Steve Ditko Omnibus 1 Hardcover – September 6, 2011

I've been on a huge Ditko push lately, having recently procured his Action Heroes archives (published by DC, though consisting of Charlton writings), as well as three of his Charlton collections published by Fantagraphics. When I saw this omnibus, for the prices today, I couldn't resist, and here we are again.This time, the Steve Ditko Omnibus really does contain DC material. As you can see from the cover, this first volume advertises Shade, the Changing Man (another series which was picked up by a Brit much later in life, with mediocre results in this reviewers opinion), but Shade only makes up a plurality of the 450 or so pages. The rest consist of tales from DC's House of Mystery comic, as well as the short run of Stalker, and a few other odds (literally) and ends (also rather literally).\First, a few notes on the product. When initially released, this collection commanded a sixty dollar cover. It's a pretty small omnibus, containing between 1/2 and 1/3 of what most omnibus collections hold. That's OK - the price does reflect this, to a degree. The book is bound well enough. I hate the faux leather crap that usually bounds these collection, but this has nothing of the sort. Rather, it has a nice textbook-like binding with an interesting graphic. The book opens well, although the pages are so filled that it can be difficult to see material within the spine (I think the cool kids call this "guttering"). The paper itself is pretty classic...and pretty cheap. I like that it holds ink well - it feels more in line with the comics I read as a kid. But there's no way in the world I would have spent sixty dollars on this, and I can certainly understand reviewers taking DC to task on the quality of the publication. However, I paid just south of eighteen bucks (including shipping!), and for that price, it's just a no-brainer.A lot of people in this omnibus/archive reviews complain about the coloring of the volumes. That is their right. However, one complaint often sticks out at me - many people say that the new coloring makes Ditko's art look flat. Unfortunately, this is NOT the case - Ditko does that all by himself. In short, if you are looking for a collection to showcase the genius of Ditko and his art, I would recommend looking elsewhere.Now, if you're a fan of Shade, the Changing Man, you might be in the right place. Ditko's Shade is nothing like Milligan's. That's a great thing in my view, but if you're a fan of the latter, be warned. As for those who have never read Shade, he's interesting, but not overly so. I certainly wouldn't put him anywhere near the top of Ditko creations, which are both legion and quality simultaneously. It's interesting enough.More interesting to me was his 4-issue comic Stalker. A dark sword-and-sorcery epic in the making, I liked everything about this comic (even the stilted writing). Unfortunately, no one else did, and it was canned after those 4 issues. However, it completes a decent-enough story arc, and this is one place where I really like the coloring (more so than the art itself).However, in my humble view, the most interesting pieces here are the House of Mystery stories. Despite his excellent work on superheroes, Ditko just feels like he was made for horror comics. He does terrified (or, more precisely, horrified) looks so well. And I've always liked the rimshot endings of these tales in general. This was the surprise of the volume for me. The anti-vegetarian rant is ridiculously anachronistic and hilarious simultaneously. But the warring Scotsman, or the inept haunting - these are just fun tales with neat twists. Ditko's art continues to look like that of one who long ago lost interest, but even uninterested Ditko can still impress. One last note - the Devil's Tail looks like a penis. I'm sure this wasn't lost on Ditko.The last batch of tales are of the "Amazing Adventure!" variety, and are pretty throwaway (more so because, again, Ditko is pretty uninterested).At full cover, this volume would get much lower marks overall (perhaps even a three star deduction). But like so many other comic products nowadays, for today's prices, this is a steal, and I would heartily recommend it.

Steve Ditko didn't do all that much work for DC Comics. When he finally did do some work for DC his best work as an artist was probably behind him. However, Ditko was also a talented plotter and creator and these talents are on display here in his mid '70s series "Shade, the Changing Man".The Shade book is somewhat reminiscent of his Dr. Strange work for Marvel. It involved much psychedelic imagery, a hero with only vaguely defined powers that let him do pretty much what the plot requires, and a boatload of great villains. Ditko makes it all work with his very dense plotting that many comic book scripter would do well to study. The stories are very faced paced and have one twist after another as the plot moves from Meta to Earth and through the mysterious zero zone. Really great stuff. It is a pity that the unpublished story from Shade #9 is in black and white only. The story is set in the zero zone and the psychedelia loses a lot of impact without the color.The rest of the book is Ditko working to others plots. Outstanding here is the four issues of Stalker (one wonders if a hero with that name could work today with the unfortunate connotations the name has acquired in the interim). These are basic sword and sorcery but as the series moves along the emphasis is definitely on the sorcery. One wonders if Ditko was influencing Paul Levitz's plots or Levitz was merely plotting to Ditko's demonstrated talents. Either way, it works. I wish there were more.The rest of the book is a collection of Ditko's contribution to DC's anthology books. These are fairly hit and miss both artistically and story wise. They are all from the mid '70s to early '80s except for two from the mid '60s. They do demonstrate that it is quite possibly to tell an adequate story in as few as two pages.The only complaint I can muster is the very tight gutters which are annoying but not excessively so.This book is highly recommended for Shade and Stalker alone but the rest is not without interest. There is another volume on the way. The Creeper stories by Ditko have been collected already and the present volume is produced consistent with that one with newsprint type paper and a glued binding.

As a big fan of the Shade the Changing Man/Girl/Woman series, this was a must!To see how the future creative teams adapted the source material from Ditko here was well worth the read!To see Ditko's trippy 70s art was a wonder!I love seeing his designs for people, buildings, costumes, and beings that do not get hailed enough next to the also iconic Jack Kirby!Ditko's writing was definitely stuck in the 60s compared to the other 70s DC books I have been reading surrounding this book. So be prepared for that.If you're interested in comic book history this book is a great showcase of what other odd and outdated titles DC was putting out in the 70s and it is a joy to see how Ditko handled a multitude of genres with horror, comedy, apocalyptic, fantasy (The short series"Stalker" definitely shines here), and sci-fi!Overall the enjoyment of jumping from title to title is going to vary on your tastes each time.This is a very unique and peculiar collection.

Great collection from the late icon of superhero comics, Steve Ditko was a master of the form and this book is a testament to that.

Regarding stories, art and style, this is undoubtedly a great book. It contains all the 8 Ditko's episodes of Shade, The Changing Man (this is worth the cost of the entire volume), and a lot of fantasy and mild horror short histories.Steve Ditko is a genius, in his own interpretation of characters and in his unique way to create the architecture of surreal places.An interesting book, that however lacks of three very important parts. As first, a critical introduction to the opera: the only notes on the volume are 2-3 concise pages, and for someone who doesn't know the Author, this is far too little. The editor could have insert at least the chronology of the publications. As second: there is no summary or index, and this kind of book requires a summary with informations on first publication year, kind of magazine, etc. Last (but not least), there is no halftone printing, as in the original comics, and the flat use of the colors used for the print is very disappointing when applied to drawings intended to be colored with 4-colors halftone techniques.In conclusion, there is a difference between a book and a collection of comics, and I'm sorry but this is just a collection of comics, so a full 5 stars vote (for the comic side) become a 4.5, rounded to 4 (for the coarse cure used to compile the collection).