Doctor Strange-Roach (2006)
Art by Dave Sim
DAVE SIM:
(from The Blog & Mail, 21 November 2006)
...Ger brought in Sean M's commission request for a Doctor Strangeroach, a la Steve Ditko. I told Ger to give him the number here and I'd talk to him about it which I did just a little while ago. He's one of those really good art collectors who likes to give artists a lot of latitude. Major Steve Ditko fan so I wanted to know what his level of compulsion was. I don't remember a lot about Dr. Strange, but I did remember that they changed his costume pretty quickly after he first appeared in Strange Tales #110. It was sort of a subdued blue number to begin with. Sean mentioned that the amulet used to look different, that it actually had something sculpted on it, a figure or something. I had definitely forgotten that part and wished I had some reference to check (yes, I know, if I was hooked up to the Internet I could just Google it and there it would be). He told me about another artist who's working on a commission for him where it's going to have all these giant disembodied floating eyes with devouring maws. Because we're talking about Steve Ditko, I instantly get a definite mental image. Sean said that he had mentioned it to his wife (who shares his love of comics, lucky guy) and she said, "How could an eye have a devouring maw?" I think you have to have grown up with Steve Ditko for that to be second nature. So, all right, now I'm getting the range and this was what I was interested in - Steve Ditko's way with drawing otherworldly dimensions. Nobody else even comes close. And he's going to give me the latitude to do whatever I want in that way, so specific preference for the earliest Doctor Strange over the later Doctor Strange.
7 comments:
I wonder if the ectoplasmic self having two right hands was just a mistake (we've almost all done it at one time or another!), or an intentional joke about how twisty the ballet master form is?
Hi everyone! I figured I'd leave a comment on today's post...
I'm just a regular guy who ordered the Cerebus Cover Art Treasury HC on Amazon.com. It arrived this afternoon, and it is truly a wonderful, wonderful book.
Lots of folks are going to be thrilled.
Hi Koumichoff! I'm sure IDW would be thrilled if you could post a favourable review at Amazon since (from what I understand) that's where The World Buys Its Books These Days and (also from what I understand) favourable reviews count for a lot when people are shopping on Amazon.
Sad to say, it's really not enough to JUST be thrilled these days -- you have to be thrilled in The Right Place Online -- i.e. Amazon when it comes to books -- to do any good.
May I also recommend that people who are thrilled with the COVERS TREASURY but didn't buy the book on Amazon post a favourable review on Amazon? Or is that against the law? :)
Thanks for posting!
I'm just glad that the distinction between a Real and a Counterfeit #1 is now available in print.
Barry! Hi. Didn't want to be accused of either a "backhanded" or "left-handed" compliment of Baryshnikov.
Today (Nov. 2nd) is Ditko's birthday!
I could never look Steve Ditko in the eye again if I went to see a DR. STRANGE movie.
Unlikely I'd ever get back to NYC to see him, anyway, but there it is.
I did read Chris Knight's review in the NATIONAL POST and it SOUNDED as if they swiped Ditko's "The Cape" concept from his most recent work and grafted it onto the movie Dr. Strange. Can anyone familiar with both -- Rob Imes? Robert Rowe? Anyone? -- confirm or refute that?
Dave: I'm familiar with both sources, and I don't think this specific instance was a case of stealing from later Ditko. (I will simply pass over Marvel's and Disney's stealing from earlier Ditko.) Others' opinions?
-- Damian
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