Steve Ditko

In a small, rather run-down office in Manhattan there lives and works an elderly man of rare talent. As he approaches his 80th birthday, he still labours in the profession to which he has given most of his life. His name is Steve Ditko, and he co-created some of the most popular and commercially successful comic book characters in the history of the medium. The most famous of these co-creations is, without doubt Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man. Today, Spider-Man is one of the most famous fictional characters ever created. His comic books sell all over the world, and the three movies that they inspired are among the highest grossing films of all time. After working together for five years, and with Spider-Man on the verge of becoming the best selling comic book in the world, Steve Ditko left the book and the company. In the years that followed he continued to work for the biggest comic companies, creating many new and wonderful characters, as well as expressing his own political and personal views in independently published books. But he has never explained why he left his greatest creation when he did. In this documentary, Jonathan Ross hopes to tell his story. Or as much of it as he can, because Steve Ditko is a reluctant subject. He has never given an interview and consistently declines all offers to talk about his work. Jonathan travels to glamorous LA, exciting New York and chilly Northampton to meet with fellow fans and comic book professionals in order to discover more about the man who stubbornly refuses to accept the fame and indeed the money that is his due for his most famous co-creation, Spider-Man. Interviewees include the legendary Alan Moore, writer Mark Millar and comic book aficionado Paul Gambaccini.