I saw this post on the Brian Bendis tumbler page. Bendis talks about a story told to him some time ago by former Marvel editor Ralph Macchio who went to visit Steve Ditko at his studio. Ralph apparently saw a pile of Dr. Strange art by Ditko that had never been published by Marvel. Ditko told Ralph that the pages were for a brand new Dr. Strange graphic novel--never intended to be published--just drawn for Ditko's own pleasure. I found this to be astounding. Here is the post borrowed from the Bendis page:
Have you ever talked to Ditko? Any second hand stories even?
Anonymous
I had an amazingly similar experience to the one Jonathan Ross had.
when I was doing my series of creator interviews for Wizard magazine I reached out to him. I knew full well that he didn’t do interviews anymore but I thought MAYBE if it was a creator creator interview there might be a slim chance he would be up for it.
I got his number from our mutual friend and editor Ralph macchio. I called him up and explained myself and who I was and what I wanted to do.
he said he appreciated that but he didn’t do interviews.
I said I completely understand but, off the record, I was curious to what happened that made him not want to do interviews anymore.
he said that’s an excellent question but it’s an interview question and I DON’T DO INTERVIEWS ANYMORE!!!
before he hung up I was able to thank him profusely for creating Spiderman and all that that has given me in my life. I do know that on some level he heard me so I feel really good about that.
Ralph told me that he went to his house yeares ago and saw a big pile of Dr. strange original art and he asked what it was for. Steve said that it is a brand-new Dr. strange graphic novel. Ralph asked when he could read it and he said: no, that that’s not for you it’s just for me.
you have to admire the purity
It made me wonder, what if Steve Ditko is actual at home continuing to draw his own Amazing Spider-Man stories to this day? What if there are a run of stories in his studio that continue the Spider-Man saga they way Ditko would have wanted the book to go? It boggles the mind to think about their existence. I hope we find out one day that this is true and actually get to see those pages. THAT would be something! I can dream, can't I?
Yeah Glen, you KEEP dreaming...
ReplyDeleteI will, Ruben. That's the special sauce that makes life great!
DeleteIs it possible those Dr. Strange pages were meant for Strange Tales # 146 - 147 - 148 - 149 -maybe more?
ReplyDeleteThe published story in ST #146 seemed condensed in order for Ditko to wrap up all the Dr. Strange sub-plots before he left Marvel. Sub-plots that took dozens of issues to develop wrapped up in one quick issue.
Nothing but full page spreads IIRC. The pacing of ST 146 is definitely hurried compared to all the earlier installments. As I read it (over and over) it appeared to be at least 4 chapters reduced to 1 chapter.
Could those chapters have been started by Ditko before he left Marvel? Then he finished them up as he originally intended?
Anything is possible. The story Ralph told made it sound like it was something completely new to me.
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