Fri Nov 2, 2007 — by Glenn Hauman

Happy 80th Birthday, Steve Ditko!

To the amazing one

Eighty years ago on this day in Johnston, PA, Steve Ditko was born.

If you know anything about comics, you know Ditko's work as the creator of Blue Beetle, the Creeper, Killjoy, Mr. A., the Odd Man, the Question, Shade, the Changing Man, and Speedball, and the co-creator of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Captain Atom, Hawk and Dove, Doctor Octopus, Dormammu, Electro, Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, the Sandman, the Scorpion, Squirrel Girl, Stalker, the Lizard, and the Vulture.

He is, of course, well known for a great many other things:

• Ditko hands.
• His incredible ability to hit deadlines. There are stories of him receiving a script at 9 and completing the eight page story by 5, pencils and inks.
• philosophical stands, well discussed by Dial B for Blog in this piece on Mr. A.
• His one of a kind backgrounds, so completely impossible to reproduce by anyone else that they had to use his art for 1602.
• His complete reluctance to be interviewed-- the photo at left is one of only four photos known to exist of the man. While most of the BBC documentary In Search Of Steve Ditko has been taken offline, here's a clip from the show of Alan Moore talking about Mr. A:

We of the web salute this one-of-a-kind creator.

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