Read along with our real-time blog of Jonathan Ross's "In Search of Steve Ditko documentary! The broadcast ran from 9pm-10pm in the U.K. on Sunday September 16th, 2007, repeated at 12:50am-1:50am (England being five hours ahead of EST, so it played in Toronto or NYC at 4pm).

Blog Begins -
4pm EST
- Welcome everyone.

- Great opening with Ross at a desk with covers to/images of “Steve Ditko Space Wars,” “Showcase #75” (Hawk and Dove), bigger pic behind him with spider-man vs electro collage, with dr strange images, then image from ST #146 with Dormammu going into Eternity, and and Mysterious Suspense #1

- Ross opens with how it’s the most personal project yet for him.

- Moves to clip of Spider-Man 2, then right to “His name is Steve Ditko and I’m going looking for him” to collage of spidey, Dr. Strange and Creeper images.

- Has my web site's Britt Stanton pic from front page of web site, then B&W white shot art shots while Ross describes his opinion of Ditko

- Mentions pre-(Fantastic Giants cover) and post-Spider-man Ditko work (DC cover), then back to Spider-Man.

- “We loved him because before he had the good fortune to be bitten by a radioactive spider, we were him.”

- Like the exchange of the cool looking kid, replacing him with a younger Ross as Peter Parker reading AF #15

- Room of Ross’s comics, with Mark Millar, comic writer, and Paul Gambaccini (broadcaster) in the room. Gambaccini: “It was really the first soap opera for ‘us’…these were the problems we had.”

- Then to Millar talking about how everything is flash now, good-looking people, but the ugliness and ordinariness of Ditko's artwork made it special.

- Ross brings in talk of Ditko walking away, and not knowing why Ditko walked away driving him nuts.

- Brings in Alan Moore (“saviour of the modern comic-books”), as Ross goes to Northampton.

- Moore is in suit and tie, with his trademark rings on fingers (lists himself as writer and magician)

- Moore first saw Ditko when 7 or 8. Moore: “tormented elegance...9-panel grid...claustrophobia...paranoia.

- Moore: “Characters always looked highly strung, always on the verge of some kind of revelation or breakdown.”

- Lots of Spider-Man covers and interiors.

- Moore talks about Ditko's urban landscapes: “In Superman and Batman, buildings were just to be flown past.”

- First research mistake: saying Ditko moved to NYC in 1953, as if he joined C&I school in 1953. Ditko already on record as saying he moved there in 1950. First published work was in 1953.

- Then to Jerry Robinson, in his studio. “He was serious about the art, he was serious about learning...He was dedicated to art of visual storytelling.”

- 2nd research mistake: “Jerry hooked Steve up with Stan Lee at Atlas Comics.” Doesn’t explain the three years of comics before getting to Marvel in 1956. Jerry hooked him up with Lee three years later? Maybe, maybe not...

- Brings in Marvel and plays Ditko part of MMMS 1966 record.

- Flo Steinberg is interviewed.

- Lots of footage of Annual #1 “How Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Created Spider-Man.”

- Brings in Joe Quesada. Mentions Steve “creating costumes that had never been seen before...When he puts on that mask, he could be anyone,” is why he’s so relatable. Then Spidey in elevator scene from Toby movie.

- Mentions “rather poor animation series in 1967.” I liked it! Not the later Rocket Robin Hood version, but the one with all the Ditko villains.

- Live action series from 1977 – clip of Burt Ramsey character from early 1980s General Hospital!

- Turkey footage of Spider-Man as ruthless sadist. His assistant cutting some woman’s head off, buried in sand!

- Ross is setting up Marvel as the big Conglomerate.

- Brings in senior Marvel editor Ralph Macchio. Mentions panel-by-panel solving story problems: “the writer had a problem here, and I solved it this way,” and Ditko being a genius of storytelling. He would then come back in 2 weeks with pencils down.

- Then brings in Dr. Strange “cleaning up with the fans.” If Marvel can pull off Iron Man, they can do Dr. Strange as a movie!

- Great bottom 3 panels of first Dr. Strange, dripping rain overwhelming. Macchio: “the panels are small, but at the same time, the landscapes are expansive.”

- Back to Gambaccini, then Moore about Dr. Strange, “investing an awful lot of his own personal symbology in just the odd floating shapes in the background.” Gam – “he really is almost being psychedelic before people took drugs.”

- Appropriately brings in Cat Yronwode, and she comments on the drug angle. Thank god that’s all Ross uses from her. Shows picture from inside my web site.

- Moore comments on Ditko’s conservatism “suddenly the idol of a whole generation of hippies that were reading some kind of drug parable into these colourful other dimensions that Dr. Strange was zipping through, all without leaving his Greenwich village apartment.”

- Back to Macchio, having asked Steve about that: “I just put a lot of thought into what another world would look like.”

- Back to Cat talking about her thinking Ditko just had an unusual mind, and not taking drugs.

- Goes to Dr. Strange pilot from the late 1970s. Quesada talks about it.

