New Ditko - INTRODUCING CAPTAIN ATOM - DITKO AT CHARLTON: 1960

Sorry for the delay, this has been available for a few months now.

After previous releases documented the Charlton work of Ditko (mostly with Joe Gill) from 1971, 1972 and 1973, this year goes back in time in INTRODUCING CAPTAIN ATOM - DITKO AT CHARLTON: 1960.

This features 22 stories published by Charlton in 1960 with Ditko artwork, a total of 124 pages.  That includes the first eight Captain Atom stories, the first on-going super-hero feature that Ditko worked on. Joe Gill is likely the uncredited writer on most, if not all, of the stories.

A fertile time for Ditko, with a lot of imaginative layouts and storytelling innovations.

Also included are the 19 Charlton covers with Ditko art from that year, which are all, as was the style at Charlton at the time, composed of a montage of images from interior artwork.

I've previously posted about one story here.

This is a print-on-demand book, available from many book sellers using the ISBN

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1945307390
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1945307393

It might also be available direct from the publisher, check here for contact information.

New Ditko - TONIGHT I'LL DREAM OF YOU (1973 Charlton reprints)

The growing library of print-on-demand books from SD Comics continues to look at Ditko's work 50 years ago with TONIGHT I'LL DREAM OF YOU, a collection of his 1973 work for Charlton, primarily written by Joe Gill. Included is the classic first Killjoy story written and drawn by Ditko, both in the original colour version and the revised version from later reprints.

Previous posts on some of the stories:

GHOSTLY TALES #101 [1973]
GHOSTLY HAUNTS #32 [1973]
HAUNTED #12 [1973]
E-MAN #2 [1973]
MANY GHOSTS OF DOCTOR GRAVES #43 [1973]

Freshly printed copies are available from various booksellers, use the ISBN 978-1945307379.

Warp #3 [1983]

WARP #3 [1983] has "A Masque In The Hand", the second of the three-part "The Faceless Ones" story by Jack C. Harris and Steve Ditko.  After a scene on Paragwen's original world giving some background on her quest, and then a recap of the first story in rhyming couplets, we catch up with Paragwen and the Faceless Ones arriving from Earth to a fantasy realm, just in time to rescue the local King from an attack by a bird controlled by his brother and a wizard. The Masque appears in this world as a falconer's gauntlet so Paragwen's quest intersects with the King's interests.

Very dense little story that plays to a lot of Ditko's strengths

The background of this series, plus pencil artwork and more, is one of over a dozen Ditko features you can find more about in Jack C. Harris' recent book WORKING WITH DITKO.

Space Adventures #13 [1979]

SPACE ADVENTURES #13 [1979] is from early in Charlton's reprint era from 1978 to 1984, during which they published very few original comics but still averaged two books with Ditko work every month.  This issue reprints a trio of stories from OUTER SPACE #1 [1968], including the Ditko illustrated "His Own Little World" (uncredited but possibly written by Joe Gill).

Great opening page on this one, with a large establishing shot of a spaceship cutting straight to a classic Ditko fistfight in progress.  The story involves Rudd, the second in command of a patrol ship hijacking the ship to an uninhabited world that he wants to rule for himself, using an invention that allows him to duplicate anything that he can think of.  Of course, his choices of what to duplicate are questionable.

Fun little story, the ending is maybe a bit... of its time, but the road there is fun, with a lot of great things for Ditko to draw, including crashing ships and cute aliens.

Coyote #10 [1985]

Three years after it began in FANTASY ILLUSTRATED #1 [1982] the four part story of The Djinn by Steve Ditko and Steve Englehart ends in COYOTE #10 [1985] with the 12-page story "Riddle Mystery Enigma", inked by Art Nichols.

I think it was a bit of an underwhelming ending for a story which started off pretty promising.  It's solid 1980s Ditko work, but he's not given as many interesting settings to draw as he was earlier, and I get the feeling that Englehart kind of rushed the ending in fewer pages than he planned so he could get ahead to a place to include the character in his Coyote story.

This story was reprinted in THE COYOTE COLLECTION #4 [2007].

E-Man #2 [1973]

E-MAN #2 [1973] backs up the lead story by Joe Staton and Nicola Cuti with a new character, Killjoy, in an untitled and uncredited 8-page story.  Obviously it's by Steve Ditko (credited with both writing and art in contemporaneous issues of THE COMIC READER), and for convenience  let's call it "Killjoy And The Flame".

The story opens up with three single page scenes, as villains Robber Hood, General Disaster and Jungle Jake (and their various themed henchmen) find their capers foiled by a silent acrobatic hero named Killjoy. After being bailed out thanks to the Mr. Hart of the "Foundation To Protect The Guilty From Justice" they team-up to defeat Killjoy, joined by the mystery woman The Flame.

The two original Killjoy stories (the second in E-MAN #4) are a highlight of Ditko's work of the career, a melding of his mainstream super-hero work, his independent philosophical work and his often over-looked sense of humour into a seamless package.  The second story was actually one of my earliest exposures to Ditko, so will always be more dear to me, but this is also great.

Ditko acquired the rights to the story at some point and did a few reprints of it in black and white with a few minor shading additions over the years, most recently in THE HERO COMICS NO. 26 [2018].

96 Years Ago Today...

 

New Ditko - TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER #38

Now available from the usual sources, TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER the latest in the revolving anthology series by SD Publishing and their Famous Comics imprint. This is the first conventionally published book from the publisher (not including their extensive and growing print-on-demand library) in a while not to be funded by a kickstarter campaign in advance, so hopefully those used to getting them via those campaigns are aware and have made other arrangements.

Unusually not a Ditko cover on this one, instead a nice reprise of a 1975 Charlton cover by Enrique Nieto. Ditko is represented inside with a trio of stories, one Traveler story from the 1950s, one meant for this title from the 1980s, but eventually published in  an early SD Publishing book and a short bit from the PUBLIC SERVICE PACKAGE, plus a short essay.  

There's also some (mostly) reprint material (which many people might not have seen before) by Robert Kanigher, Charles Nicholas, Gary Kato, Robin Snyder, Rodin Rodriguez, Henry Boltinoff, Joe Gill, Joshua Warren and Nieto, essays by Nick Caputo and Rodney Schroeter and a long letter column.

Not Ditko, but also of interest, the 13th book of SD Publishing's print-on-demand library is the first non-Ditkocentric one.  HOW TO MAKE MONEY WRITING COMICS MAGAZINES 80th Anniversary Edition by Robert Kanigher is a new improved edition of the ground-breaking 1943 book by the legendary comics writer, creator of Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, The Haunted Tank, The Metal Men, The Flash (Barry Allen) and many more. This includes the full text of the hard-to-find original book with some visual improvements (including a copy of the Captain Marvel comics story that was included just as a script in the original). That takes up about 100 pages, there are more than 100 more, with a look at Kanigher's 1940s work, with spotlights and some full stories and rarities from various features.  See over here for a more detailed look.

As noted, it's print-on-demand, so available from various sellers, including Chapters/Indigo, Amazon and Barnes&Noble, should be spreading out to others. Use the ISBNs below

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1945307366
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1945307362

And while you're there, don't forget the print-on-demand Ditko books available.