Amazing World Of DC Comics #13 [1976]

Steve Ditko drew one story published in DC's humour anthology PLOP, but there was another story intended for it, done with the same writer (Steve Skeates) and inker (Wallace Wood). "The Gnark Is Coming! The Gnark Is Coming!" instead appeared in AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS #13 [1976]. It's one of the few Ditko stories for DC never to be reprinted.

The 4-page story is set in medieval times and features a would-be squire named Bruce who gets conned by a bunch of frightened knights into dealing with the mysterious "Gnark" that, as the title says, is coming. Cute little story, the artwork shows some pretty heavy inkwork typical of Wood in this period, but still pretty clearly Ditko underneath.

Cracked #219 [1986]

Even three-fingered robotic hands by Ditko are distinctively his style.

CRACKED #219 [1986] is the second issue of the series to feature Ditko's work, continuing his "Robot War" feature with writer Mort Todd that debuted the previous issue, with another 1-page dialogue-free but sound-effects heavy gag page with some very intricate tonework. I always like the little touches you get in the artwork of these stories, like the robot in the first panel apparently camouflaging himself with some flowers on his butt.

Mad Monsters #1 [1961]

In the early 1960s Charlton ran a pair of magazines devoted to movie monsters, MAD MONSTERS and HORROR MONSTERS, presumably spurred on by the success of magazines like FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. On a tangentially Ditko related note, the first issue of MAD MONSTERS featured an 8-page photo preview summarizing the story in KONGA. Ditko had, of course, done the comic book adaptation of the movie, and he'd go on to draw some 14 more issues of the series for Charlton in the next few years.

But much more interesting is the actual Ditko content in MAD MONSTERS #1, starting with a great lurid colour cover of a drooling wolfman. I'm not sure if Ditko did the colouring on this, but it's definitely a notch above Charlton standard.

Ditko also provides the only comics content of the issue, the 3-page story "K".  Done in black-and-white tone, it's a bizarre story about a monster who creates man.  Or something like that.  Anyway, the art is very intricate, even with the fairly shoddy printing, making this a real highlight of Ditko's work from the period.  The skeleton dog that "K" rides in the first page is just amazing, and middle panel of page 2, shown below, is just full of great stuff, from the scary tree to the walking eyeballs to the sexy four-armed woman to the house on the top of the impossible winding path. 

Cracked #227 [1987]

Here's a bit of a treat, a very nice page from an issue which doesn't appear on any of the major Ditko checklists. Apparently he did more pages for CRACKED during Mort Todd's stint as editor than was previously known. So now the quest is on for more. If you have any issues of CRACKED from between around 1986 to 1990 (around #216 to #260) let me know if anything looks like Ditko in there.

Anyway, this 2-page story is "The TransInformers Vs The Defecticons".  You see, the concept of this issue is that this is a Russian edition of CRACKED, from those late days of the Cold War, so all the features have that extra parody twist to their usual parody. In this case, one group of ridiculous shape-changing robots is attempting to escape through the Berlin Wall, and the other is determined to stop them.  A very nice little story, drawn in the intricate duo shade style that Ditko used for a lot of his CRACKED work.  A lot of weird little background gags really enhance the story (I like the robot coffee pot), and the last image is a really great image at the Berlin Wall, worth tracking down the issue just to see it.

Cracked #218 [1986]

This issue features Ditko's first work for one of America's favourite mental illness based humour magazines, and the first installment of his brief regular feature with Mort Todd, "Robot War". A 1-page story, as most of them were, with no dialogue but a lot of sound effects well incorporated into the artwork, really great doutone shading  in the artwork and the disturbing sight of robot cannibalism.  Man, when they said that Robot War is Hell they didn't know the half of it...

This page got reprinted with 3-D treatment for The 3-D Zone #19 [1989].

Cracked #225 [1987]

Steve Ditko and Mort Todd (the same Mort Todd seen on the latest DITKOMANIA cover) bring us another 1-page look at the senseless, yet highly amusing, "Robot War" which is tearing our great nation apart. In this one, we find that in the hands of a crafty robot, anything can be a weapon of mass destruction.

The scan really doesn't do this page justice, the way Ditko uses variations in the tonework to create depth, the wacky facial expressions and some of the goofy details in the header and the final panel.

Plop #16 [1975]

The 6-page "Love is a Dandy", written by Steve Skeates and inked by Wallace Wood, is Ditko's only official contribution to Joe Orlando's short-lived but fondly remembered DC humour anthology PLOP, although one other story intended for PLOP, "The Gnark Is Coming, The Gnark Is Coming", with the same writer and inker, appeared in AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS #13 [1976].

Rather strange little story about Hubert, a nerdy young man who has no luck with women so turns his affection towards plants, one day finding a dandelion which returns his affections (beating the human/vegetation relationship exploration of SWAMP THING by a decade). The exploration of the complications that ensue from this unusual pairing take up the next few pages (including the rejection of Hubert by Dandy's parents), until disaster inevitably strikes.

It's always good to see Ditko stretching fully into the humourous side, which often peeks out in his other work as well. There's some good slapstick and odd expressions in this story that re enforce the humour. Wood is always an interesting combination with Ditko. Heavy at points, bits of this remind me of some of his own humour work, but for the most part the Ditko pencils come through. I'm glad that on most important Ditko stuff he got to ink himself, but it's good to see some variety like this on some of the minor works.

Also of interest in this issue, a house ad for MAN-BAT #1, which would turn out to be the only issue of the series by the Ditko/Milgrom art team. Very nice image of the character, which outside of the ad I think only appeared in a smaller edited form on the text pages of MAN-BAT #1.

Cracked #221 [1986]

Most of the Ditko's contributions to the long-running humour title CRACKED in the mid-1980s were short untitled stories in the "Robot War" series, like this 1-page job from #221, written by Mort Todd. I'm not sure if "Robot War" was something that other artists did as well for the series or it was unique to Ditko. Anyone?

I've only read this one chapter, but it seems the feature is MAD's "Spy vs. Spy", only with robots. In this case, a large robot chases a smaller one, who has dropped a book on transforming, in the sense that those toys from the 1980s that just won't go away did. Seeing the book, the large robot knows to be suspicious of anything the other robot could be disguised as, and finding a gun acts accordingly. But wasn't quite suspicious enough.

Very cute gag, and Ditko's work sells it nicely. The artwork is on what I think is called duotone paper (of maybe craftint), a look seemingly favoured by CRACKED (especially their main artist John Severin), and Ditko works nicely with the tones, using them for some neat visuals with the sound effects and backgrounds.

Cracked #226 [1987]

Ditko was a regular contributor to Globe Communications' CRACKED briefly in the mid-1980s, usually doing just one or two page stories in a series called "Robot War" (which seems to be Spy vs. Spy, but with robots). He also did a few longer parody stories, such as this 5-page version of the cartoon Thundercats called, naturally enough, "Blundercats". The story, by Mike Carlin, is no great shakes, might make more sense if I was familiar with the characters at all, and does get a few points for featuring a Krazy Kat reference. Ditko does make the best of it, doing that great ink-wash style that he often did when working for black&white magazines, and his characters are nicely expressive and animated, and some really creative use of sound effects to direct the eye and add to the humour.

I haven't seen them, but a bit later Ditko also did several short stories for Globe's MONSTERS ATTACK title.