Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter blog has a "Five for Friday" featuring Ditko, where you submit your five favourite Ditko issues. Artist Michel Fiffe has a nice, long piece on his Ditko Connection. And here's a whack of Steve Ditko images to get you in the celebratory mood.
'Round here, we're only up to 1958, compiling the first five years of his almost 60-year career in putting together comic books.
And 1958 is where you'll find us in Impossible Tales: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 4, coming out next May from Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
I'm scanning like a Mad Man this weekend for the upcoming volume; a great way to spend Steve's birthday immersed in all this fabulous artwork from one of the definite peaks of his career. Here's the publisher's blurb for the volume:
"Five years before Steve Ditko began work on his now legendary co-creations for Marvel Comics, the Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, he was producing some of his best work in near anonymity for Charlton Comics. Like its predecessors, Impossible Tales: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 4 features over 200 meticulously restored full-color pages of Ditko in his early prime - stories that have never seen a proper reprinting until now, thrilling stories of suspense, mystery, haunted houses, and unsuspecting victims all delineated in Ditko’s wildly idiosyncratic, masterful style. This fourth volume ranks as the best in the Archives series to date thanks in large part to the inspiration Ditko took from comics derived from the classic host-narrated radio shows, which gave an extra oomph to his creepy yarns. Moreover, comics such as This Magazine is Haunted and Tales of The Mysterious Traveler bore witness to a veritable explosion in Ditko’s ingenuity in terms of manipulating the traditional comic-book page layout. This new level of excellence also manifested itself in his work on other books, such Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds, Out of This World, Strange Suspense Stories, and Unusual Tales, all of which are amply represented in this volume."
As a self-published creator, some 40 years Mr. Ditko's junior, I fail the productivity test!
ReplyDeleteBut, the important thing is that Ditko is still doing exactly what he wants to do, and that's make comics unfiltered through any voice but his own. I look forward to each new comic released under the Robin Snyder/Ditko imprint.
And I love the cover of Volume 4. The bright colors are a nice change from the previous books (not that I had an issue with the preceding cover designs).
So I guess I can say I'm looking forward to more new work from Ditko, as well as your latest books!
Hi Blake, very excited about the new volume - as usual! I just saw that Craig Yoe and IDW are coming out with Ditko Gorgo and Konga volumes.. will you be including that work in your Archives too? If so, then I'll just wait until you cover it.. Or should we be snapping up the IDW books?
ReplyDeleteHow many volumes are scheduled to be in this set? Doesn't his none Marvel work become much scarcer around 58?
ReplyDeleteHi Kingsley. Yes, you can hold off. :)
ReplyDeleteHi "Anonymous". Last night, I was coming up with the title and cover image for v5 for 2014...and we're still in 1958! There will be a bunch more, promise.
Hi any news on possible lost Question story in the unpublished Charlton book Blue Beetle number 6, published a Blue Beetle story the Specter in Charlton Portfolio I think had only 18 pages was there another story?
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