Review- THE STEVE DITKO OMNIBUS VOL. 1 STARRING SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN

THE STEVE DITKO OMNIBUS VOL. 1 STARRING SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN (DC, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Shade,The Changing Man Nos. 1-8, Stalker Nos. 1-4, and selections from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade No. 2, Ghosts Nos. 77, 111, House of Mystery Nos. 236, 247, 254, 258, 276, House of Secrets Nos. 139, 148, Mystery In Space Nos. 111, 114-116, Plop! No. 16, Secrets of Haunted House Nos. 9, 12, 41, 45, Strange Adventures Nos. 188, 189, Time Warp Nos. 1-4, The Unexpected Nos. 189, 221, and Weird War Tales Nos. 46, 49, 95, 99, 104-106 (cover dates May, 1966- April, 1982)

Writers: Steve Ditko, Michael Fleisher, Otto Binder, Dave Wood, Jack Oleck, David Reed, Jack Harris, Len Wein, Paul Levitz, Steve Skeates, Sheldon Mayer, Robert Kanigher, George Kashdan, Joe Cavalieri, Arnold Drake, Robert Ingersoll, Stan Timmons, J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Barr, Steven Utley, Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, and David Allikas

Artists: Steve Ditko with Inking by Sal Trapani, Mike Royer, Ernie Chan, Wayne Howard, Wally Wood, Vince Coletta, and Gary Martin

Steve Ditko is among the greatest comic book artists of all time. Anyone who created/co-created Spider-Man (and his colorful rogues gallery) and Doctor Strange has cemented their place in comics history. Having said that, the material that comprises this book is almost entirely culled from his, shall we say, less than illustrious era, the mid-70s to early '80s. 

While his contributions to the various Horror and Science Fiction titles are great, Shade,The Changing Man and Stalker leave a lot to be desired. His artwork is still solid and full of all of his idiosyncrasies that we all know and love, but the writing on those two titles straddles between tolerable and terrible. Stalker especially sucks, a weak concept with even weaker execution. If I ever reread this book I will skip these clunkers and make a beeline to the good stuff.

While I am glad that this material has been compiled in a collected edition, the idea of this book is better than the experience of actually reading it. Still, as a Ditko fan who strives to own his complete output in collected editions it is an essential part of my library, substandard presentation and all.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3 out of 5.

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The OCD zone- DC released this during a period where they decontented their books across the board after consulting Direct Market retailers. Out were quality paper and binding, in was cheap paper, glued binding, and no shrinkwrap, all done to make books “more affordable”. These practices were penny wise and pound foolish. This book feels chintzy and weights about as much as a pack of cigarettes. Those of us who are connoisseurs of high end collected editions thumb our noses up at subpar products like this that try to pass themselves off as high end books.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Introduction by Jonathan Ross. (3 pages)

DC likely uses first semester community college students who just learned how to use Photoshop to recolor these pages. 

Linework and Color restoration rating: 3 out of 5. While the linework would get a 4.25, it is the horrid, amateur hour recoloring that sinks this book. Lazy airbrush gradients instead of hand colored blends are the order of the day in DC books of classic material. It is harsh and sticks out like a sore thumb to my eyes. I would honestly rather read this stuff in black and white phonebooks than in an improperly colored book like this. While the spirit of the original publications is maintained the blends kill it for me.

A fine example of the horrid recoloring. I feel a stabbing pain behind my eyes when I look at this. 

 Paper rating: 3 out of 5. The paper is basically really thick mando paper, which is a slightly thicker and less acidic version of pulp paper. Hardly the type of paper that one would expect to find in a supposedly high end collected edition like this. It looks like real pulp paper.

Many DC collected editions fans are also binders, which means that they take their floppies and have them custom bound in hardcovers. DC's inattention to detail has earned them the nickname Defective Comics in collected editions circles (credit of term- Aussie Stu from the Masterworks Message Board), leaving many fans that map out and bind their own books. Since they are accustomed to crappy paper in their books they have lower standards for their hardcovers, even going as far as to defend DC's subpar practices like the toilet paper used in this book as well as...

