GIL KANE ''Bypassing The Real For The Ideal'' Published in the Harvard Journal Of Pictorial Fiction, Spring '74;
swiped From The Jack Kirby Collector #19, 4/98
With big bands, when there were one or two first-rate musicians in the band, the whole
band would come alive. And when the band would break up, all going different ways, the musicians
would look back at that time as a kind of Olympus, when everyone was so charged by the
intensity. It shows you that people can have enormous talent and never use it. It is untapped,
a reserve; the potentials are never realized until a catalyst comes along. Harvey Kurtzman
was a catalyst, Al Feldstein was a catalyst. Then there were artists who worked in obscurity,
who had ordinary careers; by Kurtzman and Feldstein individually imposing their standards and
ideas, they expanded the universes of all these artists and lifted their work to great heights.
That's the way Stan Lee, with virtually a depleted comics house, was able to use Jack
(Kirby) as a catalyst and mobilize a group of lesser artists. All of a sudden, people like
Ditko came from nowhere and in a period of three years were able to build up a tremendous
skill and popularity. Ditko's qualities at Marvel were second only to Jack's. I still consider
one of his sequences in particular a masterpiece of pacing and suspense. Spider-Man is trapped
under a huge machine, and the sequence builds up a powerful communication of 'will he, or won't
he?' leading to a splash page of a super-human effort that lifts clear the machine. It is one
of the most satisfying moments in comics.