In my opinion, this is the best thing Steve Ditko ever made. Storytime.
>>151117729
>>151117735
>>151117748
>>151117757
>>151117768
>>151117779
Damn, reading this from an original copy feels so different.
>>151117792
Mucho texto
>>151117819>>151117805I prefer it. Apparently these pages have recently been colorized along with a bunch of Mr. A stuff, which really seems like it flies in the face of the visual motifs Steve created.
>>151117836>>151117832Yup. This is basically a collection of short essays presented in comic form. I really enjoy it but it probably isn't what you're used to.
>>151117860
>>151117867
>>151117878
>>151117885
>>151117885Pausing for a sec. Check out that final panel! The way he did shading in B&W is so damn pretty.
>>151117894
>>151117919
>>151117928
>>151117937End of Part 1!
>>151117950Part 2 kicks off with one of the most iconic pages to come from his independent work.
>>151117967The alternate version of the previous drawing. This imagery would go on to appear in Mr. A and his 32 page series of books later in his career.
>>151117988
>>151117994
>>151118004This section is easily my favorite part of the book. I rate this as some of the best comic art ever, honestly.
>>151118021I remember Cartoonist Kayfabe talked about how this looks a lot like their image of Krypton.
>>151118036
>>151118045
>>151118055
>>151118066
>>151118074
>>151118084
>>151118092home stretch
>>151118104
>>151118114Art here is really reminiscent of Mr. A
>>151118114Shit I forgot to upload the pic lolEND.
>>151118130
>>151118144What'd everyone think?
>>151118154Quickly combined the two color pages in photoshop
>>151117729KinoThe one that maaaybe could get the best reception here is probably the Ditko public service package, a long 90s comic in which he mostly criticizes the comic industry in a creative and vivid way. Picrel is a common criticism /co/ has
>>151118179Thanks anon, the artwork of this cover was one of the things that made me think that his work was very characteristic. He's my favorite artist for a good reason
>>151118198Looks good. Would this be included in the Four Page Series collection he published?You're probably right that something like that would be better received than an Objectivist philosophical treatise with a highly unusual writing style and lexicon, but I think Avenging World is Ditko's peak as a visual artist. Everything feels so visceral and focused. Almost the pictures are getting up in your face and screaming their lungs out at you. >>151118004 and >>151118021 are just especially unbelievable. Gorgeous.>>151118216>He's my favorite artist for a good reasonMe too, man. He gets a lot of shit from comic book people, but he carried himself with the confidence to hit them back twice as hard through his art, which inspired another one of my personal favorites from him.
>>151118283*almost like the picturesmy bad
>>151118198>Hero son and dog>wuff wuff wuffkek
>>151118021It's asame most people would be most familiar with Ditko'sSpider-man work which, while full of great storytelling composition, was often hampered by deadlines not allowing the finished linework to shine as much as it could have.
>>151118283>but I think Avenging World is Ditko's peak as a visual artistI was talking in general, the ideology of the comic, it's presentation, and how explicit it is stop people from appreciating it. Which is a shame. But I really like it, I even agree with some of his points and overall I respect them. You're right, it feels like a masterpiece. He wanted to talk through his art, and he achieved it. Extremely expressive and remarkable, plus what's basically a small essay. >Me too, man.Oh really? Cool, he needs more appreciation. Kirby always gets acclaimed for his krackle and the cosmic and scifi art, but Ditko deserves it for how surrealist his drawings could get, the creative character designs, the intense and eloquent poses and faces, his attention to anatomy, his dots and lines like in picrel and which he employed a lot, his unique lettering, etc.>which inspired another one of my personal favorites from him.Who?
>>151118680Static is such a blast to read. Really felt like Ditko was able to strut his stuff with the action scenes.>I was talking in general, the ideology of the comic, it's presentation, and how explicit it is stop people from appreciating it.Yeah I gotcha. You're absolutely right. It actually makes me think of the CK episode on Mr. A's first appearance in which Ed Piskor kinda spent the entire time seething about Ditko's politics while Jim Rugg was admiring the storytelling and expressiveness of the art. It was especially annoying because Ed didn't really say anything new in regards to problems he had with the comic. It was just kind of pre-baked putdowns that you'd find getting upvoted on r/comicbooks or something.That's been the case with the vast majority of angry reactions to Ditko that I've seen. Second-handed preconceptions of the man without taking the time to study his work. I'm not saying that about anyone who doesn't find it to fit their personal tastes, but I don't see how any lover of comics could actually call Ditko's work "bad.">I was talking in general, the ideology of the comic, it's presentation, and how explicit it is stop people from appreciating it.Having read through a lot of Kirby's catalogue and recently finishing my giant book of classic Avengers stuff, I don't think Kirby was anywhere near Ditko's level. Certainly wasn't a bad artist, but Ditko just had so many skillsets in his back pocket to pull from.>Who?I was talking about the picrel. It's his submission for the 1978 San Diego Comicon guidebook.
>>151117729Thanks OP i shall check it out
>>151119133>Static is such a blast to read. Really felt like Ditko was able to strut his stuff with the action scenes.Absolutely, it is wonderful>but Ditko just had so many skillsets in his back pocket to pull from.That's why for me he's the master. He was good in so many things that many artists couldn't even do>I was talking about the picrelOh I see. Funny picture, supposedly he only went to a single convention, and as you would expect he hated it
I think Ditko was slightly autistic. Not in a derogatory way; I hate people who go "lol he was looney tunes because he didn't behave or think exactly how I wish he did".
