The act of Lee's call seems monumental now (given that it led to the creation of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Marvel Age of Comics in 1962). At the time, however, Lee was just looking for reliable artists to continue pumping out five page fantasy/sci-fi genre stories that Lee had been overseeing as editor-in-chief for the past decade. The only real difference was an emphasis on more alien monster stories.

Ditko and Kirby would go to work on titles like Strange Worlds (cover date Dec '58), Tales of Suspense (Jan '59), and Tales to Astonish (Jan '59).

As predicted with the news of the MARVEL VISIONARIES: STEVE DITKO reprint volume (released on April 20th, 2005), Marvel appears to be aiming to reprint a great deal of their pre-superhero material. January 2006 saw the release of the TALES TO ASTONISH Masterworks volume, much in the vein of Marvel's hardcover reprint volumes of their superhero canon. October has seen the release of the TALES OF SUSPENSE Masterworks volume; both volumes containing the contents of issues #1-10 from the original series. There were plans for a follow-up volume featuring #11-20, but (as with all things commercial) if these volume doesn't sell well, the chances diminish for future ones.

This is Ditko at his peak! While barely putting any detail in his 1958-9 Charlton work, the jolt of inspiration from returning to Marvel saw Ditko produce some of his most detailed work of his career, all leading into his prime period of 1960-61. Issue #7 of the TTA volume contains the stunning "I Spent Midnight With The Thing On Bald Mountain" but the volume abounds with classic Ditko and Kirby material. Look for issue #10 of the TOS volume for the dazzling "''Behind My Door Waits...Medusa!"

The introduction to the TTA volume is written by Stan Lee; the TOS volume's intro. by a good friend of mine, and possibly the single greatest expert of all things 1950s Marvel, Dr. Michael Vassallo. The TTA volume contains one solo Ditko cover and three Kirby covers inked by Ditko. On top of the solo 9 Ditko stories, featured are 2 Kirby stories inked by Ditko. What makes this volume important is that the Ditko content of issues #2-5 have never been reprinted, and only 2 of the stories have been reprinted in the last 30 years! The complete Ditko contents of the TTA volume are as follows (title, issue #, cover date, inventory number assigned to each story, title, page count):

#1 Jan '59 (T-084) "I Know the Secret of the Poltergeist!" 6 pgs

#2 Mar '59 cover

#3 May '59 (T-199) "I Journeyed Back to the 20th Century!" 5 pgs

#4 Jul '59 (T-248) "The Man Who Floats in Space!" 5 pgs

#5 Sep '59 (T-339) "I Landed on the Forbidden Planet!" 5 pgs

#6 Nov '59 (T-383) "I Saw the Invasion of the Stone Men" 5 pgs

#7 Jan '60 cover (inks over Kirby pencils)
#7 Jan '60 (T-460) "I Spent Midnight With the Thing on Bald Mountain!" 5 pgs
#7 Jan '60 (T-473) "We Met in the Swamp!" 5 pgs (inks over Kirby pencils)

#8 Mar '60 cover (inks over Kirby pencils)
#8 Mar '60 (T-559) "I - Am - The - Genie!" 6 pgs
#8 Mar '60 (T-565) "I Live Again!" 5 pgs

#9 May '60 (T-623) "No Way Out" 5 pgs

#10 Jul '60 cover (inks over Kirby pencils)
#10 Jul '60 (T-696) "Something Lurks Inside!" 5 pgs

#1 Jan '59 - ''Prisoner Of The Satellites'' 5 pgs

#2 Mar '59 - cover
#2 Mar '59 - ''The Secret Of Planet X'' 5 pgs

#3 May '59 - ''The Thing From Planet X'' 5 pgs

#4 Jul '59 - ''One Of Us Is A Martian'' 5 pgs

#5 Sep '59 - ''I Fought The Tyrannosaurus'' 5 pgs

#6 Nov '59 - ''I Heard It Howl In The Swamp'' 5 pgs

#7 Jan '60 - ''I Come From The Shadow World'' 5 pgs

#8 Mar '60 - ''I Was Trapped Inside Of The Martian Maze'' 4 pgs

#9 May '60 - ''Earth Will Be Destroyed'' 5 pgs

#10 Jul '60 - cover (inks over Kirby pencils)
#10 Jul '60 - ''Behind My Door Waits...Medusa'' 5 pgs