Censorship has been around longer than Steve Ditko, and while he has always
been held in the higher regard as an artist, that hasn't placed him above having
his artwork altered. The Comics Code Authority kicked in around 1955, and kicked out
alot of the "filth" (aka anything interesting) that was supposedly perverting young
minds. And while one may be able to make an argument against rampant depictions
and rape and pillage in a children's medium, the Code had set up stringent rules
of conduct to manipulate the reader's thought process, as it related to good and
evil. The Code was to be a moral authority, and the results could be rather
humourous at times.
Below is a page from the March 1958 issue of Charlton's TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER #7.
It is the last page of the story, drawn by Ditko, but there is something strange
lurking at the bottom of the page, in the last panel.....
.....the whole story, and this last page were done by Ditko, but clearly,
this last panel is not Ditko. The second last panel shows what may be the
re-occurrence of ''voices'' in the lead character. And yet, in the last panel,
this is erased with the first line ''it almost happened again'', as if a
scarier ending by Ditko had been censored and replaced by another artist
to provide a happy ending. The lettering is inconsistent, and that clearly
isn't a Ditko head. What evil originally lurked behind the re-done panel?
And who was the artist who was ordered to CENSOR Ditko's work? Only the
Mysterious Traveler knows.....
IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER EXAMPLES OF DITKO (or any other Marvel Silver Age
artist) BEING CENSORED OR ALTERED, PLEASE E-MAIL
ME, SO THAT I CAN ADD IT TO THIS SECTION. YOU WILL RECEIVE FULL CREDIT FOR YOUR
CONTRIBUTIONS.
|