Saturday, September 13, 2008

worship of the object



Since Steve Ditko's original artwork for 1962's "Amazing Fantasy 15" — the first appearance of the Spider-Man — was donated to the Library of Congress in April, a new breed of researcher has been spotted at the library.

"I've never, ever had researchers have their picture taken with works of art, until now," said Sara W. Duke, a curator of popular and applied graphic art at the library. "It's almost like a worship of the object that goes on."

Two people with no plans to visit, however, are the webslinger's creative team: writer/editor Stan Lee and artist Ditko.

"I'm just too busy," said Lee, 85, in an interview from his California offices. "Plus, I've already seen them. I'm not someone who lives in the past too much."

Ditko, 80, was more abrupt. When reached at his Manhattan studio, he would only say: "I couldn't care less."



ok so right until this moment I did not realize there was an alternate, way cooler Steve Ditko version of the AF15 cover. I mean, look at that fucking thing. It is beautiful. On the basis of this alone I am tempted to declare that Ditko was a superior artist to Jack Kirby, but I don't want to get crazy here.

1 comment:

mark said...

the unused cover looks way better.
the kirby cover is darker and seems more menacing though.