Steve Ditko: the Father of Spider-Man

As a young reader of comic books in the early 60s, the first artist that I was truly able to recognize as having an identifiable style, different from everyone else in the field, was Steve Ditko.

Sure, other artists had their own signature styles as well... but there were so many people trying to copy the styles of such top artists as Jack Kirby that they all seemed to look the same to young, untrained eyes. However, even to a novice, Ditko was unique.

My first exposure to his work was in the earliest issues of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Other artists were also doing their rendition of the character of Spidey but they were always so different from the Ditko version that they didn't even seem to be drawing the same character. Ditko's Spider-Man was lithe and graceful and crawled up and down walls like an actual insect. Other artists tended to bulk the character up a little too much and turn him into just another guy in long johns punching people out.

Ditko's other major work at the time was on the DR. STRANGE feature in STRANGE TALES. Ditko's imagination went all out in portraying the otherworldly dimensions that Dr. Strange always found himself exploring. Bizarre hand gestures, body contortions and magical spells were the order of the day and Ditko proved very adept at making all of the weirdness visually spell-binding (no pun intended). No small wonder that the trippy visuals made the series a favorite among the emerging hippie culture of the late 1960s.

Stan Lee is often credited with inventing Spider-Man (and Dr. Strange as well) but it is undeniably Ditko's lean, visual interpretation that most people remember from the early days. How much Ditko actually contributed to the plotting and invention of those early issues is a hotly debated topic even today. It is commonly believed that Ditko has refused to ever draw Spider-Man again due to his creative efforts being slighted in deference to "Stan the Man".