Marvel Masterwork Pin-Ups!

Marvel Masterworks Pin-Ups is one of my absolute favorite Yoe Books. It gathers between its pages most if not all of superhero pin-up pages which appeared in Marvel's comics over the course of about two decades or so beginning with the very first Fab 4 pin-ups from Fantastic Four #2 and ending with John Byrne's pin-ups for Fantastic Four Special Edition from 1984. In between there are scuds of images of both heroes and villains by the likes of Kirby,  John Buscema, Gene Colan, Dicky Ayers, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, John Romita, Bill Everett, and Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith. Most of them are by the "King", but coming in second is "Sturdy" Steve Ditko. Below I've gathered his Spidey images from the book. 

The oddball grace of Ditko's early version of Spidey is neatly showcases in this image  Amazing Spider-Man #3. 

It is a more muscular Spider we see here from the first Amazing Spider-Man Annual. 

This pin-up from Amazing Spider-Man #20  has always been a favorite of mine as it shows Peter Parker, a figure no less important to the success of the early Spidey stories.  

This a grand image from Amazing  Spider-Man #21, which of course served as the cover this Yoe collection. The way the light frames Spidey is outstanding. 

And this image from Amazing Spider-Man #23  might well be my favorite of the lot. There's not only the entirety of the Spider-verse cast represented with headshots, but we have a very mysterious and threatening image of Spider-Man himself. He's become so common that it's easy to forget that Spider-Man would be downright scary if you met him in one of those dim Ditko alleys. 

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The Amazing Spider-Man - Great Responsibility!

It's in this second Epic Collection volume that The Amazing Spider-Man by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee finds its purest expression. Ditko had been taking an ever-increasing role in plotting the series, and he had even pried repeated credit for doing so. As the creative relationship between Lee and his master artist dissolved, Spider-Man became increasingly a completed work that Ditko delivered to Marvel's doorstep for mere dialogue. Even though I was not there when all this was unfolding, I still regard these issues as the finest ever produced on the long series and the ones which made the character the juggernaut he has become for the corporate masters who now control his fate like so many J. Jonah Jamesons.  

While Peter Parker is desperate to get money for the sick Aunt May, he is forced by circumstance to ignore threats, and this gives rise to the rumor that he's become a coward. 

But things get better at home and so our hero is able to rejuvenate his reputation by taking the battle to his enemies, giving hope to those who stood by him. That iconic image of Spider-Man by Ditko swung through all the episodes of the cartoon show. 

J. Jonah Jameson's hatred of Spidey gets out of control yet again when he funds the creation of The Scorpion. When his home-grown super-villain turns on him, it's up to our hero to swallow hard and save the day, proving yet again that no good deed goes unpunished. 

Marvel really seemed to want to make a big deal out of the friendly rivalry of its two teen heroes Spider-Man and the Human Torch. No issue does it better than this one, and the Beetle was a great baddie, ideal for Ditko's artistry. 

The Circus of Crime turn on the Ringmaster and elect the enigmatic Clown as their leader as they go about committing crime in the NYC area. 

This is the single oldest issue of the run I own and I have no memory of how I chanced upon it. I love this cover, a perfect one featuring an upside-down Spidey battling a vicious Green Goblin. Marvel was slowly setting up the Goblin as Spidery's main nemesis, though Doc Ock might have something to say about that. 

Spidey lies down on the psychiatrist's couch in this one when he thinks he might be going gaga. But as we all knew it was merely an old enemy returning to wreak vengeance on our hero. 

J.J.J. never learns his lesson and hires another scientist to build a machine to capture Spidey. It's a close call nonetheless, though our hero has to sacrifice his costume to survive the day. 

This is my favorite Spidey cover by Ditko. It's got amazing perspective and loads of mystery, even if the Crime-Master wasn't a heavy hitter. Spider-Man is still without his original costume and must make do with a store-bought replacement, one that doesn't fit very well. The Crime-Master is pure Ditko. 

Some will argue with me, but I think the series peaks with this two-part tale of the Crime-Master. Spider-Man never looked better than when he was battling gangsters and these two issues were loaded with that kind of action. Ditko got, to some degree, the kind of ending he wanted as a precursor to the reveal of the Goblin. 

Molten Man is a great menace, and one with a tie to our hero. Peter Parker's graduation marks well how the series has been moving along in pretty much real time. A more adult hero gives the storytellers advantages, but it does rob the hero of some of his most remarkable aspects. Time will slow down greatly after this issue. 

The "Ditkoverse" crosses over in the second Annual and the team-up between Spider-Man and Doctor Strange is a doozy! 

The Scorpion returns and proves to be one of our heroes most blood-thirsty villains. Ditko gets another winner with this cover and how it shows both what's above and below the water. 

This is a neat small story of a humble second-story criminal. The glaring error in this one is that Lee doesn't realize that Ditko was setting up his magnum opus with the appearance of the Master Planner's henchmen in this one and the captions indicate the baddies belong to the Cat, when that makes no sense. The creators are not talking by this time and it shows. 

As Aunt May is again stricken by illness, Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man goes on his most significant quest when he seeks a radical new medicine. When the henchmen of the Master Planner take that crucial cure, the stage is set. 

