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The Steve Ditko Archives #2
Unexplored Worlds: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 2 by Steve Ditko
More great crime, horror and sci-fi work by one of comics� greatest stylists.
As the original artist and co-creator who brought the Amazing Spider-Man to life in 1962, and established the look of Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk as we know them today, artist Steve Ditko�s talents varied far beyond the realm of the superhero genre. Tales of unexplored worlds, of spine-chilling suspense, mystery, and horror dripped hauntingly from the pen of Steve Ditko over half a decade before he would bring to the world famous wall-crawler to life.
Unexplored The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 2 continues the showcase of the artist�s 1950s work that began with editor Blake Bell�s 2009 best-selling Strange The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1, both following up on Strange and The World of Steve Ditko, Bell�s 2008 critically-acclaimed retrospective of Ditko�s career. For the first time, spectacular full-color reprints of stories are on display from the peak period of his career as an artist. After a bout of illness forced Ditko to disappear from comics in 1955, the artist came back with a vengeance, marking 1956 as his first stint at Marvel Comics with his Spider-Man co-creator, Stan Lee. And in 1957, Ditko renewed his association with Charlton Comics, a partnership that would see Ditko produce almost 500 pages of completed artwork in that year alone. The leap in the quality of the legendary artist�s work during this period is stunning. A few scant years into his career and Ditko was already the most unique artist in comic-book history and one of its most prolific. The book also features editor Bell�s insightful introduction, providing historical background and speaking to Ditko�s influence and his unique craft.
224 pages of four-color comics
As the original artist and co-creator who brought the Amazing Spider-Man to life in 1962, and established the look of Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk as we know them today, artist Steve Ditko�s talents varied far beyond the realm of the superhero genre. Tales of unexplored worlds, of spine-chilling suspense, mystery, and horror dripped hauntingly from the pen of Steve Ditko over half a decade before he would bring to the world famous wall-crawler to life.
Unexplored The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 2 continues the showcase of the artist�s 1950s work that began with editor Blake Bell�s 2009 best-selling Strange The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1, both following up on Strange and The World of Steve Ditko, Bell�s 2008 critically-acclaimed retrospective of Ditko�s career. For the first time, spectacular full-color reprints of stories are on display from the peak period of his career as an artist. After a bout of illness forced Ditko to disappear from comics in 1955, the artist came back with a vengeance, marking 1956 as his first stint at Marvel Comics with his Spider-Man co-creator, Stan Lee. And in 1957, Ditko renewed his association with Charlton Comics, a partnership that would see Ditko produce almost 500 pages of completed artwork in that year alone. The leap in the quality of the legendary artist�s work during this period is stunning. A few scant years into his career and Ditko was already the most unique artist in comic-book history and one of its most prolific. The book also features editor Bell�s insightful introduction, providing historical background and speaking to Ditko�s influence and his unique craft.
224 pages of four-color comics
Hardcover
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74 people want to read
About the author
Steve Ditko
1,259 books142 followersStephen J. "Steve" Ditko was an American comic book artist and writer best known as the co-creator of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.
He was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.
He was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 3, 2023
In love with Ditko's art!
And these stories are as beautiful as EC Comics!
But instead of clever O. Henry-style twist endings, we get a lot of confusing, abrupt and crazy convoluted ones! = Lots of fun!
Fabulous Fantagraphics collection, again.
And these stories are as beautiful as EC Comics!
But instead of clever O. Henry-style twist endings, we get a lot of confusing, abrupt and crazy convoluted ones! = Lots of fun!
Fabulous Fantagraphics collection, again.
August 26, 2021
Ditko really hits his stride on these stories from the late 1950s. It's even more amazing when you consider how prolific he was at the time, so he was doing his art not only very well but quickly. The stories run hot and cold, with some being good and some being outright silly. But this is all about the art, which is top notch.
