Steve Ditko, Kirby's Greatest Inker?

[@billyhaney5117]

You guys have hit upon one of the keys to Marvel's initial success: they pulled the fans of their monster comics into their super-hero comics by having protagonists that were themselves monsters. The Hulk, The Thing, The Invisible Girl (as opposed to Invisible Man), Reed Richards (the brainy scientist-adventurer) , Ant-Man/Giant Man, all pull from classic and b-movie monster tropes. All such characters and concepts were very big in the 1960s.

[@F4lc0_Is]

I mean, Ant-Man literally had his debut in a horror story

[@robvangessel3766]

Since so much canon in comics depends on what a fan wants to accept or reject - and often comics writers themselves are shortsighted on story possibilities - I always imagined what my rulebook would look like if I wrote Fantastic Four stories. I'd explore the nature of their powers more. And in instances where the Thing and the Hulk fought it out, I'd actually make Ben Grimm initially the stronger. His problem, of course, is that rage increases the Hulk's strength; so, the initial advantage the Thing has turns into a draw at best (since he's still a better fighter). Oh, well!

[@beccaramirez6822]

Read Scioli's KIRBY graphic novel biography, this was deliberate on Kirby's part- Stan didn't want to do super-heroes initially.

[@anthonyperdue3557]

👍You can see all the influences from those 50s - 60s sci-fi flicks : The Incredible Shrinking Man , The Amazing Colossal Man , The Sun Demon , etc. Not only the monster fans were pulled in but the Romance and Teen Humor followers. Iron Man and Thor in their early incarnations were soap opera super hero adventures as was Spider-Man with the Aunt May health melodrama. The combining of genres with the costumed adventures is the Marvel Age formula of success.

[@hydrolito]

Invisible woman was also a movie by universal studios was likely why they went with Invisible Girl instead.

[@mikehailer9353]

Seeing Ditko inking Kirby always felt special.

[@adambrooks828]

Another super nostalgic comic for me that I read in tiny paperback form. Thanks!

[@lostonwallace1396]

Jack Kirby's art inked by Ditko was very interesting combination. They collaborated many times on the Atlas Monster books of the late '50s-'61. Ditko was a very organic artist who kind of produced breakdown level pencils, adding much of the final detail and most of the energy of his work in via the inking stage of things. Kirby was a very energetic penciler who produced tighter, more finished pencils, so it was an interesting match-up of talents. Much of Steve's energy came from his somewhat loose and spontaneous line, and sometimes this worked well over Kirby when Jack was producing breakdown level pencilling. I think the BEST work that Jack and Steve did together occurred in FANTASTIC FOUR #13. This issue had lots of firsts in it. It was the 1st appearance of the Watcher. The 1st appearance of the Blue Area of the Moon, and the 1st appearance of the Red Ghost and his Super Apes! Not too shabby! Back in those days, comics were chocked full of great action, and a story would move! The FF blasted off for the Moon, met the Watcher, fought the Red Ghost and his Apes, and made it back to the Baxter Building all in 22 pages! None of that slogging, drawn-out 4 to 5 issue story arch, padded out for a trade collection. No, sir! Not a lot of close-up panels of teammates arguing and point fingers at each other around a super hero round table, and quips and snarky attitude wasn't the draw. It was just fun, exciting, and imaginative stories aimed to please kids and young adults. That's what Marvel did better than anyone. Their comics matured, and soon, they also aimed at slightly older readers with titles like THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, but Marvel stayed kid friendly, and fun-filled for decades. FF #13 is an excellent example of why many kids made theirs Marvel! Kirby! Ditko! Going to the Moon (before anyone had actually ever gone)! The FF! A new villain! Super villain apes! And a mysterious alien observing the Earth and its inhabitants! What more could you ask for? I'd would argue anyone into the ground that the Jack Kirby and Wally Wood together was the a superior match-up. They were titans in their field, and they seemed very much in sync with one another. They seem to feed off of each other's brilliance. The SKY MASTERS strip is truly magnificent, but better printings need to be made available--artist edition style. Kirby and Wood produced great sci-fi illustration, larger than life imagery, machinery, etc, and both possessed amazing sequential storytelling chops. Most people would say that Kirby and Sinnott was the best inker for Jack Kirby, and Mike Royer certainly is in the running too. Kirby, Dikto, Wood, Sinnott, and Royer laid down the highway for artists like myself. Innovators like Kirby, Wood and Ditko re-invented super hero comic book storytelling and figure dynamics. I'm eternally grateful to have grown up reading their comics!

