Steve Ditko’s world

A page from Witzend No. 3, 1967. Although Ditko grew up loving the art of Jerry Robinson and Will Eisner, for much of his career, he had a spindly and off-kilter style that rubbed the heroic off the page and replaced it with an odd, anxious ballet of the surreal and the grotesque.  (‘Strange and Stranger’/Fantagraphics Books)

The splash page from the July 1960 edition of Tales of Suspense. Ditko grew up in Johnstown, Penn., but his real life began in New York in 1953 with his creepy first work, a five-page story called “Stretching Things.”  (‘Strange and Stranger’/Fantagraphics Books)

A panel from Amazing Spider-Man No. 24 from May 1965. A few years later, Ditko decided to stop doing interviews and making public appearances. “Strange and Stranger” represents an attempt to get inside the Ditko mythos, to reckon with his life and work.  (‘Strange and Stranger’/Fantagraphics Books)

Drawings from Strange Tales No. 138, from November 1965. Ditko was a devotee of Ayn Rand. There’s one line in “Strange and Stranger” that tidily sums up the biography’s “big” angle: “By immersing himself in Rand’s teachings, Ditko started down a path that, ironically, would lead him away from riches and fame.”  (‘Strange and Stranger’/Fantagraphics Books)

Creepy No. 13, from February 1967. Ditko has been a bit of a recluse since the late 1960s. He’ll chat with people who find their way to his New York studio, but he refuses to speak on camera, which only reinforces the accepted notion that he has become the J.D. Salinger of super-hero comics.  (‘Strange and Stranger’/Fantagraphics Books)

A page from a 1967 issue of Blue Beetle No. 4 published by Charlton Comics. According to a reviewer, “Strange and Stranger” is an extremely satisfying archive of the artist’s work, both famous and obscure.  (‘Strange and Stranger’/Fantagraphics Books)