New Ditko - THE HERO COMICS #37 and more print-on-demand

Now available from the usual sources, the recently kickstarted THE HERO COMICS #37, the latest in the revolving anthology series by SD Publishing and their Famous Comics imprint. This one obviously has a bit of Captain Atom from Ditko and Gill, with an interesting short note by Ditko about that panel on the cover, and some reprints from Ditko's 32-Series.  Also included is the comparatively rare 1960s Blue Beetle story "A Specter Is Haunting Hub City" first published in CHARLTON PORTFOLIO [1974], a 1940s Bouncer story by Robert Kanigher and Louis Ferstadt and a few other surprises.

The print-on-demand books also continue, with recent publication of THE AVENGING MIND, a volume in the "Ditko Complains" series, and STEVE DITKO'S 176 MINUS 30 PAGE PACKAGE, a reprint of the 2000 book without the long Mr. A. story (possibly held for a later Mr. A. specific book). See the same link above for ISBN numbers to order the print-on-demand books from your favourite local or on-line retailer.

--Link-- Upcoming Ditko - RETURN OF THE HERO by Kickstarter

Now on Kickstarter, a campaign for the next SD Comics release in their revolving anthology series, which brings classic Ditko stories back to print (plus sometimes previously unseen work).  This one looks to have some Captain Atom from the 1960s and some selections from the 32-Series Ditko created from 2008 to 2018, plus no doubt more from vast Snyder/Ditko archives.

New Ditko - THIS IS HOW IT IS (1972 Charlton reprints)

The latest publication from SD Publishing (under their Famous Comics imprint) is THIS IS HOW IT IS, a collection of Ditko's work with Joe Gill originally published by Charlton in 1972, a follow-up on last year's A TOUCH OF GENIUS which featured the 1971 Charlton stories by the pair.  

A good year for Ditko.  Here are a few of the stories which should be included:

Many Ghosts Of Doctor Graves #31 [1972] 

Ghostly Haunts #25 [1972] 

Ghostly Tales #97 [1972] 

Many Ghosts Of Doctor Graves #34 [1972]

The 342-page book is print on demand and available from various retailers, use the ISBN codes
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1945307315
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1945307317
(I recommend using a site like bookfinder.com to compare various on-line retailers)

New Ditko - "I Remember" essay

 

The recent August, 2022 issue of Robin Snyder's newsletter THE COMICS (Vol. 33 No. 8) features a previously unpublished essay by Ditko, "I Remember", with some more reactions to some of the flawed recollections and statements of his former editor.

Which I guess is also a good time to plug my new site, which will hopefully one day become a complete index to the 33 years and counting of the newsletter, which was the home to many a Ditko feature in the day, and possibly in the future.  Visit https://comicsindex.blogspot.com/ for more, including a link to current subscription rates for the newsletter. 

--Link-- Ditko's copies of Spider-Man for sale

 

Probably of interest to some, some of Steve Ditko's own copies of his Spider-Man run are currently being sold on behalf of his estate, complete with a certificate of authenticity from his brother Patrick.

This link should bring up the auction, which includes some other related material, some from the Ditko estate and some not.

Here are some of the relevant notes on the collection:

Provenance: From the Steve Ditko Estate, CGC-certified as Steve Ditko's personal copy, and with a certificate of authenticity signed by Mr. Patrick S. Ditko, Steve Ditko's brother. Not cleaned and pressed in order to preserve all traces of Steve Ditko's handling. 

A note on the Ditko Collection: Steve Ditko owned from one to three copies of each of the 41 Spider-Man comics that he drew (comprising Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #s 1-38, and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #s 1 & 2). The only complete set of 41 Spidey comics belonging to Ditko is featured in this sale; an incomplete set of 23 Spidey comics was offered last year by another auction house; and a final incomplete set of 19 Spidey comics will be offered by PBA next year.

Give the birthday boy a hand

A big hand for Steve Ditko on his 95th birthday... 

Wait, he deserves more than that.  Let's give him two...

Hold on, this is Steve Ditko, and it's 95 years. What are we even doing?  Let's give him 95...

Or, to be more precise, let's give him back 95 of the thousands he gave us in his career.

First person to identify every hand in the comments gets a free Ditko comic.  Hint, several of them are Spider-Man, none of them are Doctor Strange.

Next year, 96 Ditko feet.

Brian Franczak, R.I.P.

I wanted to belatedly note the passing of Brian Franczak back in August, 2020. I'm not sure if I heard about it at the time (it was a hectic time, as I'm sure everyone recalls).  You might not recognize the name, but he was very important in the history of this site.  A big Ditko fan active in on-line forums, he put up the Ditko Fever site that I've referenced here many times.  It's no longer up, unfortunately, but a partial capture of it is available via the old wayback machine :

https://web.archive.org/web/20131023125946/http://www.ditko-fever.com/contents.html

That site helped me find or verify many an obscure Ditko item. 

I also had several on-line exchanges with Brian, often about a previously unknown Ditko story that he had found, or questioning the veracity of a credit or a reprint.  One I remember was that I was about to throw away a box of papers I thought were junk once, and on a whim took a quick look through it and found that for some reason a bunch of my back-issues of DITKOMANIA were in the middle of the pile.  I decided that since they were almost thrown out anyway, maybe they should go to a better home, and asked Brian if he needed any of them.  He did, but insisted he buy them rather than take them, since I could get quite a bit for them in an auction.  So I quoted a price I thought was fair, maybe a bit high, expecting him to counter-offer a bit less, and instead he countered with a much higher offer, and suggested I just auction them starting at that price and he would bid. I just sold him the ones he needed at that price (which turned out to be about right, maybe just a bit on the high side, when I sold the other issues he didn't need). Always kind of appreciate it when someone refuses to take advantage of you no matter how much you're asking for it.

Anyway, he also helped me get quite a few other things, and was very encouraging on this site in the early days. He seemed to kind of drift away from on-line fandom over the last few years, apparently with some medical problems. Made a few efforts to reach out, with no luck, kind of wish I'd tried harder.

I didn't realize until now that he was also a dinosaur artist of some renown, working on several books and even some trading cards for Jurassic Park. You can read more about that aspect of his life here and here.

New Ditko - DITKOMANIA #97

After four years, DITKOMANIA returns with the 97th issue, courtesy of Rob Imes, editor/publisher since #64 back in 2008 (founded, edited and published by Bill Hall for 63 issues, 1983-1999). Looks like a lot of fun, with a focus on Ditko's women.

Ordering info over here, along with free PDF downloads of a bunch of older issues and another old fanzine with a few Ditko rarities.