Here it is, (many) years in the making: the long-awaited all-in-one work -- biography, appreciation and coffee-table art book -- on the one and only "sturdy" Steve Ditko. While best known as co-creator of Spider-Man, his career began in 1953 and spans five decades filled with unique, original and widely influential contributions to the medium of comics. Fans of his work pretty much have no choice but to rush out and purchase this book immediately or risk losing their hard-earned credentials, but this 200+ page, oversize hardcover volume that is filled cover to cover with amazing full color and B & W art will also serve as an excellent entry point to any and all looking to gain a further appreciation of this amazingly talented and highly eccentric creator. NOW ON SALE!!! (very limited supply on this one)
<<•>> edited by Blake Bell <<•>> Bill Everett was most widely known for creating The Sub-Mariner, one of the defining characters of the Golden Age of comic books, who remains a highly popular character to this day. He was a comics pioneer who was present at the birth of comic books and spanned five decades. This volume takes us back to the very beginning, when Everett helped forge the dynamic page layouts that came to be synonymous with comic books. While no one surpassed the one and only Jack Kirby in this regard, Bill Everett and a unique approach to the page – angular yet sleek and streamlined – that was quite different from Kirby's and was a formative influence on generations of comics artists. This book collects Everett's work from comic books that, taken together, would set you back tens of thousands of dollars to purchase if not for this book. So, thanks once again to Fantagraphics for letting the 99% get their hands on these great works in this excellent, 240 page, full color hardcover volume that does it right. Get a head start with this whoppin' 23 page preview! Bell's editorial input leaves much to be desired, as Dan Nadel's brief take on the book makes clear, so it will be up to readers of this book to start formulating critical and historical responses to the material. That means you! NOW ON SALE!
Fanta sez:
"This is where Steve Ditko became Steve Ditko. 1954 and 1955 were tough years for the fledgling cartoonist: A life-threatening bout with tuberculosis sidelined him for almost a year, and his main client, Charlton Comics, suffered a devastating flood that forced it to shut its doors temporarily. Yet Ditko's enforced time off and subsequent need to seek out new clients (most particularly Marvel Comics, for whom he would go on to create Spider-Man), as well as his stubborn devotion to his craft, brought about an astonishing series of quantum leaps in his work — as displayed in this volume (following the best-selling Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1) of more than 200 pages' worth of never-before-collected horror and science-fiction stories from the early career of a comics great. Introduction by series editor Blake Bell. "
Here's another 200+ pages of classic late-'50s Ditko. All the tales herein were originally created by Ditko for Charlton between 1957 and 1959, appearing in the titles, This Magazine is Haunted, Tales of The Mysterious Traveler, Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds, Out of This World, Strange Suspense Stories, and Unusual Tales. All reproduced here in full color from cleaned up scans of the original comics. Selected and introduced by series editor, Blake Bell. Ditko!
And, now on sale for a super special price...
