Working With Ditko Preview

Working with Ditko

by Jack C. Harris

Introduction by Mike Gold

Design, Production, and Editorial Assist by Jon B. Cooke

Proofread and Published by John Morrow

Steve Ditko portrait by Drew Friedman

Front and back cover art by Steve Ditko

Special thanks:

Cory Sedlmeier, Rob Imes, Kendall Whitehouse, Glenn Whitmore, and Andrew Pepoy

Dedicated to Stephen J. Ditko

My idol, acquaintance, colleague, collaborator, friend & Master of the Comic Book Arts

Batman, Black Canary, Block, Bouncing Boy, Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, The Creeper, Dial H for Hero, Green Arrow, The Hawk and the Dove, Hawkman, House of Mystery, The Legion of Super-Heroes, The Odd Man, Shade the Changing Man, Showcase, Stalker, Starman, Superboy, Superman, Time Warp, Wildfire, Wonder Woman, World’s Finest Comics, and all associated characters TM & © DC Comics.

Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Human Torch, Kraven the Hunter, Spider-Man: Web of Doom, Tales of Suspense, and all associated characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

The Adventures of the Fly, Fly Girl, Jaguar, and all associated characters TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. The Fly created by Joe Simon, © The Estate of Joseph Simon.

Steve Ditko portrait © Drew Friedman. Originally appeared in Drew’s Heroes of the Comics: Portraits of the Pioneering Legends of Comic Books [2014], published by Fantagraphics Books.

Alter Ego TM & © Roy and Dann Thomas.

The Comics Journal TM & © Fantagraphic Books, Inc.

Warp and associated characters TM & © the estate of Stuart Gordon and Lenny Kleinfeld.

Byron Simon (In the Lamp), Daughters of Time, Dr. Ato: The Man with the Atomic Eye, Fantasy Master, Felix Fax: The Infinity Flyer, Lelona, The Myth Master, Star Guider, 3-D Substance, and Tommy Todd’s Dream Squad, and all associated characters TM & © Jack C. Harris.

Revolver TM & © Robin Snyder.

The 3-D Zone TM & © the estate of Ray Zone.

Fantastic Giants, Gorgo, Konga TM & © the respective copyright holders.

First Printing: June 2023 • Printed in China • ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-122-6

First Encounter

Irecall the exact moment I became aware of the comic book art of Steve Ditko. I was astride my bicycle, delivering newspapers very early in the morning, in late November of 1958. I dropped a folded copy of the Wilmington (Delaware) Morning News on the side porch doorstep of a house on Shipley Road. Lying next to the step, scattered on the cement, was a small stack of comic books. On top was a copy of Tales of Suspense #2, dated March 1959. (Comic book publishers used to pre-date their comics to ensure longer newsstand life.) I had never seen a copy of Tales of Suspense before. I had only just begun to collect comic books, having “discovered” them at camp, a few months earlier. The ones that had my attention at the time were all published by DC Comics. The comic books I knew all had the corner “Superman DC National Comics” emblem and usually featured Superman and/ or Batman.

But this Tales of Suspense comic book was different; man, was it different! There was no identifying emblem on the corner. The cover scene was a futuristic city, obviously (to me at least) on a different planet, as a moon loomed in the sky much larger than I had ever seen it on Earth. The pale blue heavens above the city were filled with giant, twinkling stars. Hovering in the air in the middle ground was the most fantastic, ultramodern floating car, the likes of which I had never seen. On the side of this orange and red transport were the letters “POLICE.” Inside this amazing vehicle were two green-uniformed policemen, one

piloting and the other pointing to the foreground.

And, oh, what a foreground! Through a huge window was a room filled with exotic green furniture and electronics. A curved green sofa sat behind a polished table on which sat a wine goblet and a handled pitcher. Next to the table was a small sculpture of a

Tales of Suspense #2 [March 1959]. This cover illustration was my introduction to the comic book art of Steve Ditko.

One fateful day, one of my comic fan college classmates came to class with a newspaper clipping about Michael Uslan, a college student just like ourselves, who had managed to create and teach his own college course on comic books at Indiana University. We were inspired! That very day, we skipped a class, sat around in the cafeteria, and outlined our own “History of American Comic Books” course for the Philadelphia College of Art.

In a remarkably short time, we presented our outline to the liberal arts department, and, the very next semester, we were teaching the first student-taught course in the college’s history. We taught it for two semesters. During that time, we had a few guest speakers come down from New York City. Writers Denny O’Neil and Len Wein spoke to our class, as did artist Dick Giordano. We had met these gentlemen at various New York comic book conventions and they were very generous with their time, and quite willing to share their knowledge and insights.

During this period, I had the opportunity to write an article about our course and comics books themselves for a teachers’ magazine. Upon graduation, armed with my diploma, experience and contacts, I approached DC Comics regarding employment. To my delight, my timing was perfect, and DC was indeed looking for assistant editors. In November 1974, two months after my college graduation, I became an assistant editor at DC Comics, as one of the legendary “Woodchucks” that included Carl Gafford, Allan Asherman, Steve Mitchell, Guy H. Lillian III, E. Nelson Bridwell, Bob Rozakis, Paul Levitz, and Mike Uslan. (Yes, the same Michael Uslan who had inspired our comic book course in the first place, and who would go on to become an executive producer of all the Batman movies!) I was assigned as the assistant editor to Murray Boltinoff, one of DC’s best-selling editors at the time.