>>151119595lol maybe he was. But those kind of people always do fantastic things. Just look the oc some anons post here
>>151117967I feel like this is making my autism worse by several degrees
>>151119513Pretty great article on his relationship with fanshttps://www.tcj.com/steve-ditko-and-the-comic-book-people
>>151119949do ya?
Several pages in and man this has strong "Old Man Yells At Cloud" vibes.
>>151120998Because you don't know better.
Good stuff.
>>151119595He would sometimes make Slovakian sweet bread balls for Christmas family dinner and among his belongings, his family found a journal that recorded his process every year and how many balls he got for the measurements, comparing year by year. so he definitely had habits
>>151119595>I think Ditko was slightly autisticAlmost certainly, I mean his worldview as presented here would make perfect sense if everyone was perfectly rational and driven by logic (i.e. autistic traits). The fact that not only is everyone not, but the vast majority are very much irrational and driven by emotion is where it falls down and it doesn't appear he was able to recognise that at all. You'd need to enforce rational values in order to create the world he dreamed of, but that would run contrary to his belief in individual freedom. Ironically the only people who actually have tried to enforce rationality on people are communist governments, but that didn't make people more rational, it just made them better liars because they didn't actually believe that stuff, they just pretended to out of fear.None of that takes away from the fact Ditko was definitely a talented artist and layout man though. And he did what he wanted regardless of what anyone else thought, which is worthy of respect.
>>151120998>>151121425I mean I agree that neutralist/centrists/fencesitters aren't human, but muh logic and reason is an outdated and disproven viewpoint, humans are illogical creatures and most don't want to learn either system, that's the whole reason religions exist.
>>151121958Always good to see a Ditko photo that isn't one of the three pictures that news articles use
>>151122229since his death, his family's been open to sharing their family photos with him from family gatherings. Apparently there's hundreds of them. Photos of Ditko goofing off with his nephews and nieces, videos of Ditko playing with the family cat, it's a far cry from the uptight recluse most people thought him as.
>>151121425Well he wasn't even in his 30s yet, but you wouldn't know it from the way he went on, and it's not like his views changed when he DID grow older. This reads like more of the same from Ditko, a man that believed wholeheartedly that there were no limits to what a man could do if he put his mind to it, and that anyone who couldn't pull himself up by his bootlaces and asked for help was just a needy hand to be slapped away. Neat art. Dogshit worldview.
>>151122287>Well he wasn't even in his 30s yetHe was in his mid 40s.>a man that believed wholeheartedly that there were no limits to what a man could do if he put his mind to it, and that anyone who couldn't pull himself up by his bootlaces and asked for help was just a needy hand to be slapped awayDaaaaaaaamn son that's motivating. Thanks for that anon >>151122269I'm sure that they were objectively good burgers>it's a far cry from the uptight recluse most people thought him as.I knew it. In his sticky assholes were insisting that he died completely lonely and irritated. What kind of person would respond to hundreds of letters sent by fans?
>>151123076>Daaaaaaaamn son that's motivating. Thanks for that anonAny time. And hey, when it turns out that "if you want it, and have the talent, and work at it with all your might" doesn't guarantee you won't get smacked down into the gutter, remember not to put out your hand for help. That's for parasites, amirite? (When Ayn Rand accepted Social Security Benefits it was okay, For Reasons. Sorta like how Ditko didn't complain when the GI Bill started handing veterans all kinds of benefits they hadn't been promised beforehand, like the college education and low mortgage rates Ditko was very happy to accept).
I dunno what this is but that globe with a smug face is really fucking funny
>>151123251So angry lol.
>>151117735Bump
Bump
>>151118154Real visual creativity. Even if the writing isn't the best, it should at least be looked at by anyone interested in making comics, along with Eisner's Spirit, Steranko's Fury, Valentina, and Cerebus.
>>151117729I own this in a reprint, I got lucky and found a copy of this for like 10 bucks.
>>151117729the main problem I have with Ditko's moralizing comics is that it's pretty much just him whining about the world's problems but not really even attempting to offer a solution(beyond vague platitudes about how people should just automatically know what the right thing to do is), if anything he ends up putting himself as the author in the exact same neutralist position he goes out of his way to demonizethe art of course is fantastic, at least in these early ones(from my recollection some of his later ones start getting sloppy, which reflects how it would also be for those rare later commercial works of his as well)
I like it.
>>151118680Love this one.
>>151125106Nice.
>>151122269Why are the kida shrugging? Is this an ayn ramlnd reference
>>151125415I gave up reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra last week for similar reasons. At least this has cool art.
>>151117735damn that opening
>>151117779It's kind of annoying to see Ditko simplify complex issues like these, even if it can be interpreted as just satire. Lumping anyone who's basic needs aren't being met as "unproductive" is fucking dumb, especially when these people don't have the means to actually improve their situation because of their environment.
>>151122287>man that believed wholeheartedly that there were no limits to what a man could do if he put his mind to it, and that anyone who couldn't pull himself up by his bootlaces and asked for help was just a needy hand to be slapped awayThere's merit in that idea, but the ironic part is that Ditko is just extremist when it comes to not depending on people and having any form of teamwork. It's also hilarious how much his values are the so opposite to Spider-man
>>151128221>I gave up reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra last week for similar reasonsYou aren't ready.
>>151129038Neither are you.
