About once a month, I'm contacted by someone — usually a reporter — who wants my aid in arranging for them to interview Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man. I always tell them I doubt anyone can arrange that but if someone can, it sure isn't me. I corresponded with Mr. Ditko for a while and spent parts of two days with him in 1970 but had a falling-out with him in the early eighties and that was that.
He's adopted a policy of not allowing photos or interviews…and depending on his mood, he may or may not talk or correspond on an informal basis with those who call or write him. Usually the answer to even that is some polite version of "Leave me alone." Most of those who've had contact with him in the last decade or so seem to have concluded it's all a matter of quirky eccentricities disguised as claimed principles.
In the meantime, reporters who contact me are often convinced that their fierce determination and professionalism will trump whatever it is; that they will be the person to whom Ditko "opens up" and tells all. Hasn't happened, doubt it ever will. But the less the reporter knows about comics, the more determined he or she always seems to be that they will break through to him and succeed where others have failed.
Reed Tucker knows a lot about comics — though I believe his factual recital of the creation of Spider-Man (the part where he tells the parts he believes to be undisputed) is wrong. But he did make a good try to chat with Ditko and all he got out of it was a story about how you can't chat with Ditko.
In a way, it's a shame. The man has every right, of course, to refuse publicity and interviews but it's one of the reasons so many people think Stan Lee created Spider-Man all by himself. From Ditko's occasional letters in print, it's obvious this bothers him greatly…and it would bother anyone. But Lee is a great interview and Ditko is a non-interview and if you don't wave to the search party, there's a real good chance they're going to overlook you. I don't expect this to ever change. And nowadays when I talk about the many injustices in how the comic book industry has shorted major talents on money and/or credit, I've moved Ditko way down the list.