The experiences and friendships developed during my first year at DC could fill a whole other book. Suffice to say, in a year I was a DC editor in my own right, with my own office on the sixth floor of the Warner Communications building. My window looked directly down on the entrance to the famous 21 Club on 52nd Street. Early books I edited included Blackhawk, Secret Society of Super-Villains, Green Lantern, World’s Finest Comics, Warlord,

Above is reproduced from Parade Magazine, April 9, 1972, which included “Flash Gordon Goes to College,” an article about Michael Uslan’s comic book course. That novel Indiana University offering inspired my fellow Philadelphia College of Art students and me to create our own course.

Chapter 3.

Steve, Shade, the Changing Man, & The Odd Man

During the first half of the 1970s, most of Steve’s work had been for Charlton, which had always been his favorite publisher. They didn’t pay that much, but they allowed him the most creative freedom. He’d also done some work for the newly formed Atlas/ Seaboard company. In late 1974, DC’s managing editor, Joe Orlando, had taken note of a sword-&-sorcery trend springing up in comics. Marvel’s Conan and Kull had been doing well for a long time and Joe wanted DC to have a counterpart. DC had a Beowulf title, but Joe was looking for something more original. Paul Levitz, Joe’s assistant editor and general righthand man at the time, jumped at the chance and created the Stalker series. Joe immediately tapped Steve Ditko as the artist.

When I had first met Steve, that’s what he was doing. He had come in to drop off his latest penciled pages for Stalker. My office soon became a haven for Steve. He was not a recluse, but he was a very private, and perhaps shy, person. He really didn’t want to hang out in the DC bullpen with all the other freelancers while waiting to hand in art pages to Joe, so he used my office chair as his sanctuary. This is how we became friends. Whenever he came to DC, he would duck into my office and wait there until Joe was free to meet with him. He would show me his artwork for Stalker even before he showed it to Joe, who was the Stalker editor.

Recognizing what an asset Steve was, the upper echelon of DC wanted to keep him happy. While he was in the midst of doing Stalker, they also had him do a Creeper issue for First Issue Special, DC’s latest “try-out” magazine, in the tradition of Showcase from years earlier.

Steve, Shade, and The Odd Man

The Shade, The Changing Man house ad, designed and written by me, with Ditko’s illustration.

Issue #8 finally revealed the origin of the M-Vest and how Shade obtained it. Steve had his own theory about “origin stories.” First of all, he never called them “origin stories.” He called them “legends.” He also felt they were sacred. He believed creators shouldn’t “waste” a good legend on an unproven character. This is the reason that most Steve Ditko characters first appear full-blown. Their origins (or “legends”) were not usually revealed until three or four stories into the series. Steve once explained this to me in reference to Doctor Strange over at Marvel. Doctor Strange was introduced in Marvel’s Strange Tales #110 in July of 1963. There was no fanfare, no mention on the cover, no origin, no introduction of any sort. The first adventure pitted Doctor

Strange against Nightmare, who would later be developed into a major super-villain. Five months later, in Strange Tales #115, the origin of Doctor Strange was finally revealed, accompanied with the typical Stan Lee hype as to how “…It could only happen to the offbeat Marvel Comics Group…with three published stories of Doctor Strange…we forgot to give you his origin!” Of course, no one had “forgotten” anything. This was just an example of Stan Lee’s blustering hype. Steve just wanted to wait and make certain the character would continue (he had already skipped a couple of issues) before producing a proper origin tale. This is why we had to wait so long to learn Rac Shade’s origin. Ironically, Shade did not continue.

Steve, Shade, and The Odd Man

The Odd Man’s final appearance was as a cameo in The Creeper story for Showcase #106, which wouldn’t see publication until Cancelled Comic Cavalcade [Fall 1978].

Chapter 4.

Steve, the World’s Finest Creeper, & The Batman

In early 1977, I was assigned the editorial duties on World’s Finest Comics, one of DC’s longest running and most popular comics. World’s Finest had begun in 1941 under the title of World’s Best Comics (for the first issue only), with a number of different features sandwiched between a Superman lead and a Batman & Robin story to finish it off. It was a larger comic, priced at 15¢ when the rest of the DC line was just a dime. Early issues sported cardboard covers. Superman and Batman & Robin shared the cover illustration, but were featured in their own, separate stories inside. This was a successful package for 13 straight years. The interior line-up would change from time to time, but Superman always held the lead, Batman & Robin ended each issue, and the trio shared the cover.

In 1954, it was decided to decrease the page count of World’s Finest Comics and charge a 10¢ cover price to match the rest of the DC lineup. The question arose as to which one of their super-stars would allow DC to hold onto the lead. A few years earlier—Superman #76 [May/June 1952]—the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader (along with Robin, the Boy Wonder) had teamed-up in their first actual dual comic book adventure after only being seen together on the covers of World’s Finest Comics. Since that Superman team-up had been such a success, it was decided, beginning with issue #71 [July/Aug. 1954],

that a dual Superman and Batman (with Robin) adventure would be the lead and cover feature for World’s Finest. The continuing exploits of Green Arrow and Tomahawk would round out each issue.

Steve, Shade, and The Odd Man

The cover of World’s Finest Comics #250 [April/May 1979] with repositioned Creeper, an editorial decision I still regret. (See next page Aparo rough of this cover.)

enamored with Vigilante. I felt his Western theme was a little old-fashioned compared to the rest of World’s Finest’s features. I wanted something different.

That’s when Mike Gold came up with a brilliant idea. At that time, Mike was DC’s publicity director, a position created by our new publisher, Jenette Kahn. Mike was on top of everything, always looking for something to bring positive attention to DC’s titles, old and new. I had been working with Ditko on Shade, The Changing Man for a few months, and Mike had been a close observer of my professional relationship with Steve. Mike popped into my office one day and sat down in the chair opposite my desk.

