Tuesday, February 7, 2012

My Ditko article in San Diego Comic-Con 2012 Annual

I hate "sitting" on cool stuff. It worked for me when the editor of the Marvel Masterworks series couldn't get my Dr. Strange introduction approved in time for inclusion but, this time, I was on needles and pins for months waiting to spill the beans on the Ditko excitement found in this year's San Diego Comic-Con 2012 Annual. I was hired last November to write a 2000-word piece on Steve Ditko's contributions to the Spider-Man book and character for the Con's show piece publication. It's the 50th anniversary of Steve Ditko and Stan Lee's creation that first saw print in Amazing Fantasy #15, and the Con is all over it in their 80-page annual. (Perhaps prompted somewhat by the new movie starring the guy from Never Let Me Go, Andrew Garfield.)

The Annual has a print run of 135,000 copies (probably making it the most widespread publication I've been included within). The book is squarebound, on lovely matte-finish paper and shipped in a polybag. The Con introduced the publication last year and it was a great success. You can also read and download it online at the Con's website. The Annual also features a piece on the John Romita era by Tom Spurgeon, he of the super-blog Comics Reporter. If you see me at this year's Con, stop me and say hello.

(Thanks to Ben Towle - cartoonist supreme at www.benzilla.com - for the above scans.)

1 comment:

  1. Blake,

    I was just reading this earlier today.

    You've written about Ditko plenty before. And there has been no shortage of commentary on Ditko's life and career. But your new piece so succinctly lays out for one and all the proper, concise role Ditko had in the creation and foundation of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. In the Marvel Method, there's someone crediting themselves as the 'writer', and then there's someone who, through the story as revealed through the artwork, is the 'writer'.

    Stan, as he's stated, came up with the idea to do Spider-Man. When he rejected the material Jack Kirby (Kirby, of all people!) came up with, and then gave it to Ditko (where it succeeded), well, no further issue of 'who did what/how much credit do they deserve' needs to be addressed.

    I'm really glad this essay of yours is printed in the Comic Con Annual. I would hope that fans waiting to line-up to the new movie, the current readers who are buying the monthly comics, the people paying up to $50 for to have Stan 'The Man' Lee autograph a Spider-Man action figure...I hope they read this and get enlightened. Maybe even question what they've been hearing coming out the media, and Stan himself, over the years.

    As I was reading the piece at home, the mailman arrived and delivered my copy of A DITKO #15, the latest comic from Steve Ditko. I had ordered it directly from Robin Snyder, as I've been doing with all of Steve's other books over the last 3 years. Your profile on Ditko was a great service to the truth. Getting the man's latest comic book was icing on the cake!

    Best,

    Javier

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