"Dr." Steve(n) [sic] "Strange" Ditko

Steve Ditko died. The co-creator of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange was an enigmatic figure and, without a doubt, my favorite illustrator. Period. I’ll spend more time discussing his importance to me later… but for now, I’ll share my only actual encounter with "Ditko the Dictator":

In the winter of 1988-89, I was an intern for Terry Kavanagh and Bobbie Chase at Marvel Comics. I was absolutely in love with the place and people and nearly considered leaving college to work my way towards being an assistant editor and, maybe even, an editor (or, imagine, a writer). At the time, Steve Ditko was working on a comic he co-created with Tom DeFalco, Speedball. [I wondered even then if the character’s name was some response to the drug epidemic and knowing what I now know about Ditko, it was probably implied in some Randian complexity.] He made, what I understood to be, a rare appearance at Marvel headquarters to drop off work for Terry. I was asked to Xerox his art boards. At the time, it was not lost on me that I held, in my stupid hands, Ditko’s original drawings. When I returned with copies, Steve was sitting alone in Terry's office. He was rather in tatters and maybe even ill-kept, but when I handed back his illustrations, he smiled at me. There he was… the person who helped to birth Spider-Man and Dr. Strange (the latter, likely a sole creation)… and what did I ask him about? What fer cryin’ out loud did I ask him!? Rom! I asked him about his run on Rom, Spaceknight! It was a silly question, something like, “How did you like working on that comic?” He responded kindly but in a few words. Still, he responded. He had a reputation for being reclusive, maybe even cantankerous, but he smiled at me and responded to my inane question. Steve Ditko! My favorite artist ever!

And just a little while ago I found out that he had passed away alone at 90, discovered several days after dying. Turns out, politically speaking, we probably would’ve hated each other’s guts; but artistically, the expansive claustrophobia (oxymoron implied) he built into his panels and his stories seems more important to me than just about anything else I’ve ever absorbed in the medium. For tonight, politics be damned. Ditko rules!