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1st app. Speedball; John Romita sr. cover; Steve Ditko art; COMIC BOOK IMPACT rating of 6 (CBI)



Artists Information

Steve Ditko was an American comics artist and writer best known for being the co-creator of Marvel superhero Spider-Man and creator of Doctor Strange. He also made notable contributions to the character of Iron Man, revolutionizing the character's red and yellow design.

Ditko studied under Batman artist Jerry Robinson at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City. He began his professional career in 1953, working in the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, beginning as an inker and coming under the influence of artist Mort Meskin. During this time, he began his long association with Charlton Comics, where he did work in the genres of science fiction, horror, and mystery. He also co-created the superhero Captain Atom in 1960.

During the summer of 1958, writer-editor Stan Lee invited Ditko back to Atlas. Ditko would go on to contribute a large number of stories, many considered classic, to Atlas/Marvel's Strange Tales and the newly launched Amazing Adventures, Strange Worlds, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish, issues of which would typically open with a Kirby-drawn monster story, followed by one or two twist-ending thrillers or sci-fi tales drawn by Don Heck, Paul Reinman, or Joe Sinnott, all capped by an often-surreal, sometimes self-reflective short by Ditko and Stan Lee. The first collaboration between Ditko and Lee was 2-Gun Western #4 (May 1956), which was also Ditko's only non-fantasy story.

These Lee-Ditko short stories proved so popular that Amazing Adventures was reformatted to feature such stories exclusively beginning with issue #7 (Dec. 1961), when the comic was rechristened Amazing Adult Fantasy, a name intended to reflect its more "sophisticated" nature, as likewise the new tagline "The magazine that respects your intelligence". Lee in 2009 described these "short, five-page filler strips that Steve and I did together", originally "placed in any of our comics that had a few extra pages to fill", as "odd fantasy tales that I'd dream up with O. Henry-type endings." Giving an early example of what would later be known as the "Marvel Method" of writer-artist collaboration, Lee said, "All I had to do was give Steve a one-line description of the plot and he'd be off and running. He'd take those skeleton outlines I had given him and turn them into classic little works of art that ended up being far cooler than I had any right to expect."

During the 1950s, Ditko also drew for Atlas Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics. He went on to contribute much significant work to Marvel. Ditko was the artist for the first 38 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, co-creating much of the Spider-Man supporting characters and villains with Stan Lee. Beginning with issue #25, Ditko was also credited as the plotter. In 1966, after being the exclusive artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and the "Doctor Strange" feature in Strange Tales, Ditko left Marvel for a variety of reasons, including creative differences and unpaid royalties.

Ditko continued to work for Charlton and also DC Comics, including a revamp of the long-running character the Blue Beetle and creating or co-creating the Question, the Creeper, Shade the Changing Man, and Hawk and Dove. Ditko also began contributing to small independent publishers, where he created Mr. A, a hero reflecting the influence of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Ditko largely declined to give interviews, saying he preferred to communicate through his work.

Ditko was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990 and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994. He will be posthumously honored as a Disney Legend in 2024.

Mark Bagley is an American comics artist. He has worked for Marvel Comics on such titles as The Amazing Spider-Man, Thunderbolts, New Warriors and Ultimate Spider-Man and for DC Comics on Justice League of America, Batman and Trinity. In 1983, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter created the Marvel Try-out Book to draw new talent into the comic book industry. The contest involved a deconstructed comic book which contestants could complete and submit to Marvel. The winner would be awarded a professional assignment with Marvel. At the time, Bagley was 27 years old and living in Marietta, Georgia. He had almost given up on trying to find a job in comics and was satisfied with his position at Lockheed Martin. Bagley was reluctant to enter the contest because of the cost of the Try-out Book itself. His friend, Cliff Biggers, gave him the book and persuaded Bagley to enter the contest. Bagley won first place for penciling, finishing ahead of thousands of other hopefuls. After winning the contest, he didn’t hear from Marvel for several months. After approaching Shooter at a comic convention, Bagley was assigned to a series of low-profile penciling jobs. His comics work during this period included Visionaries, a comic book based on a 1980s toy line, various titles in the New Universe line, backup stories in Captain America and the first series of Marvel Universe Cards. In 1989, Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz created a team of teenage superheroes called the New Warriors. The following year, Marvel launched a new series based on these heroes and assigned Bagley and writer Fabian Nicieza to the title. Bagley stayed on the title until #25, at which point he left to transition directly onto The Amazing Spider-Man. When Erik Larsen left The Amazing Spider-Man in 1991, Bagley was assigned to the title. He and David Michelinie introduced the Carnage character in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (April 1992) and produced the Venom: Lethal Protector limited series in 1993. Although not the first artist to draw either Venom or Eddie Brock, Bagley’s version of both characters are widely considered to be the most popular versions of them by fans. Bagley was one of the artists on the “Maximum Carnage” and “Clone Saga” storylines which ran through the Spider-Man titles. Bagley’s artwork was used extensively for licensed material, appearing on everything from plates and cups to credit cards and even video games such as The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes released exclusively in Japan. In 2012, Comic Book Resources ranked Bagley fourth on its list of the “50 Greatest Spider-Man Creators”. In 1997, Bagley collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek on a new team of superheroes, the Thunderbolts, a group of super-villains disguised as super-heroes, with the final page of the first issue of the series revealing that the Thunderbolts were actually the Masters of Evil, a surprise twist carefully guarded by Marvel. In 2000, Marvel’s then-publisher Bill Jemas was looking to relaunch Marvel’s primary franchises in a way that would make them accessible to newer readers. Ultimate Spider-Man would be a title that began the Spider-Man mythos from the beginning set in modern times. Bagley was assigned to Ultimate Spider-Man with writer Brian Michael Bendis. The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 111 consecutive issues made their partnership one of the longest in American comic book history, and the longest run by a Marvel creative team, beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four. Bagley collaborated with Bendis on The Pulse and a four-issue arc on Mighty Avengers. Bagley’s long and successful run on Ultimate Spider-Man earned him recognition in Wizard Magazine’s top ten artists of the 2000s in Wizard #219. Ranked #2 on the list, article writer Mark Allen Haverty noted of Bagley, “no other artist came close to the number of comics Bagley sold [in the 2000s], nor the number of Top 20 comics he was a part of.”

Ron Frenz is an American comics artist known for his work for Marvel Comics; The Amazing Spider-Man, particularly introducing the hero’s famous black costume and later his work on Spider-Girl whom he co-created with writer Tom DeFalco. Frenz and DeFalco had also co-created the New Warriors in the pages of Thor.