“Hey,” he said. “Why don’t you have Ditko do an eight-page Creeper story to fill Vigilante’s spot in World’s Finest?”

I later learned that the real reason Mike made this suggestion was that the Creeper was Mike’s favorite Ditko super-hero. “I always thought,” Mike explained, “that the Creeper was the most ‘Ditko-esque’ of all of Steve’s costumed super-heroes!”

Ditko had created the character of the Creeper for Showcase #73 [March/April 1968] and Beware the Creeper had a six-issue run in 1968 and ‘69. The character had appeared in an issue of Justice League of America [#70, March 1969] and a few issues of Detective Comics teamed with Batman, in 1975. Ditko himself had revived The Creeper in an issue of First Issue Special [#7, Oct. 1975]. After that appearance, the character had a brief three-issue run in Adventure Comics [#445–447 in 1976], written by Marty Pasko, with art by Ric Estrada and Joe Staton. I had even used the character myself in a couple of issues of another title I was editing, Secret Society of Super-Villains [#9–10 in 1977]. I recalled talking with Steve regarding the Creeper appearances when his creation had

been handled by creative teams other than himself. He just shook his head and said, “They can’t leave him alone, can they?”

I completely understood Steve’s feelings. At the time, just about all comic books were created under the work-for-hire concept; publishers owned the characters and the creators were only paid for their specific writing and art for individual stories. The next time Steve came in I asked him, “How would you like to do an eight-page Creeper feature for World’s Finest Comics? It would be completely yours. You’d write it, you’d pencil it, and you’d ink it. You can do anything you want.”

He nodded and said, “Sure, when would you need it?”

So, with World’s Finest #249 [Feb./March

Steve, The Creeper, and The Batman

Ditko reclaims his character by killing off a Creeper supporting character he didn’t create in World’s Finest Comics #252 [Aug./Sept. 1979].

edit his own stories. I was writing Wonder Woman in her own comic, so I couldn’t write her adventures in World’s Finest while editing it. Adventure Comics was adopting the Dollar Comics format, so that became the perfect spot for where I could script a shorter Wonder Woman feature outside of her own title.

DC felt it was important to keep their version of Captain Marvel alive, so, after the discontinuation of the regular Shazam! title, Captain Marvel, written by E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrated by Don Newton, found a new home in World’s Finest, replacing Wonder Woman.

I had also just finished writing a threeissue tryout run in Showcase for Hawkman. Showcase #101–103 [1978] had featured a three-part teaming up of Hawkman with Adam Strange, illustrated by Al Milgrom and Murphy Anderson. The higher-ups told me that if I wanted to keep Hawkman alive, I could have someone else do it in the pages of World’s Finest. Steve was very busy at the time, so he didn’t object when I replaced the Creeper feature with Hawkman beginning with World’s Finest Comics #256.

But that was not the end of my association with the Creeper—nor was it Steve’s final effort. A few months earlier, after I had finished my Hawkman Showcase run, the word went out for the need of additional Showcase features. I was getting some positive feedback from the World’s Finest Creeper stories, so I went to publisher Jenette Kahn and proposed a Creeper issue of Showcase. It would be an interesting occurrence, since the Creeper had originally been introduced in an issue of Showcase [#73, March/April 1968] and had a second tryout, in First Issue Special [#7, Oct. 1975]. This would be the character’s third “tryout.”

The proposal was accepted, and the Creeper was slated for Showcase #106. Eventually, there were two problems. The first one

was that, while I had successfully pitched a Creeper Showcase issue, I had neglected to even ask Steve Ditko if he wanted to do it! I’ll never forget that phone call!

“Hi, Steve, this is Jack Harris.”

“Hi, Jack, what’s up?”

“I was wondering if you’d like to do a full length Creeper story for Showcase.”

“Yeah, I think I could do that. Do you need a proposal, an outline, and some sketches?”

“Uhh, no, it’s already approved. When can you have it? It’s 25 pages and a cover.”

Steve actually laughed and, in record time, I had “Enter Dr. Storme,” the first full-length solo Creeper story in three years. Then the second problem came along. Showcase became another casualty of the “DC Implosion”

Steve, The Creeper, and The Batman

The Creeper’s final “tryout” appearance for Showcase #106, published in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade [Fall ’78].

Steve, The Creeper, and The Batman

Steve made use of some Creeper tales he had produced before the series in World’s Finest was cancelled, repurposing the character as his creator-owned “Shag.”

Chapter 5. Steve, the Mystery Stories & Time Warp

Working at DC Comics in the ’70s and ’80s was a blast, especially if one was on the editorial staff. While we were not (usually) permitted to write stories for the books we edited, we were free to pitch ideas to the other editors whenever we wanted. This presented us with an abundance of freelancing opportunities. If an editor needed a story or a fill-in issue, it was easier to just ask someone down the hall rather than call a writer and have to schedule a plotting session. In the days before FedEx or the internet, artists were always dropping by to deliver work. We editors wanted to make sure these visiting artists would leave with another script in their hands to illustrate.

Many times I would hear, “Artist Soand-So is coming in tomorrow! Anyone have a script?” When this happened, one of two things would occur: we’d either grab a script we had in inventory, or we’d immediately volunteer to write one. If the artist in question was someone with whom we were anxious to work, the latter choice would prevail. This is exactly how I first got to write a story specifically for Steve Ditko.

House of Mystery had been a stalwart title for DC since its debut back with #1 [Dec./ Jan. 1951]. The book was first published right in the middle of a controversial time for comic books. Comics were under attack as a result of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s question-

able book, Seduction of the Innocent, which laid the blame for juvenile delinquency solely on the reading of said comic books.

