Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko

      
                           Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko

                                   Writer: Blake Bell

                                   Hardcover: 220 pages

                                   FANTAGRAPHICS; Reprint July 2008

                                   ISBN: 9781560979210

Enigmatic and reclusive. Two words that no one would deny apply to Steve Ditko.

I seem to have been waiting a very long time for someone to have written a sizable biography of  one of my favourite creators in any medium. Ditko of course, is most famous for his co-creation of Spider-Man, but as this biography takes a chronological look at his work and life we see just how much he has achieved. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is considerably more Ditko out there than I had supposed.

Written by Blake Bell, who is considered the pre-eminent Ditko scholar, a name that I first became familiar with from an introduction which he wrote for Action Heroes Archive vol. 1, released by DC. Bell’s linear approach is perfectly matched to Ditko’s career which went through distinct phases through the decades. Bell’s writing style is clear, open and frank and whilst he obviously holds Ditko in high regard, he doesn’t allow his reverence of the subject to obscure some of the harsher aspects of Ditko’s career or personal interactions.

As you would expect, all quotes are sourced and included in the sources are one or two anecdotes which were rightly kept separate from the main body of the work but when read at the end of each chapter add a great deal to the overall enjoyment of the book. One thing that is missing from this volume is an index. I was surprised that there was not one as other works of this nature have benefitted from the inclusion. I also found it annoying that printed in the book is an internet link to a Ditko bibliography which doesn’t work. I understand that the internet is not a solid state object and that often the loss of information is not the fault of the compiler of that information, but what I don’t understand is why, if the hard work of compiling a Ditko bibliography had already been done, it could not have been printed in this book.

One of Bell’s most interesting points is how early in Ditko’s career his Randian philosophical beliefs began to permeate his work. This was a surprise for me, but I will admit that I’m not particularly knowledgeable in regard to Randian Objectivism. But Bell clearly has a solid grounding in an area that has dictated Ditko’s choices for most of his life and convincingly shows the reader early examples of it in Ditko’s work, including his Spider-Man strips.

The physical quality of this volume can not be overstated. High quality paper and binding are very obvious as soon as you handle the book, but there are a few more subtle extras which betray the publishers (Fantagraphics Books) desire to create an above average package. If you remove the dust jacket, title and author are embossed on to the front cover and something that I didn’t notice at first, the entire hardback cover has Ditko drawn panels printed on it in a grey on grey colouring, only visible in the right light. I appreciate that this doesn’t raise the quality of the work itself, but, if it were not there I don’t believe that you would pay less for the book. Another added bonus is the opening few pages that reprint Ditko’s first comic sale, in full, with oversized reproduction of the highest quality. This acts as a sort of introduction to the subject and I believe it was well placed at the very start of the book, engaging the reader with Ditko’s work before looking at the man that created it.

The final pages of the book include a gallery of covers by Ditko. If memory serves, they are all public domain images from Charlton Comics publications, each is reproduced as a full page, oversized image and to my mind showcase some of the finest comics covers ever produced. In fact if you look at an earlier post on this blog, you’ll see that I chose an early Charlton cover by Ditko as one of my Great Covers posts. So perhaps I’m a little biased on this, but it seems Bell, at least, agrees with me.

After reading Strange & Stranger I believe that the only way will see a more concise presentation of the life and work of Steve Ditko is in the unlikely event that Ditko himself offers his services to someone like Bell. There are undoubtedly gaps in this biography, but that is to be expected when dealing with a subject that has guarded his personal life so closely as Ditko has. Bell has done an amazing job working with the restrictions imposed upon him.

Whilst Strange & Stranger is very much a biography, the amount of artwork included on every page allows it to be seen as an art book in it’s own right and as stated above, the quality of the reproduction is flawless, I particularly enjoyed seeing Ditko’s un-inked pencil work later in the book. There really is something here for everyone, whether you are an avid fan of Ditko already or have a broader interest in comics in general, you will not be disappointed by Strange and Stranger.

In closing I’d like to say that Strange & Stranger was my favourite Christmas present and I’d like to offer my thanks again to my partner and son for getting me a copy. Love to you both.

Mad Thinker

John Byrne’s Fantastic Four #232-295 (plus extras)

See the bottom of this post for info re: ISBN’s and Volume contents.

I would say that there are three outstanding and exceptional runs on the Fantastic Four comic, one of them, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post, was of course courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, another was by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo over forty years later. And sitting right in the middle of these two, is the work of John Byrne.

Strangely, the runs mentioned all began almost exactly twenty years apart, so if there is a twenty year cycle of excellence for the Fantastic Four, we should expect something very special in 2021. In fact, it’s my intention to be the FF scribe by that year.

Byrne’s run on the FF is the second longest of any creative team, only Stan and Jack produced more consecutive issues. It was considered at the time to be a return to a Golden Age for the team.

