Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, has died aged 90

The reclusive artist Steve Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with Stan Lee in the Sixties, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on June 29.

Authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of death but it is believed that he died two days previously.

In 1961, Ditko was asked to create Spider-Man by Lee, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, who had been unimpressed by an earlier attempt at a similar character by Jack Kirby. 

Ditko created the Spider-Man we know today: his costume, the red and blue logo and his ability to shoot webs from his wrists. The character first appeared in the comic Amazing Fantasy No. 15 and became a hit, so the series The Amazing Spider-Man was created.

Two years later, Ditko created the surreal character Doctor Strange, a surgeon whose hands are ruined in a car accident and, while searching for a cure, develops mystical powers. 

But after a reported falling out with Lee, the details of which have never been fully explained, Ditko left Marvel in 1966. He went on to work for other comic publishers, including Marvel's main rival, DC, and returned to Marvel in 1979, working on Machine Men and the Micronauts, and continued to work for them as a freelancer in the Nineties. 

A follower of the divisive novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, Ditko also independently created the comic book character Mr A, which followed Rand's Objectivist ideas, later creating more Objectivism-inspired characters – The Question, Hawk and Dove and the Creeper – for DC Comics.

Culture stars who have died in 2018

He spent most of his working life avoiding the public eye and declining almost all interviews, becoming an almost mystical figure himself. During the big promotional drives for the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange films, he stayed away. By contrast, the 95-year-old Lee is a regular on the promotional circuit and has a cameo in every Marvel film. 

Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1927, the son of a master carpenter, Ditko's interest in comics started early and he would read the strips in his father's newspaper. Enlisting in the US Army at the tail end of the Second World War, he did military service in post-war Germany where he also drew comic strips for the Army newspaper. He went on to study under the Batman artist Jerry Robinson in New York, before becoming a professional comic artist.

It is believed that he never married, nor had children.

"Only a small group of individuals can claim that they have effected and redefined not just an industry, but popular culture worldwide. Steve Ditko was one of those few who dared to break molds every time his pencil and pen hit a blank sheet of paper," Marvel's chief creative officer Joe Quesada said in a statement. "In his lifetime he blessed us with gorgeous art, fantastical stories, heroic characters and a mystical persona worthy of some of his greatest creations. And much like his greatest co-creation, Steve Ditko’s legend and influence will outlive us all."

Comic book creators, filmmakers, actors and fans have been paying tribute to Ditko on social media.