Steve Ditko, Grant Morrison, Rudy Ray Moore and Neil Gaiman in Everyday Hero headlines

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What’s more interesting than a self-portrait drawn by an artist whose life reads like a riddle? Here on the right is Steve Ditko’s vision of himself, which was first published in 1966 in ‘Witzend’ issue No. 1. A few years later, Ditko receded from the public eye and, to this day, remains the most elusive personality among the true icons of comics. Want to know more about the life behind this visage? Read the review I wrote in June of a Blake Bell’s new biography of Dirko, the co-creator of ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Dr. Strange.’

Now on with today’s heroic headlines ...

Comics writer Grant Morrison reflects on his landmark run on ‘All Star Superman’ and tells Zack Smith the story about how a brawny but mellow fan dressed as Superman at the International Comic-Con in San Diego actually inspired the title’s contemplative take on the iconic character. ‘My entire approach to Superman had come from the way that guy had been sitting; so easy, so confident, as if, invulnerable to all physical harm, he could relax completely and be spontaneous and warm. That pose, sitting hunched on the bollard, with one knee up, the cape just hanging there, talking to us seemed to me to be the opposite of the clenched, muscle-bound look the character sometimes sports and that was the key to Superman for me.’ [Newsarama]

Dolemite, R.I.P.: Rudy Ray Moore is dead at 81. An obituary written by Jocelyn Y. Stewart tracks the genesis of his most famous action hero role: ‘The way Moore told it, his introduction to Dolemite came from an old wino named Rico, who frequented a record shop Moore managed in Los Angeles. Rico told foul-mouthed stories about Dolemite, a tough-talking, super-bad brother, whose exploits had customers at the record shop falling down with laughter. One day Moore recorded Rico telling his stories. Later Moore assumed the role of Dolemite, a character who became the cornerstone of his decades-long career as a raunchy comedian, filmmaker and blues singer.’ [Los Angeles Times]

I see dead people: Drew Tewksbury likes him some gore and he has a photo gallery called ‘10 Underappreciated Horror Movie Deaths.’ He explains: ‘Horror movies typically aren’t big on plot. There’s a girl in undies, some guy has a hook for a hand … then everyone dies. So it’s up to creative death scenes to make a horror movie unforgettable (even if you’d rather forget about it). In honor of this month’s horror flicks “Quarantine” and “Saw V,” here are 10 good old fashioned and entirely disgusting horror movie deaths.’ [Metromix]

One of the more gripping comics series you’ll ever read is ‘Black Hole,’ the Charles Burns tale that finds a metaphor for AIDS in a mutation plague that strikes Seattle teenagers with grotesque results. Jennifer Vineyard reports that ‘Beowulf’ writing team Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary wanted to write a film adaptation but then director David Fincher (‘Fight Club,’ ‘Zodiac’) came on board. “ ‘David explained his process consisted of having over ten drafts, done over and over, and Roger and I were sort of asked if we wanted to, if we were interested in doing that. And we definitely weren’t.’ So Gaiman and Avary ‘sort of stood aside,’ he said. Fincher still has their last draft of the script, and he can work with it from there, but Gaiman doesn’t know the status of the project any further than that. ‘So we’ll wait and see what happens,’ he said. ‘I just hope whatever happens, it’s faithful to ‘Black Hole.’’” [Splash Page blog, MTV]

R.C. Harvey has a lengthy report on this year’s convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, a group that is on the brink of financial collapse and watching its specialized sector recede badly amid this new digital age. Not surprisingly, they’re a witty bunch and Harvey’s piece has a lot of gems in it. Take this section about reader hate mail: ‘Clay Bennett [of the Chatanooga Times in Tennessee] said he’d received protest letters smeared with excrement. ... But Mike Lester from the Rome (Ga.) News Tribune had the perfect response. When readers wonder, loudly, why he doesn’t draw ‘positive cartoons,’ his stock reply is: ‘Because those are greeting cards.’’ [The Comics Journal] ... In a semi-related note, two-time Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez will be in Dana Point tonight signing copies of a new collection of his cartoons entitled ‘Everyone has the Right to My Opinion.’ For details call: (949) 443-1476.

-- Geoff Boucher

Credits: Steve Ditko self-portrait courtesy of Fantagraphics, publisher of Blake Bell’s ‘Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko.’ Rudy Ray Moore photograph from National Screen service Corp. via the Los Angeles Times archives. ‘Deep Blue Sea’ photograph by Merie W. Wallace, courtesy of Warner Bros.