Steve Ditko was a comic book artist most famous as the co-creator of Spider-man, arguably the most popular superhero in history. While Ditko’s art and creations during his run on Spider-Man continue to have huge influence on the character to this day, Ditko’s other work and and the way he lived his life are not what you would expect.

Ditko’s other famous contribution to comics is the character Doctor Strange. On his run of Doctor Strange, we can see a very different side to Ditko’s art. Contrary to what his art may imply, Ditko did not use any drugs, and he was actually a very straight-laced conservative guy. This just speaks to his creativity. The psychedelic imagery of his art is very unique. Not only does is stand apart from typical psychedelic imagery, he also used the medium of comics to represent things that would be impossible to achieve in any other visual medium. Even to this day, movies would be unable to capture these visual elements to the same effect.

Ditko has very strong political and philosophical beliefs, and he eventually he left Marvel Comics because of his beliefs. Regardless of whether or not one agrees with his views, huge respect can be given to him for not wavering on his morals, even if that meant leaving his popular creation. He went on to create his own character Mr. A, who is much less known and is very reflective of Ditko’s philosophy.