The Later Ditko Years at Charlton

Some of the toughest Ditko items to find are actually some of the books he created later in his career. Steve Ditko worked for decades for Charlton Comics. The page rates there were far lower than with other companies, but the work was steady for him and so he kept at it, working for Charlton when other artists of his caliber would not have done so.

Most of the work he did for Charlton in the 1980s was very different from the kinds of things he had illustrated earlier in his career. Gone was the detail and the obvious expenditure of great labor into his pages. He still showed a definite brilliance for layout and continuity, but he was just doing a draftsman's job at this point and, to me, the heart was not there.

He could still shine brilliantly when he wanted to, but by and large this was just work to pay the bills, and you don't see much in the way of inspiration in the artwork that he did for Charlton during this stretch.

Still, it's Ditko, and just about anything he did is worth looking at, and worth having in my collection.

This book just has a Ditko cover, with no accompanying story by him.

This cover is a busy one and, to me, quite captivating. It strikes me as the kind of thing that would have been rejected in his days working under editor Stan Lee at Marvel, but which passed muster at the less exacting editorial oversight at Charlton.

Reminiscent of the kind of monster Ditko would cook up for Goodman in the old days at pre-hero Marvel.

And occasionally the kind of thing that reminded me of the work of Ditko's youth.

FIN FANG FOOM!

Well, I finally landed a copy of STRANGE TALES #89 for my collection. Back in the day it was just another issue in the long run of this book during the pre-hero days of early Marvel Comics. But the Jack Kirby-created monster in this issue ended up having a new lease on life when he was dusted off and used again in more recent years.

One thing that was definitely going on with the stories and characters created by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko is that Stan Lee was naming them after the completed stories were turned in for editing. Lee had a thing for alliteration and the character of Fin Fang Foom is a classic example of this. If you go back and look at Lee's history of naming characters you will see this illustrated time and again: Reed Richards, Peter Parker, Matt Murdock, Susan Storm, Bruce Banner, etc. It's something that I liked--it stuck in your mind and made the characters a little more solid.

And, of course, there was Fin Fang Foom.

My copy of STRANGE TALES #89. Classic stuff! When I was a kid, this cover gave me nightmares!

King Kirby Does Giant Gorilla!

Still writing. I don't see a break to write any detailed trip reports or essays for a bit. Maybe one about comics if I can steal a couple of hours.

In the meantime, more good stuff from King Kirby. This almost-Kong cover for Journey Into Mystery #65 is a real winner. This comic appeared right around the same time as Fantastic Four #1. Kirby had been telling Lee for several years that he could save Martin Goodman's comic outfit if they'd just cut him loose and let him create some new superheroes for the company.

Lee and Goodman finally relented and Kirby made history.

But the credit and the money were stolen from him.

Gorilla covers sold comics in those days.

DROOM!

In addition to having a very cool cover, this comic, TALES TO ASTONISH #9 is also one of the first comics I can recall reading. The very first comic I ever read was FANTASTIC FOUR #4. The second comic book that I can recall reading was a Jesse Marsh Four Color Comics issue of JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS from Dell Comics. I really liked that one, because I thought the tharks in the story were a passable version of triceratops.

But this book somehow ended up in my hands when I was probably five years old or so. My parents didn't sell comic books in their grocery store and they wouldn't open their first bookstore for a couple of more years. So my mom must have bought me this issue at the used book shop down the street from their grocery store.

The book contains all three of the guys who served as the core of the bullpen in these very early days of what would soon be Marvel Comics. Jack Kirby is there, as is Steve Ditko, and Don Heck makes an appearance. The issue is pretty good, and strangely it's Don Heck who gets to do the giant lizard story and not Kirby or Ditko who generally did all of the giant monster stories in these books. Interestingly, the big lizard is named "Droom", the same as what is now considered to be Marvel's first Silver Age superhero, a cat named Doctor Droom who was kind of like Dr. Strange and created by Jack Kirby. As I've recounted here before, Doctor Droom appeared in one of my favorite pre-hero Marvel titles, AMAZING ADVENTURES.

DROOM! THE LIVING LIZARD! (As opposed to a dead one.)

Kirby Creations

I don't like to argue with people about what Jack Kirby did or did not create when he was at Marvel Comics. So I lay it on the line:

Jack Kirby created the entire original cast and atmosphere of what we now call "the Marvel Universe" of the Silver Age of comics. He created Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the Avengers, Ant Man, the X-Men, and all of the associated characters that went along with those creations. He created Galactus, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Doom, Loki, the Watcher, the Yancey Street Gang, Wyatt Wingfoot, the Black Panther, the Juggernaut, etc. and etc. forever after.

The only things at Marvel that he did not create were Spider-Man and Dr. Strange and the various characters that Steve Ditko concocted to appear with those creations.

