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While much of the afternoon was spent fighting with an impact driver, a bunch of vinyl siding j-channels, the disaster zone that is the top of my desk, and low blood sugars determined to undermine my determination, the second row of Ditko Spideys are now in their new home on the wall behind the desk. Need some clear fishing line so the top row doesn’t fall, but that’s tomorrow’s battle.

THE DESTRUCTOR, No. 4 (Conway / Ditko, Milgrom; Atlas/Seaboard, 1975)

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Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-)read it, write about it, and publish whatever emerges. Earlier installments live here.

Panels from THE DESTRUCTOR No. 4, by Steve Ditko. A red and blue-garbed hero covers his ears to resist the siren's song of "Music that is weirdly seductive" comng out of the mouth of a wide-eyed chanteuse.

(Box08): One of those oddities that's been in The Collection since the early days, an enjoyable enough yarn from Gerry Conway of a mostly forgettable and Jersey-proud hero (somewhat reminding me of Orion mixed with Hunter Biden – IDK, first combo that came to mind) encountering a band of superpowered Outcasts living in an underground city in New Mexico made by Oppenheimer collaborators who hated their work and resolved to make a perfect world which is, as always, anything but.

Also: Ditko!

If nothing else, this week's random served as a fascinating launchpad into learning a bit of the history of this short-lived (it folded in 1975, a year after its founding, which is a shame: those perks offered are massive, even now) Martin Goodman-initiated effort at competing with Marvel and DC:

Atlas/Seaboard offered some of the highest rates in the industry, plus return of artwork to artists and author rights to original character creations.[7] These relatively luxurious conditions attracted such top names as Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, Russ Heath, John Severin, Alex Toth and Wally Wood, as well as such up-and-coming talents as Howard Chaykin and Rich Buckler.

A total of 23 comics titles and five comics magazines were published before the company folded in late 1975. No title lasted more than four issues.

Apparently in 2019 producer Steven Paul paid a lot of money to buy the characters in an effort to make a cinematic universe (featuring a writer's room led by Akiva Goldsman)...

Paul, whose credits include Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance, andGhost In The Shell, has also signed Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) and his Weed Road Pictures to oversee a writers room to exploit the properties, which include Phoenix, Tiger-Man, Iron Jaw, The Dark Avenger, and The Grim Ghost.

SP Media Group struck the acquisition deal through Atlas Comics library owner Nemesis Group Inc. and its principal Jason Goodman, who is the grandson of Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman.

Production on the first project is anticipated to commence during the second quarter of 2020 with a release expected for 2021. The companies intend to produce and release at least one superhero project each year after that. The writers room will get to work on creating 10 initial outlines and will choose the first project after that.

Given that this seems to be the only news of the project (and Paul's… less than stellar track record) I'm guessing that this venture met the same fate as its comics predecessor. A shame. They could've cashed in on the BARBENHEIMER craze - I mean, come on: Jon Voight was excited:

Jon Voight, a longtime family friend of the Pauls (Paul is Voight’s manager) turned up to a press conference at the Carlton on the Croisette and said he would help with screenplays and anticipated acting in some of the films. He stars in family drama JL Family Ranch 2, which Pauls’ Crystal Sky Pictures is selling in Cannes.

Though I’m saddened that we’ll never get a Jon Voight-led Outcasts film, I did get to peruse some great Ditko art and learn a strange bit of comics history to boot: a midmorning well spent.

the collection: foci

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As I seem to have shifted my collecting (re-collecting?) interests back to comics, finally starting my third era – the first being the early-mid 90s and the second being mid-late 2000s – thought it might be useful to share a few brief thoughts on why I've chosen to add what I’ve added to The Collection in this third era if only to solidify said choices for myself.

