Ditko Days

I started digging into some old comics to pull out some more Ditko covers to run with the covers to Amazing Adult Fantasy after our weekend binge on Stan Lee & Steve Ditko's work before Spider-Man. However, i got kind of lost along the way - distracted by all those old Ditko pages that kept popping up.

So, covers later - more stories today; 24 pages of Ditko. We don't know who wrote any of these tales, as is often the case from those ancient days.

Before you ask - Yes, this first story is pre-Code...

As you can tell from the top of the page, i rather liked the creepy imagery for this one...
 

This next tale is from 1954. I mention the date because i'm wondering if this was the first story printed with this particular twist...
 

Okay - more Ditko this week, along with some of the other folks he was working alongside back in those days.

Meanwhile, i may actually paint something for the first time since Kirby's 100th. Work is set up, now it's time to find out if the graphics tablet is still working, and if the system will avoid dying if i try to paint.

Oh, the suspense...

page art by Steve Ditko from The Thing! #s 13 & 15 and Space Adventures #10 (1954)

Early Ditko

We've been looking at some of Steve Ditko's works, but mostly from late in his career. Let's peek at the other end of the spectrum.

The earliest published work by Ditko that i've been able to determine is actually a cover, oddly enough. Even back at his beginnings, they could see the value of his work. From October of 1952, the cover to Strange Fantasy #2 (not to be confused with the first issue, which was also labeled #2) -

Yes, he did interior work, too, and his art appeared regularly in the title over the next year.
At the end of that year, this odd little gem showed up. See if you can determine what made this Ditko tale from Black Magic #27 so strangely significant -

 What made this tale stand out was the creature. This panel is the only one in which the creature is drawn by Steve Ditko:

The rest of them? Jack Kirby stepped in to redraw the creature in the other panels.
Man - teaming up with Jack Kirby in your first year working in comics? Not bad.

Lastly, for now - Ditko's first appearance in Space Adventures. He'd return to this book at the end of the decade to bring us Captain Atom before he launched into his own title. Back in 1954, it was science fiction, not superheroics, and emblazoned on the cover. And, again, that cover is by Ditko - 

page art from Black Magic #27 (1953) and Space Adventures #10 (1954)