Short answers, pulled from the story.
Steve Ditko was an American comic book artist born on the 2nd of November 1927 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who died on approximately the 29th of June 2018. He co-created Spider-Man and Doctor Strange for Marvel Comics, introduced the iconic red and golden armor for Iron Man, and co-created characters including Captain Atom, the Question, the Creeper, Hawk and Dove, Shade the Changing Man, and Squirrel Girl.
Spider-Man was co-created by both Steve Ditko and Stan Lee. Lee conceived the name and the idea of a teen superhero. Ditko designed the costume, the wrist-mounted web shooter, and the full face mask. In a 1965 interview, Ditko summarized the split: "Stan Lee thought the name up. I did costume, web gimmick on wrist and spider signal." Ditko was also the artist and, from issue #25 onward, the credited plotter.
Ditko left Marvel in 1966 after a breakdown in his working relationship with Stan Lee. By the time he departed, the two had not spoken directly for some time, with art and editorial changes passing through intermediaries. Disputes over creative credit, compensation, and Ditko's Objectivist-influenced direction for Spider-Man contributed to the rift. A friendly farewell notice appeared in the Bullpen Bulletins of comics cover-dated July 1966.
Ditko was an ardent supporter of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, which he said had "forever changed his outlook on morality, finances and his mission as a comic-book creator." He channeled Objectivist ideas into his Spider-Man plotting, making Peter Parker more aggressive and demanding of proper pay. His character Mr. A, first published in 1967 in Wally Wood's anthology witzend, was an explicit expression of Objectivist ethics, refusing to save villains from death and criticizing public moral indifference.
Ditko's Doctor Strange artwork was celebrated for surrealistic mystical landscapes and increasingly psychedelic visuals drawn from pure imagination rather than any drug use. In a 17-issue story arc in Strange Tales #130-146, he and Lee introduced the cosmic entity Eternity, depicted as a silhouette filled with the cosmos. Artist and cartoonist Seth described Ditko's style as "flowery" with "a lot of embroidered detail in the art, which is almost psychedelic."
Ditko consistently declined public recognition. He refused a 1987 Comic-Con Inkpot Award, phoning the person who accepted it on his behalf to say, "Awards bleed the artist and make us compete against each other. They are the most horrible things in the world." He largely refused interviews, public appearances, and being photographed or filmed, explaining that his artwork, not his personality, was what he offered the public.