Steve Ditko is one of my favorite comic book artists. I discovered his work when he was drawing for DC comics during the late 1960s. His creations The Creeper and Hawk and Dove were must buys for me. Then I came across his Charlton work of this time period - The Blue Beetle and The Question. I loved his attention to detail, his wild action scenes, and the imaginative gadgets and back stories he gave his characters. Finally I discovered Marvel Tales and the reprints of his early Spider-Man work. Before this I had thought John Romita was Spidey's only artist. I've stuck with Ditko through the years, following him back to Charlton for various mystery comics, to DC for crazy stuff like Shade, the Changing Man, and back to Marvel for Machine Man and Rom. Along the way, there were also his Ayn Rand inspired self-published tales of Mr. A.
Today Steve Ditko is 87 years old, and he still goes into his Manhattan studio every day to draw comics. His friend and publisher Robin Snyder finances Ditko's comics through Kickstarter campaigns, and a new 32 page comic book comes out every two to three months. In all honesty, Ditko's art is not as strong as it once was, and his scripts are little more than Libertarian screeds populated by straw men, but this diehard liberal still contributes to every Kickstarter and reads every new issue. I do this because Ditko had such a profound influence on the history of comic books, and regardless of what I may think of his politics, I genuinely admire the way he lives his philosophy and writes and draws just what he wants to.
This link provides information about Steve Ditko's current work.
No comments:
Post a Comment