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Wood, Ditko art (1976)
Artists Information
Steve Ditko was an American comics artist and writer best known for being the co-creator of Marvel superhero Spider-Man and creator of Doctor Strange. He also made notable contributions to the character of Iron Man, revolutionizing the character's red and yellow design.
Ditko studied under Batman artist Jerry Robinson at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City. He began his professional career in 1953, working in the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, beginning as an inker and coming under the influence of artist Mort Meskin. During this time, he began his long association with Charlton Comics, where he did work in the genres of science fiction, horror, and mystery. He also co-created the superhero Captain Atom in 1960.
During the summer of 1958, writer-editor Stan Lee invited Ditko back to Atlas. Ditko would go on to contribute a large number of stories, many considered classic, to Atlas/Marvel's Strange Tales and the newly launched Amazing Adventures, Strange Worlds, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish, issues of which would typically open with a Kirby-drawn monster story, followed by one or two twist-ending thrillers or sci-fi tales drawn by Don Heck, Paul Reinman, or Joe Sinnott, all capped by an often-surreal, sometimes self-reflective short by Ditko and Stan Lee. The first collaboration between Ditko and Lee was 2-Gun Western #4 (May 1956), which was also Ditko's only non-fantasy story.
These Lee-Ditko short stories proved so popular that Amazing Adventures was reformatted to feature such stories exclusively beginning with issue #7 (Dec. 1961), when the comic was rechristened Amazing Adult Fantasy, a name intended to reflect its more "sophisticated" nature, as likewise the new tagline "The magazine that respects your intelligence". Lee in 2009 described these "short, five-page filler strips that Steve and I did together", originally "placed in any of our comics that had a few extra pages to fill", as "odd fantasy tales that I'd dream up with O. Henry-type endings." Giving an early example of what would later be known as the "Marvel Method" of writer-artist collaboration, Lee said, "All I had to do was give Steve a one-line description of the plot and he'd be off and running. He'd take those skeleton outlines I had given him and turn them into classic little works of art that ended up being far cooler than I had any right to expect."
During the 1950s, Ditko also drew for Atlas Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics. He went on to contribute much significant work to Marvel. Ditko was the artist for the first 38 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, co-creating much of the Spider-Man supporting characters and villains with Stan Lee. Beginning with issue #25, Ditko was also credited as the plotter. In 1966, after being the exclusive artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and the "Doctor Strange" feature in Strange Tales, Ditko left Marvel for a variety of reasons, including creative differences and unpaid royalties.
Ditko continued to work for Charlton and also DC Comics, including a revamp of the long-running character the Blue Beetle and creating or co-creating the Question, the Creeper, Shade the Changing Man, and Hawk and Dove. Ditko also began contributing to small independent publishers, where he created Mr. A, a hero reflecting the influence of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Ditko largely declined to give interviews, saying he preferred to communicate through his work.
Ditko 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 will be posthumously honored as a Disney Legend in 2024.
Wally Wood is an American comic book artist/ writer who is also one of the founding artist for Mad comics. In addition to penciling numerous comic book pages, Wally also ventured into product illustration, music album covers, and trading cards. Wally's most notable works include the aforementioned Mad comics, Marvel's Daredevil, and Weird-Science Fantasy for EC comics.
John Byrne is one of the most storied creators in the history of comics. Beginning his career at Charlton he quickly moved over to Marvel Comics where he established himself early on as a workhorse and fan favorite, he would draw early appearances of Iron Fist before landing the gig working with Chris Claremont on X-Men. Claremont and Byrne would create several of the most memorable storylines in the history of the X-Men, their Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past stories have been adapted into three feature films. Byrne would convince Claremont to not kill Wolverine, proving to be one of the most lucrative decisions in Marvel's history, he would also introduce Kitty Pryde and Alpha Flight during this time. After his work on X-Men, Byrne would have a short run on The Avengers before launching his second classic comic run, this time on Marvel's first family The Fantastic Four, writing and drawing the title for five years. Byrne would leave Marvel for DC in the mid 1980s where he was tasked with revamping their flagship Superman titles, he would draw two Superman titles a month while writing a third. After two years at DC, Byrne returned to Marvel where he would create memorable stints on She-Hulk, Namor The Sub-Mariner, and Iron Man. In the 90's Byrne would work on several creator owner titles at Dark Horse, including his Next Men (which would introduce Mike Mignola's Hellboy), Babe and Danger Unlimited. In the years that followed Byrne would create many more books, often working on titles that inspired him as a boy including a revamp of Jack Kirby's Fourth World and DC's Doom Patrol and The Demon.
Marie Severin was an American comics artist and colorist best known for her work for Marvel Comics and the 1950s' EC Comics. She is an inductee of the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame and the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame. Frank Jacobs, in his 1972 biography of EC publisher William M. Gaines, wrote, "There was Marie Severin, Gaines's colorist, and a very moral Catholic, who made her feelings known by coloring dark blue any panel she thought was in bad taste. [EC editor Al] Feldstein called her 'the conscience of EC."'
Bob Layton is an American Comic book artist/ writer who co-founded Valiant Comics. His most famous works were at Marvel where he worked on a number of titles including Iron Man #128, the infamous demon in a bottle story line.
Mike Vosburg is an American comic book artist primarily known for his work on the Tales from the Crypt TV series. Mike Vosburg’s comics career began in the 1960’s, when as a teenager he started Masquerader, one of the first comic book fanzines. He began working in underground comics in the 1970’s, with creations such as Split Screen, written by Tom Veitch. Later in the 1970’s & 1980’s, Vosburg contributed to horror titles by Western Publishing and Charlton Comics. His story “Mail Order Brides” published in Kitchen Sink Press’s Bizarre Sex #3, was in a similar horror/mystery vein.
Around this time, Vosburg also did various work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He is probably best known for his work from that period on Savage She-Hulk, Sisterhood of Steel, and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. He also worked on the Valiant Comics’ titles Bloodshot and Archer & Armstrong.
From 1989 to 1996, for the TV series Tales from the Crypt, Vosburg illustrated comic book covers designed to look like the original 1950’s comics. Originally hired to do concept drawings for the wraparound sequence, Vosburg ended up storyboarding the title segment as well as illustrating many book covers used in the show’s 93 episodes.
While Vosburg still does occasional comics work such as covers and pinups, or his self-published Lori Lovecraft books, most of his time is currently devoted to television and film. He has done storyboarding work for such directors as John Frankenheimer, Robert Zemeckis, Allan Arkush, and Gilbert Adler; on projects as diverse as David Mamet’s The Water Engine, the Elian Gonzalez Story, Prince Charming, and Demon Knight. He has also done storyboarding for music videos, such as “Stan” and “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.”