Not why Ditko left Marvel in the 60s

In response to Steve Ditko's fisking of Joe Quesada, one of the commenters, BobH, disputes the urban myth that Ditko left Marvel because of a dispute he had with Stan Lee over the identity of the Green Goblin. This isn't news to me; by all accounts the working relationship between the two creators had completely deteriorated, Ditko was unhappy at the lack of credit and renumeration he was getting for his work in creating Spider-Man, and Lee's dialogue often bore little resemblance to the stories Ditko was telling (my favourite example being the death of Mendell Stromm in ASM #37: Ditko draws a man shooting him to death, Lee's ludicrous dialogue has the gunman miss and Stromm "dying of a heart attack"). So to my mind the Goblin thing seems too trivial to be a tipping point (in fact given Ditko left a month after the Mendell Stromm issue I do wonder if it might have been that). However, when BobH is asked for a quote on this, the one he produces rather surprises me. (I reproduce his post here in full, without his permission, because as he points out Breitbart's commenting system stinks; not only am I unable to link to the comment directly, it doesn't even show up half the time I actively look for it. Apologies to BobH.)

Ditko's prose style doesn't really lend itself to excerpts, as you can see above, he constructs amazing, sometimes maddeningly complex arguments. So I encourage you go order the newsletter in question (or join me in encouraging Ditko's co-publisher to put together a collection of the relevant essays).

However, a few tastes:
"So certainly, the GG [Green Goblin] could hardly be any reason for me quitting Marvel"
"Now digest this: I knew from Day One, from the first GG story, who the GG would be... I planted him in J. Jonah Jameson's businessman's club." [prior issues of the newsletter had a contest to identify all the planted appearances of the character]
"I planted the GG's son (same distinct hair style) in the college issues..." [referring here to Harry Osborn]

This will probably be my last reply here, as the commenting system here makes no sense to me. Feel free to contact me via e-mail or my site (should be linked in my name above) if you wish to continue.

Just in case this is unclear to anyone reading this, it was widely believed that making Norman Osborn the Goblin was entirely Stan Lee's initiative - this completely debunks that myth too. (An unnamed man resembling Norman Osborn was indeed seen in Jameson's business club in ASM #23 and #25.)

Peter Mandelson's new look

Hattip to Guido.

On Dollhouse

Compare it not to the best episodes of Buffy, Angel and Firefly. Compare it to the first few episodes of Buffy or Angel. Are they about on par? I think they are.

It took me until episode seven before I really got hooked on Buffy. It took an entire season of Angel before I felt that got going at all smoothly. Firefly is the exception but Firefly was an exceptional programme to begin with (and who's to say that wouldn't have turned South had it continued longer?).

Of course you're not going to see "Passion" in the first three episodes. You have good reason to give it more time.

Apparently this is racist.

If that's racist (because the monkey supposedly depicts President Obama - it's actually just a combination of the idiotic stimulus bill, which could really be described as "borrowing your way out of indebtedness", and the intelligent chimpanzee that went on a rampage and got shot) then what were all those depictions of George W. Bush as a chimp?

If Democrats are going to wheel out the "racist" accusation (usually the last refuge of a lefty scoundrel) like this every time anyone even vaguely criticises or mocks Obama or any of his policies then American democracy is in serious trouble.

Or perhaps the Democrats missed the hilarious yet tragic chimp story because they were too busy reading the 1500 page bill they voted through this week. Because they read every page before voting for it, don't they?

And now my British political compass

The Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: 0.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.59


This one doesn't surprise me at all. The questions I found a lot more relevant to me and therefore easier to answer decisively; hardly surprising given that this was the British test. I am pleased to find myself firmly in the libertarian axis (especially given how conservative some of my answers were) but I'm a little bit worried that my only historical counterpart on the left-right axis is Adolf Hitler!

Took this American political spectrum quiz...

My Political Views
I am a center-right social moderate
Right: 2.56, Authoritarian: 0.22

Political Spectrum Quiz


My Foreign Policy Views
Score: 2.43


My Culture War Stance
Score: 0.08


It says "Your political spectrum result is a great conversation starter on forums, on your blog or your social network of choice." What a load of rubbish!

A Few Bad Men

I enjoyed watching the film A Few Good Men (written by Aaron Sorkin, starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Jack Bauer) for the first time last night. Quite an excellent film. The crucial juncture comes towards the end where Cruise's lawyer character cross-examines the Colonel (Nicholson) in charge at Guantanamo Bay at the time when a timid soldier was killed in his room by two other soldiers (accused of murder, they claim they were hazing him under orders). He traps the Colonel within his own contradiction, that both the timid soldier was considered to be "in danger" from his fellow soldiers - and yet, all the soldiers at the camp are steadfastly loyal to the Colonel and would never disobey an order no matter their conscience on it.

And so I turn to today's headlines. Gordon Brown and Labour have for months been claiming that the recession is a global problem started in America and has nothing to do with what's going on here. But now they're attacking the bankers of this country for landing us in this mess. Well steady on there, it's either one or the other, isn't it? Or maybe it's the fault of the government and the Chancellor who was apparently sleeping on the job. You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!