tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post8305687537275152274..comments2024-03-28T02:14:28.446-07:00Comments on Blog Flume: Ditko and the Beauty of AbstractionAlvin Buenaventurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13279526339444526106noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post-72942819696241810962009-07-15T19:17:41.365-07:002009-07-15T19:17:41.365-07:00I've always thought that Ditko was seriously u...I've always thought that Ditko was seriously underrated. Look at his Dr. Strange work, for example. Subsequent Dr. Strange artists made all kinds of attempts to out-weird Ditko, using tricks like having the panels of a page form a giant face. Yet for all of their clever razzle dazzle and calculated weirdness, none of their work came even remotely close to the insanely bizarre, otherworldliness of what went on inside Ditko's plain rectangles. It's as if Ditko had access to putting his Id or whatever was scratching away at his spinal cord in the dead of night directly onto the page. He consistently produced very disturbing, highly freakish, phantasmal, entertaining & scary stuff.<br /><br />In 1972, when I came to NY to work for Kurtzman & Elder, the first thing I did was look in the Manhattan telephone directory for Steve Ditko. I didn't call him or anything; it just felt good to know he really existed.Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12175176789551383392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post-22166938515861339462009-07-11T01:56:17.220-07:002009-07-11T01:56:17.220-07:00This is a perceptive article. Thanks for the insig...This is a perceptive article. Thanks for the insight!<br /><br />Ditko remains for me one of the more talented artists to work in comics. The more I examine his work, the closer he comes in my estimation to artists like Bernie Krigstein.James Robert Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17281049641681225389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post-26689113636084119712009-07-10T10:42:34.420-07:002009-07-10T10:42:34.420-07:00Readers should certainly check out Andrei's gr...Readers should certainly check out Andrei's group blog, which has info on his forthcoming collection and post by many of the book's contributors:<br />http://abstractcomics.blogspot.com/Ken Parillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00701364662425130792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post-37804553283126033212009-07-09T01:50:03.957-07:002009-07-09T01:50:03.957-07:00Interesting. I make much of the same point in the...Interesting. I make much of the same point in the introduction to the Abstract Comics anthology, with examples from Dr. Strange and Spider-Man. The Dr. Strange example is much like these ones (and thanks for introducing me to this story, I had no idea it existed!). For the Spider-Man example, I argue that, even when all objects are recognizable, the overall design of the page, and the composition of individual panels, can be so formalized as to tend toward abstraction--in a way, they ask to be read as much abstractly as representationally.Andrei Molotiuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17400106944822618816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post-57059428059743458692009-07-08T12:19:13.396-07:002009-07-08T12:19:13.396-07:00Charles,
You are right - they are of course repre...Charles,<br /><br />You are right - they are of course representational in that the represent the things of that world. But it's interesting to me that things like the paint splat are a familiar cartoon device that seems to have nothing to do with a splat; and in the comic is it something static or in motion? There's a real opneness here -- if you take out the humans, it all looks highly abstract, even though it isn't.Ken Parillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00701364662425130792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post-15749049766935650192009-07-07T09:15:07.758-07:002009-07-07T09:15:07.758-07:00Love these Ditko posts, man.
A question that aris...Love these Ditko posts, man.<br /><br />A question that arises: are these abstractions really abstract, severed from representation, if they serve a narrative purpose? Namely, they represent the weird realm where the travelers go.Charles R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09017194183349815246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post-25427072248885698842009-07-07T08:22:54.036-07:002009-07-07T08:22:54.036-07:00never saw this story before, but it's a nice l...never saw this story before, but it's a nice looking one, almost goofy. abstraction is obvious in some of ditko superhero stuff so it's good you looked at a minor story.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6765833308080093932.post-79005161187786947232009-07-06T11:06:14.442-07:002009-07-06T11:06:14.442-07:00Nice work. You should collect your Ditko blogs. Th...Nice work. You should collect your Ditko blogs. There's more interesting stuff on Ditko lately online - that recent book on him was ok, but had very weak analysis, unlike this post and the one at thoughballoonists.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com