Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Since the Cary Bates slam at Kirby turned out to be true...has anyone else heard this one?

I heard somewhere that during the Son of Sam hysteria, because of the Son's attraction to bizarre concepts (the dog that commanded him to kill people) and his professional looking artist penmanship, the police wondered if Son of Sam might be a former comic book artist. The one they suspected was Steve Ditko, because of his eccentric moralizing, which might lend himself to being a killer of "profligate" brunette women.

If would have been pretty weird if Steve Ditko had turned out to be Son of Sam, though.

I don't think Ditko's beliefs would have allowed him to commit murder.  Now maybe if he came across a murder or violent assault in progress he wouldn't mind killing the perp, but then again what a creator has his characters do and what he himself does are often two different things.  For instance, John Wayne won the war on screen but so far as I know he never served in real life.

Can you imagine if comic book creators were suspects in a "Ripper"-like  spree today?  Let's see, violent misogynist tendencies and repressed sexual rage leading to murder, dismemberment and desecration of a corpse...how would you ever narrow it down?  Sounds like half the stuff on the stands today.

Yes, Alan Moore is a huge scary looking guy, but he wouldn't harm a fly.

Steve Ditko is out there but I don't think he would ever do something like that.

All true creative geniuses are wired differently, but you know, don't confuse the art with the artist.

To be honest, I'm quite surprised that this was the only time Ditko was suspected of being a serial killer. I remember Gary Groth of the Comics Journal describing how he had had a disagreement with Ditko in the course of an interview, and Ditko had countered angrily by opening a large trunk filled to the brim with Ayn Rand books, more Ayn Rand books than Groth even suspected existed. "It was the single scariest moment in my life", he wrote.

Well, obviously Steve Ditko wasn't Son of Sam, since they CAUGHT the guy, all I heard was he was a Son of Sam suspect.



Then again, the very fact that it sounds "likely" that he might be a serial killer may be evidence that he isn't. Don't the neighbors always say "he was such a nice man?" For my money, the only two comics professionals that are most likely to be serial killers are Paul Levitz, Tom Peyer, and Kurt Busiek.

Although it would be darkly hilarious if Chuck Austen, pushed to the edge by bad reviews, decided to murder one by one all of his critics in ironic ways, like in that Vincent Price movie.

Brilliant! You just created a new genre: disaffected comic book writer kills off his enemies by duplicating his cartooning triumphs. Can you even imagine what would happen if Alan Moore went off on a spree like this? (I mean, he had the Invisible Man getting sodomised to death by Mr. Hyde; just think what he would do if he got creative.)

It wouldn't surprise me if the man was considered since several thousand "weirdos" were investigated during that period.  On the other hand, it is hard to imagine it getting much farther than "should we talk to this middle-aged guy who draws Spider-Man comics?"

A more interesting question would be, is Steve Ditko the inspiration for the lead character in Dan Clowes' "The Death Ray" graphic novel?

Where did you hear this stuff?

Sheesh...