Marvel Visionaries: Steve Ditko (Hardcover)

by Stan Lee (Author), Steve Ditko (Author, Artist), Bill Mantlo (Author), Michael Fleisher (Author), Tom DeFalco (Author), Roger Stern (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Ditko, a Marvel Comics' mainstay in the early 1960s, helped create a line of superheroes that endures to this day. Not the slickest or most dynamic artist, he was indisputably the most individualistic. Whereas Jack Kirby's characters were handsome and larger-than-life, Ditko's awkward, angular figures were decidedly antiheroic. This deluxe, full-color collection showcases Ditko's Marvel work in 27 well-chosen stories. His most famous creation, Spider-Man, dominates in six selections that laid the groundwork for the dozens of artists who have subsequently depicted his exploits. Other tales feature Ditko's next-best-known Marvel creations: Dr. Strange, whose sorcerous exploits gave the swinging sixties their most psychedelic comic-book moments, and the Incredible Hulk. Ditko abruptly left Marvel in 1966, three years after creating Spidey, but later returned to work there intermittently; the volume contains four stories from the 1980s and 1990s. By then the magic was largely gone, yet Ditko's distinctive style remained. Much admired by today's comics artists, Ditko is seldom recognizable as an influence because his approach can't easily be copied or assimilated. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
In celebration of its 65th anniversary, the House of Ideas proudly presents a timeless testament to another true Marvel visionary! Best known as the first artist to bring Spider-Man to life in the pages of Amazing Fantasy, Steve Ditko illustrated Amazing Spider-Man for four years - helping create characters such as Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, the Vulture, and dozens more of Spider-Man's classic villains. In contrast to the grounded realism of Spider-Man, Ditko also drew the adventures of Doctor Strange, a master of the mystic arts who defended Earth's citizens from bizarre otherworldly threats. Now, this deluxe keepsake edition collects his greatest moments. Stories from Tales To Astonish #26, 42; Strange Tales #94, 97, 110, 115, 126-127; 146; Amazing Adult Fantasy #7, 10, 12-13; Amazing Spider-Man #1, 31-33, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1; Hulk #6, 249; Tales Of Suspence #48, Daredevil #162; MSHS, Speedball #1.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics; illustrated edition edition (May 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785117830
• ISBN-13: 978-0785117834
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #825,045 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, but frustrating, May 30, 2005

By	Haute Connoisseur - See all my reviews

A beautiful but frustrating book. Ditko left a deep impression on me when I was young, and his work is one of the things from my youth that I still enjoy greatly now that I'm deep into middle age. The layout of this book-- the size of the panels, the color, and so on-- is better than the original comics were.

But it's a Ditko sampler-- bits and pieces from various phases of his Marvel career, hard to settle into when you get past the early Twilight Zoney-type-material (which is great).

The effect of Ditko, in Dr. Strange and Spiderman especially, was cumulative, so these cherry-picked selections are ultimately frustrating for me.

Also: after the first half, or maybe 3/5, we begin to see an altered style, I suppose under pressure, and I suppose this is the reason why Ditko left Marvel, but the later pages of the book are just sad for me, when I think about what he might have been able to achieve if he'd been left alone. Whereas Steranko and Kirby blossomed during this period, Ditko was obviously being asked (or required) to do something contrary to his distinctive vision.

I've seen things he's drawn since he left-- for example, "Steve Ditko's 160 Page Package" (1999)-- and it's visually true to the early Dr. Strange and Spider-Man.

It's clear to me that it was all about integrity for him.

I've ordered the Marvel Masterworks Dr. Strange vol 1.via e-bay, also available w/o color, "the Essential Dr. Strange."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hauntingly Weird and Wonderful..., December 31, 2005

