Stalker #2 [1975]

"Darkling Death At World's End Sea" is the 18-page tale of Stalker, the Man with the Stolen Soul, penciled by Steve Ditko with inks by Wallace Wood and a story by Paul Levitz, the creative team for all four issues of this short-lived series. Following his origin last issue, where Stalker sold his soul to the demon Dgrth in exchange for various powers, he is now trying to confront Dgrth directly, and and quest takes him to World's End (literally, this is a flat fantasy world with a waterfall at the edge). After a sword fight with a four-armed monster he tries to infiltrate the cult that worships Dgrth, only to get captured, managing to escape being sacrificed at the edge of the world and rescuing the enslaved girl who helped him.

Ditko and Wood are a solid combination at this point, with some really good action scenes and fantasy landscapes. The story by Levitz is comparatively a bit of a weak mix of fantasy standards, but it has its moments.

Ditko and Wood also provide the cover for this issue, a nice rendition of the opening battle.

Ordering new Ditko

Robin Snyder just updated his shipping on the new Ditko material from 2008/2009 he has available if you're buying a set. You can now order the five new books for $20 plus $5 shipping in the US, $7 in Canada or $11 foreign. When the next book is ready the pack of six will be $24 with the same postage.

Ordering info here as usual. Still no PayPal payment direct from Robin, but you'll see a set occasionally on Ebay.

Robin's also given me some info to add to the page that I think will make some people very happy. See if you can detect it.

Ghostly Haunts #25 [1972]

Ditko does the cover to this issue, a slightly busy but effective set of horror elements to illustrate the 7-page story that he draws to close the issue, "I'll Never Leave You". Winnie the Witch is the host for this ghost yarn, as stylish and freaky as ever.

The story has newlyweds Bert and Ursula Weaver getting getting a prophecy on they honeymoon in Haiti that she will never leave his side. As we're privy to Bert's thoughts, we know he's doubtful about this, as he's already planning Ursula's murder. They return to her home, a mansion she has to keep living in to keep collecting from her family fortune, and eventually Bert goes through with his poisoning plot, but then the ghosts of the house chase away the lover he planned to run off with and he finds that Ursula still plans to spend the rest of time by his side, only as a ghost.

A serviceable but unspectacular story, the random portraits of Winnie throughout the story are a lot of fun.

Konga #13 [1963]

In the early 1960s, Steve Ditko drew a total of fifteen comics for Charlton featuring KONGA, based on the British science fiction movie of the same name about a chimp who gets mutated into a giant gorilla. You know, I can accept the giant part, but what's the logic of the cross-species transformation?

Anyway, #13 features the 20-page story "The Peacemaker", written by Joe Gill and drawn by Ditko. It begins with Konga in the Arctic, where he fishes for killer whales (with an amusing panel of the relatively tiny whales nibbling on his giant fingers). The climate gives him the chills, though, so he heads down to South America, where he encounters the forces of El Presidente, the tyrant of the small nation of Moderno, who is planning to blow up a bridge to stage a train accident as a pretext for a communist backed takeover of a neighbouring nation. Kind-hearted Konga foils that plan, lifting the train across the gap, earning the ire of the tyrant. Various attacks on Konga only serve to destroy all the military equipment that was intended for the invasion, and finally Konga faces El Presidente himself, stopping the tyrant's attempts to escape and in the process returning some of the wealth of the nation he planned to steal to the people. Finally he can relax in the sulfur springs in peace to get rid of his cold.

A very funny story, with a lot of moments of slapstick humour and sight gags. Konga is a great twist on the giant monster formula, with his kind and playful nature contrasting with the "force of nature" aspect that his size makes inevitable.

This story, along with three other Konga stories and another amusing Gill/Ditko short from KONGA #8 were reprinted in crisp black and white by Robin Snyder in the 1989 collection THE LONELY ONE, still available from the publisher.