Binding rating: 3 out of 5. ...the glued binding used in this book, which results in both tight gutters and the book not laying flat. Everybody wins!

Hardback cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. While the casewrap has a quality lamination, it's design is so ugly that it makes this book feel even cheesier than the materials used in the cheap boards on the hardback. I would take a picture to show you the horrid design found under the dustjacket but I would prefer to spare you the terror. 

Yesterday's comic books reviewed... today!

The term 'fanboy' irks me. Nearly all comic book fans use it to describe themselves, and for the life of me I can't understand why. It started out as a pejorative term, and comic book fans using it themselves does not empower them or the term. It would be like a black person using the N-word to describe themselves. It's a nasty word, and using it to describe yourself does not take away it's ugliness. Much like the N-word, we as a culture should banish the use of the term 'fanboy', as it is a term created by detractors to belittle us.

X-FACTOR: OVERTIME (Marvel, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects X-Factor (Vol. 3) Nos. 46-50 and X-Factor Special: Layla Miller (cover dates October, 2008- December, 2009)

Man, my loyalty to both all things X-title related and to Peter David's writing is fast becoming tenuous. This has it's moments, but the series seems to be losing its way. At least they finally reveal the story behind Layla Miller.

X-FORCE VOL. 3: NOT FORGOTTEN (Marvel, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects X-Force (Vol. 3) Nos. 12, 13, 17-19 (cover dates April- November, 2009)

On one hand, I dislike this series because it has heroes doing things that are completely unheroic. On the other hand, this is such a fun, super violent read with beautiful artwork by Clayton Crain and Mike Choi that I can't help but love it. Omitting Issues 14-16 and only including them in the Cable Messiah War hardcover ticks me off. I have no desire to read stuff with Cable in it and feel like I have been shorted in the story department.

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) Nos. 1-8 and Peter Parker, Spider-Man Nos. 1-8 (cover dates on both series: January- August, 1999)

These were an awesome garage sale find just two blocks from my house. These issues came out during my sabbatical from comics, so I missed out on this relaunch. Both are written by the underrated Howard Mackie and ASM was drawn by John Byrne, while PPSM was drawn by John Romita, Jr. I was delighted to see Morbius the Living Vampire pop up unexpectedly in the latter series. These issues had a relatively low print run due to the comic market crash of the mid-to-late '90s, and to find them in such exquisite shape for so cheap was the icing on the cake. They look like the guy bought them off of the shelf the day of release, read them once, and then bagged and boarded them. He had like 5 or 6 long boxes but I had much of what he was offering. Fun reads for dirt cheap= a winner.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE HOUSE OF SECRETS VOL. 2 (DC, 2009)

Collects The House of Secrets Nos. 99-119 (cover dates August, 1972- May, 1974)

Another fine collection of old school Gothic Horror stories with solid writing and artwork. Alfredo Alcala's artwork is genuinely creepy and I can't get enough of it. Nestor Redondo is also very good, as are most of the other contributing artists. You can't go wrong with these black and white phone books in terms of sheer dollar per dollar entertainment value...nearly 500 pages for $17.99 MSRP.



AVENGERS/ X-MEN: UTOPIA (Marvel, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects Dark Avengers Nos. 7, 8, Dark X-Men: The Beginning Nos. 1-3, Dark X-Men: The Confession, Dark Avengers/ Uncanny X-Men: Exodus, Dark Avengers/ Uncanny X-Men: Utopia, Uncanny X-Men Nos. 513, 514, X-Men: Legacy Nos. 226, 227 and material from Dark Reign: The Cabal (cover dates June- November, 2009)

