Innovative artist helped create ‘Spider-Man’
Steve Ditko, one of the most influential comic-book artists of the 20th century, who was the cocreator of “Spider-Man” and developed the character of another superhero, Doctor Strange, was found dead June 29 at his home in New York City. He was 90.
The New York Police Department announced his death, which did not become widely known until a week later. The cause was not known.
Ditko was an illustrator of remarkable flair whose colorful tales of superhuman characters made him one of the most innovative and revered artists in the world of comics. He also worked in the fantasy and horror genres and created an array of other heroic figures, but he was known above all for creating the visual image of Spider-Man.
The idea for a superhero with spiderlike qualities was first floated by Jack Kirby, one of the creative forces behind the Marvel comics franchise. In 1962, Marvel’s editor, Stan Lee, began to develop the idea but did not like Kirby’s illustrations.
Lee then asked Ditko, who had been working on and off with Marvel for several years, to give visual form to Spider-Man. The first appearance of Spider-Man came in August 1962 in “Amazing Fantasy.”
The background of the story is this: A high school student named Peter Parker has acquired remarkable powers after being bitten by a spider. In his blue-and-red tights and mask — devised by Ditko — Parker transformed himself into “The Amazing Spider-Man,” who climbs walls, crouches on ceilings and uses a weblike material to swing among skyscrapers as he overcomes villains such as the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and the Sandman.
Ditko supplied the illustrations and, eventually, much of the story line of “Spider-Man,” while Lee wrote the dialogue. The comic proved to be so popular that it soon became a separate franchise and ultimately evolved into a daily newspaper comic strip and a series of Hollywood blockbuster films.
It was considered a monumental advance in comics because Peter Parker was an ordinary teenager, like many of the readers of “Spider-Man,” who struggled in school to be noticed by the popular crowd.
Moreover, there was an undercurrent of psychological depth because Parker was forever haunted by the death of his Uncle Ben, which he could have prevented if he had used his “Spidey” powers.
“Ditko took what was a very good superhero comic strip and really turned it into something revolutionary,” Blake Bell, author of “Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko,” told the New York Post in 2012. “It was Ditko who wanted to ground the strip in reality, to see what it was like to be a hero through the eyes of a teenager and to struggle.”
After 38 issues of “SpiderMan,” Ditko parted ways with Lee and Marvel Comics in 1966. Fans have long speculated over the breakup, and Ditko never explained what drove them apart. In 1969, he stopped giving interviews altogether.
Ditko was born Nov. 2, 1927, in Johnstown, Pa. His father was a carpenter in a steel mill with a love of comic strips.
Ditko served in the Army in Europe after World War II, then moved to New York in 1950. He used the G.I. Bill to attend a school for cartoonists and illustrators, where he studied under Jerry Robinson, one of the artists for “Batman.”
In 1963, Ditko created another Marvel superhero, Doctor Strange, a surgeon whose hands are injured in a car accident. Seeking to restore his abilities, he travels the world and eventually acquires an exotic caped costume and mystical powers to be used to benefit mankind.
After splitting with Lee, Ditko worked for DC Comics and other publishers, reviving earlier heroes, such as Captain Atom and Blue Beetle, and creating several other comic books, including “Creeper,” “Hawk and the Dove” and “Question.”
Survivors include a brother and a sister.