Instead of our usual Sunday Evening Video this week, I am linking back to a post from April, where I posted two videos, one dedicated to the late Jack Kirby, and one dedicated to Steve Ditko, whose death was made public last Friday.
You can find that original post right HERE.
In that post, I mentioned that I feel that Stan Lee is given too much credit as the co-creator of Spider-man, Dr. Strange, and the rest of the Marvel Universe. Lee deserves all the credit in the world for hiring some remarkable talents and largely turning them loose to create. What bothers me is that Lee claimed credit as the “writer,” when most of what he did could best be considered editing.
Lee would provide a brief spark or idea, but at the creative peak of Marvel, in the mid-1960s, it’s questionable that he was even doing that much. Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were essentially turning in completed stories, which would then be edited by Lee, who would finalize the dialogue, sometimes for the better, oftentimes departing from the artist’s intentions.
Ditko walked away from Marvel, most likely due to his frustration over Lee taking so much credit for his work.
We can’t say for sure, because Ditko never expressly confirmed this idea (though it’s fairly obvious if you read all his essays on the matter), and Lee swears he didn’t see Ditko’s exit coming and has no idea why he abandoned his creations.
With Ditko’s passing, it’s important to make sure that the man receives proper credit for his work. He ranks among the most influential artists and writers in the history of comics, and deserves to be recognized as such.
Below I’m posting a video that presents a pretty decent recap of Ditko’s work, and how it spoke for the man, since he chose not to speak for himself. Rather than post a photo of the man, because to be honest, there aren’t many, I’ve included some of my favorite examples of his work. You can order his more recent work HERE.
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