BBC4 documentary hosted by self proclaimed comic book fan Jonathan Ross. He charts the career of legendary Marvel comics artist Steve Ditko and seeks out the reclusive artist to possibly be granted an exclusive interview?
RIP Steve. Just so you know, he didn't die on the day this comment was made, but rather he was found dead two days after his death. I don't say it out of disrespect, but out of remembrance of the cool recluse weirdo that genius was. He was the real Question.
John Reed you are right! He lived to a good age and he will be remembered for Spider-man, Dr. Strange and all the other host of characters he created, including The Creeper, Hawk & Dove, Squirrel Girl, etc.
vic sage was not a detective, Jack Kirby designed Spider-Man's costume, the Creeper had numerous powers, Mister A failed because it appeared during the infancy of independent publishing. I'm not saying Ditko didn't get screwed, but for God's sake, do SOME research! BTW, the only reason people know Ditko's name is that Lee printed the artist's names, which wasn't the custom at that time. During the fifties, Wayne Boring drew Superman. How much credit did he get? Also, Lee's words during that famous Spider-Man sequence were brilliant. A lot of Ditko 's problems stemmed (as shown) from iconoclastic behavior.
The Rooster saddest is that despite co-creator of spider man and doctor strange Steve ditko is reclusive and mysterious comic creator and marvel legends in history of comic book to point he never had interviews nether involved fan convictions nor appear in documentary nor take photographs nor what he look like today
Collins Ongaya yes I understand how you feel but you know Steve ditko was perhaps the most mysterious and enigmatic comic creator to point there no information about his early life background and despite his popularity and fanbase he never shown fan conversion nor giving autographs nor giving interviews or public or tv appearance nor giving explanation for his character like doctor strange and Spider-Man inspiration behind nor he allowed being photographed and even what he look like in later life before his death such shame and waste
Reynard Ramirez. God bless you and thanks for sharing this story. You are lucky and blessed to have known and worked with Mark Ditko, his nephew! Lucky for you!😀😁
RIP Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the Fathers of Spider-Man. Thank you for creating the greatest superhero of all time and inspiring generations to come and for making everyone feel special and have a boy they can relate to in Peter Parker.
@@lyndoncmp5751 Shut up idiot ! Without Steve Ditko Spider-Man would not even exist. And John Romita would have not the opportunity to work in that title in the first place.
@@peace8381 I shall repeat, without Romita, Spider-Man wouldn't have blossomed, reached its zenith and became what it did. It would have just carried on along the same level, not going progessing and changing for the better.
God rest his soul. Ditko's work and influence will probably live on forever. I always thought it was a testament to the brilliance of his design, that Spider-Man's costumed has remained largely unchanged throughout these long years. It's a timeless design. That visual creation alone is one of the greatest contributions to popular culture. It's sad that I've had to explain who Steve Ditko was to so many after his passing.
The credits were since the very first appearance of Spider-Man. In the comic Amazing Fantasy #15 from 1962. In the first page appears ...Stan Lee & S.Ditko 😉👍
@@toyhunter2903 but i think it was removed for a long while.B lake Bell's book about Ditko is really good. Ditko of course didn't like it, but I think its great, and doesn't do Steve wrong at all. But as far as Stan and Steves credit it was there in the 60s but then wasnt. It didn't say created by Stan Lee (only) but of course everything marvel said "stan lee presents" so thats more of his edging people out.
@@davidlindsay9564 the title where you see Stan Lee present is completely different this title is written everywhere in Marvel comics even though Stan has not even created characters like the Punisher, Ghost Rider or others
@@davidlindsay9564the problem you say that Steve and Jack were never credited when that is false the problem in the story Stan Lee received a lot of recognition me who loves Stan Lee Steve ditko also deserves recognition and great tribute compared to Stan and Jack that they received tributes from some comics fans ditko is completely forgotten because Stan and Jack contributed so much to the comics industry that Steve ditko is for me in the shadow of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
What a great documentary. Mr Ditko absolutely co-created Spider-Man. 50/50 right down the middle with Stan Lee. I’m glad you got to meet Mr Ditko. He’s a legend. I would have loved to see an actual interview with him. He’s as important as Kirby and Lee.
Ditko was my favorite artist as a kid. Dad bought me Spiderman #8 & it was my first comic. Was hugely disappointed when Steve left Spidey, but he produced his most amazing work for Warren in Creepy & Eerie. Brilliant & surreal.
David I agree! My mother bought me my first Spider-man Comic #3 when I was a kid. Although I liked Romita, I missed Ditko when he left the title & Marvel. He will always be missed. RIP Steve Ditko and thank you!
