The pipeline of Ditko's '50s career is as such...
Ditko worked for the odd company in 1953 before cover dates
had him at Charlton in 1954. He "disappeared" from New York
until 1956, which brought him almost exclusively to Atlas
for his first run at the company that would be Marvel Comics.
1957 saw a return to Charlton, which held his interest
until Lee called Kirby, Heck, Ayers, Reinman and Ditko back
to the fold in late '58. Ditko worked simultaneously for the
two companies in 1959 and 1960, before Marvel took over the
bulk of Ditko's load until mid-'66.
Ditko has stated there was no other company he would want
to work for but Marvel (at the time), but he has also later
stated he truly admired Joe Gill's storytelling. He no doubt
had VERY little editorial interference at Charlton at any
point in his history. With this, however, went a much smaller
paycheck.
Could this be the reason a decent-sized amount of Ditko's
1958 and 1959 Charlton work, when his Atlas work shared the
spotlight, is so inferior?
Assuming you buy this premise, there could be three reasons
for this...
1) A smaller paycheck meant rushing to finish jobs he could
have spent more time on. Perhaps Ditko spent more time on
stories he liked better, but had to really move quickly on those
he didn't.
2) Superior storytelling. Too many of the Charlton stories
are what I call "flat-liners". They don't have that ironic
twist at the end that makes the reader go "Ha!". With many
of the Charlton stories, you expect a punchline, and are
usually disappointed. Again, the speed at which the writers
at Charlton had to produce the stories may have been a
factor. But Stan Lee had to punch out quite a few stories,
and run the company from the editorial side, so this isn't
a great excuse. Eventually, Lee and company began repeating
themselves, but the first two years are pretty original in
content.
3) I suspect, although he loved the lack of interference
at Charlton, Ditko knew he was a part of something "bigger"
at Marvel.
I say this because most, if not all, of the Atlas stories
Ditko rendered (that I have read) are FAR tighter, and FAR
more inventive in their layout design than the counterparts
at Charlton for the same time period.
What primarily symbolizes Ditko's Charlton work is the
long, undetailed faces of his figures. The weaker stories
also lack a GREAT deal of background detail.
The same can't be said for his Atlas stories. They always
seem to have inventive panel designs; the features on most of
the figures are mostly very tight, and there is a GREAT deal
of background framing.
One of the pages worth such raves is PAGE 2
from STRANGE WORLDS #1 (Dec '58).
The bottom third set of panels are my favourite; far
less static than PAGE 3 from OUTLAWS
OF THE WEST #18, released but a month later (Jan '59).
Notice the difference in background detail, as well.
This page from OUTLAWS has something in common with the
following Charlton page, and that is the loose rendering
of the faces on the figures. In fact, this next page,
PAGE 5 from OUTER SPACE #19 (Oct '58)
is amongst the loosest I have seen from Ditko.
Granted, these are alien figures, but those bottom
two panels contain virtual scratch marks for facial features.
Notice how "flat" the images look, compared to the above
Atlas page. The attention to detail brings the Atlas
page to life. The same can be said for this Atlas page -
PAGE 3, from STRANGE TALES #72 (Dec '59).
The faces are far tighter and much more attention is
paid to the overall layout design of each panel, especially
the final one.
What makes the Atlas stories SEEM so superior? It is the
attention to detail, which allows for a greater believability
in the worlds Ditko conjures visually. Once the reader
has suspended his disbelief (as the saying goes), the
reader is far more willing to engage in the narrative's
far-reaching possibilities.
This is only two examples of Atlas work vs. Charlton
work from this 1958/59 time period. Tighter Charlton
work can be found (sometimes in the same issue), and I'm
sure slightly looser work can be found in some Atlas
stories. It is safe to say, however, these examples represent
the bulk of the work I have come into contact with
concerning both companies from this time period.
In conclusion, whatever the reason, Ditko constantly
rendered tighter tales for Stan Lee and Atlas, than
he did for Pat Masulli at Charlton during this period.
(Ed. note : as for the two other Ditko stories in
OUTER SPACE #19 [the page above is from the final
one, TEN BILLION B.C.], the first story "What Are
The Flying Saucers" is an oddity for Ditko, as it
falls into that "factual" type Charlton story,
where there is little to no dialogue, but simply
descriptions based on the title of the story. It is
only during the fourth page of the five that any kind
of narrative even approaches the work. The 2nd Ditko
story, "The Strange Asteroid", is rendered almost as
loose as the third [the first is no 'shaker', either],
making this one of the weaker Charlton Ditko efforts
I have read yet. Paul Reinman does a two-pager for
this issue and, coincidentally, it is his weakest
work I have seen. Another rush job?)
|