Comics Clip from the LOC showing original AF 15 Ditko work

[Meehaul]

Clip from the Library of Congress showing the original artwork from Amazing Fantasy 15, which is on display: http://www.history.com/content/hiddentreasures/a-legend-is-born

I've seen the pages in person. The work is brilliant, much better and more interesting than what finally got printed in AF 15.

 

[Donald Thomas]

Clip from the Library of Congress showing the original artwork from Amazing Fantasy 15, which is on display: http://www.history.com/content/hiddentreasures/a-legend-is-born

I've seen the pages in person. The work is brilliant, much better and more interesting than what finally got printed in AF 15.

Aloha,
You made my day. Much thanks.I know just how the guy in the video feels, I would probably just stand there with a huge grin on my face for as long as they let me stay there.
Spidey rules

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Awesome. Steve's artwork looks so incredible on the actual storyboards...

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

Wow, that was just amazing! Ditko is a legend. N'uff said.

 

[Meehaul]

I actually had an hour and a half chat with Ditko last week. What a fabulously nice man. My only regret is that I didn't record it.

 

[Donald Thomas]

I actually had an hour and a half chat with Ditko last week. What a fabulously nice man. My only regret is that I didn't record it.

Aloha,
Okay, you know you can't make a statement like that and just drop it. How did you meet him and what is he doing these days?
Spidey rules

 

[Meehaul]

Long story. And I don't feel comfortable divulging what was a private conversation. He's wonderful guy though. We talked mostly about politics and philosophy. I wish we had someone with his intellect back on the books. While Stan scripted the dialogue, Ditko plotted the books and influenced the character's development. I will say he thought the marriage was a mistake, didn't think ASM would last this long, and is saddened by the death of Captain America. Truly a sweet, interesting, insightful guy. If I'd been able to, I would have hung the whole day with him. I wish there were some way these legends could all bury the past and become friends again. There's so much we could learn if Stan and Steve and Carmine Infantino, et al, could sit down in a room together and start talking.

 

[Themanofbat]

Very nice...

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I always thought Lee was the extroverted showman (showoff?) while Ditko was the introverted man behind the curtains. If you asked me who I thought was the deeper and more intellectual creator it would be Ditko. Lee was the flashier one and better at self-promotion, basically the commercial side of things. Look, I like and respect Lee, but Ditko was always the one I thought I could better relate to as a writer and thinker. Let's face it, Romita Sr's work may be iconic, but whatever Spidey gained during the Lee/JRSr run, he lost a certain touch, a weirdness and alienation that drove his earlier stories with Ditko. When Romita took over, Peter suddenly became beautiful and accepted, no longer gangly and lonely. I would love to see what a really dark Vertigo-esque book by Ditko (scripted,plotted and drawn) would look like.

 

[Themanofbat]

I agree... Vertigo is made for creators like Ditko... I wonder if he's ever been approached?

 

[Meehaul]

Well, he'll be 82 this year and he's pretty much retired from comics, so I suspect it would be a hard sell. I think if you look at the Question and Mr. A, you'd get a hint as to where Pete was going. Ditko, btw, thought Pete's marriage to MJ was a mistake. He also wanted him to date someone very normal, a homely version of Betty Brant. The cool thing about Ditko was the weird, paranoid facial expressions on his characters. Good stuff at a time when Kirby drew everything like it was fresh out of the "romance" comics. Romita, Sr., started out Ditko-esque, but turned everything to Kirby style.

That's why I never loved Bendis' take on Pete and Spidey. While Bendis is a great plotter and writer, Pete bore almost no resemblence to his roots. USM is a good book, but not the revelatory experience that ASM was. Now, Marvel plays it pretty safe with the character. We need a Frank Miller/Grant Morrison type to really re-think the character--kind of like what happened to Batman, who was pretty much moribund until O'Neil and Miller reconceptualized him and returned him to his 30's - 40's noir, detective, Chandleresque roots.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Okay, USM rant ahead since we're on the topic....

I've always hated Bendis' minimalist, snail-pace scripting based on the sort of arrogant false premise that, that is what dialogue "really sounds like." His plots aren't bad, but his dialogue is often painful and what makes it worse is how criminally overrated it is. I've seen him basically fill up a whole page with exchanges that have about as much substance and weight as this fake one I'm about to post:

MJ: Hey...

Peter: Hey...

MJ: So, I...

Peter: Yeah... ?

MJ: Wait, did you really mean it when you said...?

Peter: I....

*Bell rings*

MJ: I have to go.

Peter: But....

MJ: Bye.

Peter: Fine.

Now, that may be a crude parody, but the reason it's so open to parody, is because this so-called realistic scripting is deadly to the pacing. Conversations never went anywhere, or if they did it took twice as long to get to their point. Every panel and word balloon should have a purpose and be moving the plot forward, just as the same rule applies to film insomuch as every scene of a good film has a purpose. Bendis often seems aimless, plodding and too knowingly in love with his rep. Sure, over-exposition in word balloons has the potential to come off as wooden and fake, but plenty of more talented writers find the right balance between realism and expediency when scripting their stories. Look at any Alan Moore comic. The dialogue reads very realistic, but it also gets straight to the point and isn't meandering and dull.