I will never understand why he was such a recluse but I guess that was what he wanted. Spider man would never have been as successful if Steve hadn’t designed Spider 🕷 mans costume. He was definitely the co-creator of Spidey. RIP Steve. Thank you for all the wonderful work and memories.
RIP Steve Ditko you were an artist of one of a kind and your contributions to the comic book world and in the art in general will always be remembered.
Well never know why Ditko was so private. He should have come out near the end to say it how it was and clear things up. It will now always be a mystery
I have two letters from Steve Ditko. We had a brief back and forth about 10 years ago, but he was hard to get through. They did it the right way, trying to see him in person. RIP Dits.
In one of Ditko's reprints, he said Joe Gill and him should have stayed on Captain Atom. Ditko's return to Captain Atom and creating a new Blue Beetle was a part of the Marvel creative way and the design are as cool has Ditko's Marvel stuff. It would always be hard to beat Ditko's Spider-man or even his redesign on Iron Man. There is also his horror shorts with Archie Goodwin which matches his Marvel work. I know everyone likes to say, he left Marvel and became Ayn Rand. One of the funniest moments in one of Ditko's essays about comics was the original art essay. He spoke about the return of original art not simply a black and white thing, even tho he received no Spider-man artwork. The response was either you are with us or against us (paraphrasing), which Ditko thought was, "It was like everyone was a bunch of Mr. A's!" (Verbatim.)
Wow. Alan Moore was downright cordial. Never seen that before. He must really love Jonathon Ross. lol This was fun to watch, thanks for sharing it with those of us who live across the pond. Never even knew this doc existed. Cheers!
I love that the creative talent chose to play the Grateful Dead's epic "Dark Star" during the discussion about whether or not, psychedelic substances, had any influence on Ditko's Dr. Strange. Kudos to the BBC for choosing the truly authentic, rather than the more commercial, "psychedelic rock " of the era.
For those curious: THIS is the Stan Lee interview - wherein he refuses to give co-creator credit for Spider-Man to Ditko at 49:25 - to which Alan Moore refers in the video (YT refuses to let me paste _anything_, so bear with me): "ALAN MOORE - talks about Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko", uploaded Oct 1, 2012 by user Adam Baker.
Stan Lee imagined the character of Spider-Man and Steve Ditko in collaboration with Stan’s idea brought it to fruition. Both were essential for creation of the character.
In fact, B McMinn Kirby claimed to have come up with the name of Spider-man in the 1950's, while working @ MLJ Comics w/ Joe Simon while creating the superhero, The Fly!
This is awesome. I love the shadows in the interviews. Brilliant. I had heard before that Steve didnt make an appearance in this documentary, but it brought me a great deal of joy that both Jonathan and Neil were able to speak with him.
But it's very lame that they simple didn't said a thing about the conversation. Such a pointless ending, it's like - Yes, we talked to Ditko and he answered to all of our questions - Great! And what did he said? - Oh, it doesn't matter, it's not like if this is important to our doc right? - IT IS!!!
@@YannickTMessiah You have a point, maybe that shouldn't have been the title and just left out the ending since the 'search' seemed to take all of five minutes.
@@mikearchibald744 The title is not my issue with this actually, it's not a matter of unachieved expectation about "the search". The point is, how in the fuck can you make a documentary about someone, get to see this person, ask whatever everybody always wanted to know, and, in the end of everything, not give these answers (that you now have) to the audience?! This is probably the stupidiest thing I've saw in my whole life, tremendously absurd! I was not even believing it until the very end.
So in the same day i saw a one hour doc on Kirby and one hour doc on ditko. Both free on youtube. We live in amazing times especially with black panther and avengers 3 on the horizon!
Thank you so much for sharing this; Steve Ditko still remains one of the biggest influences on my comics work (not to mention several generations of comic artists as well!) and one of the most unique artists and storytellers ever.
John Romita didn't get any credit in any movie, even though Mary Jane was his visual creation, which they tried to emulate with Kirsten Dunst. Spider-Man 2 is pure Romita.
To me, Steve Ditko, at the very least should, without question be credited as the co-creator of Spider-man. Everything that make Spider-man popular comes from Steve. Stan may have had the idea, but it’s like the Bob Kane-Bill Finger situation. Bob Kane came up with the idea of Batman but if you ever saw Kane’s original idea for Batman’s costume, he looked more like Robin than the Batman we know. Would Batman have ever been seen as the weird creature of the night if Bill Finger hadn’t stepped in and said, “Maybe this idea would look better?” Same thing with Spider-man, what would Jack Kirby’s Spider-man costume have looked like? Knowing the King, I’m sure his Spider-man would still have been popular, but the character would have been completely different from the awkward teenage we know and his costume probably would have looked more like a Captain America or Daredevil type than the full mask Ditko created for him.
