Click here to return to The Leader's Chronicles.
Your narrator, the Leader
I still remember sitting at the dining room table one night in my hometown of Savannah, GA in 1964 reading the first Spider-Man comic book I ever had. It was The Amazing Spider-Man #19. I was enthralled by the kinetic fight scenes between this weird looking creature named Spider-Man against some creepy looking bad guys, the Sandman and the Enforcers. The more staid and sober DC comics I was used to never had fight scenes like that! And there was something about the art. It had a unique, quirky style that stood out from the art in any other comic book I had ever seen. The credits blurb on the opening splash page said the art was by Steve Ditko. That was the start of my life long love affair with Ditko's art. About the same time I discovered Ditko also drew Doctor Strange in Strange Tales. As good as the art in the Spider-Man comics was, the Doctor Strange art was even more spectacular. No other artist at Marvel, DC, Gold Key or anywhere else could draw those bizarre, occult alien dimensions like Ditko. I also enjoyed the Hulk stories in Tales To Astonish drawn by Ditko. The art wasn't quite as good since the inking wasn't done by Ditko himself but I was still charmed by the Hulk battling another green skin freak, the Leader, and the Leader's squad of orange plastic Humanoid robots. I had a special fondness for Ditko's imaginative five page science fiction / fantasy stories with their twist endings known as the Pre-Marvels done in titles like Journey Into Mystery, Tales of Suspense, Tales To Astonish, Strange Tales. All of these wonderful Ditko Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Hulk and Pre-Marvel stories still resonate warmly with me today after all these years and always will.

I learned of the murals of Ditko's art done in his hometown of Johnstown, PA not long ago but as much I wanted to visit them I couldn't talk myself into making the long drive to Johnstown from my home in Virginia. However, I was used to making the drive to Mars, PA near Pittsburg to attend the annual Pulpfest convention. So this year I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make the visit to Johnstown on my way to Pulpfest. I hope my Leader's Reports on the Ditko murals and museum will encourage other Ditko fans to make the pilgrimage to Johnstown.

Click here for the Leader's Report on Steve Ditko Museum 6 August 2025
Click here for the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on Pulpfest 7-9 August 2025
Click on any image below to see it much larger with more detail.

Stonebridge Brewery Mural 5 August 2025
Doctor Strange and Spider-Man
On this side of the Stonebridge Brewery are these magnificent images of Doctor Strange and Spider-Man. I'm sure another painter of large murals, Michaelangelo Buonarroti, would be proud of them. The murals aren't just painted on the side of the building. The images were mounted on large patches of parachute cloth and sealed with an acrylic coating to protect against the weather, then pieced together to make the giant image you see here. The depictions of Doctor Strange and Spider-Man were taken from 1960s Marvel comics and then enlarged and mounted to the parachute cloth.
The sign at upper left that says "Bottle Works Art on 3rd Avenue" refers to another Ditko mural and the Steve Ditko museum at the Bottle Works art school and gallery about a mile away from the Stonebridge Brewery. For the benefit of the uninitiated, the phrase "co-creator of Spider-Man" refers to Ditko's collaborator, Marvel Comics' famous editor and writer, Stan Lee.
Marvel's best known comic book character and most famous creation of Ditko and Lee, the Amazing Spider-Man. All of these images of Spidey cavorting among the rooftops are taken from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, 1964.
At left is Steve Ditko's second most famous co-creation (with Stan Lee), Doctor Strange - Master of the Mystic Arts. Of all the talented Marvel comic book artists who drew Doctor Strange over the years, none of them could draw the otherworldly, alien dimensions frequented by Doctor Strange as good as Steve Ditko.
Bottle Works Mural 5 August 2025
About a mile from the Stonebridge Brewery is the Bottle Works art school and gallery housed in this yellow building and the red brick building next to it. The back of the yellow building sports another Ditko mural and the red brick building houses the Steve Ditko museum.
The back of the Bottle Works yellow building has this mural of Ditko's comic book characters who aren't as famous as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.
Since none of these comic characters (except maybe Gorgo and Konga) are familiar to non-comic book fans I've annotated on this mural in red numbers the name of the character and in parenthesis the major comic book company the character belonged to: 1) Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Marvel), 2) Mr. A (various fanzines), 3) the Hawk and the Dove (DC), 4) the Creeper (DC), 5) Man-Bat (DC), 6) Blue Beetle (Charlton), 7) Iron Man (Marvel), 8) Eternity (Marvel), 9) Gorgo (Charlton), 10) Konga (Charlton), 11) the Question (Charlton). The other characters are from fanzines or small publishers I'm not familiar with.
Your Humble Narrator with three of his favorite Ditko characters - Eternity, Gorgo and Konga. Eternity was a god-like mystical creature first featured in the 1960s Doctor Strange stories appearing in the Marvel comic Strange Tales. Gorgo and Konga were movie monsters that first appeared in early 1960s movies from King Brothers Productions. They were then adapted into Charlton comic books with art mostly by Steve Ditko.
Steve Ditko hard at work at his drawing board.

This concludes the Leader's Report on the Ditko murals. Tomorrow he will visit the Steve Ditko museum. See the link below.

Click here for the Leader's Report on the Steve Ditko Museum 6 August 2025