Ditko IS Amazing! 0

[The Voord]

Well, an early Christmas present to myself arrived in the post this morning.  Large-format hardback book containing a great selection of Ditko ASM stories that is also choc-full of extras!  The big surprise to me was seeing good quality copies of Ditko's pencils for the cover and complete interiors to ASM # 31 which I'd never even heard existed prior to turning the pages of this great collection.  Just, Wow!

A selection of representative photos to follow (excuse my lousy photography).  To give you an idea of size, I've photographed my recently acquired ASM # 32 (large-art) splash alongside the printed page from the book. 

Highly recommended . . .

Edited December 20, 2019 by The Voord

[vodou]

15 minutes ago, The Voord said:

Ditko's pencils for the cover and complete interiors to ASM # 31 which I'd never even heard existed

Any lending credit given to Steve, The Steve Ditko Estate, or some other Ditko type representative? I'm thinking this is the kind of stuff we'll be seeing more of now that Steve's property is no longer in his control.

[The Voord]

13 minutes ago, vodou said:

Any lending credit given to Steve, The Steve Ditko Estate, or some other Ditko type representative? I'm thinking this is the kind of stuff we'll be seeing more of now that Steve's property is no longer in his control.

Will check later on, I'm off out in a few minutes . . .

[The Cimmerians Purse]

that book is super cool! thanks for posting it i wasnt aware of it. 

I do hope we start seeing more of Ditko's stuff being reprinted in interesting formats, along with reproductions of previously unseen art. Hope they find some family of his to put through college or something because of this kind of stuff. 

[grapeape]

33 minutes ago, The Voord said:

Well, an early Christmas present to myself arrived in the post this morning.  Large-format hardback book containing a great selection of Ditko ASM stories that is also choc-full of extras!  The big surprise to me was seeing good quality copies of Ditko's pencils for the cover and complete interiors to ASM # 31 which I'd never even heard existed prior to turning the pages of this great collection.  Just, Wow!

A selection of representative photos to follow (excuse my lousy photography).  To give you an idea of size, I've photographed my recently acquired ASM # 32 (large-art) splash alongside the printed page from the book. 

Highly recommended . . .

I have to get this 

[The Voord]

1 hour ago, vodou said:

Any lending credit given to Steve, The Steve Ditko Estate, or some other Ditko type representative? I'm thinking this is the kind of stuff we'll be seeing more of now that Steve's property is no longer in his control.

Other than direct credits to Ditko as illustrator, co-creator, etc., I see no mention of the Steve Ditko Estate or representative.

[vodou]

1 hour ago, The Cimmerians Purse said:

Hope they find some family of his to put through college or something because of this kind of stuff. 

Nah. Paying for things in advance is so 20th century; there's student grants and loans for this

I hope they decide to swap stale old Ditko for fresh activist Shepard Fairey.

(cuz I'd like to swap in the opposite direction )

[vodou]

1 minute ago, The Voord said:

Other than direct credits to Ditko as illustrator, co-creator, etc., I see no mention of the Steve Ditko Estate or representative.

Okay, thanks Terry!

[glendgold]

Those ASM 31 pencils are a revelation. I'm not sure seeing giant versions of printed art is something I need, but the dialogue boxes and handwriting are fascinating. The cover text looks like it's in Ditko's handwriting, right?  Reminds me a lot of the atttitude behind Amazing Adult Fantasy, the magazine that respects you, the reader. Does this mean Ditko wrote the dialogue, too? 

[vodou]

1 hour ago, The Voord said:

 

One picture is worth a thousand words (I'll try for less here though!)

This is, of course, what it's all about:

1. Anybody can take a picture of that page in the book.
2. Only one body can take the picture above.

I love this hobby.

