A quick heads up on a sweet new book that came in, Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko, by Blake Bell (Fantagraphics, ISBN 978-1-56097-921-0. $39.99). Comic book heads immediately will recognize the name, but for the uninitiated, Ditko was one of the top young artists at Marvel Comics in the early 1960s and was co-inventor of Spider-Man. Not an insignificant achievement.

My brother is a huge comic nerd, so I got him on the blower to tell him about the book, and he gave me some good background on Ditko’s story, so I’m cribbing heavily from him (thanks, Bill).

Ditko is both important and mysterious. Spider-Man was a pioneer in two ways: Spidey was the first teenage super. All supers except for sidekicks were adults, but since the target audience for comics was kids and teens, having one of their own in a costume obviously had large appeal, especially since as Peter Parker he reflected many of their everyday concerns about school and wanting a girlfriend, etc. Spidey also was the only successful super to wear a full face mask. There were others before him, but they didn’t last. All other supers show either all or most of their faces (this is why Toby Maguire is always tearing the mask off or getting it ripped in a fight in the Spidey films—actors want their faces to be seen).

Stan Lee conceptualized Spidey but Ditko did a lot of the grunt work. The book has an early pic of Ditko and he’s a skinny, nerdy looking guy in glasses and greasy hair. In the early days, Peter Parker looked like guess what, a nerdy looking guy in glasses and greasy hair! So Ditko seemingly based the physical character on himself.

When Spider-Man was becoming a monster hit around ’64 or ’65, Ditko got fed up with Lee taking all the credit and quit. He joined a lesser publisher and continued to work, but became a sort of J.D. Salinger of the comics world. He hasn’t done an interview in decades and doesn’t do cons. Nonetheless, he hasn’t been forgotten, and Bell, who has become the burning bush on Ditko, gives his full story. The book also features a ton of great color and B&W art work. Coming on the heels of Mark Evanier’s fab bio of Jack Kirby, it’s good to see that these behind-the-scenes guys who’ve had such a profound influence on people’s lives and pop culture are getting the recognition they deserve. Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko, by Blake Bell—buy it!