May 9, 2006
As Told By 'The Thing'...

   Hope everybody enjoyed Free Comic Book Day this weekend. I couldn't attend any of the store events, as my parents were in town with my cousin Trish and I wanted to catch up with them, since I don't make it back to Pittsburgh as often as I'd like.

   Like any good mother, my mom loads us up with her special homemade foods during a visit. Italian wedding soup, greens n' beans, meatballs and pastafazool, my personal favorite of the ages! All of the above meals served with a generous portion of grated cheese of course! What's pastafazool, you say? Well, I'm sure the recipe varies with each family, but in our case, it's ditalini pasta w/white navy beans or butter beans(including the bean juice), garlic, tomato sauce, oil and some other spices...heaven! Karen, also a good cook, was paid a high compiment when she once made my mom's recipe for sauce, and my dad loved it and swore that my mom had a hand in it (not to be confused with what happened to Artie Bucco recently on The Sopranos). Believe me, my dad's a very picky eater, and if he doesn't like something, he'll simply pick at his food and go hungry!

   Speaking of delicious, I've just finished inking some pencils by the ever-amazing Jerry Ordway for JSA! It was a genuine thrill and I hope there's more where that came from! It struck me as ironic that Ordway first made his name twenty-five years ago on another version of the JSA - the All-Star Squadron! I wonder if he could've imagined that in 2006, the JSA would not only still be around, but become one of DC's hottest properties. It sorta reminds me how Klaus Janson inked The Black Panther during the MacGregor/Graham/ Buckler era thirty years ago in Jungle Action, and here he is, inking the Hudlin/Eaton era Black Panther! And both Ordway and Janson show no signs of slowing down. Gives me hope!

   Greg Theakston, for those who don't already know, is an artist/designer who's publishing company, Pure Imagination, has done a yeoman's service by making long out-of print 'public domain' stories by Kirby, Ditko and others available in recent collected editions. His groundbreaking process, called "Theakstonizing" is a way of bleaching color out of old comics, retaining the black linework for reproduction purposes. Unfortunately, this innovation also destroys the original comic, so getting someone to part with the source material can sometimes be a hardship, depending on the scarcity, condition and value of a particular comic.

   Currently, Pure Imagination's latest tribute to Steve Ditko's genius is a magazine-sized trade paperback called The Thing - no relation to Marvel's Ben Grimm, but rather based on the 1950's Charlton comic of the same name. I believe the comic was attempting to cash in on the classic horror film The Thing, oddly enough. I'm not aware of an actual Charlton movie adaptation. The series consisted of short horror stories that could've been just as easily published in Strange Suspense Stories, Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds, Unusual Tales and the like. The only difference, editorially, was the opening captions ending with ...
"As told by The Thing.",

   "The Thing" being written in script, as if some monster was writing to the reader, a close pen-pal!

ps. Give Granma a kiss for me and thank her for the shortbread cookies.
Sincerely yours,
The Thing.

   The two previous Ditko/Charlton books I've read are the trade paperback The Ditko Reader (2002 Pure Imagination $25), and the hardcover Steve Ditko: Space Wars (2005, Vanguard productions $35).
   Buyer beware: Half the short stories from the Steve Ditko: Space Wars HC were already printed in The Ditko Reader TP! Imagine my consternation upon first discovering this only when I had received my pre-ordered copy! To my recollection, there were no listing of contents when either book was solicited throught Diamond. Ultimately, I've spent $60 for a book and a half, which is quite a disappointment considering all the unreprinted Ditko still floating out there in the realm of 'public domain'.

   On top of that, in the latest trade paperback, The Thing, two stories, "Library of Horror" and "Die Laughing" were previously reprinted in The Ditko Reader! I could almost excuse and/or justify the redundant material before, as TDR and SD:SW were produced by two different publishers, but Theakston published BOTH The Ditko Reader AND The Thing trades! Having yet more duplicated material is a cause for concern and may affect my purchase of future Charlton-era Ditko volumes, much as I'd hate to punish myself by denying myself more rare Ditko stories. Greg, I applaud your good work, archiving rare Ditko for future generations to learn from, but please, if you need more material, contact me, as I'd gladly sacrifice my $5 'reading copies' of Strange Suspense Stories and Space Wars for the cause!

   Having absorbed the eerie claustrophobic stylings of the pre-Marvel Age Ditko stories, there leaves little doubt in my mind that Steve must've surprised Stan Lee with the creation of Doctor Strange, much like Kirby did The Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four #48. Doc's initial appearance reads like any five-pager that could've ran in Amazing Adult Fantasy. Doc's origin, several issues later, really shows Ditko's unique insights to the seedy underbelly of humanity. Stephen Strange did not look like hero material, particularly when he was on skid row. Ditko had worked on such books as Strange Suspense Stories and Strange Tales, so using Strange in the main character's name may've been natural word association. Just to be fair to Stan, nobody but The Man could consistently, month after month, make dialouge flow and bridge any continuity gaffes thrown at him by the variety of artists under his helm. Stan's admitedly notorious for his bad memory (because he was running a whole company while being the principle writer for years), so we'll never know the whole story.

   In related news: Author Blake Bell, who's been a Ditko fan forever actually requested to use excerpts of my Feb. 17, '04 blog "My Steve Ditko Story" for possible inclusion in his upcoming book, Steve Ditko: The Mysterious Traveller, due from Fantagraphics Books in early '07! Even though my brush with greatness was slight at best, it would be an honor to be a footnote in the Steve Ditko story. Blake Bell's incredible website http://www.ditko.comics.org/ includes rare photos of the elusive Ditko!

   Well, it's that time again. You know, like 12:59 on Saturday Night Live... There's a band playing a bittersweet goodnight theme and everybody waves g'bye....

   But before I go, many thanks to those of you who've sent emails of well-wishing for our dog, Valentine. She was treated for heartworm and in her follow-up visit last week, the doc said the prognosis was very very good. Our only present concern is keeping her calm most of the time, which isn't easy for a playful pooch such as her. The only thing that calms her down is holding her or tummy rubs or affection of that nature, so we spoil her a bit more now. But it's not spoiling if she deserves it, is it?
 
 
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