What I wrote here yesterday about how you shouldn't infer anything if I don't write an obit about someone who has passed prompted a couple of messages like this one from Jeff Wasserman…
You had mentioned that you'd get around to commenting on Steve Ditko when he passed but I don't recall you doing so. You and I were kids no doubt highly influenced by Steve's forceful story telling and would always have much to say about him.
Yes, I said I'd write about Mr. Ditko here. No, I never did. A few of you figured out that that was because I'd been asked (and agreed) to sit for a deposition on behalf of the Ditko family in their legal action — since settled — against Disney/Marvel.
What I would have written (and may yet some day) would have included my opinion that Steve Ditko was one of the ten-or-so great creative talents in the kind of comics he did. His work was usually quite brilliant and quite popular and I doubt I'll hear from anyone who wants to argue the point.
I have somewhat less respect for Ditko the Philosopher and many of his stated principles. And I really don't understand how someone takes a vow of silence about his career, refuses all interviews, finally writes a little many years later, then expresses shock and outrage that the history of his collaborations with Stan Lee has been written Stan's way. Gee, I wonder how that happened.
I corresponded with Ditko for a few years…until he didn't like something I wrote. In 1970, my then-partner Steve Sherman and I spent a day and a half with him hearing his versions of Marvel History and I cannot stop wishing he'd let us record and publish — or let anyone ever record and publish what he told us then when his memories were fresh. It would have helped constituents like Jack Kirby, Wally Wood, Don Heck and others who never got their due.
People have a right to not stand up for themselves but I don't respect not standing up for others. One of the places I learned that was from the first Spider-Man story…the one drawn by Steve Ditko.