Saddened to hear that Steve Ditko has passed away.
There are few people in this world that have had more of a positive effect on my life than this man.
I got to meet him once, back in the 90's when I was on staff at Marvel as their Art Returnist. I had the art for the first Squirrel Girl story, one of his last jobs for Marvel, and had to send him an art release form for it before I was allowed to send the originals back.
I'd never sent anything to him before-- and to my surprise, when I looked for his address in my giant rolodex, there was just a phone number and nothing more. It was the only card like that.
With a deep breath, I started calling the number. I was freaking out. I kept saying to myself, "You're calling Steve Ditko. You're calling Steve Ditko. You're calling Steve Ditko." I'd read every Steve Ditko comic known to man. This was one of the greatest idols of my entire life. And he'd earned the reputation of being the "J.D. Salinger of comics"-- in that he was pretty much off the grid and preferred it that way. And here I was calling him.
And he answered.
"Hello, Mr. Ditko," I said, "My name's Dan Slott, I'm the art returnist from Marvel Comics. I have some of your original art here, but I don't have an address to send you the art return form."
He said, "It's all right. I live in the city. I'll just come over. Is now a good time?"
I said, "Sure. That'd be great. Thank you."
And then I was saying to myself over and over again, "Steve Ditko is coming here. Steve Ditko is coming HERE."
He had on a sweater jacket and a cap, not a baseball cap. A proper cap. He was very polite and quite friendly. I knew he famously did NOT like to talk about Spider-Man or any of the characters he created or co-created for Marvel back in the day. So my entire inner-monologue was "Don't ask him about Spider-Man. Do NOT ask him about Spider-Man. Give the man his art and, DEAR GOD, don't ask him about Spider-Man."
I gave him the filled out form. He signed it. I gave him the art for the Squirrel Girl job, which was lovingly wrapped and bundled. He said, "Thank you." And I said "Thank YOU" (which I desperately wanted to mean "Thank you for EVERYTHING, but I so don't want to bug you."). He smiled the whole time. And left with the art. And with the door closed, I finally remembered how breathing is supposed to work.
I love Spider-Man. I love Spider-Man more than any fictional character in the history of literature & stories. I dedicated one 5th of my life to chronicling his adventures. I have had a very nice life because of Spider-Man. Thank you for EVERYTHING, Steve Ditko. I love every bit of creativity and passion that you have brought into this world-- and it has meant the world to me.