- Jumps to Ditko walking away with ominous music. “It was the equivalent in the comic-book world of John Lennon leaving Paul McCartney after releasing ‘Help.’”

- He then brings in Neil Gaiman, who thinks it’s for political reasons. Brings in "swinging past protesters" myth. Gaiman saying Ditko scripted: “just look at those dirty hippies,” and Stan would write “Hey kids I’m with you.” Gaiman chronology/facts are way off. Gaiman: “Impossibly uptight Ditko”? Okay...

- Then the "Green Goblin Identity" myth starts with Gaiman.

- Macchio then regurgitates cardinal error of the “random character” myth, which Ditko had already done with Crime Master, and that Stan wanted more drama, “has to be someone in the cast,” as if Stan and Steve were talking at the time (which they weren't). Quesada brings this in, then Gaiman’s “Stan was right” and then Macchio saying Ditko was pretty adamant about this. Oh dear...strengthening Goblin identity's myth, when it should have clarified it.

- Deal breaker about Parker graduating from college? Macchio again, but Ditko and Lee had stopped talking three issues before, so it's hardly like Stan as cramming that plot down Ditko's throat (since it says "plotted by Ditko").

- Millar speaks to all the stories, but figures it’s a creative urge to go off and doing something himself, but then makes Steve sounds like he’s “prove I can do it myself,” which is so the antithesis of Ditko’s philosophy.

- Then Ross brings in Romita who re-emphasizes how he couldn’t have established it from the ground running without Ditko.

- Romita talks about Stan liking Ditko’s off-beat style and how Parker was a scrawny guy, and Romita cleaned everything up, and Stan tried to stop him.

- Romita says Ditko’s version was true but it didn’t fit Stan’s commercial sense, and “Stan had an uncanny commercial sense.”

- Romita: “I would have loved to see him independent wealthy now.”

- Moore: "Steve got so much of his DNA in all of the characters he created. I know there were good issues of Spider-Man after he finished with the book…but I kind of lost interest with the first non-Ditko issue, because it was so much a part of Ditko’s world that it looked kind of dull when it was an ordinarily muscled man in a Spider-Man costume.” Moore gets it.

- Ross back with Ditko went to Charlton (not really true - Ditko already there doing Captain Atom). Goes to The Question – Ditko’s “peculiar world view.” Then to Moore, about Ditko’s possibly characters coming to him in dreams.

- Ross jumps to Mr. A, and then goes to Moore over-doing it about the “committing the merest of crimes.” First appearance of Rand from 1950s interview.

- You realize, from graphics, how great a single image Ditko could create in his Objectivist work, as opposed to how great he was at sequential storytelling in his superhero work.

- Then Ditko’s voice from Viola's 1980s film.

- Gaiman calling it “closer to classic American outside art…they move to the realm of just sheer beautiful wonderful straight from the heart American barking madness, and that’s the level of which I appreciate them. They don’t even pretend to be stories.”

- Back to Moore remembering a Marv Wolvman anecdote about Ditko living about a thrift shop, about Ditko drawing a card in Mr. A style and saying “there’s white, there’s black, and nothing in between,” as Moore leans in closer for ominous effect. Should have cut Moore’s secondhand stories that he has often shared.

- Goes to influence of Mr. A’s influence on Rorschach, “my take of Steve Ditko.”

- Moore: “Someone had been interviewing Ditko." Ditko said, "Oh yes, he’s like Mr. A, except he’s insane."

- Back to Gambaccini about losing the young people who don’t like to be told their wrong.

- Over to DC with Moore talking about Hawk and the Dove, then about the Creeper (his major superpower was that he could laugh at will).

- Back to Marvel making a mint of over Spider-Man. Ross then in a store, looking at a Dr. Strange figure in a toy story, does he get his name anywhere, No, that’s not fair.

- Ross on set, bringing up Lee and co-creator credit.

- Gambaccini talks about my introduction to "Marvel Visionaries: Steve Ditko," and postcard from Lee that Paul had given to the Comic Reader, “Twas Steve’s idea.” If only they had pulled back with the camera to see my son Luke's name!

- Back to Moore, speculating that Ditko had lived in “reduced circumstances,” and making that Marvel’s fault, because Ditko was, in Moore’s heart, at the heart of Marvel’s success.

- Moore mentions his band, “Emperors of Ice Cream,” and his Mr. A. song that was rip off of Velvet Underground's Sister Ray (Ditko is John Cale!).

- Moore sings spoken-word part, with Sister Ray in the background, as they move in on Moore’s face.

- Back to Ross's set, standing, before they go to interview with Lee.

- Sigh...Stan reaffirms his belief that if he came up with the idea, he created it. “I thought up the Fantastic Four.”

- Ross: “It would be easy to make Stan Lee out to be the villain of the piece,” but Stan comes across as that.

- Ross: “I just wish he would share it out with the guys he worked with a little more.”