Horror comics, especially the EC Comics titles such as Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, had been the target of Wertham and his followers. For the most part, DC editor Jack Schiff played it safe in the pages of early issues House of Mystery, running “supernatural” stories which usually turned out to have logical, scientific explanations, and happened because criminals were perpetrating some kind of hoax. With the 46th issue [Jan. 1956], the title began sporting the seal of approval from the Comics Code Authority on its covers.

Schiff held reign over the title until issue #126 [Sept. 1962], when George Kashdan took over. During all that time, science-fiction stories had begun to sneak into the pages, as that had become the more popular trend at the time. In a couple of years, Kashdan turned over the cover feature of the Martian Manhunter [House of Mystery #143, June 1964]. During an editorial shift, the Martian Manhunter (written by Jack Miller and drawn by Joe Certa) had been disposed from his longtime home in Detective Comics in favor of

Next page is my favorite cover of the half-dozen issues of House of Mystery issues I edited, Ditko’s illustration for #277 [Feb. 1980].

Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino’s Elongated Man [Detective #327, May 1964]. Later, by House of Mystery #156 [Jan. 1966], the whimsical Dial ‘H’ for Hero series, written by Dave Wood and drawn by Jim Mooney, was added. For the next 18 issues, these two features dominated the title.

The big change for House of Mystery came with #174 [May/June 1968], when editor Joe Orlando came on board. Bringing his experience on the EC Comics line of horror comics with him, he changed House of Mystery. Keeping the guidelines of the Comics Code Authority in the forefront, the anthology returned to the supernatural realm. When Paul Levitz took over editing the title with #255 [Nov./ Dec. 1977], this format was still in place.

This was where I came in. It was one of those times when an artist was coming into the office and needed to leave with a script in hand. The artist was Steve Ditko. I saw my opportunity and immediately pitched a story to Paul with the knowledge that Steve was going to draw it. While Steve had been drawing The Demon for Detective Comics, Stalker and Shade, he’d also been Illustrating short stories across many of DC’s anthology mystery books. Could DC capture some of the magic and awe of Ditko art that Steve produced for Marvel and Charlton? We didn’t know, but we were certainly going to try.

My story was “A Demon and His Boy” and it was slated for House of Mystery #258 [May/ June 1978]. The tale involved the demon

At left is the original art to “A Demon and His Boy,” my first collaboration with Steve Ditko which appeared in House of Mystery #258 [May/June 1978], with page as printed on right.

Chapter 6.

Ditko & the Wonder Woman Spectacular

In late 1977, I became the writer for Wonder Woman. This came about for several reasons. I had been writing Isis, DC’s adaptation of The Secrets of Isis, a CBS Saturday morning children’s television series produced by Filmation. I had been writing the Supergirl stories

appearing in Superman Family, some Black Canary stories for World’s Finest Comics, and I was editing the Starfire series by Dave Micheline and Mike Vosburg. I had inadvertently become DC’s “heroine” writer. That, and because I was one of the only two married DC

At left is José Luis García-López’s original color cover layout sketch for DC Special Series #9 [1978], the “Wonder Woman Spectacular,” and the printed version, penciled by García-López and inked by Dick Giordano, right.

Woodchucks (Bob Rozakis being the other), DC felt I “understood women.” (This, of course wasn’t at all true, but I was going to run with the opportunity).

My first Wonder Woman writing assignment was to be for DC Special Series #9, the Wonder Woman Spectacular. DC Special Series was a catch-all title with a rotating editorship. Instead of publishing separate “annuals” for any given title, extra-length tales and collections would appear under this blanket title. I had already edited DC Special Series #6, which featured a Secret Society of Super-Villains special. Later issues of the DC Special Series title would include some DC Digest Comics and various super-sized special publications. The Wonder Woman Spectacular was to

be a 64-page epic, featuring the Earth-2 Wonder Woman in a World War II blockbuster adventure, since that was what was currently running in the regular monthly Wonder Woman title. Larry Hama would be the editor. I do not recall if it was for a deadline or creative purposes, but it was decided that my first Wonder Woman story would be illustrated by four different pencil artists. The pages featuring the heroine would be drawn by José Delbo, the regular series artist. The villain pages would be created by veteran comics legend Dick Ayers, who had been drawing my Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth stories. Russ Heath would be lending his considerable talents to the pages featuring the Amazons. The mythological gods pages would be drawn by

This spread features various stages of Steve’s awesome Wonder Woman Spectacular double-page spread, from rough pencils to printed page.

Steve & The Legion of Super-Heroes

Howard Chaykin and Bob Wiacek.

My familiarity with the Legion went all the way back to its very beginning. I had begun collecting comics not long before Adventure Comics #247 was published. This was the Legion’s first appearance, in a story called, unsurprisingly, “The Legion of Super-Heroes,” written by Otto Binder and illustrated by Al Plastino.

In the story, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Boy (yes, Boy, not Lad) come from the future to ask Superboy to join their “SuperHero Club.” The future trio wore costumes almost totally different from those worn in their next appearance. Their full super-hero names were printed on the fronts of their costumes. The story was quite typical, wherein Superboy is eventually rejected from the club, but learns that his rejection was just the final test to see how he handled failure. This was a common plot device in Mort Weisinger-edited Superman titles.

