Monday, May 17, 2010

DITKOMANIA #79 is out....of control!



Hats off to Rob Imes and company for another excellent issue of DITKOMANIA!

It's the "Ditko's Women" issue and I dug the article on Betty Brant by Ceylon Anderson, punctuated by that gripping symbolic panel of a phantom Spider-Man keeping Betty and Peter Parker apart from Amazing Spider-Man #30. Bruce Buchanan writes an enlightening piece about the little known Liberty Belle. Ye ed in chief tackles Fera of one of my favorite Ditko works, STATIC. The highlight of this issue for me: "I Dated Squirrel Girl," an article by William Murray about his Marvel creation, the weirdo Iron Man villain Squirrel Girl, the real-life girl behind the Squirrel Girl, and, of course, Steve Ditko!

But here's the wildest part of the book: Nick Caputo caps off a great article on Gwen Stacy positing a theory that when Ditko walked off the Spider-Man book, he took the storyline with him and continued it at Charlton with his Blue Beetle comics. It might be hard to confirm this theory, but it's totally plausible.

Art-wise, this issue is in solid shape, from a cover by Dave Sim (who also contributes a letter) to a nice illo of the Unveiled Lady from my buddy Javier Hernandez. Bravo, Mr. Imes. This really is the age of living carpe DM!

P.S. No column from me in this issue, but my DITKOTOMY column returns in DM#80, yo!

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