[The Voord]

35 minutes ago, glendgold said:

Those ASM 31 pencils are a revelation. I'm not sure seeing giant versions of printed art is something I need, but the dialogue boxes and handwriting are fascinating. The cover text looks like it's in Ditko's handwriting, right?  Reminds me a lot of the atttitude behind Amazing Adult Fantasy, the magazine that respects you, the reader. Does this mean Ditko wrote the dialogue, too? 

I'd guess that the hand-written blurbs on the cover and splash page are Ditko's.  The interesting thing about the complete book of pencil art is that the interior pages (less cover and splash) are a mixture of pages without dialogue added and those with all lettering and panel borders inked-in (it's as if whoever was making a visual record of the book was doing so of the two stages of production).  The interesting thing, for me, is that (if this one book is anything to go by) Ditko did his inking AFTER the letterer had done HIS job . . .

Edited December 20, 2019 by The Voord

[glendgold]

54 minutes ago, The Voord said:

I'd guess that the hand-written blurbs on the cover and splash page are Ditko's.  The interesting thing about the complete book of pencil art is that the interior pages (less cover and splash) are a mixture of pages without dialogue added and those with all lettering and panel borders inked-in (it's as if whoever was making a visual record of the book was doing so of the two stages of production).  The interesting thing, for me, is that (if this one book is anything to go by) Ditko did his inking AFTER the letterer had done HIS job . . .

This might be middle-age brain, but wasn't that how the Marvel Method worked? I feel like I've seen Kirby pages in that state, too.

[mxs7]

9 minutes ago, glendgold said:

This might be middle-age brain, but wasn't that how the Marvel Method worked? I feel like I've seen Kirby pages in that state, too.

You are correct. Makes sense not having to whiteout inked art if someone decided to move word balloons/captions around, word balloons/captions became a different size, etc. 

Mike

[The Voord]

1 hour ago, glendgold said:

This might be middle-age brain, but wasn't that how the Marvel Method worked? I feel like I've seen Kirby pages in that state, too.

Not quite sure I'm following you, Glen (call me Confused-Dot-Com)?  With Ditko plotting, Stan added the dialogue after Ditko handed-in his pencilled pages (joining the dots, if you like).  With other artists, you see a lot of margin notes on OA pages describing the action, which I take was after having a story conference with Lee talking through his ideas for the issue (Marvel Method).  A lot of the Ditko ASM pages I've seen or owned don't seem to have those detailed descriptions outside of the panels?  The Marvel Method seemed to have stopped working for Lee and Ditko sometime before Ditko started getting Plotter credits.

The point I was trying to make was that Ditko didn't hand-in pencilled and inked artwork (just pencils).  I mention this as I seem to recall reading somewhere that someone was of the belief Ditko was handing-in fully-inked artwork PRIOR to the letterer doing his job.

Edited December 20, 2019 by The Voord

[grapeape]

2 hours ago, vodou said:

One picture is worth a thousand words (I'll try for less here though!)

This is, of course, what it's all about:

1. Anybody can take a picture of that page in the book.
2. Only one body can take the picture above.

I love this hobby.

Amen ha ha 

[FoggyNelson]

I’m asking for this great book for Christmas⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️🎶🎶🎶thanks for showing everybody Voord👍👍

[tv horror]

10 hours ago, The Voord said:

an early Christmas present to myself

Great minds my copy is on its way and only cost me £54 from W.H.Smith! I feel a song coming on # 

 

[The Voord]

1 minute ago, tv horror said:

Great minds my copy is on its way and only cost me £54 from W.H.Smith! I feel a song coming on # 

 

Great price!  I thought I was getting a bargain at £68 . . . though that did include shipping . . .

[tv horror]

1 minute ago, The Voord said:

shipping . . .

FREE for me, well done on the book I can't wait.

[The Voord]

9 minutes ago, tv horror said:

FREE for me, well done on the book I can't wait.

It's big, heavy and beautiful!  I only heard about this book last week and now that it's in my hands can't recommend it highly enough.  Heck, you even get scanned pages of Spidey's complete AF # 15 artwork . . . which has got to be worth the price of admission alone.