Comic Creator Steve Ditko Found Dead

I am saddened at this passing and also that I somehow missed it.

Artist Steve Ditko was many things, one of those things being how much he valued his privacy. He was in some ways the antithesis to his sometimes collaborator Stan’the Man’ Lee – Stan aimed at being hip and jamming with the cool kids while Steve was extremely straight laced and his politics were radical in a very different way from Stan (let’s just say some of his independent comics used Ayn Rand as an inspiration).

But most importantly, this is the guy that created so much of the dynamic look of comics, be it the angular awkwardness of Peter Parker / insectlike Spiderman or the surreal sorcerous effects of Dr Stephen Strange (the movie even captured it) and Shade the Changing Man. His Iron Man is the classic that the other suits just modify. Even into the 1990s his creativity continued to flow with Speedball and the surprise fan favourite Squirrel Girl. And that is just some of his work for the mainstream. His sleek lines and expressive faces remain iconic, worthy of being celebrated alongside other luminaries like Jack ‘King’ Kirby and Wil Eisener.