Steve Ditko is the best artist that ever drew Spider Man and Dr Strange.

Oh there have been good artists on both titles since. John Romita prettified Peter Parker, Mary Jane and Gwen Stacey (though the only difference between them seems to be their hair colour and the fact that MJ laughs more). Dr Strange had the atmospherics of Gene Colan and a touch of Frank Brunner hipness. But it was Ditko who set the mode for both characters.

Just imagine you are back in the Marvel bullpen in the late 50's and early 60's. Money is tight but one artist can turn the work out. He pencils fast and his lines are so clean that even when the most mediocre inker inks them they still look incredible.

No surprise then that Stan Lee wanted other artists to emulate his style - the Kirby Style. There's a touch of Kirby in John Romita, even John Buscema and definitely in Barry Windsor Smith.

But there were two artists that Lee left alone. One was Gene Colan. The other was Steve Ditko. Colan, when given the right strip, could do wonders, but Ditko was something else. Together with Lee and Kirby, Ditko was Marvel.

Before the superhero boom of the 60's Ditko worked on Marvel's horror/mystery stories. From the start the look was there. He excelled at drawing edgy overstressed characters who looked like they smoked too much and hadn't slept for days. His figures were sallow and thin. They were the complete opposite of Kirby's characters but the way they were drawn was perfect for the future Spider Man and Dr Strange.

Spider Man

Who better to draw Peter Parker? If you wanted a line backer for the college pro football team then Kirby would be the man for the job (Kirby did pencil one early strip - Spidey was squarish and highly shadowed, Parker non-existent). But for a nerdy bookish teenager. Ditko was perfect. Even when Parker becomes the super strong Spider Man Ditko ensures that the musculature is not over exaggerated, more teen like. Everyone who has drawn the character since has followed the same template.

Dr Strange

Dr Strange was an arrogant surgeon who lost his nerve after an accident. No need for muscles there either. Even less need when he starts to surf the astral plane as Doc Strange. Later artists have fleshed Strange out a bit but have not usually tinkered too much with his look. The chief exception was the time when Colan drew the good Doctor in a superhero costume. Conan's great but the idea seemed born of desperation - the series was close to cancellation.

But even if the Ditko Strange stories were unsophisticated, no later artists were able to capture the spaced out mood of those original Strange strips. Ditko's astral planes are ...well....astral. Once seen never forgotten...and never bettered.

These days people have favourite pencillers and inkers and writers. Ditko had no time for that approach. He believed that a comic was a team effort. True he did his own inking but as far as he was concerned the drawing had no meaning until it merged into the final printed product. His initial drawing could be sparse, usually fleshed out (if that's the right word) at the inking stage. He was a master of layout but in the case of both Dr Strange and Spider Man the strips come to life once they are coloured (with Colan the opposite is sometimes true).

Ditko didn't just work on Spider Man and Doctor Strange of course. He also illustrated the Hulk and could match Kirby on this character.

Ditko quit Marvel in the mid sixties. The reasons for this are mysterious - but may be something to do with the development of a particular character or disagreements in artistic approach.

After Marvel

His later work for various comic companies, whilst interesting at times, never matched those early creations. He worked for several companies (he even returned to Marvel and worked on Kirby's Machine Man) including DC and Charlton. He created Mr A and the Question, both of which espoused a black and white moral outlook, garnered from the writings of Ayn Rand. He also created a weird character for DC called the Creeper.

Ditko is secretive about his private life (there are few photographs of him available). Despite the spaciness of his designs for Dr Strange, he was and remains a deeply conservative and private man. He is an enigma, more mysterious than the Doctor himself.

A true original. Nuff' said.

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