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Steve Ditko is an enigma. The fact that he retreated from the spotlight the way he did all but ensured that he wouldn't be forgotten, but he wouldn't know about the accolades he got alongside his fellow Marvel Age pioneers. Certainly Jack Kirby was far more prolific and creative, Romita Sr. more technically proficient, Buscema more action-oriented, but there was always something readily identifiable with Ditko's stuff that like his successors you could point to and pinpoint as being uniquely his, whether it was Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, or his excursions to DC Comics where he hand a hand in creating Hawk and Dove along with the Creeper, or over at Charlton where he created the second Blue Beetle Ted Kord and one of his more personal creations, the Question, who espoused many of the objectivist beliefs that Ditko himself relied upon throughout his life (this is admittedly something I know nothing about, I hear there's a lot of controversy surrounding it, so if anyone wants to educate me on the subject, I'm all ears!)

His death on June 29 at the long-lived age of 90 does seem kind of sad: he was found alone in his apartment unresponsive, and for all we know, the man never married or had children, and may not have even been close to whatever surviving members of his family there are. It was just the course of his life, sadly enough, to be removed from it all and letting his work alone speak for itself instead of the man. So when he died, I knew that I wanted to do something devoted to the Question. I hadn't used the character in a long, long time so I had this idea that it would be like a traditional classic "Ditko" style opening, where he would step out from the gas/smoke/fog. And it came out really well, kind of understated in a way that ties it ever closer to Ditko and his art style.

While not my most favorite of Marvel artists (that would either be Romita or Buscema), I always appreciated the weird, idiosyncratic style that Ditko applied to his work.

Description
Steve Ditko is an enigma. The fact that he retreated from the spotlight the way he did all but ensured that he wouldn't be forgotten, but he wouldn't know about the accolades he got alongside his fellow Marvel Age pioneers. Certainly Jack Kirby was far more prolific and creative, Romita Sr. more technically proficient, Buscema more action-oriented, but there was always something readily identifiable with Ditko's stuff that like his successors you could point to and pinpoint as being uniquely his, whether it was Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, or his excursions to DC Comics where he hand a hand in creating Hawk and Dove along with the Creeper, or over at Charlton where he created the second Blue Beetle Ted Kord and one of his more personal creations, the Question, who espoused many of the objectivist beliefs that Ditko himself relied upon throughout his life (this is admittedly something I know nothing about, I hear there's a lot of controversy surrounding it, so if anyone wants to educate me on the subject, I'm all ears!)

His death on June 29 at the long-lived age of 90 does seem kind of sad: he was found alone in his apartment unresponsive, and for all we know, the man never married or had children, and may not have even been close to whatever surviving members of his family there are. It was just the course of his life, sadly enough, to be removed from it all and letting his work alone speak for itself instead of the man. So when he died, I knew that I wanted to do something devoted to the Question. I hadn't used the character in a long, long time so I had this idea that it would be like a traditional classic "Ditko" style opening, where he would step out from the gas/smoke/fog. And it came out really well, kind of understated in a way that ties it ever closer to Ditko and his art style.

While not my most favorite of Marvel artists (that would either be Romita or Buscema), I always appreciated the weird, idiosyncratic style that Ditko applied to his work.