One of the key indicators in the difference in personalities between Jack Kirby and Steve
Ditko is the amount of pre-inked pages by each artist fandom has had the luck to view. Kirby,
a virtual socialite compared to the reclusive Ditko, has left his fans a wealth of stats of
his artwork showing those pages in their pencilled form, before they were sent off to the
inker. The Jack Kirby Collector, the stunning fanzine dedicated to Kirby's work, has had more
of these ''before-they-were-inked'' pages in its 25+ issue run than most artists have finished
pages! And it is like an archeological find, seeing the detail to which Kirby would render
his stories. He left little to chance. It is also stunning to see how much was lost of his
pencilled work, when inked, especially depending upon the inker in question. The bottom line
is that fandom IS able to make these comparisons/studies. One of the most difficult exercises
in observing comics, and their processes, is determining responsibility for the quality/finished
product on the page; not to mention an inker's specific style, and how that interacts with
a given artist. These pre-inked pages provide this in clear-cut dramatic fashion.
And yet, having read comics/collected Ditko for 20 years now, I have seen only ONE
pre-inked page of Steve Ditko's work. And that wasn't until last year. With its 18th issue,
The Jack Kirby Collector (!) published a page from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #31 (page 7). It was
a revelaton to see just how much detail Ditko added upon inking his own work. Everyone would
most likely agree Ditko's work suffered when inked by others, and this page gave a good
indicator as to why. You can observe his Spider-Man/Dr. Strange work from this time, then
move on to his Hulk work on Tales To Astonish from the same period, and almost think you are
observing a different artist. It almost doesn't look like Ditko. And this page illustrates
why. Not only did Ditko leave much of the detail until he inked his own work, but with a
grinding schedule during the above time back in the middle '60s, it is clear Ditko provided
Tales To Astonish with breakdown-quality pencils, leaving the inker to add much of the detail.
All of this from one page - fascinating.
It still doesn't answer the question as to why only this one example? Nor does it quench
the desire to find more. Obviously, the Kirby estate released plenty of examples of Jack's
work in this form, showing Jack's (or his associates) desire to keep his work in such a form.
Ditko just may not have the same type of stash. Given his ability to rarely look back, the
time and space-consuming process of maintaining a collection of pre-inked pages may have held
no interest. So, in such a case, the weight would have fallen to his peers; the inkers,
editors, and publishers. Enter one Ron Frantz...
CONTINUED.
|