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Saturday, April 30, 2005
Ian's Love Letter to Steve Ditko
This is the third of the hardcover, oversized Visionaries series celebrating the founding talents behind the “Marvel Age of Comics.” The first two centered on the works of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee respectively but it is this third one dedicated to Steve Ditko that is probably my favorites. I love Kirby’s action-packed panels and Lee’s equally action-packed prose but it has always been Ditko’s distinctive style that has been my favorite. This book gives us plenty of fine examples of what makes Ditko so great.
Unlike Lee and Kirby, Ditko didn’t work in comics’ “Golden Age” so the first series of stories are drawn from Marvel’s pre-Fantastic Four line of sci-fi comics, mostly issues of Amazing Adult Fantasy (a title which would probably mean something different if it was published today). Here it’s clear that Ditko’s mastery of bringing out characters’ panic and neurosis was there from the start. “Help!” starts with a brilliantly weird splash page but the interesting thing about the story are the appearances of those strained eyes with the bushy eyelashes that Ditko gets so much use out of. Not to mention those hands…oh those wonderful Ditko hands. Many artists have used the power of the body to signify heroism or villainy but Ditko is the master of use a figure’s physicality to express far more commonplace emotions, such as doubt and fear. Blake Bell’s introduction mentions Will Eisner as an influence and like Eisner Ditko is interested in revealing the idiosyncrasies of people who are living in the high-stress urban world, the more grotesque looking the better. Many of these stories (in fact, the first comic page to be found in the book) give us characters in states shock and surprise and Ditko makes sure they look like all the world’s burden is upon them.
Ditko’s fantastic imagination is touched upon here, although it will be brought out even better later on. “No Sign of Life” has an ending that only works because of the way Ditko can conjure up otherworldly beings (extremely otherworldly in this case, the ending to this story pre-dates Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize” by two decades and change). It is the story “The Unsuspecting” that might be the best of the stories that come from this era. Here Ditko’s abstract shapes, usually found in the background, become the main object. Something as bizarre as this comic leaves little mystery that Ditko’s work would become popular with Haight-Ashbury crowd who were usually reading Victor Moscoso and R. Crumb.
The writer for all of these stories is Stan Lee. While the humor and wittiness of Lee’s writing is on display in these stories, if not as confident as it would be a few years later, many of the scenarios and twist endings for the stories are pedestrian. There would really be nothing of interest in “I Am Not Human” or “Journey’s End” if they weren’t drawn by an artist of Ditko’s caliber. Two of the stories use the same ending dealing with the paradoxes of time travel, although the second one is much more satisfying because of Ditko’s cool way of drawing monsters.
Monsters and attempts at outdoing Rod Serling would eventually fall to the way side with Marvel’s books as the new breed of superheroes that Ditko, Kirby and Lee were devising came to the front. The early issues of Amazing Spider-Man and the Dr. Strange installments in Strange Tales are included but they have more historical importance than anything else. Lee said that the first Strange story “is nothing great” and he’s right. ASM would reach its greatness early on in the run but not with the Chameleon story reprinted here. They are still fine examples of Lee and Ditko’s prowess but only hint at the greatness that would come.
The first real great superhero story in the book is the issue of The Incredible Hulk included. Bell quotes John Romita Sr. in the introduction and Romita speaks of how every thing Ditko put on the page lets you know that you are reading a story that could only be drawn by him. This is certainly true when the Kirby character of the Hulk has these wonderful Ditko expressions of rage and frustration screaming from his face, perfect for the character. Ditko is also one of comics’ best artists to make use of the way panels work with other panels to create a well paced story and there are pages here that cement this fact. Sometimes there is only just so much motion shown between panels so that a real sense of time is felt in this story. Not to mention you get to see the Hulk carry a big honkin’ sci-fi gun, which is always a treat.
