT, JOHN BUSCEMA, RUSS HEATH & MORE
Cover by JACK KIRBY

What’s Halloween without a little scare? Well, how about a big scare?! A big scare in the form of monsters galore, and another awesome Atlas Era addition to the Marvel Masterworks!

In 1958 Atlas Comics Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee was joined by two titanic talents: Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Together this trio of storytellers launched Tales of Suspense and its sister title, Tales to Astonish, and along with them the beginnings of a creative revival that would change comics forever. With startling twist-enders featuring Martians, killer robots, and massive monsters like Diablo, Cyclops and Monstro they, hand in hand with a growing group of artists including Don Heck, Joe Sinnott and John Buscema, began to burn up the racks with a style and creativity that comics hadn’t seen in years.

With artwork by an absolute who’s who of comic-book talents, this volume is an absolute must-have for fans with a desire to dig into the foundation would be built into the Marvel Age of Comics! So strap on your tin-foil hat, grab your ray gun, and get ready to dive into one of the most amazing eras of comics history!

Featuring an introduction by noted Atlas Era historian, Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

Collecting TALES OF SUSPENSE #1-10.
272 PGS $49.99

Where Monsters Dwell #7 [1971]

This issue reprints "The Terrible Trap" from TALES TO ASTONISH #19 [1961], a 4-page story. The star this time is Bart Magor, a great hunter, which we see from his effortless capture of a mouse. Not surprisingly, he runs afoul of a trap while on his hunting trip, and is taken by aliens who place him in a maze. The irony is almost palpable.

Pretty simple story, but a lot of nice touches. I like that mouse in the opening (although I’m surprised the story doesn't do anything with the fact that Magor takes it along on the safari). The aliens are also a nice design, looking very curious and thoughtful rather than menacing.

I’m kind of surprised that this issue isn't promoted as a prototype issue for Kraven the Hunter. Hey, it’s a great hunter. That’s more of a prototype than most of the characters thus billed these days.

"The Terrible Trap" V-137

Where Creatures Roam #4 [1971]

This issue has another of the many 5-pagers, this one "Beware Of The Ghastly Glass" from TALES TO ASTONISH #17 [1961]. I love the symbolic full page splash pages on a lot of these stories, this one with a man trapped by a giant crystal, with a great smoke effect.

A very tightly told story about an old man who, with his strongman servant, goes around the world, from curio shop to curio shop, searching for a mysterious crystal which he knows will grant him four wishes. Like most people in these stories, he's well aware of the traps involved in wishes, but thinks he's got it figured out and has his wishes worded perfectly. He finally finds the crystal and asks for youth, long life, freedom from "arrest, jail, prisons and institutions" and finally the to be the richest man in the world. Of course that last one is the trap, and when all the special effects clear the man is young and healthy, but on another world.

I hope at some point we get a massive collection of these 5-page stories (there are over 200 of them, so they could easily fill two big "Essential" format collections, or three "Visionaries" books).

"Beware Of The Ghastly Glass" V-54