Originally Posted by Wonder Boy
I especially wonder if there was any friendship and interaction between Kirby and Steve Ditko, because they had the identical problem at Marvel (with Stan Lee, and not getting full credit and control of the stories and characters they created)in the 1960's. Both Kirby and Ditko were introverted recluses.

In addition to that, Kirby and Ditko were a penciller/inker team on a number of stories from 1959-1964.
On many pre-Marvel monster stories.
Here's "We Met In the Swamp", from TALES TO ASTONISH 7, Jan 1960.

And including FANTASTIC FOUR 13, April 1963.

And the "FF meet Spider-Man" story in FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL 1, Sept 1963.

And a sequel to that in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 8, Jan 1964. The last Kirby/Ditko collaboration I'm aware of.

Kirby and Ditko at least must have had an opinion of the other's work, and on their collaborations. But it's entirely possible they did not meet personally, and just worked on each other's pages, given by editor Stan Lee. But I find it hard to believe with the shared experience Kirby and Ditko had at Marvel that they did not seek out each other and have conversations about that. And perhaps other social get-togethers, outside of Marvel.

I love the Kirby/Ditko collaborations, so I updated the links and re-posted this one so you can easily access them.
Since the RKMB crash a year or so ago, I can't edit the old posts, and this is the way available for me to update it.

Their collaboration brings out a nice new edge in both of their work, they mesh well together.