(Stock Image)
FYI there's no need to include decimal points(.).
Offer Confirmation
You are about to submit an offer of . If accepted, you are legally obligated to purchase the book. Are you sure you want to continue?
FYI there's no need to include decimal points(.).
Buy Confirmation
You are about to buy this item for , and will be legally obligated under the terms of our User Agreement to pay for it in a timely fashion. Continue?
PUBLISHER: Marvel
COMMENTS: white pgs
Ditko art... wait, WHAT?
Read Description ▼
white pgs
Ditko art... wait, WHAT?
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.
Mike J. Zeck (born 1949) is an American comic book artist. He is best known for his work for Marvel Comics on such series as Captain America, Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars, Master of Kung Fu and The Punisher, as well as the “Kraven’s Last Hunt” storyline in the Spider-Man titles.
He attended the Ringling School of Art in 1967 and after graduation worked at the Migrant Education Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Zeck began his comics career in 1974, doing illustration assignments for the text stories in Charlton Comics’ animated line of comics, which led to work on their horror titles. During this period, he lived briefly in the Derby, Connecticut area where Charlton was headquartered.
In 1977, Zeck started working for Marvel Comics on Master of Kung Fu with writer Doug Moench. In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Moench and Zeck’s work on Master of Kung-Fu sixth on its list of the “Top 10 1970s Marvels.” Zeck later worked on Captain America and drew covers for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
Zeck illustrated the Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars limited series in 1984. For this series, he designed a new black-and-white costume temporarily worn by Spider-Man. The plot that developed as a result of Spider-Man’s acquisition of the costume led to the creation of the Spider-Man villain known as Venom.
In 1986, Zeck collaborated with writer Steven Grant on a Punisher miniseries which was later collected as The Punisher: Circle of Blood and an original hardcover graphic novel of the character three years later.
Zeck illustrated the 1987 Spider-Man storyline “Kraven’s Last Hunt” written by his former Captain America collaborator J.M. DeMatteis, which is considered to be one of the quintessential stories in Spider-Man’s history, as well as the definitive Kraven the Hunter storyline.
DeMatteis remarked, “Because Mike nailed the plot elements so perfectly in his pencils - every action, every emotion, was there, clear as a bell - I didn’t have to worry about belaboring those elements in the captions or dialogue. I was free to do those interior monologues that were so important to the story. If any other artist had drawn “Kraven’s Last Hunt” ... it wouldn’t have been the same story.”
In 2004, Zeck’s cover of Web of Spider-Man #32, which depicts Spider-Man escaping the grave into which he has been interred by Kraven, was recreated as a 12-inch-tall resin diorama statue by Dynamic Forces.
Zeck has worked for DC Comics as well. He contributed to Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe in the mid-1980s. Zeck drew the covers for the “Ten Nights of the Beast” storyline in Batman #417–420 (March–June 1988) and these covers were later collected in a portfolio. His other credits for the publisher include; Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Legends of the DC Universe, and covers for Deathstroke, The Terminator. In 1999, he collaborated with writer Mark Waid on The Kingdom (illustrating issue #2, with Ariel Olivetti illustrating issue #1), a sequel to Kingdom Come.
John Beatty is an American illustrator who has worked for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, primarily as an inker. Beatty spent twenty years inking titles such as Captain America, The Punisher, Secret Wars, The Nam, The Adventures of Superman, Batman, JLA, and many more.
Nichols - Penciler, Inker, and Cover Artist for Marvel Comics.