SPACE ADVENTURES #13 [1979] is from early in Charlton's reprint era from 1978 to 1984, during which they published very few original comics but still averaged two books with Ditko work every month.  This issue reprints a trio of stories from OUTER SPACE #1 [1968], including the Ditko illustrated "His Own Little World" (uncredited but possibly written by Joe Gill). Great opening page on this one, with a large establishing shot of a spaceship cutting straight to a classic Ditko fistfight in progress.  The story involves Rudd, the second in command of a patrol ship hijacking the ship ..read more

Three years after it began in FANTASY ILLUSTRATED #1 [1982] the four part story of The Djinn by Steve Ditko and Steve Englehart ends in COYOTE #10 [1985] with the 12-page story "Riddle Mystery Enigma", inked by Art Nichols. I think it was a bit of an underwhelming ending for a story which started off pretty promising.  It's solid 1980s Ditko work, but he's not given as many interesting settings to draw as he was earlier, and I get the feeling that Englehart kind of rushed the ending in fewer pages than he planned so he could get ahead to a place to include the character in his Coyo ..read more

E-MAN #2 [1973] backs up the lead story by Joe Staton and Nicola Cuti with a new character, Killjoy, in an untitled and uncredited 8-page story.  Obviously it's by Steve Ditko (credited with both writing and art in contemporaneous issues of THE COMIC READER), and for convenience  let's call it "Killjoy And The Flame". The story opens up with three single page scenes, as villains Robber Hood, General Disaster and Jungle Jake (and their various themed henchmen) find their capers foiled by a silent acrobatic hero named Killjoy. After being bailed out thanks to the Mr. Hart of the ..read more

Adventure Comics #477 [1980] This issue features the 8-page Starman story "The Search For Mn'torr", the penultimate chapter of the year-long run on the feature by Ditko with Romeo Tanghal and Paul Levitz.  The first main storyline for the feature had ended the previous issue, and in another world this would have launched a second, but it ended up being truncated to two chapters and a later (non-Ditko) epilogue in a Superman crossover. Most of this story is taken with Starman, trying to find his lost friend, traveling to a legendary crystalline structure in space, hoping its simila ..read more

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Snyder/Ditko Kickstarter - Captain Atom and more ..read more

Now available from the usual sources, TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER the latest in the revolving anthology series by SD Publishing and their Famous Comics imprint. This is the conventionally published book from the publisher (not including their extensive and growing print-on-demand library) in a while not to be funded by a kickstarter campaign in advance, so hopefully those used to getting them via those campaigns are aware and have made other arrangements. Unusually not a Ditko cover on this one, instead a nice reprise of a Charlton cover by Enrique Nieto. Ditko is represented inside with ..read more

Adventure Comics #477 [1980] This issue features the 8-page Starman story "The Search For Mn'torr", the penultimate chapter of the year-long run on the feature by Ditko with Romeo Tanghal and Paul Levitz.  The first main storyline for the feature had ended the previous issue, and in another world this would have launched a second, but it ended up being truncated to two chapters and a later (non-Ditko) epilogue in a Superman crossover. Most of this story is taken with Starman, trying to find his lost friend, traveling to a legendary crystalline structure in space, hoping its simila ..read more

Astonishing Tales #21 [1973] This issue reprints the 5-page story "The Man Who Captured Death", first published in AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #9 [1962], featuring an old scientist who fears the arrival of death so much that he creates a device to capture the embodiment of the concept when it comes for him.  Unfortunately, he hadn't counted on stopping Death causes more problems for the world than he counted on. Fairly routine story, Ditko elevates it with some great faces and solid use of dark blacks for the Death scenes (not fully coming across with the printing here ..read more

I've been a bit remiss in not bringing enough attention to the growing SD Publishing print-on-demand library of Ditko's work through the years.  It's now up to twelve volumes published since 2019, making over 2000 pages of Ditko's work, with a wide variety of material, more readily available than it's ever been.  Trust me, as someone who got serious about Ditko's work circa 1990, being able to put together a freshly printed set of books like this is something to be envious of. Many places can order the books for you with the ISBN numbers, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Chap ..read more

Now available from the usual sources, the recently kickstarted THE HERO COMICS #37, the latest in the revolving anthology series by SD Publishing and their Famous Comics imprint. This one obviously has a bit of Captain Atom from Ditko and Gill, with an interesting short note by Ditko about that panel on the cover, and some reprints from Ditko's 32-Series.  Also included is the comparatively rare 1960s Blue Beetle story "A Specter Is Haunting Hub City" first published in CHARLTON PORTFOLIO [1974], a 1940s Bouncer story by Robert Kanigher and Louis Ferstadt and a few other surprises ..read more