Unexplored Worlds: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 2

As the original artist and co-creator who brought the Amazing Spider-Man to life in 1962, artist Steve Ditko’s talents varied far beyond the realm of the superhero genre. Tales of unexplored worlds, of spine-chilling suspense, mystery, and horror dripped hauntingly from the pen of Steve Ditko over half-a-decade before he would bring to the world famous wall-crawler to life. Unexplored Worlds continues the showcase of the artist’s 1950s work that began with editor Blake Bell’s 2009 best-selling Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1. For the first time, spectacular full-color reprints of stories are on display from the peak period of his career as an artist. After a bout of illness forced Ditko to disappear from comics in 1955, the artist came back with a vengeance, marking 1956 as his first stint at Marvel Comics with his Spider-Man co-creator, Stan Lee. And in 1957, Ditko renewed his association with Charlton Comics, a partnership that would see Ditko produce almost 500 pages of completed artwork in that year alone. The leap in the quality of the legendary artist’s work during this period is stunning. A few scant years into his career and Ditko was already the most unique artist in comic-book history and one of its most prolific. The book also features editor Bell’s insightful introduction, providing historical background and speaking to Ditko’s influence and his unique craft.

From Booklist

This second volume in an ambitious series reprinting the early work of legendary comic-book artist Ditko offers some three-dozen vintage short pieces. Even though he’d only been working in comics for a couple of years when he drew these 1956 tales, they already display Ditko’s distinctively cockeyed style and his characteristically powerful compositions. Most of the selections were done for low-budget publisher Charlton, which paid its artists the lowest rates in the industry but in return offered freedom from editorial interference. The company’s scripts—most in the then-popular genres of science fiction and watered-down horror, eviscerated by the introduction of the Comics Code two years earlier—are often hackneyed and contrived, but in Ditko’s hands they’re rendered somehow compelling. As Bell remarks in his insightful introduction, what makes Ditko’s early work notable is “the dichotomy between what he was given and what he was able to accomplish.” This volume also includes Ditko’s first efforts for Marvel, launching a relationship that would lead to his move into the superhero genre six years later when he and Stan Lee would co-create Spider-Man. --Gordon Flagg

Rod Lott, Bookgasm

"Even if you’ve read the first volume [of The Steve Ditko Archives], Unexplored Worlds offers plenty more surprises.... As always, Fantagraphics’ top-notch presentation makes the publisher the go-to stop for comics preservation."

Chris Mills, Magnet

"Ditko is one of the most elusive and complex characters of comics’ golden age, but these volumes (…with illuminating forwards by Blake Bell) at least give a compelling glimpse into the creative development of the man behind the panels."

Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen

"Fantastic... Raw and grotesque and beautifully drawn and presented."

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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