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Perez Superboy cover; Steve Ditko art - so cool; COMIC BOOK IMPACT rating of 5 (CBI)



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.

George Pérez was an American comic book artist and writer whose titles include The Avengers, Teen Titans, and Wonder Woman. Notable works include: Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu, Creatures on the Loose, Action Comics and Crisis on Infinite Earths. Perez would achieve his first taste of success during a memorable run on Marvel's The Avengers in the 1970's, developing a style that would define him for his decades long career. In the 1980's Perez would go over to DC where he would launch the hugely successful New Teen Titans with writer Marv Wolfman, the title was so popular it would crossover with Marvel's X-Men. When DC needed an artist for it's company re-defining event series Crisis on Infinite Earth's Perez was the obvious choice, with his ability to effortlessly draw dozens of different characters at once. Perez would also have his hand in a successful reboot of Wonder Woman in the late 1980's. In the early 90's he would work with Jim Starlin on his Thanos saga, drawing the bulk of the Infinity Gauntlet mini-series. That was followed by a triumphant return to The Avengers and a JLA/Avengers crossover. Perez would draw hundreds more comics featuring nearly every Marvel and DC character before health issues forced his retirement in 2018.

Bruce Patterson is an American comic book artist who began working for DC comics as an inker and letterer for Marvel in the late 70s. Over the next two decades, he continued his work with the two major publishing houses as an inker/letterer and sometimes penciler, occasionally doing cover art. Bruce's most notable works include Action Comics and the Invincible Iron Man.