Dripping With Fear: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 5

Dripping With Fear: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 5 features another 200-plus meticulously restored, full-color pages from Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko in his early prime, at the time working in near anonymity for Charlton Comics in the then-popular horror/suspense genre. Comics like Tales of The Mysterious Traveler and This Magazine Is Haunted saw an explosion in Ditko’s ingenuity, as he manipulated the traditional comic-book page layout with masterful results. It was during this time that Ditko and his art-school colleague, the famed fetish artist Eric Stanton, began sharing a studio in Manhattan. The introduction by editor Blake Bell examines Ditko’s stylistic evolution and delves deep into his association with Stanton. Ditko’s secret collaborations with Stanton on his female bondage material remain a highly controversial topic, and Bell’s introduction highlights numerous examples that prove the allegedly shy and private Ditko contributed with wild abandon to these risqué tales of titillation. This fifth volume stands as the best example yet of the Steve Ditko that would soon begin crafting such iconic classics as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange alongside Stan Lee at Marvel Comics.

Steve Ditko continues to create comics in his studio in New York City.

Blake Bell is the author of Strange & Stranger (a retrospective of Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko); The Secret History of Marvel Comics, Fire & Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics; Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives; and Strange Suspense and Unexplored Worlds (two volumes in The Steve Ditko Archives). He lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his son.