[@1971thedoctor]

Stan Lee should be listed as co-writer, for everything he did. I have so much love and respect for Kirby and Ditko.

[@flimtok]

Dialogue Cleaner and Hype-Man

[@beccaramirez6822]

No, he really shouldn't. Just because dudes have nostalgia and need to preserve the sentimental view of Stan the Geek Godfather they have do they ignore a complete lack of evidence of Stan the writer. He should be listed as dialogue and even some of that, it's been proven he cribbed wholesale sentences and words from Kirby's actual script, helpfully above or below every panel.

[@ditkirbo]

@@beccaramirez6822 I think he meant co-writer as downgrade from what he is listed as now. Disney loves the myth of Stan Lee as the god of Marvel, they paid him off and now Marvel is all theirs.

[@russworks2882]

Some of Ditko's earliest work was inking Kirby on Captain 3-D in 1953. That FF #13 was gorgeous as were many of their collabs on the big monster books, which would be an awesome video if you could wrangle it all. A curiosity is the Kirby/Ditko origin of Dr. Droom, which may be the first Silver Age Marvel superhero and may have stuck in Ditko's head enough for him to improve on it with Dr. Strange.

[@reprintranch]

I'd say if the addition of Rick Jones was intended to reference or capitalize upon some teen idol of the day, it'd be the character Kookie (played by Edd Byrnes) from the NBC television detective show 77 Sunset Strip. That show was in its heyday in 1962 (overall, it aired 1958 to '64). Kookie was a big cultural figure for awhile, and his endless hair-combing became a trope -- in '59, Connie Stevens had a hit song with "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb."

[@beccaramirez6822]

...or a kid sidekick like KIRBY had always done?? (Bucky, Sandy, Speedboy, etc.)

[@chegorilla1468]

You can't tell me that Hulk doesn't look a little like Kirby.

[@andyburk8771]

Good Stuff Guys! Fun to see Ditko over the King. Wally Wood over Ditko and the King is some of my favorite stuff!

[@bobbyologun1517]

All hail the Pittsburgh comics triumvirate, Piskor, Rugg and SCIOLI!

[@ChuckArnold1]

Any idea why there are chapter breaks in the issue? Was it for aesthetic reasons or was there a practical use for the story broken up into chapters?

[@ditkirbo]

Guessing to shoe horn them into a collection magazine. The first handful FF are like this too.

[@MrHoudini1985]

You should check out Fantastic Four #13. Ditko inks over Kirby there too.

[@unclecreepy4324]

Just a note I hated the glossy paper comics and always prefered the newsprint comics.

[@dpelpal]

Everybody does. At some point in the future they'll return🤷🏼‍♀️

[@AndrewBuckleBookReviews]

Excellent as ever

[@hydrolito]

See video about Coral Castle in Florida that had a massive door that could easily be opened and closed with one hand. After man that build it died the door could no longer be moved.

[@Kaulso93]

The current reprints the colors are more similar to the original, because the early Masterworks the stories were fully recolored. The Epic Collection, Mighty Marvel Masterworks or the Omnibus has more faithfull colors.

[@frankstrysik1558]

Yes, I have always felt Ditko was one of Kirby's best inkers. Stan Lee thought so too but he felt Ditko was too valuable to just be inking.

[@F4lc0_Is]