Times like these I hate buying my comic books in collected editions. My completist OCD compels me to continue my Uncanny X-Men and X-Men: Legacy runs, so I got sucked into this uber-retarded Dark Reign storyline. If I were a floppy (single issue) buyer, I would've only bought those 4 issues rather than this fat oversized hardcover, not caring whether the overall story made sense or not. Crossovers suck. SPOILERS The whole Norman Osborn running the show concept sucks so bad and is so unbelievable that I can't believe that it ever saw print. Comic books are not realistic, nor do I expect them to be, but there has to be a certain level of believability involved. Norman Osborn was the Green Goblin, for chrissakes! The Government would never give him control of an organization like H.A.M.M.E.R. Compounding this suckiness is the fact that he has his 'Dark' Avengers and 'Dark' X-Men....uggghhhhh. Horrible.




MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA BLACK KNIGHT/ YELLOW CLAW VOL. 1 (Marvel, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects Black Knight Nos. 1-5 and Yellow Claw Nos. 1-4 (cover dates May, 1955- April, 1957)

The absolutely stunning artwork by Joe Maneely on most of the Black Knight issues and the first issue of Yellow Claw makes this an eye candy feast. Jack Kirby takes over Yellow Claw after the first issue, and his artwork seems more in line with his '60s style than on his Golden Age stuff like Captain America and the Sandman. I also put Bill Everett's cover to Yellow Claw #3 in this blog because it is so stunning. I mean, look at all of that detail! These stories are above average for the era in terms of quality and are fun reads. There is an in depth article about the life of Joe Maneely in the back of the book that is wonderful. There are several images from the plethora of other titles that he did, and I want to read them all! My wallet groans at the prospect at purchasing all of these Masterworks, but they are so worth it. I can't wait to get to the Menace volume in my queue to read Maneely's Frankenstein. My backlog is totally out of control...this book came out in September of 2009 and I just got to it and finished it.





AVENGERS/ INVADERS (Marvel, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects Avengers/ Invaders Nos. 1-12 (cover dates July, 2008- August, 2009)

This was a decent read, but something about it seems to be lacking... I am not sure if it is the story, the artwork, or the pacing, but this title never seemed to get out of third gear. I didn't throw this book at the wall in disgust when I finished it, nor did I scoop my jaw up from the floor when I was done.





SPIDER-MAN: RETURN OF THE BLACK CAT (Marvel, 2010; Hardcover)

Collects Amazing Spider-Man Nos. 606-611 and material from Web of Spider-Man No. 1 (cover dates November, 2009- January, 2010)

Another solid batch of issues, with the exception of Issue 611. Deadpool sucks, and is the worst of Rob Liefeld's terrible creations. The Mike McKone goodness in the other issues balances out the suckiness that is Issue 611.


SPIDER-MAN: THE GAUNTLET VOL. 1- ELECTRO & SANDMAN (Marvel, 2010; Hardcover) 

Collects Amazing Spider-Man Nos. 612-616, Dark Reign: The List- Amazing Spider-Man and material from Web of Spider-Man No. 2 (cover dates January- February, 2010)

It's nice to see some of the OG Spider-Man villains back in the game. Electro has been upgraded, and so has Sandman, and it all leads up to... what? I'm intrigued by The Gauntlet thus far.

SPIDER-MAN: THE GAUNTLET VOL. 2- RHINO & MYSTERIO (Marvel, 2010; Hardcover)

Collects Amazing Spider-Man Nos. 617-621 and material from Web of Spider-Man Nos. 3, 4 (cover dates February- April, 2010)

OK, The Gauntlet rocks. These are THE best Mysterio stories since Amazing Spider-Man #66-67, I kid you not. Dan Slott and Marcos Martin knocked this one right out of the park. I have finally figured out why ASM has been resonating with me since the 'reboot' some 70-odd issues ago, and that is the fact that there is actual joy in this title. Sure, Peter Parker gets knocked upside the head by life, but he never gets as morose as he did during J. Michael Straczinski's run. There is joy in this title, and there is joy to be had in reading this title, and that is something that has been missing from many Marvel titles for far too long. Hopefully the forthcoming Heroic Age will rectify this.