In 1978, I was assigned the editorship of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes

This was not my initial encounter with the Legion; far from it! My first assignment at DC was as assistant editor to editor Murray Boltinoff, and one of the many books Murray edited was Superboy and the Legion of SuperHeroes. I even dialogued one of Paul Levitz’s Legion stories in #240 [June 1978], drawn by

I always believed that the Legion of SuperHeroes was an “accidental” series. They were never intended to be anything more than supporting characters. However, with every subsequent appearance, their popularity grew. After appearances and even their own series in Adventure Comics, the Legion took over Superboy’s title. Superboy was changed to become Superboy and the Legion of SuperHeroes with #197 [Sept. 1973]. 54

Working with Ditko

The Legion of Super-Heroes #281 [Nov. 1981] may have been Ditko’s last Legion adventure, but its splash sported his magnificent rendition of the Boy of Steel!

My first issue as editor was Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #247 [March 1979]. I had inherited two scripts by Len Wein and Paul Levitz for that issue, but as of the next issue, Gerry Conway became my regular writer, and Joe Staton became my regular artist (with a few fill-ins by others).

Gerry had a heavy, contracted workload of scripting chores. To ease things up a bit for him and for Joe, and to get ahead of deadlines myself, I commissioned a few fill-in back-up short stories. I planned to have these written and drawn by others so my regular creative team could catch up. Giving Staton a break from doing another full issue, Conway wrote a seven-page back-up for #257 titled, “Once a Legionnaire…” featuring Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel.

Bouncing Boy was always my favorite Legionnaire. There were many reasons for this: One, he didn’t look like a super-hero. Two, he had a very visual power, unlike many of the other Legionnaires who just pointed to use their super-abilities. Three, he had a hot girlfriend (later his wife) in the person(s) of Duo Damsel.

I decided to assign the art for this story to Steve Ditko!

Steve Ditko’s personal philosophy is quite well known. Steve believed in a black-&-white world. Everything was either good or bad, wonderful or terrible, benevolent or evil. You had to accept either one totally. You could never compromise. If you claimed to be a good person and compromised, this meant, according to Steve, you would have to accept some aspect of evil! This was best reflected in his ruthless crime fighting character Mr. A, whose fearful calling card was simply a business card, half-white, half-black.

Ironically, this back-&-white attitude was reflected in Steve’s work on the Legion of Super-Heroes; fans loved it or they hated it,

no in-between. I had selected Steve for a number of reasons. First of all, I thought Ditko’s figure work was similar to that of George Papp’s, who had drawn many of the Legion’s early appearances after their debut. Secondly, Steve was fast and could turn around a sevenpage story in a very short amount of time.

When I asked Steve if he could do the story, he was pretty busy. He was doing a few Time Warp stories for me, and was drawing Machine Man and Micronauts for Marvel, but he agreed.

After he accepted the assignment he asked, “Do you have reference for the characters? Because I really don’t know them.”

This was immediately a concern because one of the most common complaints from

Ditko’s first Legion assignment: Gerry Conway’s story “Once a Legionnaire...” in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #257, inked by Dan Adkins.

Chapter 9.

Steve, First, the Faceless Ones, & the Fantasy Master

After the disastrous “DC Explosion,” Mike Gold left his publicity director post at DC Comics. He went on to establish First Comics with Ken F. Levin. First was based in Mike’s hometown of Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and the publisher launched its initial run of books in 1983, with such titles as American Flagg by Howard Chaykin, Grimjack by John Ostrander and Tim Truman, Dreadstar by Jim Starlin, and Sable by Mike Grell. Also on their roster was Warp, a title based on a play!

The original production of Warp was performed by Chicago’s Organic Theater Company, opening there in 1971. Warp was actually a series of three full-length, interconnected plays, intended to be staged over three consecutive nights. To enjoy the full effect of the saga, theater-goers would have to attend all three productions, much like seeing all the chapters of a 1940s movie serial.

Co-authors Bury St. Edmund (Lenny Kleinfeld) and Stuart Gordon admitted that their entire science-fiction play was inspired by Marvel Comics, specifically the adventures

of Thor and Doctor Strange. But, unable to obtain the licensing rights for any of the Marvel characters, they created their own.

The trilogy was promoted as “the world’s first science-fiction epic-adventure play in

Steve, First, the Faceless One, & the Fantasy Master

The Warp poster art by Neal Adams, when the first segment of the Stuart Gordon and Bury St. Edmund (Lenny Kleinfeld) theatrical trilogy briefly appeared on Broadway in February 1973.

serial form.” It ran in Chicago for more than a year before its unsuccessful move to Broadway. Not only was it comic book-inspired, but the costumes and art direction were even designed by comic book great Neal Adams.

First Comics’ initial spin-off comic book of Warp #1, cover-dated March 1983, was scripted by Peter Gillis with art by Frank Brunner and Bob Smith. In the second issue, it was decided to run an original back-up series. Mike Gold recalled the choice.

“It was an easy decision,” he remembered in 2022, “since the original Warp play was inspired by the art of Steve Ditko. When we had the opportunity to work with Ditko himself on the Warp comic book, it was a no-brainer. It was as if we were closing a circle.”

“The Faceless Ones” was to run for three

issues, Warp #2–4 [April–May 1983]. Since Mike knew of my working relationship with Steve, he asked me to write the series. I had seen the first segment of Warp performed during a Chicago Comic-Con, but I hadn’t seen the entire trilogy. Mike sent copies of all three Warp scripts and I read them furiously. It was an epic comic-book adventure and I visualized the whole thing being drawn by Steve, but the play itself was already being produced as the lead feature in the book. I was tasked with coming up with an original story based on the characters of the trilogy. Knowing that Steve was going to draw it made my task all the easier. I was planning to write to Steve’s strengths.

I first decided on a female protagonist. Some have said in print that Steve drew “ugly

Ditko’s pencils and printed page for “The Perils of Paragwen,” The Faceless Ones chapter one, from Warp #2 [April 1983].

Ditko’s pencils for the first page of Fantasy Master. Opposite page is the version inked by Andrew Pepoy.

