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Steve Ditko, Co-Creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, Dies at Age 90 (ew.com)

Slashdot reader Dave Knott brings news: Steve Ditko, the legendary comics artist best known for co-creating Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, has died at age 90. No cause of death was announced.
Neil Gaiman posted on Twitter, "I know I'm a different person because he was in the world." Entertainment Weekly reports: Ditko's most enduring characters were created during his tenure at Marvel Comics, where he worked alongside editor-in-chief Stan Lee to develop the look of Spider-Man in 1961. Jack Kirby had previously taken a swing at the webslinger, but Lee was unconvinced by that artist's interpretation of the now-iconic character.

When Spider-Man -- whose red-and-blue costume, Spidey senses, and web-shooters all came directly from Ditko -- first appeared within the pages of Amazing Fantasy No. 15, the friendly neighborhood superhero proved a surprisingly massive hit for Marvel Comics, paving the way for a solo comic series titled The Amazing Spider-Man. Ditko's influence on Spider-Man was tremendous, his often dark sensibilities informing an at-the-time rare superhero whose life was often worsened and trauma-filled as a consequence of his good deeds. The artist additionally helped conceive many of the most memorable members of Spidey's rogues' gallery, including Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Vulture, and the Lizard...

Two years later, Ditko delivered another Marvel icon by creating Doctor Strange, the mystical Sorcerer Supreme who furthered the comic book empire's reach into more cosmic, even psychedelic realms... As a freelancer, he continued contributing to Marvel and created cult-favorite character Squirrel Girl for them in 1992.

3 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Re:pre pubescent fantasy by Brett+Buck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Taken to the extreme, almost everything everyone does for entertainment is pointless. Humorless bastards dwell on that, but normal people accept it and move on.

  2. Re:pre pubescent fantasy by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But by the time I was 12, I left all that behind.

    You have my sympathy then.

    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

    -CS Lewis

    Not that I like superhero comics, but at least it's not some sort of self denial because I feel I should't like them because I'm too old.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  3. Re:pre pubescent fantasy by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a very odd post, a smug attack on adults who read comic strips that literally boasts about having a limited imagination at the age of 5, and being unable to hold an interest in fantasy past the age of 12.

    And yet it kinda explains itself in some ways, the equivalent of a torture advocate claiming that he was beaten as a kid "and it never did me any harm!"

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.