August 9, 2012
The first volume of the Ditko Archives was a phenomenal flashback into those post-war horror comics - the tales were bleak, full of nasty, vengeful motive. There was gore aplenty. And the art was crude and raw as it was stylish and uniquely psychedelic. It was Ditko just getting the ball rolling on his prolific years for Charlton Comics. But then the puritanical Comic Codes Authority came in and deemed the dark tales too much for young children, so no more violence, no more sick revenge, no more twisted scenarios. This volume takes place in those dismal years, and while we see more finesse and experimentation being applied by Ditko, the stories are flat, boring, candy-ass. We get space operas with saccharine happy endings, alien spies apprehended by the hunky hero in tights, and moral tales where earthlings always know best. But the great thing is Ditko still paints his characters with mischievous leers, pained expressions bordering on mental anguish. Remove the story line and dialogue and many of the frames still relay a menacing tone. Take for instance, a story where a strange traveler appears and helps a little, orphan boy find a home - but sans the dialogue, it would appear (by the expressions of the space traveler) that the story is one of a menacing space psycho who kidnaps children and sends them back in time. When I started looking at each story in such a method, I started to enjoy it much more. Again, this book is for Ditko's art; his lines and framing, and his action shots (the John Wayne punch, for example) are more detailed and fluid. The third volume was just released, and when this series is complete, it will deserve a high, polished space on the bookshelf.
June 25, 2024
This volume shows Ditko honing his chops while jumping from genre to genre. The comics in this book were originally published by Charlton and Atlas (two stories). I was shocked that Marvel let Fantagraphics use their '50s stuff. Is this stuff public domain? I have no idea and am too lazy to look. Some of the writing is banal, especially the science fiction stuff. Ditko is solid and his artwork gets better as the book goes along.
Mysterious Traveler is an interesting character, sort of like the early Phantom Stranger in appearance. He narrates but does not get directly involved with the characters in the story, unlike the Stranger. I did a quick check online, and I guess that the Mysterious Traveler was a radio show back then. Mysterious Traveler is the title of Vol. 3 in this series of books (due out any time now), so I suspect that we will be seeing a lot more of him.
Blake Bell does the world a great service hunting down and compiling these issues in a high quality, affordable format. You could spend years and thousands of dollars hunting these issues down, and still come up empty handed. Books like these are often a collaborative effort with the fan community, as Bell often solicits comics fandom for scans of these issues. I'm glad that there are a few people like Bell, Craig Yoe and others who are busy preserving the heritage of the art form before these old books moulder away.
High resolution scans, filtered with the yellowing removed. This warts and all approach is great because it preserves the authenticity of the original comic books. There is a sinister undercurrent to this method as opposed to full blown restoration like Marvel and DC do, though. Old printing presses were inaccurate. That's why comic books had those huge white borders on the top and bottom of the page back then. The four color plates are, at times, off register here, making this too authentic. The off resgister printing was not an artistic choice but a manufactuing error, and often did not affect the entire run. I am all for historical accuracy, but this is one instance where modern restoration methods can truly right a wrong.
The paper is wonderful, pleasing to the touch and smells great. That sweatshop printing that our friends overseas do just can't be beat. The combination of lead paint chips, mercury from recalled thermometers, and asbestos tiles, when combined with the blood, sweat and tears of the children working the printing presses, makes for an intoxicating aroma. Like all Fantagraphics books, this is a high quality affair with sewn binding.
Mysterious Traveler is an interesting character, sort of like the early Phantom Stranger in appearance. He narrates but does not get directly involved with the characters in the story, unlike the Stranger. I did a quick check online, and I guess that the Mysterious Traveler was a radio show back then. Mysterious Traveler is the title of Vol. 3 in this series of books (due out any time now), so I suspect that we will be seeing a lot more of him.
Blake Bell does the world a great service hunting down and compiling these issues in a high quality, affordable format. You could spend years and thousands of dollars hunting these issues down, and still come up empty handed. Books like these are often a collaborative effort with the fan community, as Bell often solicits comics fandom for scans of these issues. I'm glad that there are a few people like Bell, Craig Yoe and others who are busy preserving the heritage of the art form before these old books moulder away.
High resolution scans, filtered with the yellowing removed. This warts and all approach is great because it preserves the authenticity of the original comic books. There is a sinister undercurrent to this method as opposed to full blown restoration like Marvel and DC do, though. Old printing presses were inaccurate. That's why comic books had those huge white borders on the top and bottom of the page back then. The four color plates are, at times, off register here, making this too authentic. The off resgister printing was not an artistic choice but a manufactuing error, and often did not affect the entire run. I am all for historical accuracy, but this is one instance where modern restoration methods can truly right a wrong.