Chapter 10.

Steve, the End of Gold Key Comics, & the Star Guider

Idon’t recall exactly when I started reading comic books. I do, however, fondly remember two of my favorites before I discovered super-hero comics: Little Lulu and Donald Duck. Both of these titles were published by Dell Comics. Most of the early comic books my older brother and I read were published by Dell. Besides these two, the rest of what we bought were books based on television shows we watched, most notably the Westerns such as The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.

When I started buying Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Batman, and Detective Comics, to follow the adventures of Superman and Batman, my childhood budget just could not keep up with continuing to buy the Dell titles. I justified this switch by convincing myself that such humor comics were “just for kids,” while the DC super-heroes were much more sophisticated.

So while the Dell Comics was still sharing the spinner racks with DC, I pretty much ignored them. Then, one day, in 1962, Dell Comics disappeared and were replaced by Gold Key Comics. At first, I just thought Dell had changed their name and their look. This was not the case.

What I learned later was that Western Publishing Company, in an attempt to make their comic books resemble established children’s books, switched to their own in-house

publishing. Previously, they had been merely packaging content for distribution by Dell Comics, their business partner. Now, Western Publishing was printing its own comic books under the Gold Key banner.

In the 1970s, Gold Key struggled during 75 Steve, the End of Gold Key Comics, & the Star Guider

Ditko’s original penciled presentation page for Star Guider, originally prepared for Gold Key’s Astral Frontier science-fiction multiple-story title edited by Robin Snyder.

Steve, the End of Gold Key Comics, & the Star Guider

Steve & The Fly

In the Spring of 1959, I discovered The Adventures of the Fly. It was an unusual discovery, noticing the comic book on a spinner rack in a pharmacy my family visited periodically. For the previous year or so, I had been reading all the comic books I could get my hands on. However, most of what I read was published by DC, regularly buying and reading virtually every title that featured Superman or Batman. This meant that I was also being enthralled by the adventures of the super-heroes in the back-up features as well, such as Green Arrow, Aquaman, Supergirl, and the Martian Manhunter. I would also, at least, take a peek at any titles that had the “Superman DC National Comics” logo on the corner of the covers. The Adventures of the Fly #1 [Aug. 1959] was different. The logo on its cover said “Archie Adventure Series.” I picked it up and flipped through the pages, but since it wasn’t a DC book, I didn’t buy it.

A few days later, I was back in the store again and the book was still on the rack. I paged through it again. I was intrigued enough by the Jack Kirby and Joe Simon artwork to hand my dime over to the pharmacist and buy the comic. I actually felt guilty for purchasing a non-DC comic.

The awesome comic melted that guilt away quickly and I became a fan. The tales of young orphan Tommy Troy and his magic ring that granted him the powers of the Fly really grabbed my imagination. It was unlike anything I was used to in the pages of the DC comics.

I didn’t know at the time that the character of the Fly was actually a re-working of a different character called the Silver Spider and the script had gone through quite a few hands before landing on Simon & Kirby’s drawing boards. The first four issues of The Adventures of the Fly had art by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Dick Ayers, Paul Reinman, Al Williamson, Angelo Tores, Jack Davis, Bob Powell, Ted Giundo, Chic Stone, and Sol Brodsky.

Although this dazzling array of Golden Age artists contributed to the book, my enthusiasm waned quickly. By the fifth issue, Archie changed the character. Tommy had suddenly grown up and become a lawyer. The art was bland and the character rapidly became a

Opening splash panel drawn by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, The Fly #1 [Aug. 1959]. The Fly created by Joe Simon, © The Estate of Joseph Simon.

weak and boring imitation of the worst of Superman. Even though the title ran until issue #30 [Oct. 1964], I never bought another one after issue #4.

During the “camp” craze generated by the Batman television show in the ’60s, the character of the Fly returned for another brief run under the title of Fly Man [#31, May 1965–#29, Sept. 1968]. I didn’t buy any of these either. I still missed the original Simon & Kirby version.

In the ’80s, Archie Comics tried the Fly once again. Archie tapped some modern talent to revive not only The Fly, but their Mighty Crusaders title as well, which included more of their other super-heroes from the past such as The Shield, The Jaguar, Black Hood, the Web and Fly Girl. Artist Rich Buckler came on board to oversee this possible revival.

Buckler and I had worked together for many years. When I first became an assistant editor at DC, Rich was there doing covers and illustrating stories for many of DC’s mystery titles as a pencil artist as well as an inker. When I was editing World’s Finest Comics, Rich drew a couple of Hawkman stories for me. We had a good working relationship.

When I heard of the revival of The Fly, I contacted Rich. I wanted to write for The Fly, in an effort to bring back some of the magic I remembered when I first discovered the Simon & Kirby version of the character. Rich invited me over to the Archie Comics offices.

The first Fly story I wrote was entitled “Ring Quest,” wherein someone steals the Fly’s ring while he’s unconscious as the Fly. I wanted to examine the modern nature of his powers. I remembered from his first incarnation that bright lights were a weakness. The Fly is felled by some security arc lights and his ring is stolen. He has to find it or he can

Right: Steve Ditko and Rich Buckler’s dynamic panel from my story, “The Mugging,” in The Fly #2 [July 1983.] Next page is also from that story.

Chapter 12. 3-D Ditko: Substance & The Daughters of Time

In 1989, I attended the San Diego ComicCon. At that time, I was working for a trade magazine publisher and writing comic books and children’s books as a freelancer. One of the publications I was editing for the trade company was a magazine devoted to the licensing industry. It featured sections on both gaming and comic books. For these reasons, my publisher sent me off to Southern California as a representative for the company. While there, I thought I would pitch an idea Steve Ditko and I had been developing.