As far as Byrne’s concerned, he had an edge over most creative partnerships as he was the sole creator of the book. He has said in interview that a singular creative vision is able to produce a strip more closely resembling the creators intent. Well, yes, that makes sense, but it doesn’t count for much if the creators intent and vision is not to the buying public’s taste. However the sales of FF over the years of Byrne’s tenure as creator and the fact that he was the sole creator for such an extended time (five years) would suggest that his stories “worked”.



Cover from FF 252

  But as any comic reader will admit, the number of issues produced and the quantity of copies sold are not always directly proportionate to the quality of the product. Think of all of the X-Titles and Image craziness with incentive-multiple-cover-polybagged-trading-card-insert-limited to 200 copies per customer, in the 90’s.

But Byrne was working in an earlier time, when, frankly, shit did stink. So sales did count for something and Byrne’s work was well above average and a retrospective of this era in general could not be considered complete without mention of Byrne’s work across the medium and the FF in particular.

What we get over the course of the Byrne run is a sense of character and changing roles within the family unit. There’s nothing particularly new in the run but it is a return to the fundamentals of the team, indeed, the first issue that Byrne produced was titled “Back to Basics” which sets the tone for the next few years worth of stories.

That’s not to say that we have five years of  comics that simply maintain the status-quo. We see Johnny grow from a teen into a young man, particularly in regard to his romantic involvement with a long term supporting character. He still has his hot-headed and impetuous nature, but his wants, needs and desires grow up with him. We see Sue realise her potential with an increase in confidence and ability plus a fitting name change to Invisible Woman. Ben…..Hmmm, well the Thing angle is a bit of a disappointment for me, I’ll give you a bit of perspective.

In 1983 Byrne was commissioned to produce an ongoing Thing comic. He did, it was OK. So how do you go about creating a stand-alone comic for the Thing?

You estrange him from the other members of the FF.

Byrne writes the character of Ben Grimm with believability and depth, that’s not the problem. The problem is, for the reason mentioned above, there is a huge portion of the Byrne run devoid of the Ever-Lovin’ Blue Eyed Ben. It really is a great loss. I’ve always seen FF as a true family, it’s not like the Avengers with a rotational membership. The Fantastic Four is a single entity comprised of four particular individuals.




Panel from FF 284

  I have nothing against the character of She-Hulk, Ben’s replacement, but she ain’t him. And this is for a LOT of issues. This is the only major negative point in an otherwise memorable run, but I have to say, for me it’s a BIG one.

The stories themselves are exactly as they should be. High-Adventure, cosmic threats, explorative jaunts into the Negative Zone and nefarious plots from a certain dastardly European monarch. Two of the most memorable arcs are Doom epics. In one we have the team in a situation where they assist Doom in regaining his Latverian throne because of the chaos, terror and poverty caused by his overthrow. It’s a very well crafted tale that leaves both the reader and the FF with an ambiguous feeling in regard to the morality of their actions. Have they been expertly played by the conniving Doom? The other story transplants the four into surrogate bodies, sans powers, with Reed in particular mercilessly tortured by the atrocious but charismatic Doctor.

Good stuff.

This is not a particularly cheap run to get hold of  in either single issue or collected format. However, the trade paperbacks are printed on good quality paper, it’s glossy and I prefer matte, but that is a purely personal preference, based on the fact that the original art was produced for newsprint.



Panel from FF 262

 John Byrne’s Fantastic Four is well worth a read. It’s a high point in regard to both Byrne’s career and Fantastic Four history. It’s also a benchmark in the comic media of an era when comics had grown up in terms of character and story development, but hadn’t yet reached the “gritty” phase that firstly bolstered and later, nearly destroyed an industry that I love. The issues contain intelligent and well crafted stories, but with a sense of wonder, discovery and most importantly of all, adventure.

The entire run, including some worthy extra issues (and some not so worthy) has been collected in eight trade paperbacks, there is also a Volume 0, which collects some one off issues produced by Byrne before the main body of his run, but as I don’t have it, it’s not commented on in this post.

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 1 – ISBN 9780785107798

Fantastic Four #232-240

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 2 – ISBN 9780785114642

Fantastic Four #241-250

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 3 – ISBN 9780785116790

Fantastic Four #251-257, Annual #17, Avengers #233, Thing #2

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 4 – ISBN 9780785117100

Fantastic Four #258-267, Alpha Flight #4, Thing #10

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 5 – ISBN 9780785118442

Fantastic Four #268-275, Annual #18, Thing #19

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 6 – ISBN 9780785121909

Fantastic Four #276-284, Secret Wars II #2, Thing #23

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 7 – ISBN 9780785127352

Fantastic Four #285-286, Annual #19, Avengers #263, Annual #14, X-Factor #1

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 8 – ISBN 9780785127369

Fantastic Four #287-295

Mad Thinker Reads- Fantastic Four by John Byrne


MT