So what's with the title? Don't distress yourselves, STEVE DITKO fans, I'm referring only to his artwork and not the actual man himself. Amongst several companies that Ditko drew for after leaving MARVEL was WARREN, who produced black and white 'horror' mags like CREEPY and EERIE. This fantastic collected edition, which I purchased from a local comicbook store today (though it came out last year), contains all 16 of Sturdy Steve's stories that he did for the two mags.
Ditko really pulled out all the stops on these tales, applying a grey wash on some, and extra detail on others, and one can only wonder what SPIDER-MAN might've looked like given the same treatment. If you're a serious follower of Ditko, this is definitely one book you should have in your personal library. Priced at a very reasonable £14.99, nip down to your local comics shop right away and grace your bookshelf with this handsome hardback volume.
In the meantime, here's a taster of the delights waiting within its paranormal pages.
4 comments:
Hi Kid,
Say the name Ditko and I'll always pop up! Ditko did some absolutely stunning work in black and white, and his stories for Warren are something to behold.
Hmmnnn...Steve Ditko drawing the black and white Spectacular Spider-Man in 1968? It boggles the mind!
This one is a gem. Ditko was at the height of his talent when he worked on these. Some folks like his earlier more Kubert-esque style, but this more muscular approach is my favorite Ditko. Outstanding!
Rip Off
Diko's work for Warren was exceptional in places. I picked this book up last year and can confirm that its great value and is probably the best of all the recent Ditko reprint books (unlike the recent Corben Warren collection which was a bit disappointing to me) I'm just waiting for the reprint books of Alex Toths, Neal Adams and John Severin's Warren work - fingers crossed.
That's the mag I was thinking of, Nick - the first ish anyway, because, as you know, the second one was in colour. But what a 'What If...?', eh?
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I liked both styles, Rip, and, as you say, Ditko was at the height of his talents. Sad to think that his later work was so different that Joe Sinnott once refused to ink one job because it was basically just layouts.
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As you say, McScotty, it's an exceptional book, although there are one or two pages which are slightly murky, so I'm assuming that they were scanned from published issues. Overall, however, it's stunning. And Archie Goodwin writing 15 of the 16 stories - what more could a comics fan want?!
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