There's always been some confusion regarding Banner's original intentions with building the G-bomb. At the time it seemed fitting as a way to get a leg-up on the USSR, so a guy designing something that could put an end to the Cold War would be considered something good (although, even at the time, it depended on who you asked). Despite that, Banner was consistently portrayed as an ethically sound and good person even decades afterward, although details were added to his character that potentially muddled his morality more recently. Despite that, some retconning has given body to his reasoning behind becoming a military scientist, more proeminently Incredible Hulk #-1 which had Bruce state the Gamma Bomb was a "Reverse Neutron Bomb" which damaged inorganic matter but left organic matter untouched. Incredible Hulk (2000) #12 and the Hulk vs. Iron Man Original Sin 3.1-3-4 storyline elaborated on Bruce using this military contract as a jumpstart to his research on the benefits of gamma radiation, turning him basically into a pseudo-Alfred Nobel. My point with this is that considering Banner's portrayal since his inception, his building of the G-bomb shouldn't be a judge of character for him, and granted some writers have interestingly explored this moral paradox in meaningful/not detrimental ways (like Glenn Greenberg on Rampaging Hulk, for instance), but others have had the wrong takeaways from what ends up being a topical scenario that has been later retconned into a more sound and reasonable motive. ADDITION: Can't really believe how I didn't even mention Oppenheimer in all of this, who himself as one of the main inspirations for Bruce Banner, wasn't a bad man but coerced by the United States Government and the pressures of War to help develop the Nuclear Bomb, which seems in accordance with what we've seen from Banner.

[@reprintranch]

For the past couple of months, I've read and re-read the original 6-issue Hulk run, the first coupla dozen Tales to Astonish issues with the Hulk strip, and the Hulk appearances in other early '60s comics, like Fantastic Four issue 12. My impression from those stories is that Banner is someone who's driven to invent things, has an unparalleled ability to do so, and is content to work with the U.S. Army because they provide him with the facilities and materials he needs. But he comes across to me like someone who's much more interested in "can I build this thing and will it work?" than "how can I best serve our nation?" One of the ongoing points of conflict in the Hulk stories is that even though Banner is constantly disappearing and becoming caught up in suspicious situations, he never seems contrite or eager to win the trust of General Ross -- he acts more like someone whose attitude is, "you need me more than I need you, amd I'm not gonna explain myself." Offhand, here are the inventions Banner creates up through about 1965 -- the Gamma bomb; an enormous steel door mounted on some sort of hydraulic ram (built in a cave); a gamma gun (also built in a cave); an electromagnetic missile defense system (Fantastic Four issue 12); an enormous robot capable of withstanding an atomic blast, and a device called the Absorbatron, which can collect the energy of a nuclear blast and render it harmless. To me, that's not Oppenheimer or Nobel, that's Nicola Tesla stuff. :)

[@F4lc0_Is]

@@reprintranch A very good point, which would tell me perhaps Banner shares with all three, but as it was very well put by your answer, initially he resembled Tesla more.

[@ditkirbo]

So happy, I have been pushing for this video for a few months! Everyone find a used copy of Essential The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1, the Ditko inks sing in B&W! The Hulk with a space ray gun is worth the ten bucks. Also a Bruce Timm back cover on my version, so you get a great HULK : TAS picture.

[@mariloucartagena1777]

Be great to see you guys do The Metabarons with art by JuanGimenez...

[@marklangille3951]

Is all the dates past in the places you were going to be? I am confused? Is this an old video?

[@ditkirbo]

Yeah it's from October with the drawing prompts.

[@robvangessel3766]

My favorite Silver Age Hulk is where Banner's transformation is triggered by ANYTHING that gets his pulse racing. It really keeps things on edge, because Bruce has to stay absolutely calm, or all hell breaks loose. The only role anger plays in this version is Hulk's strength and stamina increasing with each adrenalin charge from his rage. These features are all missing in movie and tv incarnations, which, imo, is too bad. The Sal Buscema/Herb Trimpe Hulk: that's MY Hulk!

[@jonny9884]

If these MMW trade paperbacks, and I'm assuming the MMMW as well, are re-colored, are the Epic Collections true to the OG coloring of these early Marvel Age titles ?

[@coloredbandages6000]

Should've seen this a year ago😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@normanby100]

There is a suspicion that, having created the Hulk, they were unsure how to handle him - hence the constantly changing explanations of how he could change. Not having him around during the day obviously presented its own problems. One story with the Ringmaster even had him as a zombie slave of Rick Jones. Also this issue of the Hulk, like Fantastic Four 1, has such a lot packed into it that the ending is a little rushed and anti climatic.

[@Geoffreydarcy-pv4mq]

🔥💙🔥

[@dangerousjamie]

Ditko is great but Dick Ayers is the best at inking Kirby

[@traie1970]

Ugh gross color next time use Jimmy's scans

[@raphaelcurley]

Grab Essential Hulk Vol 1, Ditko inks look amazing in B&W!