Steve Ditko—Spider-Man's Forgotten Father

Ditko drawing of Ditko. Google Images

If you're a comic book fan you certainly know who artist Steve Ditko is— the co-creator of one of comic's most enduring icons, Spider-Man. However, despite the character's popularity not only in comics, but on TV and in the recent string of Hollywood blockbusters, very few outside of the comic book world have heard of him—even fewer have seen him since the 1960's.

So what happened to Ditko? Well, he is certainly an enigma— a mild-mannered man who does not seek publicity or riches, but is enraged when his contributions are not acknowledged. In fact there are only four or five known photos of Steve Ditko— none of them taken after the 1960's.

Ditko, who is now in his 80's still lives in Manhattan. He retired from comics in the 90's and has refused to do any interviews. The last time he did any interviews were during his heyday, while he was working on Spider-Man way back in the late '60's.

The artist broke into the business straight out of art school, in the 1950's, working for Stanmor Publications, Key Publications, Charlton Comics,  and for Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's (Creators of Captain America) art studio. When Simon & Kirby's studio closed, Ditko followed Kirby to Marvel Comics, where he worked on various titles such as; Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, Amazing Adventures, Strange Tales and Tales To Astonish.

Ditko was at Marvel for several years before his big break came in the form of a spider. As the story goes, Marvel Editor-in-Chief, and head writer, Stan Lee had just talked publisher Martin Goodman into taking a chance on his idea for a teen hero named Spider-Man. Lee initially reached out to his number one guy, artisit Jack Kirby, the artist who drew most of Marvel's titles and co-creator of such heroes as The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and The Avengers to name a few.

Kirby did about six pages and although the art was pure-Kirby magic, it was not what Lee had envisioned— it was too heroic. Everything was bigger than life— a Kirby trademark. Lee wanted something more down-to-earth. This was a book about a high school kid who gains the powers of a spider, yet still has all of the same problems that all teen have. Lee decided to give Ditko a try.

As Ditko told it, back in a '60's fan magazine interview, "The Spider-Man pages Stan showed me were nothing like what he envisioned. Kirby had a guy with a web gun leaping at you. He made the character get his powers from a magic ring. In fact the only drawings of the character were on the splash page and the end of the story. One of the first things I did was to work up a costume for the character. I developed the idea that he could cling to walls naturally—without any boots or suction cups. I came up with the web shooters, etc... I wasn't sure Stan would like it." In a later interview, near the time Ditko decided to leave Marvel, Ditko said that basically Stan came up with the name and that's it— Ditko was responsible for all of the rest, a claim that Kirby would echo regarding his contributions to Marvel.

Spider-Man was a hugh hit for Marvel and put Ditko on the map. Soon after Spider-Man's debut, the artist was tapped to work on creating another Marvel hero— Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. Yet despite Spider-Man's success and accolades from the fans and his peers in the industry, trouble was brewing in the Marvel Bullpen.

After nearly four years working on Spider-Man, Ditko left Marvel Comics. Many who worked at Marvel at the time have spoken about Ditko's leaving. All have said that for months prior to Ditko's leaving, he and Stan Lee were not on speaking terms. Ditko would draw and issue and send it over to Stan to add the words, based on the notes that Ditko wrote on the sides of the artwork. Lee recalls that, "little by little, Ditko became more unfriendly. Instead of bringing in his artwork, he sent it in by messenger". Ditko claimed that it was Lee who broke off contact, and became hostel. The artist also dispelled the rumor that the break-up of the creative team was over a disagreement on the true identity of the Green Goblin, Spider-Man's arch nemesis. As Ditko explained in one of his last interviews, "Stan never knew what was going on in Spider-Man until he got my work, so there couldn't have been any disagreements or agreements concerning the Green Goblin or anything else related to the book or story".

Comic book historian, Greg Theakston has theorized that Ditko saw Spider-Man as a semi-autobiographical piece, and that Ditko had personal ties to the character. In fact, one can draw a great deal of similarities between Ditko and Peter Parker. Ditko was a shy and mild-mannered student, who wore glasses and was very smart. He was not the most popular student in school, and often kept to himself— sound familiar? According to Theakston, whenever Stan tried to inject any changes into the strip or change the direction of the stories, Ditko felt slighted, crushed. This was in a round about way, about him— his views, his feelings. Ditko was not going to be told how to handle a character he created and molded after his own life and views. As writer and future Marvel Editor Roy Thomas said in an interview in the '90's, I walked into the office, not long after Ditko left, and saw John Romita, Sr. drawing Amazing Spider-Man, Larry Lieber drawing the Annual, and Marie Severin drawing Dr. Strange, and joked that it takes three artists to do what Ditko used to do.

Theakston's theory seems to be a very sound one. In fact the Lee/Ditko split may have been the same factor that has been coming to a head in America today— political ideology. At the time Ditko was becoming more and more a student of Ayn Rand, a best-selling author, screenwriter, playwright and philosopher. Rand is the mother of the philosophical system she called Objectivism, which emphasized individual rights (including property rights) and laissez-faire capitalism, enforced by constitutionally-limited government. Objectivism fiercely opposes all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, and the welfare state. It's clear if you look back at the early issues of the strip, Ditko was writing Peter Parker as a conservative— someone who detested the campus protesting engaged by his fellow students (the left). Lee was, and is, a left-wing liberal. He was sympathetic to the mindset of the peace movement and the growing liberal movement of the '60's. Lee wanted the strip to be more in line with the attitudes of young people of the time, and Ditko was not going to have anything to do with it— he was not going to compromise his ideals.

After his departure, Ditko went over to DC Comics and created such characters as the Creeper, The Question, the hero team of Hawk (a conservative) and Dove (a liberal), The Blue Beetle, and Captain Atom. In 1979, Ditko returned to Marvel to take over for Kirby on the Kirby created Machine Man comic and work on the Micronauts. He also would create two new characters for Marvel during his return— Speedball and Captain Universe. Ditko would later become a freelancer working for several comic book companies until his retirement in 1998.

To this day, Steve Ditko remains a recluse and refuses to give interviews or make any public appearances. He refuses to cash-in on the very lucrative original art market, or even get a piece of the merchandising pie connected to the Spider-Man movies. As Ditko explained in an article he submitted to a fan magazine in the 1960's, "When I do a job, it's not my personality that I'm offering, but my artwork. It's not what I'm like that counts; It's what I did and how well I did it. I produce a product— artwork or art and story. Steve Ditko is a brand name."

In 1990 He was inducted into the comic industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.