- Stan: “As far as I was concerned, he was the perfect collaborator. His artwork was supber, his story sense was brilliant, his continuity – he drew things, you thought you were watching a motion picture, fron panel to panel. He was a joy and delight to work with. I was heartbroken when he decided to stop working with us.”

- Stan: “In the very beginning, I would come up with a rather detailed plot, tell Steve was it was…he would draw the strip anyway he wanted, I didn’t give him a complete strip, he’d added a lot of things I hadn’t even thought of…as with moved along, I saw that Steve was so good at story…I had him come up with the plots…again, after awhile…he would just go and do whatever story he wanted.”

- Ditko complained to Lee about articles that credited him as creator.

- Lee retells what Steve says about idea becoming a physical things. “I saw how much it meant to him,” but Lee still doesn’t acknowledge it in reality.

- Lee: “Have always considered” in Lee's letter. Sigh...Ditko was right, in the end, as Stan still won't truly give the credit.

- Ross doesn't relent with Stan. Stan quickly regrets having it go on film. He says Ditko deserves the co-creator status "if he wants it."

- Ross: “Do you believe he co-created it?” Long pause. Lee: “I’m willing to say so.”

- Ross retorts: "That’s not what I’m asking, sir. So it’s a no, then really.”

- Stan back to creator “dreams it up, and then you give it to anybody…” Oh dear. And then Stan backs up again: “If Steve wants to be called co-creator, I think he deserves, because he has done such a wonderful job.” Ouch...the wounds will likely never heal, 40+ years later...

- Macchio: Stan wanted Steve’s name right beside his in the movies. Too bad it’s gone since from Stan’s new company's ads!

- Ross onto Spider-Man #33. Gaiman says it’s probably #1 moment in history, or top two or three. Paul comments on wordless cover being great.

- Lee: “Steve, and it had nothing to do with me, it’s all Steve’s idea” which is completely against Lee's own words that caused Ditko to write to Time Magazine.

- Moore commenting on the imagery telling you everything you needed to know. Gambaccini: good quote about forward motion in time and growing urgency of the moment. Moore agreeing with me that it was the visual dynamics powering the famous #33 scene, and dismisses Lee’s balloons. Gambuccini: “this is when you bless a creator because this vindicates comics, cause this can only be done in comics.”

- Back to Ross set, with Gaiman and Ross going to Ditko’s office. They pretty much give away address when he’s outside.

- Ross calls him, “Hello, is that Mr. Ditko? I’m Jonathan Ross, I’m a huge fan of your work, and over him from London, England. Would it be possible for me to pop by and visit you in your studio…no? I couldn’t entice you in anyway?...Just to grasp you manfully by the hand and thank you for the many years of pleasure…OK…Steve, I just wanted to say hello and thank you very much."

- Ross: "Just spoke to Steve Ditko…essentially, he told me to fuck off, but in the most polite and firm manner, I’ve ever encountered.”

- Ross: “Okay, should we go knock on his door?”

- Gaiman laughs, “Do you want to?”

- Ross: “No, not with the crew, but let’s do it?”

- Gaiman: “Okay.”

- Ross: “Me and Neil are now going to go and upset him, but we’ve got to do it, don’t we, Neil?”

- Gaiman: “I am Robin to his Batman, I am Speedy to his Green Arrow, I am Etta Candy to his Wonder Woman. I think we have to do this.”

- Cuts to scenes of the street, before Neil and Jonathan reappear after 25 mins! So much for Steve shutting the door in their face...

- Ditko shook Ross’s hand, had long chat with both, about creating Spider-Man. Wouldn't be photographed. "He was so sweet.”

- Gaiman: “He was just the loveliest man. He was great, he gave us comics.”

- Ditko gave them the 32-page package, Ditko Package, Fantagraphics Ditko Collection 2, the "Big 3" from the 1970s, and the Safest Place.

- Ross laughs: "He said if he knew people would come knocking, he wouldn’t have put his name on the door.”

- Gaiman: “It was quite magic, he answered all of Jonathan’s questions, and some of mine.”

- Fight Club reference, when meeting Ditko, by Ross: "First rule of…"

- Then to Moore: "Steve Ditko was an original voice, in his artwork, writing style and politics."

- Back to THINK Ditko pic from LA Times, then to face on pic from front of my site, then to lounging shot from second page of my site.

- Back to Ross at his set’s desk. Ross: “I’d rather respect the wishes of a reclusive 80-year old genius, then bow to the basic instinct of my beloved audience…but in the course of that conversation, I told him just how much his work had meant to me and his 1000s of other fans out there, and he seemed genuinely pleased.”

- Ross recounting his conversation with Steve on the phone: “So it was all worthwhile, he asked?" said Steve. "Yes, Steve I said, it was all worthwhile.”

- Credits end on slow-moving scan of Spider-man / Electro images from Annual #1.

- THE END! Boy, when you watch an hour programme on the BBC, you get an hour! Fingers hurting, but will post full review later tonight, around 9pm EST right here.

- Thanks for playing along everyone!