Ditko At Marvel - The Early Years!

The month of May will be busy as I am squeezing in most all of Steve Ditko's early Marvel Comics work. That includes his earliest work for the company as well as his later work on fabulous mystery tales with Stan Lee from the pages of Amazing Adult Fantasy and elsewhere. And without a doubt it will include his epic work on both The Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Ditko also worked briefly on The Incredible Hulk and The Invincible Iron Man. It is during this era in which Ditko's fame grows with the new fandom which sprang up around the House of Ideas. Even today when most folks who think of Steve Ditko at all, think of his work on Spidey and Doc Strange, if they think of him at all. 

Here are the volumes I'll be reading to get this swift overview of Ditko's Marvel output. 

And while I'm reading all of that, I'll be watching the 1960's version of the animated Spider-Man series which ran for three seasons, and which brought to the small screen some of Ditko's most delicious villainous designs. 

And as has become custom here at the Dojo, I will also be taking a week-long hiatus during May, but more on that later. 

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A Green-Skinned Gent!

(The dates for 1975 and 2025 are identical.)

The holiday season is once again upon us. This little Christmas card from the Marvel Bullpen jumped out at me (kinda' literally) and I immediately recognized the source despite the addition of the little heroes in the corner and the Santa gear (by Mirthful Marie most likely).

One of my favorite images of the Incredible Hulk is this incredible image by Jack Kirby which appeared as the front of the great sweatshirt Marvel licensed way back in its heyday.

As can be seen by this vintage ad which features the artwork of Marie Severin and images from sundry issues of Tales to Astonish. 

Here's another classic ad which gives you a look at the delightful back image for this hilarious sweatshirt. The allure for me was and is mighty, and for a mere two ninety-eight it could've been mine. I never got one, but I've always wanted one.

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The Incredible Hulk Day!

Jim Steranko was born on this date in 1938. Steranko is one of a kind in the comics world. He was a magician and the inspiration for Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle. He became an ace artist for Marvel on Nick Fury and other titles for a brief but impressive period, and later a creator of a fabulous covers for a myriad of paperbacks starring The Shadow and others. He wrote his own History of Comics. 

This Bronze Age British Mighty World of Marvel cover featuring the Hulk seems at first glance to be adapted from the iconic Jim Steranko-Marie Severin cover for King-Size Hulk Special #1 from 1968.

It's not.

The Brit cover seems rather to have been adapted from the original Steranko artwork for the King-Size Special cover, the artwork not retouched by Marie Severin. Check out that face.

Steranko's original has lots of potency, but frankly I think that Marie Severin's alterations to the Hulk's head add some drama. The Steranko face is too beastly, and it lacks the human component to give the image the necessary connection for the audience. Steranko's Hulk is well and truly a monster. Great piece of dynamic action though. 

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Echoes Of Love From The Heart Of The Atom!

Under this beautiful Dave Cockrum cover art is a beautiful story of love for Marvel's original misfit monster, the always incredible Hulk. Heat of the Atom collects the Jarella stories from across many years of the Hulk's comic. Jarella is the beautiful blonde princess who loves the Hulk and who he loves too. Their romance is one of Marvel's most tragic.

The saga actually begins as something of a stunt. In the early Bronze Age comics were still groping for relevancy in the broader social spectrum and successful science fiction writer Harlan Ellison added to the cache of the form when he agree to plot some stories for Mighty Marvel. Two stories that he produced ended up as The Avengers #88 which is the first part of a tale that continues into Hulk #140. Roy Thomas wrote both tales.

The Avengers story by Thomas, Sal Buscema and Jim Mooney is not included in this trade, but is summarized in the first few pages of the initial Hulk story lusciously illustrated with Herb Trimpe breakdowns and Sam Grainger finishes. Essentially a monster name Psyclop in service to his other-dimensional masters needs to shrink the Hulk into what we now called the microverse. The Avengers try to stop this but fail and then are removed from the story by the simple trick of mind erasure.

The story continues in a tale titled "The Brute that Shouted Love as the Heart of the Atom!",  which is a variation of the title of a Harlan Ellison short story collection. Roy even goes so far as to include the titles of other Ellison tales in the dialogue and narration of the story itself. As I said, this was pretty much a stunt.

In the story, the Hulk finds himself on the microverse world where the lovely and exceedingly green Princess Jarella rules the kingdom of K'ai. After defending the city from giant warthog-like monsters the Hulk is hailed as a hero and soon enough becomes the consort of the Princess herself, who has an eye to making him her hubby. Needless to say, the Hulk who has his raging mind calmed by the magics of Torla, Holi, and Moli (three wizards) is rather happy to stay.

But Psyclop has other plans and the Hulk is ripped from his potential  happiness. Psyclop is defeated of course but the Hulk has seemingly lost paradise.

Some time later through magic Jarella comes to Earth but is followed by an assassin. She finds the Hulk again, but once again the pair are parted before they can find happiness. This is neat little story by Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont and the awesome Herb Trimpe and John Severin team.

