Hello All:

I've not been on the list for a while, mainly because I've been busy with a few projects (I wrote an essay on Don Heck for the recent Iron-Man Omnibus and will be in the 10th Anniversary issue of the Jack Kirby Quarterly writing about Kirby's In The Day's of the Mob) but have checked in from time to time. I thought I'd pose a question about Ditko's independent work. What do you think are the positive and negative aspects of Ditko's solo work? His independent work is his most personal, but is it his best in terms of storytelling and art? Blake Bell's new book on Ditko is out and I thought the best chapters were devoted to that aspect of his career. I'll sit back for awhile and see what others have to say...

My book has still not arrive, Nick (new books are always slow through Amazon it seems).
I'll get back to after I get a chance to read it.

I've always felt that his Amazing Spider-Man was pretty personal, though. It's been a long time
since I read his Charlton work (although I wouldn't call Charlton an Indy, though). As for
the true independent stuff, again, I read that when I was about 18 or so, and a rather young 18.
I was looking mainly at the concepts presented therein, and absolutely NOT focusing on Ditko:
Mr. A, Avenging World, etc.

Perhaps today, an older and more experienced Beach might see a more personal Ditko oozing
off those pages. It's hard to say. It's hard to separate the man from the philosophy, though,
because—as I recall—the philosophy was pretty hammering. It was hard to see the man behind
it. But I see this is leading to a what-is-a-man-if-not-his-philosophy type of discussion. And I
can agree with that, but sometimes the philosophy is more of the ideal, and the personal is the
man who is striving to be that, to live that, but who isn't quite there yet, not totally.

I think his independent work is some of his best ever: Avenging World, Mr. A., Killjoy -- even some of the stuff in the 160-Page Package (1999) and 176-Page Package (2000) are favorites of mine. I like the sense of humor in some of it, and the sense of purpose in it. It's work that he controls, so you get the sense that if it succeeds or fails, only he is to blame, so he makes it the best he can do. (When some of his 1980s-90s mainstream work was not up to par, one could always blame the inker, writer, etc.)

My only gripe about some of his indie work is the "stream of consciousness" thought balloons and dialogue that sometimes characters engage in. I don't mean the "essays in a word balloon" -- I like those actually -- I mean instead those panels where sometimes characters will speak in only a couple words, which I suspect is meant to indicate how people really do think and talk. Although even that oddness can add to the appeal sometimes. Check out the Mr. A. story in the 176-Page Package where Rex Graine is walking down the street and the grungy kids are vandalizing the street. That's a favorite scene for me, but Rex is thinking to himself in a short, clipped way that makes it hard to understand what he is thinking about.