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The Fire Rises 2023
Steve Ditko, Comics Legend, Dead at 90
According The Hollywood Reporter, the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange co-creator was found dead in his apartment on June 29 and was believed to have passed two days prior; he was 90.
Ditko is perhaps best known for co-creating Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man and Doctor Strange in the early-’60s. Ditko helped create several of the characters’ rogues galleries, being the first to depict Sandman, Green Goblin and The Lizard in Spider-Man comics, while of course imagining the villainous Dormammu in Strange Tales’ Doctor Strange epics. Ditko’s run with Spidey ended with Amazing Fantasy #38, 23 issues after Spider-Man’s appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15.
Ditko left Marvel due to a fight with Lee that’s since gone on unexplained, the most common theory being that he was frustrated with Lee’s constant oversight. He later went on to work at Charlton and DC Comics, though he did return to Marvel as a freelancer in the 1990s. Among his most popular post-Bronze Age creations was Squirrel Girl in 1992.
CBR sends its sincerest condolences to Ditko’s family and friends at this time; he will be remembered within the comics community, and within the entire entertainment industry, as a legendary creator of his time.
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