The Iron Man tale spotlights something that I also think is really significant about Ditkos’ work. The story here has Tony Stark dumping the old and clunky Iron Man costume for something much sleeker. If Carmine Infantino was the best character designer in comics of the 1960’s, then Ditko was right behind him. The Iron Man and Spider-Man costumes are great looking superhero outfits, even though by all usual measures they shouldn’t work. Most notably, the hero’s face is completely covered. Both costumes can seem somewhat ominous because of the characters’ anonymity (I wouldn’t be surprised of some younger comic readers, upon seeing this cover thought that Spider-Man was some weird looking Superman villain). These designs work though, the Spider-Man design especially has become one of the most recognizable pop culture images, because Ditko makes it work with his ability to create such exciting comics with his designs, from which all later artists take heed from.
Ditko of course would not be the artist he is if he did not do action well, one of the most important requirements for an artist doing superhero work. The first issue of Amazing Spider-Man Annual has Spider-Man talking on six of his arch-foes in triumphant splash pages, which really benefits from being presented here in an oversized format. Ditko’s action is different from Kirby’s or Gil Kane’s although there are some similarities to Kane because they both drew bodies in motion so well. Ditko has characters punch, jump and do all sorts of things with what I describe as “hard-hitting awkwardness.” They straddle the line between superheroics and drunks fighting a street brawl, the exact perfect place they should be for Spider-Man’s world. It’s a shame that some of the art in this annual seems rushed, although when Ditko features a character like The Vulture or The Sandman his linework reminds me a bit of Jules Feiffer. Again, it’s all about Ditko making what should be wrong charming. The back-up story is a fun tale of Stan Lee bothering Steve Ditko during the creative process that is especially interesting considering the very real criticisms Ditko would have for Lee later on.
The greatest Spider-Man stories in the book and indeed the greatest comics in this book are the issues of ASM #31-33. Here, everything that makes Ditko, Lee and Spider-Man comics great are given to us at their best. There’s the real life problems Parker has, the odd-looking villains like Doc Ock and his henchmen and of course the beautiful sequences with Spider-Man trapped under the heavy machinery. All are presented here in their best form. Ditko hits exactly zero bumps in moving this story and making it exciting and involving the entire way. At the risk of sounding too exuberant I will inform you that I got goosebumps reading this story and I was reminded why I read comics in the first place.
My love for Ditko’s was rediscovered more as the unique landscapes of Doctor Strange get their showcase with the two-part Dormammu story as well as the incredible final Ditko Strange story. Many of the panels have totally different sets that twist and turn in all different directions. It is Ditko’s already established ability at storytelling that holds it all together. Almost every panel of “The End at Last!” has something mind-blowing on it. The back-to-back splash panels featuring the Eternity character (a man made of a universe) are particularly wonderful. As much as I love these comics and as much as I usually love Lee’s writing I must say that I found the never-ending text inappropriate for the slightly creepy world of Dr. Strange.
There is a twenty-four year gap in between the last Doctor Strange story and the only Daredevil story here, part of Ditko’s “return to Marvel.” While the opening featuring Daredevil traveling into some kind of radioactive chamber still holds that Ditko takes every character into his own world, there is a distinct lack of intensity in these later stories. Comparing the way Ditko draws the Hulk working through his emotions in The Incredible Hulk #6 and #249 it definitely looks like things have calmed down with ol’ Jade Jaws. Hulk’s trip into Jack Frost’s icy lair reaches to some past glories but the madcap feeling Ditko brought in the stories from the 60’s feels lost.
The real great pick of the latter comics is the first issue of the mostly-forgotten hero Speedball. Ditko usually inks himself but here it took Jackson Guice to make things interesting. The linework is much bolder and those expressions of stress work well. Speedball’s odd superpower seems like something only Ditko could make look good and he does so here. It should also be known that while an obsession with Ayn Rand would define so much of Ditko’s creator owned work the only thing that touches the political in this book are the arguments between the parents of Speeball’s alter-ego Robbie Baldwin. Scripter Roger Stern also gives us the best writing found in the book. It would have made a great closer, even though the Squirrel Girl story makes me chuckle (it’s just cool to see Dr. Doom felled by a bunch of Squirrels).
After reading the Visionaries book for Lee and seeing the re-coloring jobs there I had my worries for this book. This is actually the best re-coloring job I’ve seen so far, with only a few instances in the Spider-Man comics obscuring the linework. I do share Ed Brubaker’s call for more gutter space after going over this book, though. It’s still something I can live with when it comes to a book collecting great stuff from one of my all-time favorites.
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