Stephen John Ditko[1][2] (/ˈdɪtkoʊ/; November 2, 1927 – June 29, 2018) was an American comic book artist best known for being the co-creator of Marvel superheroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

He began his professional career in 1953, working in the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, beginning as an inker and coming under the influence of artist Mort Meskin.

He continued to work for Charlton and also DC Comics, including a revamp of the long-running character the Blue Beetle and creating or co-creating The Question, The Creeper, Shade, the Changing Man, Nightshade, and Hawk and Dove.

[8][9] Ditko in junior high school was part of a group of students who crafted wooden models of German airplanes to aid civilian World War II aircraft-spotters.

[16] Shortly afterward, Ditko found work at the studio of writer-artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who had created Captain America and other characters.

[27] Ditko returned to Charlton afterward and experimented with various drawing styles and genres in series such as Tales of the Mysterious Traveler and This Magazine is Haunted.

Lee in 2009 described these "short, five-page filler strips that Steve and I did together", originally "placed in any of our comics that had a few extra pages to fill", as "odd fantasy tales that I'd dream up with O. Henry-type endings."

Kirby told Lee about his own 1950s character conception, variously called the Silver Spider and Spiderman, in which an orphaned boy finds a magic ring that gives him super powers.

Comics historian Les Daniels noted, "Steve Ditko squeezes every ounce of anguish out of Spider-Man's predicament, complete with visions of the uncle he failed and the aunt he has sworn to save.

"[53] Steve Saffel stated the "full page Ditko image from The Amazing Spider-Man #33 is one of the most powerful ever to appear in the series and influenced writers and artists for many years to come.

Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story, "These first five pages are a modern-day equivalent to Shakespeare as Parker's soliloquy sets the stage for his next action.

"[56] In this series, Ditko also had a lasting effect on Marvel's branding when he inserted a small box on the upper left-hand corner of issue #2 that featured a picture of Spider-Man's face along with the company name and price.

[62] Though often overshadowed by his Spider-Man work, Ditko's Doctor Strange artwork has been equally acclaimed for its surrealistic mystical landscapes and increasingly psychedelic visuals that helped make the feature a favorite of college students.

In an epic 17-issue story arc in Strange Tales #130–146 (March 1965 – July 1966), Lee and Ditko introduced the cosmic character Eternity, who personified the universe and was depicted as a silhouette whose outlines are filled with the cosmos.

[65] As historian Bradford W. Wright describes, Steve Ditko contributed some of his most surrealistic work to the comic book and gave it a disorienting, hallucinogenic quality.

[69] Whichever feature he drew, Ditko's idiosyncratic, cleanly detailed, instantly recognizable art style, emphasizing mood and anxiety, found great favor with readers.

The character of Spider-Man and his troubled personal life meshed well with Ditko's own interests, which Lee eventually acknowledged by giving the artist plotting credits on the latter part of their 38-issue run.

"[71] Ditko later claimed it was Lee who broke off contact and disputed the long-held belief[72] that the disagreement was over the true identity of the Green Goblin: "Stan never knew what he was getting in my Spider-Man stories and covers until after [production manager] Sol Brodsky took the material from me ... so there couldn't have been any disagreement or agreement, no exchanges ... no problems between us concerning the Green Goblin or anything else from before issue #25 to my final issues".

..."[74] A friendly farewell was given to Ditko in the "Bullpen Bulletins" of comics cover-dated July 1966, including Fantastic Four #52: "Steve recently told us he was leaving for personal reasons.

In addition, in 1966 and 1967, he drew 16 stories, most of them written by Archie Goodwin, for Warren Publishing's horror-comic magazines Creepy and Eerie, generally using an ink-wash technique.

[93] Ditko produced much work for Charlton's science-fiction and horror titles, as well as for former Marvel publisher Martin Goodman's start-up line Atlas/Seaboard Comics, where he co-created the superhero the Destructor with writer Archie Goodwin, and penciled all four issues of the namesake series (Feb.–Aug.

[97] He also revived the Creeper[98] and did such various other jobs as a short Demon backup series in 1979, created The Odd Man and stories in DC's horror and science-fiction anthologies.

Editor Jack C. Harris hired Ditko as guest artist on several issues of The Legion of Super-Heroes, a decision which garnered a mixed reaction from the title's readership.

[103] Ditko returned to Marvel in 1979, taking over Jack Kirby's Machine Man,[104] drawing The Micronauts[105] and Captain Universe, and continuing to freelance for the company into the late 1990s.

[111] In the early 1990s Ditko worked for Jim Shooter's newly founded company Valiant Comics, drawing, among others, issues of Magnus, Robot Fighter, Solar, Man of the Atom and X-O-Manowar.

...following the example of [Ayn] Rand's John Galt, Ditko hacked out moneymaking work, saving his care for the crabbed Objectivist screeds he published with tiny presses.

The Snyder publications have included a number of original books as well as reprints such as Static, The Missing Man, The Mocker and, in 2002, Avenging World, a collection of stories and essays spanning 30 years.

[137] Ditko later expressed his Objectivist views even further with the Question, who criticized the apathy of the public toward right and wrong, and Mr. A, who refused to save villains from death.

[126] The final words of Ditko's last essay, published posthumously in Down Memory Lane in February 2019, quoted an "old toast": "Here's to those who wish me well, and those that don't can go to hell.

Ross, accompanied by writer Neil Gaiman, met Ditko briefly at his New York office, but he declined to be filmed, interviewed or photographed.