Happy 80th Birthday, Steve Ditko!



Speaking of the great Steve Ditko, I finally had a moment to see Jonathan Ross In Search of Steve Ditko over the weekend. I liked it quite a bit. I enjoyed the forthright attitude towards what was valuable in Steve Ditko's work, didn't mind at all the recurring emphasis on the character's pop-culture aspects or the acknowledgment that these were primarily directed towards young people, liked the matter-of-fact way they dealt with John Romita's Spider-Man in contrast to Ditko's and was generally fascinated by how they repeated visual information a bunch of times in order to let it sink in.

On the negative side, I found the sloppiness of some of the pick-up shots distracting and unnecessary, and did Flo Steinberg actually get to speak about interacting with Ditko or was she just used as a witness of the general bullpen shenanigans? I think the show could have benefited greatly from testimony from more people that dealt with Ditko personally, in order to make the final scenes more poignant. I also thought the idea that he may have left Marvel because of a money dispute with Martin Goodman being left out was odd, as 1) it's the most likely scenario, 2) if you wanted the drama of suggesting all of these different reasons, adding a money motive would have driven the drama up, not down. I was also a bit sad about Ditko's amazing Warren Magazines work not garnering at least a mention (that I remember), but I am an obsessive nerd saddened by a lot of things, and should be ignored.

I thought they did a particularly nice job with making as clear as possible the distinction Stan Lee was referring to as he emphasized the idea over the execution. That's not an idea everyone always gets, and they laid the groundwork so that an average, attentive listener would understand instantly what was in question. Plus, they used Ditko's own one-page comic on the matter, and I always thought Ditko sounded rational on that point. The most interesting thing about the interview with Lee was the former Marvel head honcho's regret at actually speaking his mind over how he feels giving the co-creator credit. It proved Ditko right on an objection about the word "considered" that was initially played as an unreasonable concern on Ditko's part, and revealed a lot about how much this extended controversy has worn on Lee, I think.

Anyhow, if you haven't seen it, it's a nice little piece of comics history lite: engaging, funny and affectionate. A bonus element is getting a faceful of Alan Moore and watching Neil Gaiman being flustered by Ross into comparing himself to Etta Candy. Plus Ralph Macchio apparently started working in comics when he nine years old.

If you want to drown in some Ditko because of the round-number of the birthday, here are a few links. Clearly one of comics' most fascinating figures, Ditko is also one of the most evocative and idiosyncratic creators in the medium's history. His attention to gesture, his detailed cityscapes, his design work, his feel for emotion and for physical restraint, and the overall quality of his visual imagination distinguish a long and fruitful career. Happy birthday to Mr. Ditko. Comics would be a totally different place had he never entered the field.

* wikipedia.org entry
* Ditko e-mail list
* Blake Bell's Steve Ditko site
* lambiek.net entry
* Douglas Wolk profile at Salon.com
* comic book database bio
* article by Jeet Heer
* PR from Fantagraphics about their 2008 Steve Ditko retrospective
* birthday card to Ditko from Michael Fiffe
* Craig Yoe celebrates the big day at Arf!


 
posted 3:12 am PST | Permalink
 

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