The World of Steve Ditko

I had commented a while ago that I was interested in this book when I saw it on a library shelf. Well, now I've finally read it!

Stranger and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko may have been the most challenging biography anyone has ever written -- certainly for a comic book artist.

Steve Ditko is most famous for being the co-creator of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, but he's most infamous for being so obsessed with Ayn Rand's philosophy that he cut himself off from publishers and readers alike for not embracing objectivism as strongly as he did, and denied himself millions of dollars in Spider-Man royalties in his later years rather than accept it on "looter's terms."

Getting inside the head of someone like that, who also infamously almost never gave interviews or even appeared in public places, relies on conjecture sometimes, but it's fascinating conjecture.