Machine Man issue 17 page 3 by Steve Ditko

Since 2007 (when I first began seriously collecting) one of my main pages that I ever wanted was a Ditko Machine Man page from the ending of the original Kirby series. Machine Man has always been a favorite character of mine and Steve Ditko, well, what can I say that you don't already know.? When I first started digging around for a page and I never dreamed how impossibly hard it would be to find one, let alone a good one, you all of course know the difference. The more I looked the more I noticed that such a page was extremely rare. I emailed dealers, CAF sellers, asked friends and went as far as to send a letter to Mr. Ditko himself, which you can see his reply in my gallery now. Well, seven years later one pops up on the internet to only be disappear. It took some emails, some phone calls, a bit of wheeling and dealing and (I'm not going to lie) a good amount of money and now, at long last I finally have my grail. I don't use that term loosely and I know that it gets batted around more often than it should but I will say it again, "grail".
Have you ever gotten a page and felt like won something? This is the page that makes me feel like a winner. Thanks to all the friends I made in the hobby, the dealers, Sparkle City, CAF., the boards (this one and the other one), and the people I irritated. All of these people are the building blocks I needed to own this page.