Probably the difference in art quality of Ditko's work relates to him not being rushed on it. If you look at his work for Charlton and other companies pre-1960 you'll see a greater amount of detail and fine line work. Just depended on the amount of freedom and time he was given to produce his artwork, whereas at Marvel Stan tried to keep some pretty tight reins on him and stories had to be produced on a deadline schedule.
Oh, for sure!
But y'know, he was still doing Spidey and Doc Strange for Marvel, and god knows what else for god knows who, when he was doing this amazing wash stuff for Warren. That just blows my mind. Ditko's day must have been 48 hours long, compared to normal mortals' 24...
Lord knows there's certainly a difference in the artwork he was doing for Charlton in the 50's and 70's, and his later work for them in the mid 70's when it looked like he was just churning it out. I think he must have looked up Charlton as just a paycheck in those days, as his work for Marvel on Machine Man, and DC on The Stalker and Shade wasn't that bad. (By the 1990's, tho', you could tell he was just tired of it all.)
(ehh...that SHOULD have read, his work in the 50's and 60's for Charlton.)
I think the older most artists get, at least when it comes to pen and ink cartooning, they lose some facility, and I'm sure that's the case with Ditko.
Plus, I believe that seeing the work that the Crandalls and Orlandos and others were doing for Goodwin might have spurred him on a bit, got his juices flowing. I mean, some of these stories, especially this one, have a depth of detail that outdoes any of the stuff he had done prior- Spidey, Marvel monster stuff, Charlton, any of it!
hey Johnny -
Why don't you make a quick pdf of this and upload it to www.issuu.com ?
That way we can read it the way it was formatted - as a magazine.
I appreciate you uploading it to your site in the first place and its a cool tribute to both Goodwin and Ditko.
Let me see what I can do when I get a chance...!
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