Meehaul, you sure put me off on a tangent talking about Bendis. That is one reason why I personally dislike USM, but I think the reason you may dislike it is because teen Peter in USM lacks the weird factor and slight creepiness that Ditko instilled in Peter with the early ASM issues. If this is in fact your point (and if not, apologies), then I would also agree. Peter comes off as geeky, but non-threatening. In fact, he is almost written as the oxymoron that has come to be known as the "cool geek." He is lonely and misunderstood, but lacking an edge or any darkness that might spring from those feelings. He is safe-for-kids, and he reads like a product of the Gen-Y emo culture, cultivated from the same youth-scene that gave us the Jonas Brothers and the Twilight movie. In short, it's terrible and totally misses the interpretation that one of Spidey's Daddies envisioned him as.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

Wow, great stuff, Meehaul. You're so damn lucky, he sounds like a great guy. Did he mention anything about being interviewed ever? I respect his privacy though.

 

[Donald Thomas]

I always thought Lee was the extroverted showman (showoff?) while Ditko was the introverted man behind the curtains. If you asked me who I thought was the deeper and more intellectual creator it would be Ditko. Lee was the flashier one and better at self-promotion, basically the commercial side of things. Look, I like and respect Lee, but Ditko was always the one I thought I could better relate to as a writer and thinker. Let's face it, Romita Sr's work may be iconic, but whatever Spidey gained during the Lee/JRSr run, he lost a certain touch, a weirdness and alienation that drove his earlier stories with Ditko. When Romita took over, Peter suddenly became beautiful and accepted, no longer gangly and lonely. I would love to see what a really dark Vertigo-esque book by Ditko (scripted,plotted and drawn) would look like.

Aloha,
Alan Moore told Romita, Sr. that Spider-Man DIED with issue #39.While I wouldn't go any where near that far, it can be said that with issue #38- the Ditko era of Amazing Spider-Man died and with it a mind set regarding Spider-Man that really could not be duplicated by anyone else.Romita, Sr. initially just thought he was filling in for Ditko who would return. I was there in Real Time for the transition from Ditko to Romita. I remember my buddies and I not initially accepting this Good Looking Peter Parker.But, in hindsight, it was the New Look that brought in the college crowds and made Spidey part of The Youth Culture. Under Romita, there was still plenty of pathos and angst, but the quirkiness of Ditko's art and direction, could only have come from Ditko.
Ditko's Spider-Man is grounded in Amazing Adult Fantasy-Romita's work is grounded in The Amazing Spider-Man.
Spidey rules

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Aloha,
Alan Moore told Romita, Sr. that Spider-Man DIED with issue #39.While I wouldn't go any where near that far, it can be said that with issue #38- the Ditko era of Amazing Spider-Man died and with it a mind set regarding Spider-Man that really could not be duplicated by anyone else.Romita, Sr. initially just thought he was filling in for Ditko who would return. I was there in Real Time for the transition from Ditko to Romita. I remember my buddies and I not initially accepting this Good Looking Peter Parker.But, in hindsight, it was the New Look that brought in the college crowds and made Spidey part of The Youth Culture. Under Romita, there was still plenty of pathos and angst, but the quirkiness of Ditko's art and direction, could only have come from Ditko.
Ditko's Spider-Man is grounded in Amazing Adult Fantasy-Romita's work is grounded in The Amazing Spider-Man.
Spidey rules

Wow, Donald.... How old are you? t: (don't kill me!)

But seriously, it would have been cool to be there for when those issues originally came out. I would love to go back in time and see a shiny, brand spanking new copy of a classic Lee/Ditko issue sitting on the shelf of a drugstore. Do you still have the same copies you bought for 12 cents at the news-stand as a kid?

 

[Themanofbat]

Sir Donald is in his 50's... so be nice.

I think he first bought ASM #18 (I could be wrong here) when it was on the rack...

Romita Sr. tried to imitate Ditko, but remember that JrSr's background before that was a lot of romance comics (yes folks, they did indeed exist), so he just knew how to draw good looking people...lol

 

[Donald Thomas]

Sir Donald is in his 50's... so be nice.

I think he first bought ASM #18 (I could be wrong here) when it was on the rack...

Romita Sr. tried to imitate Ditko, but remember that JrSr's background before that was a lot of romance comics (yes folks, they did indeed exist), so he just knew how to draw good looking people...lol

Aloha,
You are correct, Amazing Spider-Man #18 was my first Spidey.I stopped collecting just before #100. Then I picked it up YEARS later (1992). And as far as JR Sr, his art was so pretty, many fans in that day said that he was trying to turn the Amazing Spider-Man into Millie the Model.
Spidey rules

 

[Donald Thomas]

Wow, Donald.... How old are you? t: (don't kill me!)

But seriously, it would have been cool to be there for when those issues originally came out. I would love to go back in time and see a shiny, brand spanking new copy of a classic Lee/Ditko issue sitting on the shelf of a drugstore. Do you still have the same copies you bought for 12 cents at the news-stand as a kid?

Aloha,
I wouldn't have used the term " I was there in Real Time" if I was sensitive about my age(55). I invite you to check out my web site and you'll find out all about me as a Spidey fan.
Spidey rules

 

[Meehaul]

And, what comes around goes around. In 25 years, Pete and MJ (or someone) will probably get married again. It's a generational thing. Batman is 70 and still going strong, maybe as strong as he's ever been. Let's hope good writing and art can do the same for Spidey. It's tough, though. Look at Spawn. The "newest" character to make a dent, and he's a shadow of his former self. The easiest characters to maintain over time may be the Gods (Thor & Herc) & the Near Immortals (Hulk). I'll be very curious to see which, if any, super heroes are still going strong when I'm 82 (if I make it that long).