Behind every "genius" (Jobs, Zuckerberg, Edison, Stan Lee, Bob Kane, the founders of the USA) are the people who are doing the dirty work, laying the bricks and making it happen. In many cases, they do far, far more than the "genius" out front ever bothers to publicly acknowledge. It's up to the historians and the fans to foil the "lone, genius-creator" myth. In some rare instances, yes--the genius creator has their own idea, and they build their dream from the ground up and on the backs of nobody, generally because nobody believes in them, etc. Tucker Auto comes to mind. I am inclined to believe that Batman is Bill Finger's baby, and Spiderman, Ditko's. The use of baby is deliberate here, because Stan Lee and Bob Kane are the "idea" donors. They produced a baby, and their proteges bottle-fed, diapered and raised that baby and made it into what it became. Lee deserves credit, but Ditko likely deserves far more than he has ever gotten. Stan Lee is wrong if he thinks he "created" something simply by "thinking it up." The word create literally means to produce, and he didn't really do that. Sure, he published the comic, but he did not truly create the character. It sounds like Lee designed, wrote most of, and shaped the Spiderman character. Lee was an important part, keeping his talented artist nurtured and offering up his own ideas, but it was Ditko who built the machine. Same goes for Bill Finger and Bob Kane, with Kane offering even less input and less guidance. Bill Finger literally created Batman from the word "go." I say all this because too often real genius goes uncredited, while charlatans and hucksters stand on the shoulders of the innovators who got them their spot at the bowl, and do what they do best: sell an idea. in this instance, the idea that they alone created something. Surely Stan Lee DOES deserve a lot of credit. Absolutely. Without him, Spiderman wouldn't exist. However, doesn't Steve Ditko deserve maybe even a bit more credit than Stan? Lee often takes sole proprietorship over things that he did not truly create all on his own. Sure, there's a million people out there starving to take credit for great things, but does anyone really believe a guy who created "the Question" would go around saying he created something if he did not? A character whose literal purpose is to break things down into black and white, good v. bad. Most casual comic fans likely believe he drew every panel and wrote every word, and that's bogus. Bob Kane is even more notorious for this behavior, and his story is difficult to support. It's always funny to me that every time true genius is identified, there's hungry eyes waiting in the wings to harness their brilliance. Maybe this is just how great teams are built, and how great ideas become ubiquitous, this set up the engineering genius and the man savvy enough to convert ingenuity to currency, I'm not sure. Perhaps it is a good thing, overall. I only wish the the genius "engineers" of the world received more limelight and more kudos. There's not many people out there who can sell a truly terrible idea, there's a million people out there who can sell brilliance. Which one is more valuable, the seller or the creator? The answer may just be like the elegancy of Spiderman and Batman: it's complicated.
11:57 Wait a minute Steve Ditko also created Hawk/Dove and the Creeper?I thought Steve Skeates created them,I guess you learn new things every day.R.I.P Steve Ditko.
Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Joe Maneely were the pillars of Marvel Comics at the start. Their work influenced everything,.. even what was written. They were the 3 men Stan said could draw anything you threw at them. Each of them had tons of experience before Marvel even started,... they were masters at the onset. Aside from Spider-man & Dr. Strange, which were both OUTSTANDINGLY executed every month, what I most remember from Ditko were these little sci-fi, fantasy stories which appeared as back-up features. They were quick little, almost like Twilight Zone stories that were so brilliantly put together that you would remember them much more than whatever featured story was in the book. Ditko was the master of the quick little weird tale. I still vividly remember them.
This was delightful. I’ve read and enjoyed Ditko’s work with both Marvel and Charlton. I’m familiar with both Hawk & Dove and the Creeper, but I’ve not read the initial appearances of these DC characters. I’ve absolutely got to locate a collection of Mr. A.
If Stan Lee came with the idea of Spider-Man and Steve Ditko came with the idea of Doctor Strange. Why the fuck Stan Lee appears first in the credits of Doctor Strange?
Stan Lee wanted Spider-man to be different to the rest of the superhero mold at the time not just in his adventures but also in his appearance. Steve Ditko brought Spider-man to life beyond Stan's wildest dreams. If that doesn't qualify Steve to be a co-creator, then I don't know what does.
Excellent Docu_video...interesting that Stan Lee's Letter to Steve Ditko saying 'your the co-creator' of Spiderman is dated 8/19/99...1month Plus a Few wks. after my wedding...But I'm thankfull, i can draw Spiderman the Ditko way and the Romita Way....but loved Ditko's Dr. Strange, and Hulk versions too.
