Upcoming Ditko - CREEPER hardcover update

It appears that they've made a wise choice and updated the plans for the upcoming CREEPER hardcover to include the story that was scheduled for SHOWCASE #106, and later "published" as part of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2.  The story will be in black and white, the rest of the book will be in colour, increasing the page count to 288 pages with no increase in price.

Good news, and this should mean that if/when they do a collection of SHADE they'll include SHADE #9 which is in a similar situation.

Ditko on... Consequences

--Link-- Just go look

Seriously, take a look.

I'll have more in the comments tomorrow

Unusual Tales - The Careless Man

"Unusual Tales", a series presenting Steve Ditko's comics from 1957 to 1959 that are in the public domain.

"The Careless Man" is a 2-page story from Charlton's OUT OF THIS WORLD #11 [1959]. Apparently Dr. Haunt is putting in some overtime as host of this one, in addition to his regular gig in THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED.

The story is about a failed man named Miller, who has gotten fired from various jobs for being careless. He decides to turn to the mystic realm to satisfy his thirst for vengeance, digging out a book of Egyptian spells he had handy to summon a genie (I think someone was playing mix and match with mythologies there).  The title kind of points the way to why that turns out the way it did...

Simple little story, but a few interesting visuals, like the image of Dr. Haunt on the bottom of the first page, the close-up of the candle and the neat little shading effect on the genie.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
MR. A reprint on the way
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
#75 now available
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
THE CREEPER coming in 2010
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from
(scans in this series generally adapted to my personal tastes from those copies)

Click images to bigize.

Cracked #227 [1987]

Here's a bit of a treat, a very nice page from an issue which doesn't appear on any of the major Ditko checklists. Apparently he did more pages for CRACKED during Mort Todd's stint as editor than was previously known. So now the quest is on for more. If you have any issues of CRACKED from between around 1986 to 1990 (around #216 to #260) let me know if anything looks like Ditko in there.

Anyway, this 2-page story is "The TransInformers Vs The Defecticons".  You see, the concept of this issue is that this is a Russian edition of CRACKED, from those late days of the Cold War, so all the features have that extra parody twist to their usual parody. In this case, one group of ridiculous shape-changing robots is attempting to escape through the Berlin Wall, and the other is determined to stop them.  A very nice little story, drawn in the intricate duo shade style that Ditko used for a lot of his CRACKED work.  A lot of weird little background gags really enhance the story (I like the robot coffee pot), and the last image is a really great image at the Berlin Wall, worth tracking down the issue just to see it.

Doctor Strange Classics #3 [1984]

It was all the rage in the mid-1980s to do deluxe format mini-series of classic runs of comics, and a year of Ditko's Doctor Strange got the treatment in this series. This particular issue reprints three 10-page stories from STRANGE TALES #136 - #138 [1965], all plots and art by Ditko. The colouring is a bit over-done, some kind of pseudo-painting look, but for the most part the line-work comes through and is sharply reproduced, and these remain an excellent affordable way to sample some of Ditko's best.

The issue opens with "What Lurks Beneath The Mask", with Doctor Strange on the run from the minions of the Dormammu-powered Baron Mordo, looking for the secret of "Eternity" to save the stricken Ancient One. Especially good in the opening pages are the hints of a whole magic subculture with various odd mystics thoughout the world on both sides of the battle, and a quick hint about a never followed up on past Doctor Strange adventure. Anyway, in his haste Doc misinterprets a clue from a crazy old mystic whose memory the Ancient One had once erased and winds up in a strange realm with a demon who tries to switch bodies with him. There's a great scene where Doc uses his Cloak of Levitation to battle the demon inhabiting his body.  Great little side-story in the middle of a longer epic.

In "When Meet The Mystic Minds" Doctor Strange decides that he has to find out the secret of Eternity directly from the mind of the Ancient One, which leads to an excellent sequence of increasingly bizarre visuals as he attempts to reach his mentor.  The closing scene, with Doc atop a mountain walking into an enlarged amulet just ahead of Mordo's arrival, that's how you do a cliffhanger.

"If Eternity Should Fail" opens with one of the best renditions of the mystic realm in Ditko's work, probably the panel you'd put in the dictionary if you needed one image to define "Ditkoesque".  And that's just the beginning, as we next get introduced to Eternity, the living embodiment of a universe, who offers the type of enigmatic advice you'd expect from someone who looks like that.  Returning to his own realm, he finds the Ancient One has been captured by Mordo and goes to confront his foes, who also have the unnamed woman who helped him in Dormammu's realm held captive.

Seriously, this is 30 incredible pages of comics.  If you've never read them you owe it to yourself to check out one of the multiple versions of this run that should be readily available now.  Added bonus in this version, they got some of the new guys to do some pin-ups in the back, and this one includes a great image by P. Craig Russell titled "Dr. Strange gets lost on his way to the Surrealist's Convention", which is even weirder than what you're imagining.

Upcoming Ditko - Mr. A.

The next Ditko/Snyder publication will be MR. A., a 32-page black-and-white reprint of the 1973 book originally published by Joe Brancatelli's Comic Art Publishers.  $5 cover price, ordering details over here, more news as I get it.  Spread the word.  The stories "Right to Kill" and "When Is A Man To Be Judged Evil" are among my favourite Mr. A. stories.

In other matters, the plans for the "Unusual Tales" series of posts of Ditko's stories from 1957 to 1959 continue.  Take the poll over in the sidebar to help decide which one I'll post next.  There should be at least one a week for the foreseeable future (got a dozen of them ready to go and it's tempting to just start posting them daily....).

Unusual Tales - Valley Of Eternity

Welcome to "Unusual Tales", a series presenting Steve Ditko's comics from 1957 to 1959 that are in the public domain, primarily from Charlton.  Earlier Ditko stories from 1953 to 1955 were almost all presented in the "It Stalks the Public Domain" series. 1956 was all Marvel, so badger them to reprint that stuff.

I'm starting off with as many of the never-reprinted stories as I can.  There are just over 80 in that category by my records.  And note that I mean never-reprinted in an American publication, whether from Charlton or another publisher.  I know many of the comics of that era were reprinted, in English or otherwise, by various foreign publishers.

The 7-page "Valley Of Eternity" was published in Charlton's TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER #11 [1959]. This is probably the Charlton series of the era most associated with Ditko, thanks to his iconic renditions of the host in his trenchcoat and fedora, often floating as a giant in the background.  He sticks to human size in this one, as he presents the story of four very different men whose paths cross in a hidden valley in India, where they find the promise of a secret that could change them and the world.

A clever little story, with a nice little bit in the end, Ditko does a good job of establishing the characters and settings.  I especially like that sequence on the top of page 5 as an example of Ditko's rendering abilities at this time.

Comments always welcome, and feel free to send a link to anyone you think might be interested.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from
(scans in this series generally adapted to my personal tastes from those copies)

Click images to big-up.