I had spent a lot of time in Steve’s studio. He had set up his working space in a building about a half-block off Times Square. It was up on the fifth or sixth floor, near the back of the building. When I first visited, the structure was showing its age, but not too long after I had started to drop by, the whole place was renovated and ended up looking quite nice.

What I remember of Steve’s studio is that it was simple, but functional for what he needed. There was a single window overlooking the city where one could easily spot a few of the water towers Steve used to draw in just about every one of his Spider-Man stories. There were shelves lining the walls of the studio stuffed with movie stills from every genre, which Steve used for reference. There was a little black-&-white, rabbit-eared portable television set and a draftsman table. Whenever I saw Steve drawing, he’d have a drawing board

on his lap, with the top edge resting on the draftsman table. It was on this lap-supported drawing board that all of Steve’s penciled art was created. I never actually saw him use the draftsman table for drawing. Perhaps he only used it when he was inking.

95 3-D Ditko: Substance & the Daughters of Time

The published cover of 3-D Substance [1990], colored (poorly) by me.

props, as they were, legally, the creative property of his corrupt former employer.

Upon David Smith’s death, his son Justin, now an assistant district attorney, inherited his father’s inventions and discovered their true potential. The younger Smith decided to use his father’s equipment (including a device which rendered its user invisible) to battle injustice in the guise of Substance—the Spirit of Justice; Substance, the antithesis of shadow.

Armed with this character concept, and two pages of Ditko art, I headed out to the San Diego Comic-Con to pitch the idea to various independent publishers. Back then, the San Diego Comic-Con was still primarily focused on comic books. I got as far as the booth and display of Ray Zone. Ray was a film historian, artist, author, and publisher with a particular interest in stereoscopic images. He was quite a character himself, with a head of white hair, often adorned in a Hawaiian shirt, and a pair of red/blue 3-D glasses!

Long before holograms, the red/blue stereoscopic system was the method used to produce 3-D comic books. Black-&-white rendered images would be printed on either red or blue printing plates. Wearing glasses with red and blue cellophane lenses (red on the left, blue on the right), a reader viewing the pages would see the images recede or advance depending on the registration of the plates; the farther apart the red and blue images were, the deeper the images would appear. Ray Zone was the absolute master of this early 3-D technique.

Back in the early 1950s, 3-D comics had enjoyed a brief craze, with just about every comic book publisher printing at least a few red/blue 3-D books. This was when young Ray Zone had discovered them and it had become his life’s mission to revive the technique. As a publisher, he had given a number of reprinted publications a brand new look using his own red/blue 3-D technique. In

Pencils and finished page of Ditko art for the inside front cover of 3-D Substance #2 [1991].

later years, he did 3-D work for DC Comics and other major comic book publishers.

When I showed Ray Steve’s two-page presentation drawings of Substance, Spirit of Justice, we said simultaneously, “An invisible man in 3-D! What a concept!”

Right then and there, we struck up a relationship with the goal of publishing 3-D Substance, billed as “The First 3-D Hero of the ’90s”! As soon as I returned home, I worked on a 10-page script, introducing Justin Smith and Substance to the world. I put a whole supporting cast together including Arc City Detective Allison Cobb (a potential romantic interest), reporter Phil Trap (a potential rival), Detective Alan Evan (an ally), Commissioner Aldon (a tribute to Will Eisner’s Spirit character Commissioner Dolan), and Middeton Rhoad (a very Ditko-inspired critic).

Steve really embraced Substance and added a few great ideas to the overall concept. One of Steve’s ideas was that, along with the character’s invisibility, Justin Smith also had a device that misdirected his voice, projecting it away from where he was actually standing. Steve played around with the word balloon placement to get this point across. Ken Feduniewicz, a graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning Art, who lived near me, lettered the story, and followed Steve’s balloon placement (dare I say it?) to the letter.

Meanwhile, Ray Zone was hard at work acquiring the rights to some vintage Ditko stories from the 50s, which he was going to run as backups, re-rendered in his brand new red/green 3-D technique. Steve drew a cover (which I, myself colored, badly) and one of his original presentation drawings became the inside back cover. The other original presentation page became a onepage wrap-up of the lead story. Steve’s cover was reproduced as a 3-D centerspread. The back cover

Ditko’s original pencil art and printed 3-D for page five of 3-D Substance #1 [1990.

3-D Ditko: Substance & the Daughters of Time

Chapter 13.

Steve, The Hulk, the Human Torch, and the Long Wait

As a freelancer, I created and wrote The Ray mini-series for DC Comics [#1–6, Feb.–July 1992] in 1991. This run came to the attention of Marvel editor Danny Fingeroth, and he invited me to lunch and wanted me to pitch a new character idea for that year’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual. That summer, Marvel’s plan was to introduce a new character in all of their summer annuals.

I came up with Annex, who appeared in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #27 [1993], drawn by Tom Lyle and Scott Hanna. Annex was the only new hero of that summer who had a chance to continue. He appeared in a solo tale in Spider-Man Unlimited #3 [Nov. 1993] and earned his own mini-series [#1–4, Aug.–Nov. 1994]). Simultaneously, I successfully pitched a three-issue Spider-Man mini-series, Spider-Man: Web of Doom [#1–3, Aug.–Oct. 1994], drawn by Scott Kollins in the first issue, and then Anthony Williams in the remaining two, all inked by Sam DelaRosa. There were two memorable incidents involving this mini-series. The first was that right after I had written the first issue, editor Mark Powers called to inform me that I had to change the villain! I had originally pitted Spider-Man against the Vulture, but he was being used in a different title during the same month. So I had to go with the Beetle instead. With Marvel’s tight crossover continuity, such last-minute changes were common.

