Alan MOORE on Steve DITKO: Black & White Morality

Comments · 279

• GO

  @GodLovesComics · 3 years ago · pinned

  ALAN MOORE discusses the Charlton/Watchmen (and Ditko) connection with Jon B. Cooke in Comic book Artist #9 (2000). <br><a href="https://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/09moore.html">https://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/09moore.html</a><br>CBA: Do you recall The Question? <br>Alan: Yes, I do. That was another very interesting character, and it was almost a pure Steve Ditko character, in that it was odd-looking. &quot;The Question&quot; didn&apos;t look like any other super-hero on the market, and it also seemed to be a kind of mainstream comics version of Steve Ditko&apos;s far more radical &quot;Mr. A,&quot; from witzend. I remember at the time—this would&apos;ve been when I was just starting to get involved in British comics fandom—there was a British fanzine that was published over here by a gentleman called Stan Nichols (who has since gone to write a number of fantasy books). In Stan&apos;s fanzine, Stardock, there was an article called &quot;Propaganda, or Why the Blue Beetle Voted for George Wallace.&quot; [laughter] This was the late-&apos;60s, and British comics fandom had quite a strong hippie element. Despite the fact that Steve Ditko was obviously a hero to the hippies with his psychedelic &quot;Dr. Strange&quot; work and for the teen angst of Spider-Man, Ditko&apos;s politics were obviously very different from those fans. His views were apparent through his portrayals of Mr. A and the protesters or beatniks that occasionally surfaced in his other work. I think this article was the first to actually point out that, yes, Steve Ditko did have a very right-wing agenda (which of course, he&apos;s completely entitled to), but at the time, it was quite interesting, and that probably led to me portraying [Watchmen character] Rorschach as an extremely right-wing character. <br> <br>CBA: When you read some of Ditko&apos;s diatribes in &quot;The Question&quot; and in some issues of Blue Beetle, did you read it with bemusement or disgust? <br>Alan: Well... <br> <br>CBA: A mix of both? <br>Alan: Well, no. I can look at Salvador Dali&apos;s work and marvel at it, despite the fact that I believe that Dali was probably a completely disgusting human being [laughter] and borderline fascist, but that doesn&apos;t detract from the genius of his artwork. With Steve Ditko, I at least felt that though Steve Ditko&apos;s political agenda was very different to mine, Steve Ditko had a political agenda, and that in some ways set him above most of his contemporaries. During the &apos;60s, I learned pretty quickly about the sources of Steve Ditko&apos;s ideas, and I realized very early on that he was very fond of the writing of Ayn Rand.

  40

• BR

  @BrianRidgway-u5g · 1 year ago

  Leave it to such a great writer to respectfully summarize Ditko in a few key words.

  32

• HA

  @harryseldon362 · 1 year ago

  Steve Ditko did fantastic work on Dr. Strange! &nbsp;Some of the best I&apos;ve seen.

  21

• BU

  @buzzawuzza3743 · 3 years ago

  Ditko drew his own weird creepy world. Alan Moore has also done this. That&apos;s why we read comics.

  164

• NE

  @nezuko-k9u · 3 years ago

  This man has been a vocal admirer, supporter and lover despite their opposing views for more than half a century. The first google search result on their names is Alan gushing over Ditko in an interview from 2000. But you&apos;ll still find smoothbrain youtubers painting him envious and bitter regarding Steve.

  352

• JO

  @joeyjo-joshabadu9636 · 1 year ago

  &quot;Ordinarily muscled man in a Spider-Man suit&quot; yes I know he means ordinarily muscled for superheroes, but that still sounds hilarious 😂

  8

• WA

  @walterhoward5512 · 3 years ago

  Ditko is my favorite silver age creator. His work was so specific to him and his worldview, no one was ever really able to replicate it. Every character Ditko created/co-created became very different after he left. Even Spider-Man is a functionally different person once Lee is able to take control of the character.

  120

• RJ

  @RJW_3278 · 1 year ago

  I respect Alan Moore, but I admire Steve Ditko. Ditko&apos;s creative world is so idiosyncratic and his own.

  9

• TR

  @TrenchMan93 · 1 year ago

  Why is it alan has the ability to make me think profoundly and eye roll him at the same time?

  31

• AT

  @AtropalArbaal-dk8jv · 2 years ago

  The interview with Moore and Moorcock should be required viewing.

  17

• BO

  @BOBXFILES2374a · 2 years ago

  I always liked Ditko&apos;s images. They seemed more real. And the tension, that Peter Parker could put Flash through a wall, if he wanted to...but he didn&apos;t. That made him a hero.

  62

• HO

  @horrormike · 3 years ago

  Ditko was such a unique comic book figure and quite an influence of Moore i.e. The Watchmen, etc. &nbsp;He also cut his teeth on some awesome pre-code horror and sci-fi comics. &nbsp;Dr. Death!

  49