There was no "co-creator". Jack Kirby did his job, and Steve Ditko did his own. No one helped them, with the possible exception of the inkers who may have delineated their pencil work. And of course they had an editor. Their editor did not create the comics that Jack Kirby plotted, wrote, laid out, and penciled. Jack Kirby created the characters. An editor fiddled with the dialog. But that editor did not create the books. He was a good editor, but that's all he was.

Did Ernest Hemingway's editor "create" THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA? Hell, no. Did Jack Kerouac's editor create ON THE ROAD? Fuck, no. Did Edgar Rice Burroughs' editor create TARZAN? No, no, no, and no.

I am sick to freaking death of idiots defending a fifty-year-old lie.

STRANGE TALES #69.

 And so, since I haven't posted any bits of my comic collection in a while, I figured I'd show a couple of images. These are both from my pre-hero Marvel collection. This particular book is STRANGE TALES #69, which appeared in 1959, two years before Jack Kirby jump-started Marvel's sagging fortunes by creating the titles and characters I mentioned in the second paragraph of this brief essay. Both Kirby and Ditko would, from time to time, come up with physical archetypes that they would refer to in later works; they both would, in a way, mine those physical types for material. Everyone knows about the pre-hero Marvel comic wherein Ditko created precursors to Aunt May and Uncle Ben, the tragic foster parents of Peter (Spider-Man) Parker.

In this issue of Strange Tales, I was struck by the physical characteristics of the featured person who was so similar to someone Kirby later created for one of his best titles: THE X-MEN. And so, it could be said that Kirby first saw here, in this minor story, the face and figure that we would all one day know as Professor Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men.

Yep. Looks for all the world like the character we would later know as Prof. Xavier.

Steve Ditko Pre-Hero Marvel Jackpot

One of my favorite comic book dealers is Earl Shaw. I like buying from him because his prices are almost always more than fair (when compared to the larger market), and he never forgets a want list, even if he's just carrying it somewhere in the back of his mind.

So it was that he knew that I was out for lots of issues of the pre-hero Marvels that I've written about here in the past. But this was a really large chunk of what I was looking for, and was--for me--a major outlay of money. Especially considering that this is the holiday season and I was already buying a lot of stuff for gifts.

But this was all for me and I caved and worked out a deal to get them.

In all, I landed 55 issues of books that I mainly needed. A few were duplicates of issues I already have, but I'll sell those off on Ebay and use the money to buy other books. So without further comment, here are some of the scanned covers of books I picked up yesterday at Rick and Dave's Charlotte ComiCon.


TALES OF SUSPENSE #1. I had tried to buy this book a number of times on Ebay in the past couple of years. But I was always outbid. Heck with that. Now I have the issue, albeit in lower grade. But that's okay, because most of the issues I'd previously bid on were in about this same condition.

TALES OF SUSPENSE #3. All of the single-digit issues of Tales of Suspense are tough to find and even harder to win in auction. This one is a very good addition to my collection.

TALES OF SUSPENSE #4. I'm now only missing one out of the first ten issues of Tales of Suspense. And I'm sure I'll be able to land a copy of that one (#2) within the next few months.

Journey Into Mystery

My low-grade copy of Journey Into Mystery #77--this issue proved to be darker than most I own.

This is the latest addition to my pre-hero Marvel collection. A Journey Into Mystery #77. This is the book that Jack Kirby would later use to introduce the public to his superhero character, The Mighty Thor. However, this was some six issues before that happened. At this point, I assume that Stan Lee and Martin Goodman were just then discussing the possibility of their company dipping their toes into the superhero market for the first time in five or six years. It had been that long since they'd tried to revive their famous heroes of the Timely Comics era: The Human Torch, Captain America, and the Sub-Mariner. That had proven to be not so profitable for them, and since that time they'd left the super-heroes mainly to DC Comics.

But that's not a big factor at all for this issue of Journey Into Mystery. At this point, as far as the artist/writers working on the book were concerned, it was still mainly a combination science-fiction, fantasy, and horror comic. The stories in this book particularly span each of those genres. Goodman's company had been eking out a profit in this territory for some years, first as copy-cats of EC's great titles, and then just competing with a handful of other companies as the market continued to tighten.

This issue contains two stories by Jack Kirby, and one each from Don Heck and Steve Ditko. Kirby's stories, especially, seem to come wholly from the pen of Kirby with virtually no influence at all from any other quarter. Jack Kirby had been producing some truly creepy and disturbing horror stories for many years. When he really wanted to cut loose, he and Joe Simon had often created some truly monstrous images. Ironically, some of the most horrific illustrations that team ever produced came from titles they did with Harvey Comics, which most of us recall today as the home of Richie Rich, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Hot Stuff the Little Devil, etc. The two Kirby stories here are darker than the usual fare that would indicate some input from Goodman's editor and nephew, Stan Lee. So my suspicion is that Kirby turned these in with virtually no outside help at all. Both feature some creepy imagery, and one ends with the implied killing of a man. Pretty dark stuff.

Man, this is just absolutely gorgeous Steve Ditko art. There weren't many the equal of Ditko during this time.

