Hi all,

Sorry for being off the list for a while. Forgive me if I am bringing in a repeated topic.

I was looking forward to Blake Bell's coffee table "Mysterious Traveller" book -- from what I recall, it was supposed to come out a few months ago (in time with Fantagraphics' CJ ditko issue release)?

I noticed that amazon.com removed the title from the catalog. anyone know the low-down on it?

thanks
jon

I've been wondering the same thing for months. It was re-scheduled, postponed, and so forth. The last time I check Blake Bell's Ditko Website, there was no word. You might give it a try.

Welcome back, Jon!

DADDIO

Thanks for the feedback (and the welcome back!).

Sounds to me like the project has been shelved. I don't remember seeing a big ad for the book in the latest Comics Journal (Ditko special edition) -- which really makes me think that something has happened. Wasn't Fantagraphics going to be the publisher for it?

It's weird not to see it on amazon.com anymore.

jon

The last I heard it was being delayed a year.
But I never saw a new actual date of release.

Back in February, Silverbulletcomics.com said it would be out in June:

STEVE DITKO: THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER: A Critical Retrospective of His Career and Work
Edited by Blake Bell

In the wake of the astonishing success of the recent Spider-Man movie, Steve Ditko has become known as the co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the early 1960s character that helped propel Marvel Comics' popularity on college campuses and gave it much of its cultural cache throughout that decade. But, in the context of Steve Ditko's 50-year career in comics, his creative involvement with Spider-Man is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Ditko is known among the cognoscenti as one of the supreme visual stylists in the history of comics, as well as the most fiercely independent cartoonist of his generation. His unique style and innovative spatial designs moved from the imaginatively hallucinatory landscapes of Dr. Strange to the almost plebian earthiness of The Amazing Spider-Man. Ditko went on to work at various publishing companies such as DC Comics, Warren Publishing, and even Marvel Comics (but steadfastly refusing to ever draw Spider-Man). Steve Ditko: The Mysterious Traveler is a coffee table art book tracing Ditko's life and career, his unparalleled stylistic innovations, his strict adherence to Randian principles, with lush displays of obscure and popular art from the thousands of pages of comics he's drawn over the last 50 years.

9" x 12" hardcover
220 pages
$39.95
$63.95 in Canada
ISBN 1-56097-535-0

***************
Sounds like it would be interesting, although I wonder why it would cost so much more in Canada? But I see no further info on it since. It's not even mentioned on the Fantagraphics website, although they do have 3 other Ditko collections, mostly regarding some character called Static. But I would like to see this one. I guess we'll just have to keep our eyes open to see what happens.

I know J.R. but after that announcement there was another one on Blake Bell's website saying it woyuld be delayed until September then another announcement saying it would not appear until 2005 so who knows when it will actually come out.