By	William E. Innes "billyinnes" (Benicia, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At his best, Steve Ditko's artwork was initially deceivingly pedestrian...only to later take the reader through twists and turns into wonderfully strange and haunting worlds. While the likes of Jack Kirby made everything grandiose and larger than life, much of Ditko's charm was his knack for being able to take the most mundane situations and render them with an artist's eye than seldom failed to captivate the reader. This collection assembles some of the best examples of Ditko's brilliantly bizzare worlds, jettisoned, no doubt, by some incredible scripts as penned by Stan Lee. The only drawback to this collection is found towards the end of this collection. Here we see the magic all but gone in stories such as "The Coming of the Squirrel Girl"...a dismal work that could not be salvaged by an artist at his very peak (let alone one who is headed towards a downward spiral). Still, the middle section of this book...with wonderful stories from SPIDERMAN and DOCTOR STRANGE...make this a beautiful collection and a fitting tribute to one of comic-book's true masters!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Money wiser spent on other Ditko collections, May 16, 2008

By	B. Younger "windupguy" (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Steve Ditko's Spider-Man Annual #1 was one of the first Marvel comics I ever bought. Between Ditko and Jack Kirby, I was forever hooked on the 60s Marvels. I found both volumes of Kirby's Marvel Visionaries hardcovers to be well thought out for their selections, even though there is some redundancy in the work reprinted in those books and many other books on Kirby (yes, we all know how great "This Man, This Monster" is, but does it need to be reproduced in EVERY book about Kirby?).

Anyway, I was initially very excited to get the Ditko Visionaries book and expected the selections to be as powerful and well thought out as the Kirby versions. And there is some excellent work represented here: early Ditko fantasy stories from a number of pre-hero titles; some key Spider-Man stories, including a 3-part saga from numbers 31-33, and much of the original stuff that appeared in Annual #1; and some great samples of his work on Dr. Strange. The story arc in 31-33 was especially well-chosenb since it is arguably the last significant Ditko Spider-Man to appear before he parted ways with Marvel after #36, and it is only reprinted in the Spider-Man Masterworks volume 4, which covers the transition between Ditko and Romita's first work on the title.

However, many of the other selections are not just disappointing, they are actually embarrassing! Let's start with the least offensive first - the pre-hero fantasy work. I have no real complaints with the selections, except for the fact that out of 10 stories more than HALF appeared in Amazing Fantasy/Amazing Adult Fantasy. There are 2 stories each from Strange Tales and Tales to Astonish. That's it. Nothing from his work on Journey Into Mystery, Tales of Suspense, Amazing Adventures,or any of the Atlas titles. Considering that all of his work in AF/AAF is reprinted in the Amazing Fantasy Omnibus, it seems like a more representative sampling could have been chosen.

Next, let's take Ditko's work on the Hulk. He did some stories in the original Hulk series, one of which is represented in Visionaries. However, the only other Ditko Hulk chosen is a lame story from 1980 with Jack Frost as the main protagonist. Although there is barely any of the dynamic action associated with the character, at least Ditko's art is decent. But what happened to the great Hulk work he contributed to some of those early issues of Tales to Astonish? Not even mentioned in Visionaries, which is a shame, because that was actually some of his best work on the character.

The remaining stories reprinted in Visionaries include a Daredevil from 1980 and Speedball #1 from 1988, neither of which shows Ditko at his best. However, they're interesting in the context of his career at Marvel, and at least show his work on characters other than Spidey, Strange and the Hulk. That said, I don't believe there is ANY excuse to reprint the abortion called "The Coming of Squirrel Girl" from Marvel Super-Heroes #8 in 1992. Yes, it shows Ditko's work on Iron Man for variety, but he's way past his peak here and it doesn't show him in a very good light. Besides that, Squirrel Girl is not only the lamest hero concept I've ever seen - not even in the "so bad it's good" category, just really bad - it's probably the worst character design AND character personality I've ever seen. And I've been reading comics since 1960. There is just NOTHING in the way of redeeming value to the character. OK, fine, it's a lame character, poor art, bad concept... I could almost live with that if the story had any life to it at all. But it doesn't. There's no action, no logic, lot's of talking and static shots. Dr. Doom makes an appearance and is DEFEATED by a bunch of rodents! If I was Doom, I would have laid waste to the Marvel offices at the mere suggestion of appearing in this story. I wrote better comic stories when I was 10!

All in all, even though this is not an expensive book, I would say save your money, buy Amazing Fantasy Omnibus and the Masterworks Spider-Man and Hulk. At least you'll have Ditko work that shows his quirky, energetic artwork at the height of his abilities, and will give you something you'll enjoy reading over and over.