New Ditko - DITKOMANIA #91 and others

DITKOMANIA #91 is now out, the latest issue of the long-running fanzine from publisher-editor Rob Imes. This is the first issue from the modern Imes-era to have full colour covers, both front and back.  The focus of this issue is Ditko's bouncing heroes, as seen on the Javier Hernandez cover, with a lot of attention to 1980s creation the Masked Marvel, with a lot more fan-art featuring the speedball effect than you'd expect existed.  This issue also has an extended letter-column with a lot of reactions to Ron Frantz's article from the previous issue and Frantz's replies.

Ordering and subscription information over here.

Other recent possible Ditko, Archie has a recent NEW CRUSADERS: LEGACY book, which apparently includes some 1980s Ditko.  The revived Valiant had a recent VALIANT MASTERS: SHADOWMAN reprint which should include Ditko's SHADOWMAN #6 [1992]. And Marvel has a recent reprint of some of Ditko's Captain Universe stories from 1980-1981 and 1989-1990. Feel free to comment if you have any of these and have specific details about the contents.

--Link-- Ditko's LASZLO'S HAMMER new edition Kickstarter

Robin Snyder has a new Kickstarter project for a new edition of Ditko's 1992 LASZLO'S HAMMER, long out-of-print as a separate publication and only available as part of the larger AVENGING WORLD book.  The description says that " Laszlo's Hammer will appear as the lead feature" in this book, so presumably some other reprint or new Ditko will make up the balance of the book.

Here's the Ditko-Fever entry for the original publication, which is one of the few major Ditko publications I've never even seen a copy of, much less own.

More details as I get them.

New Ditko - THE FOUR-PAGE SERIES #3

Just in from Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko, the latest in Ditko essays, THE FOUR-PAGE SERIES #3, with the following contents:

“#9: An Eternal Truth, Lesson Rejected”
“#10: The Fantasy Lifters”
“#12: For Good Or Ill”
“#13: Tsk! — The Still Unreachable — Tsk!”
“#18: Anti-Ditko 'Fans'”
“#17: …To The Last Drop”

[For the numbering, there were 10 essays total in the first two FOUR-PAGE SERIES publications (see here for list of Ditko essays), not numbered, 2 of them reprint and 8 original. On first publication, one of the reprint essays was labeled "The second in a new series of articles". So to answer the inevitable questions about what essays #1-#8 are, and if and where #11 and #14-#16 will appear, and why #17 is printed after #18: Your guess is as good as mine]

It's available directly from Robin Snyder, along with all the prior in-print Ditko publications from their 25 years of co-publishing.

Robin Snyder
3745 Canterbury Lane #81
Bellingham, WA
98225-1186 USA

SnyderandDitko @ icloud.com

Essays - The Four-Page Series (prices include postage, order direct from Robin Snyder)
#1 (part of The Comics v23#9) -- $2.50 US, $3.50 International
#2 -- $1.50 US, $2.50 International
#3 -- $1.50 US, $2.50 International
#4 (upcoming) -- $1.50 US, $2.50 International [featuring "He Should Have X@*#! Done..." and more]

Keep watching the comments, I'll pull out a key quote from each essay over the next few days.

--Link-- DITKOMANIA #91 Kickstarter

Rob Imes has a Kickstarter project ending in a few days for the publication of DITKOMANIA #91, the next issue of his on-going fanzine. If it makes its funding goal, this issue features at least 32 pages on various Ditko topics, including his bouncing heroes (including the Masked Marvel) and letters about previous issues, plus for the first time in the Imes-published era of the fanzine, colour covers.

Check it out, both print and digital editions available, plus other premiums for higher funding amounts. And as usual, subscription information for DITKOMANIA is over here.

New Ditko - PUBLIC SERVICE PACKAGE 2nd Edition

Now available from Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko is a new edition of the long out-of-print 1991 DITKO PUBLIC SERVICE PACKAGE, featuring all the Ditko content from the original book at a slightly larger page size, a reprint of the Ditko essay "The Self-Proclaimed" from THE COMICS V11 #5 [2000], an introduction by Robin Snyder and a list of all the Kickstarter backers of the book. All for $14, only $1.05 more than the original 22 years ago.

As usual, all the new books and various other Ditko publications are available directly from Robin Snyder, details here, and the new book should be available from retailers who order from Snyder now or in the near future (interested retailers should contact Snyder for terms, which are probably better than you get for similar comics from your main distributor).

Upcoming Ditko - #9 TEEN

As announced in the just released ATE TEA N: 18, this is the next new Ditko scheduled to come out, #9 TEEN, featuring the continuing adventures of Madman, Hero, E (e) & I (i) and more. Here's the cover: 

New Ditko - ATE TEA N: 18

While most of the actual dates that comics were created and published back in the 1950s are lost to us, from some of the dates I have seen I think it's useful to use 5 to 6 months prior to the cover date as a ballpark figure for latest time when the main creative work on comics would be done on newsstand comics.  The cover dates were usually 2-3 months after the on-sale date, so that still leaves at least 3 months for production and printing.

I bring this up because DARING LOVE #1 had a cover date of Sept-Oct 1953, and using that ballpark estimate that means the artwork on it was probably being worked on around April 1953 or earlier. And that comic is now generally accepted as having the first published Ditko illustrated comic book story, "Paper Romance". So, pending further evidence, now is as good a time as any to mark 60 years of Ditko comics.

And that's 60 and counting, since the first new Ditko comic of 2013 is now available:

Ditko's latest all-new 32-page comic, ATE TEA N: 18, is now available. Returning features, as seen on the cover, are  The Cape, The !?, The Hero and The P Mask, plus a new concept that will probably return and the usual single page bits.

As usual, all the new books and various other Ditko publications are available directly from Robin Snyder, details here, and the new book should be available from retailers who order from Snyder now or in the near future (interested retailers should contact Snyder for terms, which are probably better than you get for similar comics from your main distributor).

New Ditko - Mr. A. in THE COMICS

Robin Snyder's newsletter THE COMICS Vol. 23 No. 11 [November 2012] features a retrospective on Ditko's Mr. A., including a black and white version of the wraparound Mr. A. cover to THE COLLECTOR #26 [1972] (also used as the centerfold in both MR. A. [2010] and THE COVER SERIES [2010]), a bibliography of Mr. A. appearances from WITZEND #3 [1967] to the present and articles by Joe Frank, Batton Lash, Joe Brancatelli and Rodney Schroeter.

Ordering and subscription info for THE COMICS is available on this page. You can also order the recent and upcoming FOUR-PAGE SERIES collections of new Ditko essays from Snyder, and the other in-print Ditko material he has.