For the last forty-five years, these creators have continued to draw energy from the singular look and dramatic mood Ditko fashioned from his own genius.
As editor of Timely Comics, Joe Simon hired Stan Lee, who would later collaborate with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko to create most of the Marvel Universe.
Yet under copyright law, which treats the product of employees and contracted freelancers as the work of the company from the moment of creation, Ditko owns no part of Spider-Man.
These items range from original artwork by Spider-Man illustrators such as Steve Ditko to cheap plastic toys from the 1970s, the oldest and rarest of which can sell for thousands of dollars each.