The Steve Ditko Archives, Volume 1: Strange Suspense by Steve DitkoMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1 contains Steve Ditko horror comics published by Charlton in 1952-1955.
Sometime in the blur of recent history, Fantagraphics needed to raise some funds and did a Kickstarter. I put in some cash and selected this as my reward.
Strange Suspense is a collection of pre-Comics Code Authority horror, meaning there's a good amount of blood and gore. The stories themselves are nothing spectacular, mostly Tales from the Crypt-style tales that lack the punch of the EC originals.
However, the art is the star of the show and it's quite interesting to watch Steve Ditko grow as an artist. You can almost see him becoming more confident. While he's not quite at his peak level at this point in his career, you can see the beginnings of a lot of the faces and bizarre landscapes that would later find their way into Amazing Spider-Man or Strange Tales. There's a personification of death that looks a hell of a lot like the Green Goblin and there's some embryonic Doctor Strange in The Library of Horror, my favorite tale in the book.
Strange Suspense is an interesting piece of comics history and an interesting look at Steve Ditko's art before he hit the big time. While I prefer EC's offerings from the time period, it's also a decent collection of pre-Code horror. Three out of five stars.
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