I disaagree…. there’s nothing to say that you can’t show the struggle for a character to find the right path, or struggle to stay on it. It seriously didn’t limit possibilities any(unless one is short sighted).

Indeed, during the whole ‘Give Kirby Back His Artwork’ furor, Ditko wrote an open letter to that point.

That said, I did like (Other) Dan’s one.

A is for Asshole

A big “thanks” to Philip S for his thoughtful reply to my query concerning how the Objectivist philosophy would relate to work-for-hire agreements.

I haven’t read much of Rand’s writings, but I did read her essay “For the New Intellectual” because I wanted to find out some of the basics of Objectivism from the primary source, rather than second hand via Ditko’s works. In any case, I disagreed with pretty much everything Rand said in “For the New Intellecual,” but I felt it was important to actually take the time to see what philosophies she was expounding before judging them.

Along those lines, my main beef with Ditko’s “philosophical” comics is that they are basically unreadable. I’ve got the two Fantagraphics reprint volumes. The early stories aren’t too bad, but as he went along he just got more and more turgid. The stuff reprinted in the second volume in particular just gives me a headache. The artwork is nice, but stories (if you can call them that) simply do not work at all.

When STAR WARS has more nuance than a 1200 page novel, *something is wrong*.

Sadly, this shows through in Ditko’s Randian work.

Regarding the ownership of any comic character, the relevant question is the nature of the contract (or at least some understanding of employment) between Ditko (or any other creator) and the employer (individual or corporate). If any artist signs away ownership of a creative property and later realizes this was a mistake, may he and others learn from his mistake and try for a better deal next time. But it’s not a failure of capitalism if someone fails. (Probably the best option IMO: start your own company.)

But anyone interested in learning anything about Objectivism should be learning it from Ayn Rand’s books, not from comics. Or at least explore the website of the Ayn Rand Institute: http://www.aynrand.org

I saw this notion in the ‘Dial B for Blog’ article about Ditko and Mr. A, and I’m not sure where it comes from. Because Objectivism is actually very much in favour of the ego.

What does the A stands for anyway?
“Answer” maybe? (to Ditko’s “Question”)

But as you say it is still interesting as a window to understanding Ditko’s P.O.V.

The Fantagraphics DITKO COLLECTION vol. 1 and 2 are very hard to find. I own the first volume since it came out but waited too long to get the second and it’s even harder to get than volume 1. I have seen a copy of volume 2 only once and I regret to this day that I hadn’t the money to purchase it that day.

I must protest, though– Mr. A wasn’t just a vehicle for rants. The best Mr. A story (and, I will say flat out, the best story Ditko ever did) was an completely silent Mr. A story, “Death vs. Love-Song” from 1976′s “Comic Crusader Storybook.”

Self-ownership and independent publishing really gave Ditko free range to do amazing artwork. The Mr. A work is strident, yes, but above all it is beautiful. One of the great comics masterworks.

Mr. E.A.T.

Mr. T may pity the fools, but Mr. A would consider T a fool for showing pity. So, A wins.

Has this been collected in any form? What would be the best way of finding these stories? He really does sound a lot like Rorshach.