THAT COMIC SMELL 36: Giant Size 2019 Annual (Bronze Age Top 3)

The new episode of That Comic Smell is now online.

Have a listen at iTunes, Soundcloud and YouTube.

From the web:
""Look out Gotham! The Joker’s back in town!"
We're back and bigger than ever! After a large bout of sickness, festive down time and technical problems we come to you with this Bumper Giant Size Episode. We begin by answering some VERY interesting twitter questions from listeners. Which takes us nicely into showing off our Christmas pressies/swag to each other. Some have more than others and we go all out to try and make each other jealous.
If that wasn’t enough for you, we even had a main topic of our Top 3 Bronze Age comics! As we find out though, we barely scratch the surface on such an iconic and defining era in comic history. That doesn’t stop us completely smothering ourselves in bronze-age goodness and sharing some incredible favourites.

This and all the usual comics chat on the only comics podcast that one day would love to be sponsored by a biscuit. I mean I think we eat enough…

That Comic Smell!"

STEVE DITKO

Steve Ditko has died. A real comics legend. Great storyteller, imagination, and very individual and dynamic art style.

I looked through my Ditko comics yesterday to scan and post in tribute. Click images for larger views.

I'm not sure when I first saw his art. He was always around.

In the late 1970s a paperback book was released with the first six Hulk comics reprinted therein. Maybe that was the first thing for me:

(That's sellotape holding together this well thumbed copy).

There were many 1960s Marvel comics being reprinted in the UK and the US as the 1970s went into the 1980s, so I was exposed to both eras of work from Ditko.

Here's another Hulk story from the 1980 Hulk Annual:

The British Spider-Man Summer Special was a black and white reprint of the 1960s Sinister Six story. This remains a favourite of mine:

Also in the UK, Alan Class was reprinting 1950s work from Ditko. In Sinister Tales, I read Grulla:

A fascinating story was presented in Marvel Spotlight, Dragon Lord:

Marvel US were also reprinting Ditko Spider-Man in their Marvel Tales series:

In 1984, Marvel UK started their Transformers comic. The back up story was Machine Man:

Ditko drew a good few Indiana Jones comics:

And was regular artist on Rom; comics based on a robot toy:

Here's Daredevil from 1986:

Ditko drew a new superhero comic for Marvel in 1988, Speedball:

The same year, a new number 1 issue of "What If?":

So as you can see, Ditko was still very much a current artist at Marvel.

In 1993, he did a one-off comic at Dark Horse, "The Safest Place":

It was the late 1980s before I started frequenting comic shops. The search for back issues was given a considerable boost by this. Here are some of the Ditko goodies I've picked up over the years.

Ditko's Doctor Strange is wonderful:

Destructor from Atlas Comics, 1975:

Not often you see Ditko draw Batman. Here he is in Man-Bat, 1975:

I liked the Micronauts comics by Michael Golden, and the annuals drawn by Ditko were a nice variation on the characters:

Charlton were good about aiming their comics at fans. They'd label them, "All Ditko Art" on the covers. This is from "Giant from the Unknown" in Monster Hunters, 1978:

Another landmark character from Ditko was The Question. This is from a 2000 reprint edition:

The Missing Man, from Pacific Presents, 1982:

A Black Lightning solo story from The Outsiders, 1986:

Static, from Eclipse Monthly, 1983:

An older one from 1967. Captain Atom:

The Ditko comic I bought most recently was last month. An issue of Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga from 1993:

I saw the news of his death Friday night as it was first announced, and involuntarily let out an audible "no".
It was the Hollywood Reporter article ("published 2 minutes ago"). I went to his wiki page to see his birth date listed as if he was still with us.
Refreshed a minute or two later and there was his date of passing added. Gone.

R.I.P. Steve Ditko.

GENE COLAN



Gene Colan has died.

I remember his work from childhood days of reading Doctor Strange. He did beautiful work on Howard the Duck, Daredevil, Iron Man, Dracula, Spectre. Loads more.

In the 80s he did Nathaniel Dusk - a series which reproduced his pencils without any inks. Very interesting work.

I last saw work by him on a rock album cover in the late 90s/early 2000s. At first I thought someone was ripping him off, but no, it was the real deal.

A true original. One of the great American comic artists.