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Originally hailing from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Steve Ditko’s love for comics began at a young age. After serving in the U.S. Army, where he drew comics for the Army newsletter, one of his idols, Batman artist Jerry Robinson, became his mentor. By the early 1950s, Steve’s first work appeared in print, and shortly thereafter he made his way to Atlas Comics—the precursor of Marvel Comics.
The artist would quickly leave his mark, leading Stan Lee to rechristen Amazing Adventures as Amazing Adult Fantasy (later Amazing Fantasy) to showcase Steve’s talents. In 1962, that collaboration led to one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. The introduction of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15 stands as one of the landmarks of both Steve’s career and Marvel history.
Steve went on to co-create most of Spider-Man’s now-infamous rogues’ gallery and re-envisioned many of Marvel’s iconic characters to what we know today. He redesigned Iron Man’s armor into the popular red-and-gold design, and in the Hulk comics, he codified Bruce Banner’s transformations to be a function of his anger. It is perhaps with Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, that Steve truly expressed his visionary impulses—the early stories in Strange Tales could only have come from the mind of Steve Ditko. He left Marvel to pursue other work in 1966 but returned in 1979. In the 1990s, Steve helped to co-create all-new characters, including Speedball and Squirrel Girl.
One of the greatest artist-writer talents in comic book history, Steve’s imagination and creative vision changed the comics industry and super hero storytelling forever.