Ditko/Broadway Comics
Jan 1, 2009 19:44:26 GMT -5
Post by vikingspawn on Jan 1, 2009 19:44:26 GMT -5
Was looking for Jim Shooter interviews and found this one where Shooter talked about how Steve Ditko's Mr. A character was almost at Broadway before it was sold to Golden Books:
www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/interviews/shooter_1.shtml
The Ditko talk is mentioned at the end of part 2 of the interview here:
www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/interviews/shooter_2.shtml
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Prof: Oh. I was just wondering about your collaboration with Ditko.
JS: Oh, Ditko. Right. So Steve came back. Steve had a real ugly parting with Marvel and hated us and all that stuff like that, but I met him. I met him up at Neal's, I think. I talked to him. I said, "You know, Steve, you're a founding father. If you ever, ever need anything. If you want anything, want the work, whatever, the door is always open. Any time." I said the same would go for Kirby, except that he was busy suing us, but, whatever, but the founding fathers, as far as I was concerned, if there is nothing I'll make something for them. So to my amazement one day Ditko shows up and wants work. The trouble with Steve was he's really fussy about what he would do. First of all he'd never touch Spider-Man or Dr. Strange because that just gave him bad feelings. Second, if it was a hero that had any flaws, he wouldn't touch 'em. "Heroes don't have flaws. Heroes are heroes." I'm like, "Oh, geez, you did Spider-Man. He had flaws." He said, "Well, he was a kid then. It's okay. He hadn't learned anything yet." *sigh* Finally we settled on Rom, SpaceKnight, which seemed noble enough for him to do. He did a good job on that. It was great. He did other little things here and there, and when I left Marvel they stopped giving him work! They basically threw him out.
Prof: Oh, man.
JS: Now Steve, his stuff was old-fashioned and he wasn't a fan fave and I'm sure that contributed to the book not selling as well as it might have, but they wouldn't give him work! He came to me at VALIANT, practically…Steve is not a hat-in-his-hand kind of guy, don't get me wrong, but he really needed a gig. And so at that time I think we were doing wrestling books and I said, "Would you do these?" "Yeah." So he did some wrestling books. He did some nice work for us, and we got along great. He's a very, very tough nut. When I went to DEFIANT I asked him to describe to me the perfect kind of character. I thought I created that when I did the Dark Dominion thing and he agreed to draw it and he got about halfway into it and he came in and dropped it on my desk and said, "I can't do this." I said, "Why not?" He said "It's Platonic, and I am a Aristotilian." I said, "What?" He had to explain that one to me and he said, "Well, Plato thought there was the real world and then this invisible world and I'm Aristotilian—I believe that what you see is what you get. That's all there is. Reality. This story has a substratum world and I'm not drawing it." I said, "Oh…" (Chuckle.) But anyway, I still love Steve and I would do anything for him. Great guy. He's a tough nut, though. At Broadway, when I had a little more latitude I tried to talk him into letting us publish Mr. A. I said, "You keep all the rights. We don't want any rights. No, no, no, no. We just want to publish it. That's all. And if you choose to, if you decide, we would like you to consider giving us, for compensation, a temporary right to do film or television. And you get the say over that if you want. Steve, I've got money now (that is, Broadway did), and I want to publish Mr. A." Because Mr. A was like his greatest thing. And he was so suspicious of dealing with a company, he was just sure that somehow we'd get our hooks into Mr. A and it would be taken away from him. Eventually, though, he just sort of started to come around to the idea, and he actually brought me a Mr. A story and said, "You read this and tell me if you'll publish it exactly as is word for word." And I read it and I said, "Yes, I will." Well, about that time we were getting sold to Golden Books and the window closed.
Prof: Oh, boy.
JS: Yeah, but Mr. A is cool and I love Steve and I wish we'd done it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone heard more backstory of this?
www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/interviews/shooter_1.shtml
The Ditko talk is mentioned at the end of part 2 of the interview here:
www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/interviews/shooter_2.shtml
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof: Oh. I was just wondering about your collaboration with Ditko.
JS: Oh, Ditko. Right. So Steve came back. Steve had a real ugly parting with Marvel and hated us and all that stuff like that, but I met him. I met him up at Neal's, I think. I talked to him. I said, "You know, Steve, you're a founding father. If you ever, ever need anything. If you want anything, want the work, whatever, the door is always open. Any time." I said the same would go for Kirby, except that he was busy suing us, but, whatever, but the founding fathers, as far as I was concerned, if there is nothing I'll make something for them. So to my amazement one day Ditko shows up and wants work. The trouble with Steve was he's really fussy about what he would do. First of all he'd never touch Spider-Man or Dr. Strange because that just gave him bad feelings. Second, if it was a hero that had any flaws, he wouldn't touch 'em. "Heroes don't have flaws. Heroes are heroes." I'm like, "Oh, geez, you did Spider-Man. He had flaws." He said, "Well, he was a kid then. It's okay. He hadn't learned anything yet." *sigh* Finally we settled on Rom, SpaceKnight, which seemed noble enough for him to do. He did a good job on that. It was great. He did other little things here and there, and when I left Marvel they stopped giving him work! They basically threw him out.
Prof: Oh, man.
JS: Now Steve, his stuff was old-fashioned and he wasn't a fan fave and I'm sure that contributed to the book not selling as well as it might have, but they wouldn't give him work! He came to me at VALIANT, practically…Steve is not a hat-in-his-hand kind of guy, don't get me wrong, but he really needed a gig. And so at that time I think we were doing wrestling books and I said, "Would you do these?" "Yeah." So he did some wrestling books. He did some nice work for us, and we got along great. He's a very, very tough nut. When I went to DEFIANT I asked him to describe to me the perfect kind of character. I thought I created that when I did the Dark Dominion thing and he agreed to draw it and he got about halfway into it and he came in and dropped it on my desk and said, "I can't do this." I said, "Why not?" He said "It's Platonic, and I am a Aristotilian." I said, "What?" He had to explain that one to me and he said, "Well, Plato thought there was the real world and then this invisible world and I'm Aristotilian—I believe that what you see is what you get. That's all there is. Reality. This story has a substratum world and I'm not drawing it." I said, "Oh…" (Chuckle.) But anyway, I still love Steve and I would do anything for him. Great guy. He's a tough nut, though. At Broadway, when I had a little more latitude I tried to talk him into letting us publish Mr. A. I said, "You keep all the rights. We don't want any rights. No, no, no, no. We just want to publish it. That's all. And if you choose to, if you decide, we would like you to consider giving us, for compensation, a temporary right to do film or television. And you get the say over that if you want. Steve, I've got money now (that is, Broadway did), and I want to publish Mr. A." Because Mr. A was like his greatest thing. And he was so suspicious of dealing with a company, he was just sure that somehow we'd get our hooks into Mr. A and it would be taken away from him. Eventually, though, he just sort of started to come around to the idea, and he actually brought me a Mr. A story and said, "You read this and tell me if you'll publish it exactly as is word for word." And I read it and I said, "Yes, I will." Well, about that time we were getting sold to Golden Books and the window closed.
Prof: Oh, boy.
JS: Yeah, but Mr. A is cool and I love Steve and I wish we'd done it.
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Anyone heard more backstory of this?
