I recently ordered Steve Ditko's 160-Page Charlton Package from Robin Snyder and, man, am I enjoying this a great deal. This collection reprints 20 of Ditko's Charlton Comics horror stories. These stories originally appeared in the early 1970s in the anthology titles Ghostly Haunts, Ghostly Tales and the Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves from 1969-1974.

I love horror anthology comics and no one did the genre better than Ditko, in my opinion. His art style, with its non-literal images and its eccentric, loner characters, just lends itself to these types of stories. While Ditko made his name at Marvel doing super heroes, I honestly believe that his Charlton work may be his finest stuff from an artistic standpoint.

When I was a kid, I picked up the occasional Charlton book and always thought it was weird that the guy who co-created Spider-Man was "slumming" doing these horror books for a minor league publisher. But as I've gotten older, I've come to really cherish this period in Ditko's career.

He must've enjoyed it, too, because he did a ton of these storiesat Charlton. There's easily enough material for two more of these types of collections: http://ditko-fever.com/charlton.html

In a very classy touch, the 160-page Charlton Package is dedicated to long-time Charlton writer Joe Gill, who was Ditko's collaborator on most of these stories.

Any one else have any thoughts on Ditko's Charlton horror work? Any particular favorites?

I have this volume, and a number of Ditko's Charlton horror work, and they are great comics. (I think Tom Sutton did some great horror work for Charlton as well). But if you love Ditko horor, you REALLY owe it to yourself to get this:



100 pages of the classic Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko colaborations for Creepy and Eerie. http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300337980096&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

IMO, this was Ditko career-best work - which in my view makes it some of the very best comics in the history of the medium.

I'll have to flip through my collection of Eerie. I can't seem to recall if I have this one or not.

It is all reprint material from early Creepy/Eerie comics, but if you don't already have those stories, it is a good place to pick up most of them at once.

Sad to say that I picked up a big stack of these for cheap at a struggling little comic shop in Jacksonville, brought them home, and never read them. I have a pretty spotty collection consisting of mostly bulk buys like that. I've probably only read about half of them. EC horror was always more my thing.

I like the first 20 or so Creepys and first dozen or so Eeries as much as I like the EC stuff. Sacrilege I know, but I do.

Also, this is a great buy... the first 35+ Vampirella stories in Essential/Showcase format. I gave my copy to a friend, but it is glorious.



For those (like me) missed the glory days of Archie Goodwin/Jose Gonzales Vampirella.

Scored a nice gift yesterday. Guy I work with just finished the first two Savage Sword compilations from Dark Horse and left them in my locker. Found them right beofre I left for my three day weekend. SSoC was the first black and white magazine I ever collected. A wonderful world of slightly less edited violence and boobies.

Those are great, eh? I've got all five, but I'm still only part-way through the second volume.

Can I buy this anywhere? When you say "ordered," is it still in print?

Yep, but mail order only.

http://ditko.blogspot.com/1990/01/ditko-books-in-print.html

I recommend the Static volume as well, especially if you like his stuff on The Question.

Li'l Jay, this book is still in print and you can order it. It's only $13, which for a 160-page trade paperback, ain't bad at all. Here's a link on how and where to order:

http://ditko.blogspot.com/1990/01/ditko ... print.html

This is the second self-published Ditko book I've ordered from Robin Snyder and I have nothing but positive things to say about the experience. I send Robin an e-mail and mail him a check and a couple of weeks later, he mails me the books.

EDIT TO ADD: Trevor beat me to it!

And I need to track down that Eerie collection. I've never read any of those stories before.

FYI, on the Ditko Charlton reprint package, I think the art looks a lot better reprinted in black & white than it did in the original color. Not that I've read all of these stories in their original form, but Charlton's printing press was notoriously bad. Ditko's self-published version is much clearer and cleaner-looking.

Take the link and Buy It Now, Bruce. It is a hard issue to find. Warren was on their last legs when that came out.

Or better yet, get the Dark Horse archives. You can never have enough Neal Adams, Frank Frazetta, Steve Ditko, etc. can you?

I have a lot of the Ditko Warren stuff, and it is top notch.
Sure wish that Dark Horse would print an all-Ditko archive.
Oh, how sweet that would be.

FYI, here are the contents for the aforementioned Ditko Charlton Package:

"Who's There?" from THE MANY GHOSTS OF DR. GRAVES #38, May 1973
"Music of Murder" from GHOSTLY TALES #69, Oct. 1968
"The Dog Howls for You!" from THE MANY GHOSTS OF DR. GRAVES #26, June 1971
"Web of Evil" from GHOSTLY HAUNTS #31, Apr. 1973
"Treasure of the Tomb" from GHOSTLY HAUNTS #23, Mar. 1972
"Return Visit!" from GHOSTLY HAUNTS #23, Mar. 1972
"An Ancient Wrong" from THE MANY GHOSTS OF DR. GRAVES #20, June 1970
"The Keeper of the Cave!" from GHOSTLY TALES #87, Aug. 1971
"Escape" from GHOST MANOR #15, Oct. 1973
"Someone else is Here!" from GHOSTLY TALES #86, June 1971
"The Heart of Jeremy Mith" from THE MANY GHOSTS OF DR. GRAVES #31, Apr. 1972
"The Moon Beast" from GHOSTLY TALES #106, Aug. 1973
"The Man Who Hated Cats" from GHOSTLY TALES #109, Jan. 1974
"I'll Never Leave You" from GHOSTLY HAUNTS #5, June 1972
"Death Scene" from THE MANY GHOSTS OF DR. GRAVES #48, Nov. 1974
"Giver of Life" from THE MANY GHOSTS OF DR. GRAVES #47, Sept. 1974
"The Deepest Cut of All' from GHOSTLY HAUNTS #46, Oct. 1975
"Hide and Eeeeek" from GHOSTLY TALES #85, Apr. 1971
"Partners!" from GHOSTLY HAUNTS #29, Jan. 1973
"The 9th Life" from GHOSTLY TALES #85, Apr. 1971