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Dream World!
2007-10-02 16:50:11

As a little treat/follow up to our coverage of Jonathan Ross's Steve Ditko documentary, here's a five-page story from one of the Pre-Hero Marvel monster mags that's been making the rounds.

There's not an awful lot to this tale, but it does perfectly encapsulate the air of strangeness and paranoia that permeated Ditko's work. And the storytelling is so spot-on that you can completely follow the story just from the visuals, without reading any of the copy at all. (Admittedly, there's not a whole lot of story to have to follow...)

These little short vignettes were Ditko's stock-in-trade at the beginning of the 1960s, and a real favorite of Stan Lee's to work on. They were clearly inspired by the popularity of the then-new Twilight Zone series. Stan had enough faith in them as a concept to devote an entire series to just this kind of story, AMAZING ADULT FANTASY, entirely produced by himself and Ditko (while Kirby worked on the new FANTASTIC FOUR series--AAF was positioned as a sort of spiritual sister title to the FF, and shared a logo style with it.)

Of course, it didn't work out for AMAZING ADULT FANTASY as well as for FF, and in a failed attempt to save the series, Stan and Steve would go on to debut a new super hero character in the pages of what would wind up being the last issue, Spider-Man.

More later.

Tom B

Seriously, Make That A Miniseries
Honest-to-God, I'd love to see that happening for 6 issues or so.

"This isn't really happening; It's a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream within a . . ."

Only make it Peter Parker, so it'll sell.

Posted by Carzy on 2007-10-02 19:14:15

Hmm
Yes, very Twilight-Zoney. Too bad philosophy doesn't sell as well as people being punched.

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-10-03 09:01:49

as a Ditko fan
no I can't...

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-10-03 11:37:02

as a Ditko fan(2)
...no waitaminute

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-10-03 11:38:22

as a Ditko fan(3)
....thanks very much

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-10-03 11:39:06

just
don't tell me that's what you call sandwiches

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-10-03 11:39:35

fanatic
not only Twilight Zone, but a little like Mc Cay...
BY THE WAY, i'D LIKE TO THANK ALL THE TEAM ON DIGITAL COMICS,THANKS VERY MUCH,I just actually 'd like to know why in each STRANGE TALES issues , there's only 'Doctor Strange', and not 'Nick Fury,agent of S.H.I.E.L.D', I tought they were sharing ther issues each others,
is there a chance to see one day the STRANGE TALES collected, like ESSENTIALS,I'll be very curious to read and discover what had been the S.H.I.E.L.D and the adventures of Fury at these times...
you never replied on my posts anyway

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-10-03 11:49:00

I think
this is just Christmas now

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-10-03 11:50:20

Never thought of it like that

Posted by zeroman1451 on 2007-10-03 14:23:01

remembers me of...
this story makes me remember those short stories alan moore and other authors used to do in the beginning of the 80-s in the 2000AD british magazines.

Posted by Los Shapis on 2007-10-03 19:23:54

This one is reprinted in the Marvel Visionaries: Steve Ditko HC

Posted by MBeaz on 2007-10-04 17:04:22

Wow.....this like the matrix..............only like 50+ years earlier

Posted by lordlad on 2007-10-07 05:50:27

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About this blog:
Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."

About the author:
Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.


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