In Search of Steve Ditko..

[gildea]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/comicsbritannia/ross-ditko.shtml


If you live in the UK and you like comics you really should have just finished watching this hour long documentary. For those outwith the UK hopefully it will be on youtube or something shortly it is utterly essential viewing with the perhaps the most revealing stan lee interview ever caught on camera.

So all those who watched it thoughts?

[GoldenAgeHero]

can you tell us what it was about?

[gildea]

eek didn't realise this already had a thread in the spidey forum.

[gildea]

Basically its a bio of ditko with interviews from people who worked with him and creators he has influenced (millar, gaiman and moore are interviewed).

Ditko declined to be interviwed but the host (johnanthan ross) did meet him behind closed doors off camera with neil gaiman in tow.

[GoldenAgeHero]

so what has been said about ditko and his relationship with lee?

[Sugarculted]

Basically its a bio of ditko with interviews from people who worked with him and creators he has influenced (millar, gaiman and moore are interviewed).

Ditko declined to be interviwed but the host (johnanthan ross) did meet him behind closed doors off camera with neil gaiman in tow.

S***. This was just on BBC4? I had been waiting to see this for ages.
:csad:

[gildea]

S***. This was just on BBC4? I had been waiting to see this for ages.
:csad:

It's repeated on wednesday night at 1230.

Set you alarm now.

[Not Jake]

Sum up the Stan Lee interview for us.

[Sugarculted]

It's repeated on wednesday night at 1230.

Set you alarm now.

Also repeated later just before 1am. Just typical the repeat is on that late, when I have an early start.

Time to bring out the tapes.

[gildea]

so what has been said about ditko and his relationship with lee?

People put forward their ideas as to why he left spidey some believe it was politics (stan was liberal and steve ultra conservative), the goblin identity, the decision to let spidey graduate, or just a wish for creative growth.

[gildea]

Sum up the Stan Lee interview for us.


Stan Lee basically says that he feels he is the creator of spiderman but refers to steve as the co-creator because he brought so much to the character in spite of stan not actually believing it fully.

[yenaled]

For a while Stan Lee actually dropped the act. That was really interesting.

[The Geek Vault]

For a while Stan Lee actually dropped the act. That was really interesting.
Explain? I am intrigued

[GoldenAgeHero]

yeah explain.

[yenaled]

For a bit of the interview he stopped being "Stan the Man", stopped giving default answers to questions and stopped giving the answers he knew people wanted to hear. You've seen him in interviews, I guess, and obviously that's more of a media image than who he really is.

He explained how he never really felt Steve Ditko was a co-creator and that he is the creator of Spider-Man. He could have given the character to anyone and it would still be Spider-Man - even if it wasn't the success it was because of Ditko - Stan would have considered himself the creator of a failure rather than the creator of a success.

He said "If Steve wants to think of himself as co-creator then I guess he can be that."

Before that bit in the interview he never stopped saying how Steve was co-creator but it's not really what he thinks. He says it to be the nice guy and to try and repair friendship with Steve.

[Rambo, John J]

Basically Stan said that he considers the person who comes up with the actual idea or concept to be the creator.

[Sugarculted]

Recorded this, and I'll try to upload it onto my YT account soon :up:

[Sugarculted]

Two more parts to upload, enjoy :up:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=MercWithAMouth

[Kitsune]

With the name of the topic, I half expected it to narrated by Leonard Nemoy.

[Xofenroht]

http://www.neilgaiman.com has all of the parts. I watched them, they're deeply...

...inspiring?

[Gabe99]

The secret hero of Spider-Man - Elusive artist Steve Ditko never got full credit for co-creating Spider-Man – NYPOST.com (http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/the_secret_hero_of_spider_man_XHZklFc7QJWuekwj2zDD CM/1)
Steve Ditko was born in Johnstown, Pa. He moved to New York in 1950 and began drawing comics, mostly horror and sci-fi. It wasn’t until he hooked up with Marvel Comics and Lee in 1955, however, that he took a step toward becoming a legend.

The creation of Spider-Man is muddied by the years, conflicting points of view and the fact that no one involved paid much attention at the time because they never thought the adventures of a teenager who gains the powers of an arachnid would amount to anything.

What we do know: In 1962, Lee, the co-creator of the Fantastic Four and Iron Man, had an idea for a new hero and passed a synopsis on to artist Jack Kirby. The story involved a teen who gained spider powers via a magic ring. Lee was underwhelmed by Kirby’s overly heroic take and went to Ditko.

Not only did Ditko design the iconic costume, he may have contributed many of the elements that have made Spidey so popular over the decades. Unlike the godlike other heroes of the time — Superman, for example — Spider-Man and his alter ego, Peter Parker, had very human, relatable problems.

“Ditko took what was a very good superhero comic strip and really turned it into something revolutionary,” Bell says.

“It was Ditko who wanted to ground the strip in reality, to see what it was like to be a hero through the eyes of a teenager and to struggle.”

The direction put Ditko at odds with Lee, but because the writer-editor was so busy running Marvel, he increasingly turned over more story control to Ditko. By about issue No. 10, the artist was also plotting the stories, with Lee just filling in dialogue after the pages were drawn. By No. 25, the two were no longer speaking. Bucking the comic-book formula of the day, Ditko focused less on action scenes involving Spider-Man and more on the troubled life of Parker.

“The Amazing Spider-Man” No. 18 featured almost no costumed Spidey. In a letter column run in other Marvel books at the time, Lee took a jab at Ditko, writing, “A lot of readers are sure to hate [No. 18], so if you want to know what all the criticism is about, be sure to buy a copy.”

Spider-Man ultimately became a giant hit, but with issue No. 38, Ditko quit, reportedly walking away with no notice. Bell says the artist was angry with Marvel Comics for failing to deliver on promised royalties.

To this day, Ditko has probably made very little off his billion-dollar co-creation. He has no ownership of the character and was paid a modest per-page rate at the time. He does collect royalties each time the comics are reprinted, but he says he has not earned anything off the films, despite his name appearing in the credits.

[Backstreets]

Ditko wants nothing to do with Spider-man. I saw the interview. It's really Ditko's own fault for being a weirdo. He doesn't cash the movie checks. Stan Lee wanted a guy who can crawl on walls and came up with the name Spider-Man, Ditko came up with the costume and logo on his back. Stan did in fact bring it to Kirby first, Stan said "no" after seeing what Kirby came up with, then he brought it over to Ditko. You have to remember, Stan Lee had the power to turn down anything Ditko came up with. Spider-Man is really a 60% Stan Lee 40% Ditko creation. If Ditko wasn't around, there would still be a "Spider-Man".