  • Early Silver Daredevil: easily my favorite Marvel character; I have a fascination with the yellow suit and the transition to the red and how haphazard his early issues felt: unlike other Marvel creations, there didn't feel like there was a grand design behind him and they were making it up as they went along (I know this was generally the case with the early Marvel, but it feels really pronounced with Daredevil). As I now have issues 2-7, my willpower on holding off on issue one is waning. Also have AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 16, featuring a Ditko DD in yellow suit AND Spidey - what more could I ask for?

  • (PS Electro would have made a fantastic full-time Daredevil villain.)

  • The Question: "Created by Steve Ditko" has a wonderful ring when you open up a comic. I just love the character – from Ditko's objectivist meanderings to O'Neil's left-wing eastern mystic / Kaine in KUNG FU to Rick Veitch and Tommy Lee Edwards's poetic ass-kicker (in one of my favorite representations of Metropolis ever) to the Timm-verse JLU iteration to Rucka's genius transformation of Montoya into the second Question: the character is one of the most elastic – a blank face and a suit tend to lend themselves as such – ever created; that he seems to be languishing again is more than slightly heartbreaking.

  • Early Silver Marvel in general: this was prevalent during my first era of collecting, largely guided by cheap back issues of early MARVEL TALES. In this present iteration, I've amassed a pretty solid collection of Lee/Ditko Spideys and the aforementioned Daredevil, but I'm also grabbing up important issues in the development of the Marvel Universe: the first Cap story in TALES OF SUSPENSE No 59; the first issue of the Hulk's own ongoing series, No. 102 (having spun out of TALES TO ASTONISH); STRANGE TALES ANNUAL No. 2, just because it includes a weird Kirby Spidey tale (I have a thing for Kirby drawing Spidey). Speaking of:

  • Kirby's Fourth World: have the omnibus, love the insanity behind all of it. NEW GODS, MISTER MIRACLE, and FOREVER PEOPLE first issues are in my possession as is Kirby's first DC work, SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN 133. Not an active pursuit, but I'll always pick them up should the opportunity arise.

  • Complete runs of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (historical import and Perez art); BATMAN: YEAR ONE (Mazzuchelli Bats); Andreyko's MANHUNTER (several holes in my collection of one of DC's best series ever – which would be a perfect candidate for Max series adaptation: it screams for a merging of GOLIATH and PEACEMAKER, maybe a bit of ELI STONE thrown in); Bendis / Brubaker DAREDEVIL runs - had them all, lost them all in one of the moves; the Moench / Jones BATMAN run (still my favorite run in the whole of the character); I also need to get my hands on ALL-STAR SUPERMAN 12, as I have the first 11 issues then moved and all of it went to hell in the proverbial handbasket.

  • Outside of comics-comics: 1939-41 Superman merchandise – the early Siegel and Shuster iteration and the Fleischer cartoon version remain my favorite incarnation of Supes, the cornerstone of my collection being my 1939 Ideal composition doll as well as a first edition 1942 Lowther/Shuster ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN book and a 1940 Valentine’s Card featuring Superman about to punch a puppy because apparently that was a prerequisite for pre-war romance, IDK.

  • All foci above are, of course, in concert with the forever interests of The Shadow (I even have a complete run of the eight-issue Archie series coming because, in my passion for historical completion, I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment) and Dick Tracy, though both tend to be more towards toys, radio premiums, and Big Little Books, but I still snap up comics whenever I see them.

Do I have any idea what I'll do with all of this? Not in the slightest: I did, after all, run a half-marathon distance with no desire to run an actual half-marathon (with numbers and people and such) and now seem to have opened my own comic shop / museum with no customers or intention to sell anything so who knows.

spidey-goal

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When I began comics collecting, all those years ago, MARVEL TALES 13 and 14 were my gateway drugs to both Silver Age Marvel comics and the Lee/Ditko Spidey run, passions that have been part of my comics DNA for the last three decades. One of my life goals since that first taste was to own the original issues. As of today:

Four Spider-Man comics from the 60s, two the reprints, two the originals. Spidey strikes back, swinging at the reader.

The cover to ASM 19 / MARVEL TALES 14 remains one of my favorites of all time ever.