Yes you are. I saw it.

I liked the book,,, but my only worry is that some people will think it is a guide to all his best work,, think they know everything and neglect to read Squirrel Girl and Mr Quiver. I believe he did not focus nearly enough on his later oddball/humorous work like Mr Quiver and stories like murdered men turning into vengeful clouds.
He even left out The Creeper in Worlds Finest,,, which I feel is hugely signicant since he did everything in those except the color( or was it the lettering?)) and one of those had a great scene with Jack Ryder fooling around with a measuring ruler. I think the tone of those stories should have been discussed,, and the fact that they were some of his only 100% solo superhero work intended for a mainstream audience.

But then again, maybe Blake hoped newcomers would discover all these things for themselves. I hope they do, maybe in a couple of years this forum will be bigger with people who are going out to look for more rather than reading all the history books and classics and thinking they know everything. I hate those stuck up people who take a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing. Everybody has to have something they are especially interested in rather than having just a little bit of everything.

I also feel that the 60s-70s Charlton/Joe Gill anthology work deserved far more praise. Haunted#1 is an all-time great to me.

I find it strange that Blake criticised they decline of Ditkos artwork so much. It's just a sad fact that it happens to almost every comic artist who has been going for such a long time. The artwork was pleasing to fans but didn't often impress newbies... Ditko, Kirby, Eisner and Wood all ended up producing art that was a merely pleasant shadow of what it used to be. In current mainstream comics Jordi Bernet, Wrightson, Joe Kubert and Russ Heath are all doing work which is pleasing and of a high standard,, but still makes you wish for the old days(but Kubert and Wrightson can occasionally rival their old work when equipped with soft pencils))) The only artists who I think have distinctly improved are Ploog and Gene Colan.

The book was strangely depressing and uplifting at the same time.

Does anyone think Ditko will reply to this book? I'm really hoping he clears up some things.

Dave Sim on Blake's book:

http://fourrealities.blogspot.com/2008/ ... anger.html

That may be true depending on whether one considers the work Ditko did for Charlton in which he performed all divisions-of-labor to be "mainstream." Regarding colour, it's possible Ditko has offered colour guidelines for a number of his characters if not stories. I do recall reading suggestions Ditko made for the colouring of Spider-Man, which weren't followed exactly though still done in hues of red/blue, in keeping with Ditko's recommendation to Stan Lee.

The Creeper feature was cancelled in World's Finest and Ditko's remaining unpublished Creeper stories were later reworked and recycled as b\w Shag stories. Pretty resourceful, I'd say. It makes one wonder if other independent Ditko stories/characters were reincarnations of something else. One Dr. Graves story comes to mind which is suspiciously similar to Dr. Strange in many ways.

I hear he has a quite enjoyable life.

So, have Linda or Jay read this? Is it worth getting?

I have it, and the one after it (Vol.1 and Vol. 2). I intend to buy them all, because there is much fascination for me how Steve Ditko went from schlocky horror, etc. to the weird stuff he did at Atlas for Stan Lee, and then naturally transitioned to the unusual look and feel of Spider-man and Doctor Strange (and Hulk for that matter). Then I have all his Charlton work, and and am working on most of his DC work. It's unusual to be able to capture most of the career arc for such an important artist.

But no, it's not what I'd call "You've got to read this, they're good!" stuff. Pretty cheesy -- he wasn't writing these stories, I don't think. I tend to flip through a lot of the stories.

If you get a good deal, grab 'em.

This isn't "The Art of Steve Ditko" book, though -- this is that biography with art book. I don't think that full stories are part of this.

Oops, I'm sorry. It's hard for me to keep them straight because I've been buying them all. I checked the picture of the cover to jog my memory.

I have it, and it's much mo' better than the one I was describing above. It's probably a "must buy" in the Ditko category, with the most interesting biographical information that is, more importantly, tied to representative panels of his work. Very interesting.

This is the one my previous comments were about -- Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1606992899/?tag=imwan-20

The word "strange" in both makes it hard for me to keep them apart, but the covers are easy.

I bought "Strange & Stranger" this past weekend on a whim at my LCS --








-- and have been really enjoying it. I got about 70 pages in... what an interesting guy. I've also come to appreciate his art even more than before. I'm surprised he's so embarrassed about inking some pr0n comics in his youth. I'll wrap that puppy up and then finally start reading Essential Dr. Strange Vol.1.

They really need to do a nice collection of all his Warren work in one hand hardback volume.

I loved this book!

I like that one because the biographical material is so good. It's pretty much good enough to be in a non-comic book about his life. But to have it together with a lot of his art was cool.

One of my favorite things about Ditko art was his passionate belief in the importance of what he called "drapery." He really studied how fabrics (clothing, etc.) should look. So Ditko art in its prime has a lot pant legs, shirts and jackets that look look really cool. It's painstaking, but properly "draped" fabric is one of those touches that makes a page pop for me. I've been reading Rocketeer lately, and that was a strength of Dave Stevens.

With his strength at "drapery," Ditko was born to draw Doctor Strange with that cloak. When you're reading the archives, you just sort of go "awesome!" when he is awarded that red cloak.

And Hanzo -- Doctor Strange is one of the ones that has been issued in paperback Marvel Masterworks. So I highly recommend it. It has all but 5 of the Ditko issues in it.

Will Eisner spent time on drapery when I was in his class and Ditko was/is influenced by Eisner

If I end up going ga-ga for it in Essential format, I might see double-dipping and getting the Masterworks... but I decided to finally pull the trigger and get the Action Heroes Archives Vol. 2 with the Blue Beetle, Question and Capt. Atom material at this point. I'm curious to read his work outside of his collaboration with Stan Lee.

For me, the triumph of this book is the interesting biography accompanied with the wonderful art. I think either without the other would be lessened for the absence.

It's great to read about some art technique or influence he had and then actually see the art being written about.

I think that's what I like most about Eisner. The Spirit Archives I have (many) are gorgeous.

Will said you had to think what cloth you were drawing. Light cotton was different than heavy for example. I think that can give the work a little extra.

I got that Action Heroes Archives Vol. 2 a week or two back... really enjoying it so far. It's really too bad this little universe of heroes couldn't succeed on its own.

I think a company with these guys, the Marvel Family and the THUNDER Agents could be pretty darn neat.

I wonder if success what killed it? DC grabbed the editor in charge of the line and he brought his top talent with him.