Steve Ditko

Remembering Stan the Man

November 13, 2018 // 2 Comments

So as I’m sure anyone who could possibly be reading this has already heard, Stan Lee passed away yesterday, at the age of 95. He had a good long run by anyone’s standards, and this week is being mourned by millions around the world, many of whom have never read a funnybook in their lives. But on the whole, he leaves behind a complicated legacy. To the world at large, Stan will be remembered as Smilin’ Stan! Stan the Man! Everybody’s funnybook grandpa! And that’s an image he honestly [...]

Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: An Appreciation of Steve Ditko

July 10, 2018 // 7 Comments

So I’m sure that, if you’re reading this, you’ve heard about the passing of Steve Ditko. A true giant of comics, Ditko stands in a position sort of opposite Jack Kirby in the funnybook pantheon. If Kirby is a pugnacious Thor, the god of a feisty heroic ideal, then Ditko is a nervous Hades, the god of dark obsessions and paranoia, his art best-suited to supernatural horror and shadowy urban crime drama. It seems ironic, then, that his most famous creation is the wisecracking [...]

The Visible Dork Forty: Random Hilarity

July 18, 2016 // 1 Comment

So my usual pattern here on the Dork Forty is to ramble on endlessly about some funnybook or another. But I like pretty pictures, too. I collect dozens of the things, more than I could ever find time to write about. Some of those go up on our Facebook page (JOIN…US…), while others just go in a folder for some future date when I don’t feel like talking. But lord knows THAT doesn’t happen very often, so they tend to pile up. It’s time, then, to clean house. So [...]

The Visible Dork Forty: Orphaned Oddities

February 18, 2014 // 2 Comments

So I know that I usually drone on and on endlessly about some funnybook or other. It’s kind of what visitors to the nerd farm have come to expect, I suppose. Well, except for those pervs who keeping coming around looking for Gimli Porn. But when you make jokes like that, you’ve gotta expect to attract a rough crowd. ANYWAY… I do like to ramble on a bit, but I also like the pretty pretty pictures. I festoon my ramblings with them in the hopes that it’ll tickle the eyes [...]

Heavy, Man, Heavy: Jim Starlin’s Thanos Saga, Part Two

December 10, 2013 // 11 Comments

Warlock, by Jim Starlin and Friends Last time, we looked at Jim Starlin’s Thanos Saga, or at least the portion of it that ran in Captain Marvel. That story introduced the Mad Titan in love with Death, and… Actually, you know what? Starlin himself gave us a recap heading into the grand finale of that story, so why not just take a gander at that? It’s fully embiggenable, after all, and I know how much you like embiggening things… Heh. The good thing about that particular [...]

Countdown to Halloween: the Horror of… DITKO!

October 7, 2013 // 2 Comments

Classic funnybook artist Steve Ditko is best-known as the co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange among a host of other memorable super hero characters. But around Halloween time, I like to remind people that he was also one hell of a horror artist. Ditko broke into the industry in the early 1950s, when horror comics reigned supreme, and his gifts for mood, shadow, and bizarre monsters served the young artist in good stead. I’m particularly fond of his cover work from this [...]

Dork Awards: The 25 Greatest Super-Villains of All Time, Part Three

September 16, 2013 // 3 Comments

Hello, and welcome back to our countdown of the 25 Greatest Funnybook Super-Bastards Ever! What’s that? This is your first visit? You didn’t know we were counting down super-bastards? Well, hell! Why didn’t you say so? Part One of our list can be found here… …and Part Two is located here. Or you can just jump in below to see if all that clicking is worth it. We start today with lucky number 13, and then on into the lofty heights of the Top Ten. So, without further [...]

Dork Awards: The 25 Greatest Super Heroes of All Time (Part Three)

June 27, 2013 // 2 Comments

Continuing our countdown of the 25 Greatest Super Heroes of All Time! Part One can be found here, with Part Two here. Go back to get caught up, or dive in below… We’re down to the top five now, and that seems like something of a watershed moment to me. The tension I’ve felt throughout the list between quality of story, quality of concept, and historical importance really ramped up with these characters, and I struggled with what order to put them in. One of them wasn’t [...]

Dork Awards: The 25 Greatest Super Heroes of All Time (Part One)

June 19, 2013 // 6 Comments

Recently, a friend showed me a mainstream entertainment site’s list of the 25 Greatest Super Heroes. I approached the list cynically, of course. As a funnybook connoisseur (read: DORK), I automatically assumed that the straight world just wouldn’t get it right. And I was correct to some extent, but as I went through their list, I also found myself becoming fascinated. Because it wasn’t really a list of the best super hero characters. It was a list of the best versions of [...]

Ditko by Ditko

November 11, 2012 // 0 Comments

All the nerd wranglers here on the Dork Forty would like to wish a happy belated birthday to Mr. Steve Ditko. Born on November 2, 1927, Steve Ditko is one of the primary architects of the Silver Age of comics, ranking (in my humble estimation) behind only Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in responsibility for shaping comics into what they are today. He’s also a much more private individual than either of those men, however, to the point that the only photographs I’ve ever seen of him date [...]