Peerless Power of Comics!

In my frenzy to index every comic book I get my hands on for the GCD, I recently borrowed issues of Spidey Super Stories from Barry Pearl (whose  Pearl's of Comic Book Wisdom Blog can be accessed in the favorites section). Spidey was a co-production of the Children's Television Workshop, known for Sesame Street. The Electric Company was geared to young children, teaching then reading and punctuation skills while entertaining them with skits, animation and music. Included in the cast were well-known performers such as Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno and - before he rose to stardom -  Morgan Freeman. In 1974 CTW added a segment featuring Spider-Man,  although their version never spoke. If I recall correctly they used word-baloons and captions in place of Spidey actually talking. The Electric Company was a popular show, running from 1971-1977. A new incarnation exists today. Back cover to Spidey Super Stories # 1, Oct 1974. Art by Win Mortimer and Mike Esposito, with some touch-up wor

Blake Bell has unearthed the original stats of the Utah Kid story I analyzed two posts ago. You can read about it here (scroll down to Steve Ditko Minutiae): http://blakebellnews.blogspot.com/ As you can see the answer raises more questions, which we may never discover the reasons for. The long, winding web of Stanley Morse and his line of comics is interesting in itself, and I thank Blake for sharing the information.  

As discussed in my last blog post, Simon and Kirby published some of Ditko's earliest comic art. One such story appeared in Black Magic # 27, Nov-Dec 1953. Cover to Black Magic # 27 by Jack Kirby; letters by Ben Oda. Very likely inspired by the atmospheric 1942 movie "The Cat People" directed by Jacque Tourneur. The cat on the right is actually Yancy Streeter Barry Pearl's cat "Kirby", who enjoys wearing scarves and tee-shirts.    Along with work by Kirby and Bob McCarty, Steve Ditko drew a six page story, "A Hole in His Head". For a young talent Ditko turned in atmospheric scenery and strong character faces, which would only improve over the years. What's interesting is the stone age creature that shows up and wreaks havoc with our cast. Page 4 of "A Hole in His Head" by Steve Ditko; letters by Ben Oda. With the appearance of the stone age creature, someone, either Simon or Kirby, didn't think Ditko's version was dramatic e

One of Steve Ditko’s early published stories appeared in Blazing Western # 1, dated January 1954. “Range War” was an eight page story published by Timor publications, one of a group of imprints, including Stanmor, Gilmore and others, under publisher Stanley P. Morse. Quite a bit of his horror stories heve been reprinted over the years, and you can see examples of some of the complete comics on this excellent site, which only includes public domain material :   http://comicbookplus.com/?cid=829 Technically this was the first year Ditko’s art appeared in comics, although its dated Jan 1954, it appeared on the stands most probably in either October or November of 1953. Ditko’ s earliest art appeared in 1953, including background inks for Simon and Kirby on Captain 3-D , along with work on unpublished issues; stories for Black Magic , and likely breakdowns, possibly with Sy Moskowitz for “Hair-Yee-eee” in Strange Fantasy # 9 , published by Ajax-Farrell. The first story Ditko sold, “Stret