Eerie #9 [1967]

From Ditko's run of 16 stories for the Warren mags CREEPY and EERIE, this issue features the 6-page "Isle Of The Beast", written by Archie Goodwin. It begins in mid-story, as a man named Amberson is run down to the point of collapse through a thick jungle, hunted by a barely human beast. Flashing back, we see how he was rescued from a shipwreck by a man named Rochefort, who it turns out is quite crazy, having mistaken Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" for an instruction manual, creating a formula which gives him the strength and cunning of beasts and using it to hunt men, as you can see from his wall decorations. Unfortunately for him, the hunt on this full moon is going to be foiled by Amberson's dark secret. Emphasizing the full moon there didn't give it away, did it?

While not the most original story by Goodwin, he at least does namecheck the big influence, and tells it well. The real point of something like this is to give Ditko interesting stuff to draw, which he does even more than normal here. Most of his Warren work used an inkwash effect that Ditko proved to be an absolute master of, but this one is probably the most extreme, not just using the various grey tones for shading but for the most part not using solid blacks at all and doing the full drawing in various shades of grey. It's really an unsettling effect, especially with the subject matter, and the scenes in the jungle, with multiples shades and levels, are very effective.

It really is one of those "what could have been" situations when you look at how quickly Ditko grew in this style in the previous year and realize that because of circumstances he'd only be there for a few more months.

Dark Horse has all of that era of the mags reprinted now, so all 16 of Ditko's stories are available now. Unfortunately, you need to get 5 books at $50 cover price each to get all of them. I guess you can write them to let them know if you'd like to see some artist-specific collections, starting with a Ditko book.

Creepy Archives #2
Creepy Archives #3
Creepy Archives #4
Eerie Archives #1
Eerie Archives #2

--Link-- Ditko's "In Principle" on-line

Steve Ditko's 4-page "In Principle: The Unchecked Premise" is available on-line, posted by Batton Lash on Big Hollywood, like the previous posting of Ditko's "Toyland" essay.

[links removed, no longer active]

The story was originally published in the 1988 book STEVE DITKO'S STATIC, and is included in both the 2000 complete STATIC book and in the 2002 AVENGING WORLD collection, both of which are still available.

Cracked #218 [1986]

This issue features Ditko's first work for one of America's favourite mental illness based humour magazines, and the first installment of his brief regular feature with Mort Todd, "Robot War". A 1-page story, as most of them were, with no dialogue but a lot of sound effects well incorporated into the artwork, really great doutone shading  in the artwork and the disturbing sight of robot cannibalism.  Man, when they said that Robot War is Hell they didn't know the half of it...

This page got reprinted with 3-D treatment for The 3-D Zone #19 [1989].

Marvel Super-Heroes #8 [1992]

This issue of Marvel's quarterly anthology of the early 1990s closes with the 22-page Iron Man story "The Coming Of Squirrel Girl". Officially the plot, as well as pencils and inks, are credited to Ditko, but apparently credited scripter Will Murray was actually the plotter as well. Never trust those printed credits...

The story features Tony Stark flying in the woods to test some new collision avoidance technology in his armour when he's attacked by a young 14-year-old mutant who wants to be his sidekick, introducing herself as Squirrel Girl.  Despite her enthusiasm and display of powers (including the ability to talk to squirrels), Iron Man isn't interested in taking on a sidekick (though he does try to foist her off on the X-Men or Captain America), but before he can finish making his point they're attacked by Doctor Doom, who takes them prisoner aboard his conveniently low-flying craft.  This opens the door to SG calling on her squirrel friends for a rescue, delivering Doctor Doom one his more embarrassing defeats (and this is a guy who once stumbled in front of his own shrink ray). Somewhat more impressed, Iron Man promises to put in a good word for her with the Avengers after she finishes college.

Actually not too bad a story.  A bit of a throwback, more of a 1960s story than a 1990s one, but for the most part that's a good thing.  And Doctor Doom fighting squirrels as drawn by Ditko?  That's worth the price of admission right there.

This story has become one of the most frequently reprinted of Ditko's later day works for Marvel, appearing in a Great Lakes Avengers collection (SG was a member of the group), MARVEL VISIONARIES - STEVE DITKO and apparently in the upcoming PET AVENGERS CLASSIC collection.