Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol.1

Before Spider-Man, the legendary comic-book artist Steve Ditko drew horror comics that were not yet hobbled by the Comics Code Authority (adopted in Oct. '54). These graphic stories featured bloodshed, dismemberment and the ugly ends of the lives of the twisted inhabitants of Steve Ditko's imagination. Following up on Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko, Blake Bell's 2008 best-selling critical retrospective of Ditko's career, The Best of Steve Ditko Vol. 1 will, for the first time, feature spectacular full-color reprints of every story from those first two years of his career. Beginning with Ditko's very first story, readers will see the initial works of an artist already at a level of craftsmanship that exceeded most of his peers'. The book will also feature editor Bell's insightful historical notes.

From Booklist

Ditko is best known to comics fans as the co-creator of Spider-Man but was prolific before and well after his 1960s Marvel Comics heyday. To this day, he continues to turn out the occasional strip espousing his uncompromising Ayn Randian political philosophy. Befitting his legendary status, every aspect of his career is worth examining and preserving, which makes the launching of a series reprinting his vintage stories welcome indeed. This initial volume collects roughly three dozen of his earliest published (1954) stories, examples of the era’s most popular genre, the horror tale, for which Ditko’s idiosyncratic style was particularly suited, though he was also adept at romance, westerns, sf, and even humor. These blunt, one-dimensional tales, mostly done for the Poverty Row publisher Charlton, may lack the polish Ditko would bring to later work, but his visual approach, including his command of such storytelling basics as staging and panel composition, was fully in place. Every story here is immediately recognizable as the work of one of mainstream comics’ most distinctive artists. --Gordon Flagg

pre comic code Steve Ditko. Let me just say that again: STEVE DITKO!! ... And it's a lovely looking hardback edition, the sort you give pride of place on your shelves.” - The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

“Okay, I see a lot of books and comics passing my desk every week but ye gods this stood out

Dr. Strange and Spider-Man, for the next 20 years.” - Steven Grant, Comic Book Resources

“It's fascinating to see [Ditko's] nascent style coalescing as he tackles a variety of material, already starting to work out the design genius that would mark much of his work, including―especially!

a top-quality package with crisp pages and handsome design. It's certainly attractive for some stories Ditko dismissed as 'junk,' but we all know there's treasure buried in trash.” - Rod Lott, Bookgasm

“With the Fantagraphics logo on the sturdy spine, readers can expect―and receive

About the Author

Steve Ditko continues to create comics in his studio in New York City.Blake Bell is the author of Strange & Stranger (a retrospective of Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko); The Secret History of Marvel Comics, Fire & Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics; Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives; and Strange Suspense and Unexplored Worlds (two volumes in The Steve Ditko Archives). He lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his son.

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