Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Steve Ditko Cover of the Week: Monster Menance #2

Here's a great cover from the short-lived pre-FF #1 monster reprint series from the 90s. Ditko did some of his only work for Marvel in the 90s for this title, and this cover is a knockout. It is a such and treat to see Stan and Steve's collaboration come to life. The monsters look perfectly retro. I have no memory of these books ever being on the shelves, but they must have looked totally out of place among the other Marvel crap of the day. I don't think Marvel had used the word 'Amok' on a cover since the mid-70s. How can you not love a parade of Ditko monsters? This is also another one to add to the list of his 'floating head' covers. If you are at all like me, you can never keep all of these monster straight. Luckily for us, there's a legend inside. At least I think there is. Am I imagining that? I got very little sleep last night.

7 comments:

Jeremy A. Patterson said...

This is a off-beat cover!

J.A.P.

Aaron said...

Ditko is at his best when he's doing monsters and supernatural stuff!

Mark said...

It's funny that an objectivist would be better at the supernatural but you're right.

Aaron said...

Is/Was Ditko an objectivist? I guess THAT explains the Question! Ha!

Mark said...

I don't know if he followed it exactly but it was a big influence to him (since he doesn't give interviews, it's hard to say for sure).

But check out Mr. A, Ditko's love letter to Ayn Rand. He makes the Question seem like Dove.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_A

Scott M said...

For those interesting in finding out more about Ditko and Rand's influence on his work, I suggest you read Blake Bell's Ditko biography. It is an amazing book - very well researched and wonderfully packaged.

Unknown said...

I'm a big Ditko fan, but it must be noted that most of these "Ditko Monsters" are really "Kirby Monsters." The wooden monster, Fing Fang Foom, the orange guy w/ yellow hair, and the guy w/ blue horns are all from Kirby. Probably others, too.