The long awaited In Search of Steve Ditko was on BBC 4 last night, and I was pretty impressed. Considering that the only comics coverage on British TV for a while has been two depressingly awful More Four news reports (one about the Manga Bible, one about Tin Tin in Africa, both a relentless torrent of shit) and a little thing on Virgin Comics in India with Sanjeev Bhaskar, so such a passionately made documentary on a figure like Ditko's pretty big event.
Ross really put a lot of love into this as he repeatedly states, and while it's mostly talking heads (like Comics Britannia) they're some pretty good heads on display. Boy Wonder Neil Gaiman, John Romita, Jerry Robinson, Alan Moore reciting his Ditko tribute poetry as he stares into your soul. While the 'true face of Stan Lee' we were promised by Rich Johnson isn't as surprising as was hyped (but then if everything Rich Johnson said came to pass they'd be burning copies of Lost Girls in the streets) it's still a nice little candid moment with a man who became a parody of himself decades ago.
It's not told in exhaustive detail but then it is only an hour. There's such a sense of earnestness to the whole thing, it really won me over. I've never really read much Ditko before but now I feel like I'm missing out on something very special.
So that's how Jonathan Ross made me buy The Essential Dr Strange.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
There were a few things a bit off about it... but I really liked it. Apparently Ditko did as well. I wonder if he'd grant Ross an interview in the future. It would be something given that there is no film footage of Ditko in known existence.
Post a Comment