The second incident happened one Thursday morning during my weekly trek into New York City to teach my classes at the School of Visual Arts. I was going to go by Marvel’s offices that morning to drop off my dialogue

107

Steve, The Hulk, the Human Torch, and the Long Wait

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #27 [1993], my first Spider-Man story for Marvel, where I created Annex. Art by Tom Lyle and Scott Hanna.

didn’t directly discuss this upcoming team-up story with Steve.

For my fill-in team-up issue, I wanted to use the Wizard as the villain, since he’d started out as a Human Torch villain in Johnny Storm’s solo outings in Strange Tales. The editor okayed the match and I got to work on the plot.

I wrote this story “Marvel style.” At DC, all my writing had been full scripts, describing all the action and dialogue for each page, panel by panel. Marvel handled the scripting process differently, in that the writer would submit a plot outline which would be given to the artist. From this, the artist would “break

down” the story into the paneled pages. Copies of the finished penciled pages would then go back to the writer for dialogue.

I wasn’t really that used to this method, but I knew Steve was, so I was comfortable typing out the page-by-page plot. In record time, Steve handed in his finished 21 pages of pencil art, and copies were transferred back to me.

It actually took me a couple of tries before the editor accepted my dialogue script, as my first efforts were a bit too timid for the “Marvel style” of the time

A few weeks later, I received a check from Marvel for my efforts. That was the last I heard of the story… for over seventeen years!

109

Steve, The Hulk, the Human Torch, and the Long Wait

The 1977 Amazing-Spider Man reprint paperback I bought for Steve Ditko. He politely refused it.

An example of Steve’s 1960s penciling, from Amazing Spider-Man #31 [Dec. 1965], which Steve would ink himself. By this stage, Steve was doing his own plotting, and Stan Lee would fill in the dialogue after the penciling.

For whatever the reason, the story was shelved somewhere in Marvel’s storage and seemingly forgotten about. Some theories emerged as to why it wasn’t used, the most prominent one being that the events of other comic books at the time did not match the characterization of the Human Torch and Hulk in my fill-in. As I mentioned, such was the tight Marvel continuity between titles. Every so often, over the years, I asked Steve about this story to see if he had any idea what happened to it. He just smiled and

said, “Marvel has dozens of my stories they never published!”

Then, in 2011, it was announced that our “lost” story was finally going to see print under the title Incredible Hulk & the Human Torch: From the Marvel Vault #1 [Aug. 2011]!

The story was going to be inked and re-dialogued by Karl Kesel, who had done a large body of inking and writing work for both DC and Marvel since the ’80s.

On the book’s intro page, Kesel said, “Working on the story itself was always fun,

Ditko’s pencils for page 12 of our Marvel Team-Up fill-in issue which sat in Marvel’s files for 17 years, and the same page finished by Karl Kesel as Incredible Hulk & Human Torch: From the Marvel Vault #1 [Aug. 2011].

Unpublished Ditko

Steve Ditko’s creativity never took a break. He was constantly creating and even re-creating characters and concepts, both his own characters and other established ones. For every Ditko character that was published, there were a dozen others that never saw the light of day beyond his studio.

I wanted to tap some of that Ditko creative energy. In the early 1980s, after spending many hours talking with Steve in his studio, I created a quintet of features I thought would

be just perfect for Steve to illustrate. We worked so well together and I felt I understood exactly what sort of characters and heroes he’d like to draw. He agreed to take a look at what I had up my sleeve.

I loved Steve’s early Marvel work in the pre-hero days, in titles such as Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Journey Into Mystery. Some of my favorites were those involving children. I loved the way Steve drew children. Ditko kids looks like something out of the old

At left is Ditko’s design for Felix Fax—the Infinity Flyer! Above is The Infinity Flyer’s secret sub-basement, with a Ditko-designed electric light elevator!

were powerful devices: the Mach-Wings, the Vision Visor, the Grip Gauntlets and other gadgets that allowed Felix to become—The Infinity Flyer, his own super-powered secret identity, armed with Ditko-designed fantastically plausible devices. Not only did Steve come up with visual concepts for all the devices, but he even sketched out Felix’s father’s sub-basement and an amazing tele porting light allowing Felix to descend to the secret lab. This was completely Steve’s idea. Whatever concept I presented to Ditko, he could easily and immediately expand upon it!

tries to turn him over to the police, too many questions ensue. The police want to know who Felix is and how he can fly—and what right does he have to “arrest” somebody?

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It would have been a fun series, but no one picked it up. The best feedback we got was from Marvel’s Archie Goodwin who said, “I like the title.”

WORKING WITH DITKO

* * * * *

by JACK C. HARRIS

Tommy Todd’s Dream Squad

The gimmick in this series was to illus trate just how difficult it would be if one actually attempted to be a “super-hero.” Felix flies out to “fight crime,” but can’t find any in his suburban community! Finally, in despera tion, he captures a drunk driver, but when he

Tommy Todd’s Dream Squad was inspired by a couple of things. The first was my teddy bear! When my mother was young she was very jealous of a classmate who had received a teddy bear for Christmas. She vowed her children would always have teddy bears. And I did. My favorite was my Smokey the Bear

WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! SHIPS OCTOBER 2023!

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At left, Tommy Todd’’s Ditko-designed Squad Leader, the commander of Tommy Todd’s Dream Squad. At right is Ditko’s version of Toy Soldier, Teddy Bear, and Rag Doll, the incredible members of Tommy Todd’s Dream Squad.