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CBA : Were you a Marvel fan growing up?
BARRY : Stan wanted every ''penciler'' in his employ to draw like Jack - not necessarily copy him, I must point out, because that has been misconstrued for too long - but, rather, to adapt from Kirby's dynamism and dramatic staging. Many pencilers pretty much had their own personal styles wrecked by Stan's insistence in this matter.....I doubt whether Stan pushed Steve Ditko to be more like Kirby because, after all, Ditko's style was already dramatic in its staging and pacing. If Stan had insisted that Herb Trimpe, for instance, should draw more like Ditko, I don't think Herb would have felt so buggered about by Stan's need for a ''Company Style.''
CBA : Were you a Marvel fan growing up?
STEVE : I was too old to have read Marvel growing up.....During my freshman year of college in 1965, a friend said, ''You've got to take a look at this.'' It was a Ditko Spider-Man, and I liked it. I bought three months' worth of all the Marvel books at a little newsstand in town. So I not only met the characters for the first time, but I really got the full force of the soap opera and the ongoing relationships between all those characters. That sucked me in.
AH : You're part of the Hawaii mafia of cartoonists....
STAN : Oh, with Dennis Fujitake, Gary Kato, and Dave Thorne? I grew up with Dennis and Gary. We all lived in roughly the same neighborhood. So I knew them when I was in eighth grade or so. Actually, they're the ones who really got me turned on to comic books. I had collected them before but never with the intent of going into the business. In fact, before meeting them I never consciously thought that there were people out there producing comic books. I just thought they magically appeared on the shelves every Friday or so. But after meeting [Gary and Dennis] we really got into artwork and story. And oh, we worshiped Steve Ditko. This was when Ditko was doing Spider-Man, about #18 or so. We were all Ditko clones. all our poses were like Ditko's. Ditko was wonderful; he still is. It's funny how our styles have changed so much now. We all had the same starting point but our styles are completely different. I guess Gary Kato is the one that has kept the Ditko influence the most.
AH : Which cartoonists would you consider your major influences?
STAN : I guess Steve Ditko was the first real influence.
CC - What other artists, beside Dan Adkins, do you admire?
STATON - To be perfectly honest with you, it would be a lot easier to come up with a list of people that I don't like. However, I'll try to nail down a few favorites. Gil Kane is sort of a basic style to respect; especially his early Green Lantern work as inked by Anderson. Jim Aparo and Neal Adams are beautiful in the faces they use. Each of their characters fits his part perfectly. Lou Fine and Jack Davis for their characterizations, too. Russ Manning for his authenticity (his old SEA HUNT comics are the optimum skin diver comics). Steve Ditko as a really unique visual vocabulary, and a keen sense of design.
Q - Who are your idols, past & present, in the comics industry?
JOEY - Yikes. First and foremost, there's Joe Orlando, who taught me just about everything. I've worked with, or had projects associated with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Curt Swan and Julius Schwartz (just TRY finding any of this stuff!). Among my teachers at SVA were Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman, and both of whom have affected me profoundly. Somebody who doesn't get enough mention is Marie Severin, who is probably my favorite cartoonist, period.
TJKC : Did you ever meet Steve Ditko?
GEORGE : Oh, I still see him occasionally and when we have discussions, though not
heated, I'm right and he's wrong all the time. (laughter) He's very strong-headed about
his ideas, and that got him into trouble with Stan Lee. Very stubborn and very pleasant. I liked
Steve.
TJKC : What was it like when Ditko left, as opposed to when Jack left?
MARIE : I thought that no one could replace Ditko's Spider-Man - but Stan made
Romita work on it, and John turned his version into the Marvel trademark - but Dr.
Strange was never done better than Steve. Stan must have been uneasy when Ditko left and,
though I never heard him talk about it, when Kirby left, I imagine he felt awful.
TJKC : Did you ever meet Ditko?
MARIE : Yeah. I like him. I got along fine with him. It's a shame he doesn't take advantage
of the money he could make on drawing and those recreations like so many pros are doing.
Q : Shade. Did you choose this character...or was it the name, "the
changing man" that was interesting, or --
PM : It was the idea of the changing man. The idea of change. It
was two things: the idea of the changing man and Steve Ditko; I really like
Steve Ditko, 'cause he was so fucking crazy. And I liked
the idea that -- I guess I made it difficult for myself. I couldn't think
of a more absurd and insane character to take on -- it was Shade the
Changing Man. Because I doubt if you've ever read the original Steve Ditko
Shade the Changing Man. It's like, so incomprehensible. It's really
insane, and I thought, 'My God, to take on this character...it would be
such like' -- so I did. I liked the idea of changing. I liked the idea of
madness. I liked the idea of madness almost like a force for change.
Madness. I heard someone say a really good thing about schizophrenics...I
heard someone say a really good thing about schizophrenia, said that, ah,
for most people, schizophrenia is a break down, every now and again it's a
breakthrough. The idea that madness can be a breakthrough.
Also on the way are more single-issue
Times Past stories in Starman. Does Robinson
know in advance who he's going to work with on these stories and
tailor the stories to the artist?
"I always know in advance
with the Times Past, and I do tailor," he says. "For
instance, upcoming is a western Scalphunter story with art by
Tim Bradstreet; there'll be one by Bret Blevins that is a sort
of Victorian mystery story; there's a Will Payton adventure with
art by Richard Pace; and hopefully there'll be one with the Demon
by Duncan Rouleau, which is set in the 1940s and features Ted
Knight. So they all have a different feel, hopefully working towards
the strength of that artist. Also upcoming is the Starman
Annual for this year. The framing sequences for all the
annuals this year are in the far future and earth has died, and
these are all myths that may or may not be true. I felt I had
so much story to tell already, I didn't want to labor it down
with stories that might not be true, so I chose to tell two stories
that were true and they're told by the Shade. One of them is the
first meeting of Ted Knight and Billy O'Dare, who is the father
of the current crop of O'Dare's and it's a 1940s horror/crime
story with amazingly beautiful art by J.H. Williams. The other
story is the death of the Steve Ditko Prince Gavin Starman. He
died in Crisis in one panel, a very oblique death,
so I'm showing his death from his point of view and this will
tie in with the Will Payton storyline to come. Art for that is
by Bret Blevins and the bridging sequences are by Craig Hamilton."
Interviewed by Jon B. Cooke, 11/97
for The Jack Kirby Collector #18
Interviewed by Jon B. Cooke, 11/97
for The Jack Kirby Collector #18
Letters Page for QUESTAR #2, Sum/78
Pro Con '93 Speech - Apr 1 '93
Source unknown
World Of Westfield Interviews by Roger Smith, 1996