I've read and enjoyed Howe's book, but I'm referring to Ditko's published comments in his essays on the subject. Certainly nothing about his art bothered me in Doctor Strange's stories. Then again, maybe what I was seeing and not liking was a quality fitting for the neurotic nature of Peter Parker. Which was a shame, because there a kind of magic to his layouts. And I think that reflected a desire on his part to slow down and focus on details, something which, for whatever reason, he was unable to do with pencil. Sinnott was just awesome).Īs it was later with Al Milgrom, Ditko was better at inking than penciling.

Better than Ayers, Stone, or Colletta (but not Sinnott. Aside from the occasional Frank Giacoia project, Ditko was Kirby's best inker. Just look at what he did with Kirby on the Hulk's original six-issue run. I can't tell you how many times I've gone into a project with doubts, only to turn out pleased with the results.īut I stand by my statement that Ditko needed improvement, and that as long as he was doing pencils he went back and forth, showing progress and then reverting to form. But Howe also said that Ditko eventually took over writing entirely, so perhaps his beef was really about not having final say- or, like a real human being, he simply changed his mind after a time. Howe did say that Ditko resented having to do some of Stan's plotting for him. If you read Howe's book, you probably know I wasn't guessing. If you ask me, he'd have made a fine Spider-Man artist, and ultimately would have established rules similar to Romita's much earlier had it been up to him. Kirby, by contrast, grew by leaps and bounds in the same period. In fact every time it looked like the man was progressing artistically, he would return to form, having learned seemingly little. The thing to remember is that Ditko's design left too much room for interpretation, and that he himself didn't always interpret it the same. Jack knew the important thing was the overall impact of the image, and in this he never disappointed. But that single slash on the shield was interesting, and something like it was eventually used by Alex Ross on Kingdom Come.

His Falcon was often drawn with a simple triangle in place of the usual beak design, and his pencils for Jimmy Olsen show a Superman with one diagonal slash instead of the usualy S shield.

Kirby, on the other hand, had a habit of taking shortcuts. Romita finally established plain rules for the web design, and it looked much better. I remember reading through the series and feeling great relief when I finally got to the Romita era. Even Ditko didn't have set rules for how the webbing should be oriented, or how many strands should go on the mask. He probably knew what was expected, but thought it ridiculously busy. Looking at these, I suspect Kirby simply didn't like Ditko's design.

Spider man drawing