Spider-Man’s cocreator was from Pennsylvania. He would have hated the festival honoring him.
Ditko is also credited as creating Dr. Strange, Iron Man, and the Incredible Hulk.
Who created Spider-Man?
It’s been described as an “eternal debate,” but Johnstown, a post-industrial city about 235 miles west of Philly, has staked its claim on the hometown artist Steve Ditko.
Most casual comic fans might assume the iconic Stan Lee created the masked webslinger, but he had help.
The comic book company credits Ditko as being one of “the original architects of the Marvel Universe,” and without using the exact word “cocreator,” said he and Lee “breathed life into the character of Peter Parker, giving him myriad personal traits and visual cues that would cement themselves in readers’ minds around the globe.”
Ditko is also credited as creating Dr. Strange, playing a key role in the design of Iron Man, and contextualizing Bruce Banner’s anger-filled turn into the Incredible Hulk.
All-in-all, it’s a great excuse for Johnstown to celebrate Ditko Con 2025 on Sept. 27. The event, now in its third year, will be held at the Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center and feature “artists, writers, and family members who worked with and/or knew Steve.”
Ditko was born in 1927 into a Slovakian and Ukrainian family in Johnstown, joined the U.S. Army in 1945, and left for art school in New York City in 1950. According to a Rolling Stone article titled “The Secret Life of Steve Ditko,” the artist had little interest in fame and always declined interviews, earning a reputation as the “J.D. Salinger” of comics.
“I never talk about myself,” Ditko said in 1968 in publicity for a comic. “My work is me.”
Ditko, who had a falling out with Lee, died in 2018 in New York City and fans knew, assuredly, that he wouldn’t be happy about a festival in his honor.
“He would hate it,” Matt Lamb, a Ditko fan and executive director of the Bottle Works, told Rolling Stone.
The most iconic homage to Ditko in Johnstown is the massive mural honoring him, the various characters he created, and, of course, Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. It’s been reported to be the only Marvel-approved mural in the world, though the comics giant did not return a request for comment.
Another mural, just outside the Bottle Works, features Ditko hard at work at his desk, something he’d never let anyone see in real life.