The paper is wonderful, pleasing to the touch and smells great. That sweatshop printing that our friends overseas do just can't be beat. The combination of lead paint chips, mercury from recalled thermometers, and asbestos tiles, when combined with the blood, sweat and tears of the children working the printing presses, makes for an intoxicating aroma. Like all Fantagraphics books, this is a high quality affair with sewn binding.
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October 20, 2025I'd recommend the first volume to a wider audience but this one is for more committed Ditko fans, the same is probably true up to vol. 6, where the series stopped before Fantagraphics had intended. The books are quite expensive and I guess there wasn't enough interest in his often rushed late 1950s Charlton works.
There's still some wonderful drawing in here, nobody draws a downtrodden world-weary old man like Ditko, I miss some of the more bizarre looking characters of the earlier work but there's a fascinating realism that grows in this period and however weak the stories are, there's a lot of atmospheric images.
I can't fault the reproduction, but even the original coloring of these comics were sometimes atrocious. Most of them look better in black and white (I'm keeping all my Ditko books from Pure Imagination and a similar book by Vanguard called Space Wars).
There's still some wonderful drawing in here, nobody draws a downtrodden world-weary old man like Ditko, I miss some of the more bizarre looking characters of the earlier work but there's a fascinating realism that grows in this period and however weak the stories are, there's a lot of atmospheric images.
I can't fault the reproduction, but even the original coloring of these comics were sometimes atrocious. Most of them look better in black and white (I'm keeping all my Ditko books from Pure Imagination and a similar book by Vanguard called Space Wars).
February 2, 2018
This hardcover features the work of an increasingly adept artist. Although the stories in volume one benefit from not being restricted by the CCA, this volume shows off Ditko's ability to put his best foot forward for others' writing that could've been better.
That said, there are some really cool story ideas in this volume. Not surprisingly, though, Ditko's art is the highlight.
It's great to see the early work of the guy who created Spider-Man. His semi-realistic style adds an element of immediacy that lots of artists strive for.
That said, there are some really cool story ideas in this volume. Not surprisingly, though, Ditko's art is the highlight.
It's great to see the early work of the guy who created Spider-Man. His semi-realistic style adds an element of immediacy that lots of artists strive for.
July 8, 2017
Excelente repaso a los años en que Ditko -forzado por necesidades económicas y las imposiciones del Comics Code Authority- pule su estilo entrega tras entrega hasta evolucionar a ese enfoque definitivo generoso en planos arriesgados, ritmo impecable y una gran imaginación para proponer escenas y personajes sobre guiones correctos; la etapa en que el artesano dio paso al artista que posteriormente sorprendería en el -entonces- revolucionario campo de los superhéroes.
August 31, 2018
Wasn't the biggest Steve Ditko fan but reading these amazing volumes would make you a fan pretty darn fast. these were all from his 1950's work at Charlton and are all pretty darn spectacular. I do not recall that he had this much skill when he worked on Spider Man and Dr. Strange at Marvel or the Creeper and his other creations at DC. Ditko fans should check this out. If you weren't a fan then even more so than the Ditko fan as you are missing out on a master.
November 9, 2012
"This is when Ditko became Ditko," according to the cover, and I can see the point. The earliest stories are competently rendered, but Ditko trademarks such as disembodied heads start appearing quickly and page design becomes far more complex. Too bad it's mostly great art in service mostly of mediocre stories—and a few that don't even seem to make sense; more than once, I had to check to see whether I'd missed a page.
July 11, 2011
Four stars for the art, no stars for the stories. The first volume was filled with plenty of hokey twists, but there was a wicked energy running through them all. These stories are just bad. (This fact was made clear in the introduction, and it probably influenced my reading more than I think.) Despite the bad stories, Ditko is on fire, and I'm looking forward to more.
April 13, 2014
It's Ditko so it's good stuff. The stories themselves may not be steller, but they were done in the late fifties when the comic code authority was all powerful. That they work is a testament to Ditko's talent.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews