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Game of Thrones' George R. R. Martin explains why Steve Ditko’s art made Marvel’s world feel truly alive
Steve Ditko created some of the most iconic comic book characters of all time, but his greatest creation, according to George R. R. Martin, is a living, breathing New York City.
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You might ask yourself what iconic fantasy author George R. R. Martin knows about comic books, but you’d be forgetting that the man has been a vocal fan of comics for decades. After revealing that he attended the very first New York Comic Con back in 1964, the Game of Thrones author shared his thoughts on what made Steve Ditko’s work so special. According to Martin, it all came down to the details and the faces.
“The thing about Ditko, I mean, Ditko was a great artist in many ways,” George R. R. Martin told Ashley Victoria Robinson at New York Comic Con 2025. “But his characters had faces.” He doesn’t mean in the literal sense, but he means that you could tell who was who even outside their costumes. “Even the best-known, most popular DC character, they all had the same face. They were all a handsome guy. They had different hair colors and all that, but you know, you couldn’t tell. You take the uniforms off them, you couldn’t tell the Flash from Green Lantern. They had the same face. But, damn. The Ditko characters all had faces. Not just the heroes and the villains, but the supporting characters.”
It wasn’t just Steve Ditko’s ability to make recognizable faces that drew Martin to his work. It was how he turned New York City into a place with real character for Spider-Man to swing through. “And he created a New York City… I don’t mean to be putting down some of the other artists. They were all great, but you look at the Flash with Carmen Infantino, and it was like the cleanest city that had ever existed in the world. There were all these tall buildings in the background that were like orange or yellow, and the Flash was running in the foreground. And then you went into Ditko’s world, Ditko’s New York City, and there were these water towers on top of rooftops, all of which were leaking, and there were piles of garbage, and there were dumpsters, and it was so alive.”
We don’t need to crow on about how amazing Steve Ditko is – his legacy can be felt across comics and beyond, after all – but we do enjoy hearing someone like George R. R. Martin have a little geek out about him.
About New York Comic Con
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United States
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