Iconoclast, loner and visionary, comic book artist Steve Ditko created Spider-Man with Stan Lee in 1962, then walked away from the superhero after illustrating 41 Peter Parker stories that would later serve as the foundation for Sam Raimi's movie trilogy.

Beyond The Amazing Spider-Man, Ditko produced an astonishing array of characters including Mr. Doll, Doctor Strange, Blue Beetle, The Creeper, Destructor, Stalker, Shade, Machine Man, Beast Man, Speedball and Mr. A.

Ditko's mastery of action composition and facial expressions capable of conveying every shade of anxiety, anguish and anger earned him a place in the pulp fiction pantheon.

The 80-year-old artist gets his due in coffee-table book Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko, a 220-page illustrated biography released this summer by Fantagraphics Books.

Though Ditko hasn't given an interview since 1969 – even ducking entreaties from Neil Gaiman on behalf of a BBC documentary that aired last year – author Blake Bell stitches together a compelling survey of the artist's work.

Strange and Stranger reproduces more than 300 vintage drawings from the Ditko ouevre while covering the artist's early infatuation with Will Eisner's The Spirit, his mentorship with Batman illustrator Jerry Robinson at New York's Cartoonists and Illustrators School, a near-death bout with tuberculosis, and his early days as a horror maestro that preceded the fruitful but contentious years at Marvel.

Bell describes how the fiercely independent Ditko clashed repeatedly with Lee over the direction of Spider-Man's story lines (and how the Marvel men tussled over credits). When the superhero Ditko helped create became big business, he split with Marvel over the question of royalty payments, but not before contributing key embellishments to Iron Man (pictured, from a 1963 Tales of Suspense) and the Incredible Hulk.

The biography also examines Ditko's long-standing devotion to Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy of self-reliance.

Here's a look at the powers of good and evil as pictured by the artist in Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko. (Images copyright original comic book publishers.)

- - -

Beast Man

After he left Marvel, Ditko created this 1966 cover for Creepy No. 11 from publisher Jim Warren.

The Creeper

in 1968, Ditko introduced TV commentator Steve Young, who transforms into The Creeper via a device implanted into a gunshot wound. Here's the cover for DC Comics' Beware the Creeper No. 2. Ditko quit drawing the comic after collaborator Denny O'Neil described a character as an "ex-criminal." Strange and Stranger reports that Ditko believed "once you've committed a crime you're a criminal for life."

The Thing

Ditko created this 1954 cover for Strange Suspense Stories No. 15.

SpeedBall

This short-lived Marvel series launched in 1988. Speedball's special powers came in the form of bouncing off walls.

Machine Man

Ditko put his spin on a Jack Kirby character in this unused 1980 cover.

Changing Man

The last work-for-hire in which Ditko contributed full story and artwork, shown here in the cover from DC Comics' 1978 Changing Man No. 4

The Most Dangerous Man in the World

After studying with Batman illustrator Jerry Robinson at the

Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now The School for Visual Arts) in

New York, Ditko quickly mastered the noir-horror genre, as seen in this

1957 story for World of Mystery No. 6.

Secret City Saga

In 1983, Ditko produced this cover for a legion of characters created by Jack Kirby.

Spider-Man

Ditko's contentious collaboration with Stan Lee included this 1964 cover for The Amazing Spider-Man No. 10.

Images from Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko courtesy Fantagraphic Books

See also: