Number 2477: Ditko times 4

In the late '50s and early '60s my friend Ron and I read (and often scoffed at) what we called the monster books from the pre-Marvel monster comics of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck. We thought the big monsters of Jack Kirby were funny. We were kids. I am way past my snarky teen years, and I still think they are fun to read, and the monsters still make me laugh.

Steve Ditko usually contributed at least one 5- page story per issue, which as far as stories go, were fairly lightweight, but wow, that artwork of his. Kirby and Ditko were artists with distinctive, yet different styles. I still admire the artwork of both of those now-deceased gentlemen, and I can't admire one over the other.

The stories are shown in order by issue numbers. They appeared in Tales of Suspense #6, (1959), #13, #15, #18, (1961).

 

Number 2450: Beatin' on Beatniks

Going through my mental files and asking myself a question. What do I know about beatniks, who had an image problem in the late '50s, early '60s? I don’t know much. Just a Roger Corman movie, Bucket of Blood, cartoons about beatniks in mainstream magazines, Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver) in the TV comedy, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, “Howl,” a poem by Allen Ginsburg; also City Lights Bookstore and the Jack Kerouac books I read over 50 years ago. I admit I didn’t pay much attention during the beat era to stories about beatniks that were not bent toward ridicule by conservative America. The two stories I am showing today are examples of that.

Steve Ditko did this short story for Charlton’s Unusual Tales #29 (1961), a tale of square guy in love with a beatnik girl. I don’t think we saw enough of Ditko’s sense of humor over his long career, but this is an example.

Cool Cat was from Prize Comics, and lasted all of three issues. This story is from the first issue (1962). It is written and drawn by Jack O'Brien, who also created, wrote and drew G.I. Juniors for Harvey Comics, and perhaps thousands of gag cartoons that popped up in joke books of the era. O’Brien is also known as a cartoonist whose career supposedly ended in 1970 when he was arrested and went to prison on obscenity charges. Knowing that gave something of a new meaning to the Cool Cat cover: a guy with a smirk on his face, parked in a lonely spot with two girls...

Number 2236: Ditko: Merlin’s black magic

“I Dared to Defy Merlin’s Black Magic,” a 5-page story, is one I remember well from the days when I picked up anything by Steve Ditko. It is richly textured artwork, and a story well told. Okay, so the story isn’t very surprising. The early Marvels didn’t stray too far from some basic plots, all of which I was familiar with even at my tender age in 1959. But at least Ditko tells it well.

In those days I went for artists I liked who signed their names to their work. With these post-Atlas-early-Marvel titles I collected for Kirby and Ditko because they signed their work. Other artists I especially liked were the Mad artists I first saw in the paperback reprints, The Mad Reader, Inside Mad, et al: Wood, Elder, Davis. Wallace Wood was then doing illustrations for Galaxy magazine and Mad; Will Elder and Jack Davis could be seen in some of the Mad imitations crowding the magazine racks. Davis did the cover for this issue:

The fun of collecting for me was in the artwork of comic books, and that is only right, because it is a visual medium. When I got more interested in stories it was because of The Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man, with two of my favorite artists, Kirby and Ditko. When I found out years late they had responsibility for the stories as well, it made me appreciate Kirby and Ditko all the more.

From Strange Tales #71 (1959):

Number 2226: Gone, yet still with us

I am saddened each time I read of the death of a favorite actor, musician, writer or artist who had influence on me over my lifetime. The latest is Steve Ditko, who died recently. Before that, Bernie Wrightson, who died last year. What consoles me is knowledge that their work is still with us.

I found scans of Marvel’s Chamber of Darkness #7 (1970) online. (The first page of the lead story has an inscription, “Another fine HACSA/Grundy scan” — so I would like to thank them for making the scans available.)

On reading the comic with Ditko’s death still fresh in my mind, I realized all of the artists represented are deceased: Wrightson, Ditko, Sutton, and Kirby. Over the years I have spent many hours looking at their work, studying it and enjoying it. I was still a child when first encountering Kirby and Ditko, Tom Sutton I did not see until the 1970s, and Bernie Wrightson was my age, part of my generation and of a wave of artists who entered the comics field circa the late '60s-early '70s.

We have lost them, but we will always have something of theirs to remind us of them and their work.