#31DaysOfDitko: Dave Sim reviews Ditko

Back in 2007, I restarted work on my Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko book and, upon learning that Dave Sim (creator of Cerebus and Glamourpuss) was an ardent admirer of Ditko, I sent Dave a whack of late 1950s/early 1960s Ditko material. I asked him to review it on my old Ditko Looked Up website, in exchange for links to his Cerebus trades. I thought I might get a page worth of words, generalities, but Dave sent back a lot of words, with a lot of specifics.

He also sent an introduction for his reviews that I share with you here too. Dave used to do a blog back then, so he posted the intro. there and then linked to my site for the reviews. Only Dave could write an intro. like this...

#31DaysOfDitko: Byrne Notice

In celebration of the debut of my latest book, Mysterious Traveler: The Steve Ditko Archives vol.3 at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend, May is "31 Days of Ditko" where I post highly entertaining content everyday on the co-creator of Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Mr. A, half of #BeforeWatchmen, and many more!

John Byrne: What Do You Think?

Right: Steve Ditko, 1959, co-creator of "Spider-Man"
Left: John Byrne, co-creator of "Ret Con"

Having achieved his fame as the penciller of the Uncanny X-Men in their heyday, Byrne also inked Ditko on a few occasions...including the 1984 Avengers Annual which Byrne did quite well, same with that 2nd last issue of Ditko's Rom run. The first instance of Byrne inking Ditko is an ususual story. When Byrne first started in the business, he was doing material for Charlton Comics circa 1975. Charlton had whacked Ditko's two titles in the late 1960s - Captain Atom and Blue Beetle - which left an unpublished issue of each. Byrne inked the Captain Atom story and it was published over Charlton Bullseye #1 and 2. To your left is an example from that story (click to enlarge).