Stranger and stranger - The world of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

Steve Ditko should have been a very rich man. He co-created Spider-Man with Stan Lee. He also did definitive work on Dr Strange at the same time. He created most of the famous villains that have appeared in Spider-Man stories over the past 45 years and he helped shape the character into the interesting and conflicted personality that has made millions of dollars at cinemas world wide.

Sadly, real life has been less kind to Ditko and he spent much of his career working in bad conditions and being ripped off by the comics industry. He has been very principled in his professional life due to his belief in the right-wing philosophy of objectivism created by Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Foutainhead. Ditko seemed to have a very polarised, black and white view of the world and he would not compromise in his artistic work. This meant that he would often walk away from good jobs and fight with fellow artists.

Strange and Stranger by Blake Bell is a great book. It showcases Ditko's art and tells his story. While I don't agree with many of the ideas that Ditko this biography is a great, quick read. I would love to read some of the original comic strips about Mr A, probably Ditko's ultimate creation. The character was basically a fascist vigilante who saw life in term of pure good and pure evil. Alan Moore has been quoted as saying that Mr A was an influence on the character of Rorschach in the Watchmen book. The human element of Ditko's life and his struggle with ill-health dut to TB is also pretty interesting.

Ditko is a private man and rejects media contact. He is over 80 years old and he may even be dead now. Last year Johnathan Ross made an excellent documentary about Ditko for BBC 4 called In Search of Steve Ditko. Ross (in partnership with Neil Gaiman) managed to track Ditko down and talk to him but Ditko refused to be photographed or interviewed. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/comicsbritannia/ross-ditko.shtml for more of that story.

Strange and Stranger is a great book for comic nerds. It gives a brief picture of a creative artist but we are left with many unanswered questions.

For more try the following websites -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ditko

http://www.ditko.comics.org/

http://www.steveditko.com/

The original art for the first ever Spider-Man comic was recently donated the the Library of Congess in America
http://www.loc.gov/blog/?p=290

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-089.html