World of Fantasy

Here in my old age I'm getting a real kick out of collecting comics. Almost strictly Silver Age, of course, since that was the era of my youth.

When I was a kid, my dad always had lots of the late Atlas-era comics. These were the books that Martin Goodman and Stan Lee were putting out before they decided to ride DC's coattails into the superhero genre. That was the thing about Goodman and Lee--they were copycats. I can think of no instance in which they were ahead of the pack, and were always doing their best to ape what was selling for other publishers who were, indeed, pushing the envelope.

As the comics industry limped into the late 1950s and early 1960s, there weren't many bright spots in four color publishing. Some westerns were still doing all right--but even that genre was fading fast with the great days of the movie western hero collapsing under the weight of TV competition. Disney comics were holding their own, but they had such a hold on the funny animal business that few could think of competing with them.

In these dark days, Lee had thrown the dice and placed his bets on science fiction and fantasy comics. The HUAC had pretty much killed that off and forced EC comics to abandon not only their great genre titles, but comics entirely. I think it was Goodman's thinking that with EC gone, his company could fill that void in the fans' pocketbooks. However, he wasn't willing to give Lee the kind of money it would take to attract the best artists, and so the Lee efforts never achieved the type of success that William Gaines had enjoyed at EC.

This issue of WORLD OF FANTASY came out in 1959. The Marvel superhero efforts were still two years away, but the talent which was to make up the core of the Marvel bullpen was taking form. This is one of the few comics from this period of early Marvel that doesn't have a Jack Kirby story. I suspect that he may have done the layouts for one of the stories, but by and large his presence in this issue is the cover, which is not quite up to his usual efforts. The interior of the book is dominated by the some of the guys who would soon make such an impact in the industry and in comics fandom.

Don Heck has a nice story that was a variation on the famous TIM BOO BA story by Ditko. I suppose the bare bones plot must have been from Stan Lee who stole it from some musty pulp that was old before he even started editing. The best thing in the book, though, was an extremely nice Steve Ditko effort called "Guardian of the Stars". Again, it's a variation on a morality theme that would have been quite at home in one of the Feldstein-edited issues of an EC science-fiction comic.

I was really happy to land this copy.

Amazing Adult Fantasy #7 and #9 and #11!

Well, I hit the mother load of pre-hero Marvels. Found for me by my friend Earl Shaw. I'll post scans of the covers over the next few days. I'm now very close to completing the complete run of Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy/Amazing Fantasy.

AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #7. The first issue of the revamped, retitled AMAZING ADVENTURES. The first series contained stories by several artists, but beginning with this issue it was all Ditko from cover to cover!

I always liked this issue as a kid. I enjoyed this rendition of Ditko's character, Tim Boo Ba. One of Ditko's superlative weird fiction cover efforts.

This is the same book I landed in auction not a few weeks ago. But I got such a good deal on this one that I had to get it. Now I have the cover as Ditko intended it, unmarked by some long-gone kid trying to alter the blank white space on the front.

This book is a real treasure for many reasons. First of all, it contains a rare instance of Steve Ditko inking Jack Kirby. I wish Ditko had inked more of Kirby's pencils--the results of their teaming was always unique. I'm not sure what Kirby thought of Ditko's inks on his pencils, but I sure do enjoy the team-up. This issue also features "Monsters from Mercury" which has some very good creature designs from Ditko, and impresses upon me once again the great influence Ditko had on Jim Starlin.

Journey Into Expensive Stuff

Here, then are recent additions to my collection, these being issues of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY which later became the comic book The Mighty Thor. This latter bit is problematic for me since I collect the book for its anthology content and not for the Thor yarns. And because of recent developments in both collecting and in film, the issues featuring Thor are getting really expensive. I guess I can always try to land low-grade copies.

Great Jack Kirby cover. His monsters were like God Himself.

A low grade copy of Journey Into Mystery #88. The fifth appearance of Thor. Low grade, yes, but at least now I have that cool Ditko story in the back of the book.

And I got a great deal on this copy of issue #91. More strange tale weirdness in the back of the comic.

Amazing Adult Fantasy

This is the latest addition to my Silver Age comic book collection:

My copy of Amazing Adult Fantasy #13.

You gotta love that title. These days it would have some twisted sexual connotation, but in the relatively innocent days of the early 1960s it was a good title for a comic book filled with weird fiction.

The copy's in decent shape, I got it at a good price, and best of all it's Steve Ditko from cover to cover! I really enjoy these books. Amazing Adult Fantasy was Steve Ditko's title and I'm pretty sure he did all of the art in all eight issues of the book, ending with AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #15 which introduced the Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker, and his guardians, Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

Narrowing down the collection slowly but surely. If you'd told me seven years ago that I'd be collecting old comics I'd have figured you for a crackpot. I'm having a great time putting this collection together.

Journey Into Mystery

Yet another pre-hero Marvel comic book I picked up in the last couple of weeks. Classic Jack Kirby cover (maybe even inked by Ditko) and containing, of course, wonderful interior art by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.