Then thanks to Goodwin and Trimpe and the science of Hank (Ant-Man) Pym the Hulk returns to the Microverse world to battle himself as it were in defense of the Kingdom of Ka'i and to protect his Princess. That it doesn't end happily is likely not much of a spoiler.

The Hulk ends up in the Microverse again thanks to Len Wein and the absolutely fabulous art team of Sal Buscema and Joe Staton. To be honest it was the art of these two working in tandem which got me over on this trade. I love how Staton's finishes add an almost luminous luster to Buscema's breakdowns and on whiter paper the art looks even better than I remember. This time Hulk finds Jarella again, just in time to save her from the clutches of a revived Psyclop.

The pair survive and actually arrive on Earth where (spoiler alert) poor Jarella dies to save an innocent life. The Hulk needless to say is a tad upset and goes on a classic rampage.

The Defenders step in and help slow him down, at least long enough to come to terms with his grief, at least a bit. The saga of the Hulk and Jarella seems to finally be over.

But then Bill Mantlo writes up a neat little tale expertly illustrated by Sal Buscema, which has the Hulk take Jarella's body back to the Microverse where he finds a devestated land. After battling the Gardner, Jarella is laid to rest at last and one of the great Marvel love stories comes to an end.

There is a What If which postulates what might've happened if Jarella had lived. It's clever enough, but sadly doesn't have the emotional punch I'd have expected of a story like this. Written by Peter B. Gillis and drawn by Herb Trimpe the story follows the Hulk as he becomes a hero of the world of K'ai and saves the world. I have to confess the John Buscema cover showing Jadejaws in full-Conan mode might be the best thing about this humdrum little outing.

The Hulk found a profound peace when he was with Jarella. That was comforting not only for him, but for his fans who from then on knew it was possible. Sadly, that peace was all too brief, but then that's what great stories are made of.

This post is dedicated to the late great Herb Trimpe. 

This Post is a Revised Dojo Classic. 

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Marvel Visionaries - Steranko!

Jim Steranko's influence on comics is undeniable. He came roaring onto the 60's comic scene and injected a whole new modern vibe and immediacy to the comics he drew despite himself being a synthesis of many of the classic styles he'd absorbed as a reader for years. In his style we see Eisner, Kirby, Kane, Krigstein, and more as he created his own distinctive look and atmosphere. But he did precious little comics work relative to his reputation. Since his early days he's often promised to do more than he's delivered (I'm still waiting in vain for Red Tide). But there's no denying his influence. Here's a gallery of his greatest comics work, darn near all of it in fact.  I've made a few notes. 

After leaving Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, Steranko stepped over for a couple of issues of The Uncanny X-Men scripted by Arnold Drake. Steranko did the cover for issue forty-nine, but was all in with covers and interior art on the next two issues which featured the return of Magneto and the introduction of Lorna Dane. John Tartaglione's inks are pretty rough but add some energy to Steranko's designs. 

Next Steranko stepped into the Captain America mythos with scripts by Stan "The Man" Lee. The mission was to introduce Rick Jones as Cap's new partner and to re-establish Cap's secret identity. Steranko also brought back his dynamic designs for Hydra, now led by the tempting Madame Hydra. 

It's an all-out war with Rick struggling to prove himself to the legendary hero. But in the end, it appears that Captain America has been well and truly slain by the forces of Hydra. Joe Sinnott's inks on these two issues are immaculate. 

It's not in this collection, but I want to give a shout-out to the next issue of Cap which had to be drawn in the very last few hours by Jack "The King" Kirby to bail Steranko out of a deadline bind. All that said, this issue remains one of my faves. If you want to see Kirby at his wildest, this this is the comic for you. 

Stan and Steranko wrap up this legendary three-parter with the inevitable return of Cap, this time roaring into action on a motorcycle. Steranko got a last chance to draw Nick Fury who along with the Avengers showed up for Cap's funeral. Tom Palmer stepped in on inks for this issue and I love the effect he had on the art. Very atmospheric. 

Steranko knocked it out of the park with "At the Stroke of Midnight" in the debut issue of Tower of Shadows. That's a mean John Romita cover which captures the story quite effectively. I love Steranko's hipster Digger. 

Steranko had to try another genre with "My Heart Broke -- In Hollywood!" from the fifth issue of Our Love Story. I'm glad he got it out of his system, but it's not my favorite example of his work. It's stylish but sterile. Maybe that's intentional. 

One of Steranko's most impressive images was this cover for the very first ever King-Size Hulk Special. Stan had Marie Severin refined the face, but it's still a might effort. Actually, I approve of Marie's changes in this instance. 

Steranko returned to Marvel a few years later to knock out a bevy of covers for the company, including some new SHIELD images. Now he's added Sword and Sorcery and Westerns to his genre listing. 

Steranko also produced two covers for Doc Savage, but Marvel didn't have the rights, so these two covers are not included in the collection. 

For some reason neither are these images produced for FOOM Magazine and some posters produced by Marvelmania International, Marvel's ill-fated fan club. 

A later cover by Steranko for another publisher on the Marvel Comics Index - Fantastic Four issue is sleek. 

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