Our hero is desperate to save his beloved Aunt and the baddies need to get out of his way. It's a bold image Ditko gives us here to showcase Spidey's fury. 

Some say this is the finest issue of the series ever. I don't quiet agree, but it's a mighty one indeed. The end of the only three-part storyline in Ditko's tenure on the series, it comes to a magnificent climax in an artistic tour de force. 

Kraven the Hunter comes back for more from our hero and finds it. Ditko's artwork is moving past its prime on the series and shifting toward a new more robust look. 

The Molten Man is back and it's all Spidey can do to corral him. We get a glimpse of a villain who is struggling against his new nature. 

The Looter is on the loose and he is the evidence that Ditko's new Objectivist philosophy has taken firm control of his creative direction. 

Some nifty robots are on the scene as Spider-Man tries to survive a desperate baddy's attempt at a comeback to crime. 

By the time of the arriveal of a "a guy named Joe" Ditko has said what he wanted to say and moves on from Mighty Marvel. So many villains, so little time. By the end of Ditko's run on the book, Peter Parker had graduated and is an adult. Perhaps Ditko imagines the story he wanted to tell is done. But now he moves on to to other pastures. As the cover suggests it was "Nuff Said!". 

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Ditko's Iron Man!

Iron Man is credited to Stan Lee and Don Heck. Heck along with Jack Kirby and later Gene Colan all had hefty runs on the character. But a crucial but brief tenure on the series was held down by Steve Ditko. Ditko debuted on the Tales of Suspense series under a Kirby cover when Shellhead confronted the weird menace of Mr. Doll. 

To combat Doll's strange voodoo-like curse, Iron Man adopted a new sleeker armor. Designed by Ditko, this red and gold armor became the standard look of the character for many decades with various small changes over time.

In the next issue Ditko drew a story in which Iron Man battles a deluded Angel. This battle is strangely even as clearly Marvel thought they might have a future star in the high-flying X-Man. 

 

Marvel was getting excellent at cross-promotion of its comics, using every series as a chance to suggest another character to a potential reader. Paul Reinman inked both issues of Tales of Suspense that featured Ditko's art. And just like that, Ditko was gone, but not forgotten. 

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The Merry Marvel Marching Doctor Strange!

Above is the Doctor Strange design by Steve Ditko for Marvel's shirts. The master magician is presented in mid incantation. 
 

A fuller version of this same pose was developed and used as one of eight posters Marvel presented. 

Here's the full grouping with Ditko's pose nested between another of Spider-Man. Other heroes abound. 

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Ditko's Doctor Strange Pin-Ups!

Here's a fantastic Dr. Strange Marvel Masterwork Pin-Up by Steve Ditko. This first ran in an issue of Marvel Collectors' Item Classics. 

Above is Steve Ditko's earliest Dr. Strange Pin-Up from an early issue of Strange Tales. Along with the original there's a glimpse of a delightful Fred Hembeck homage. 

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Doctor Strange - Master Of The Mystic Arts!

Doctor Strange was created by Steve Ditko. Stan Lee said as much from the very beginning of the series. While the Amazing Spider-Man has many fathers -- Lee, Ditko, and even Joe Simon and Jack Kirby perhaps, there's no denying that Ditko came up with the notion of Strange and he pushed Lee to let him do it. The series appeared with little fanfare in the back pages of Strange Tales (appropriate) where at the time the Human Torch was holding down the lead feature. Strange began his magical career in a small way, an enigmatic man in dark hues who possessed a vaguely Asian look and who left his Sanctum to sally forth into the world to defeat mysterious menaces. 

Slowly the strip picked up steam and Strange became more fully developed, eventually getting an origin which made him a selfish American surgeon who sought a way to heal himself through magic, and who is transformed into a selfless defender of mankind. Restricted to only a few pages in the back of the comic and getting only a small cover push, Doctor Strange proved resilient. Eventually after his first fight with the other dimensional menace Dormammu, Strange came into possession of his famous red cloak of levitation and his magic amulet, the Eye of Aggamotto. 

As the series progressed, Ditko's artwork matured and in a utterly bizarre seventeen-part battle with Baron Mordo, then the agent of Dormammu, Doctor Strange became a fully functioning part of the Marvel Universe. By this time the Human Torch had departed, but was replaced on the covers by Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD. Despite his long tenure in the series, Strange was still not seen by Lee as a character who could sell a book. This despite the fact that Ditko had seen fit to crossover his two creations in the second Spider-Man annual.  Eventually the day came when Ditko left Marvel and Doctor Strange. 

In that final issue Doctor Strange was at last given full reign on the cover. Soon after Marvel would adopt a policy in all its split books that allowed the features to switch up covers, but by that time Ditko was off working for Charlton and Tower and other companies. Perhaps if Lee had seen fit to give Ditko's creation more of a push he might've felt better respected, but we'll never know. 

Although he's not even on many and when he is he's rarely featured and is most likely drawn by Jack Kirby, (At least Kirby did a decent version of Doc Strange, unlike Spidey who he could not draw at all for the most part.) here are the covers for Doctor Strange's Ditko years. 

Doctor Strange proved to be one of Marvel's more resilient heroes, and to date even has two major theater features to his name as well as a TV movie from decades ago. Ditko created something very compelling in those secretive back pages of Strange Tales so long ago. 

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