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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
If you're fortunate enough to own any of the MARVEL OMNIBUS editions, you'll doubtless have appreciated the clean reproduction, the near perfect colour registration, the larger than normal page size, the attention to detail, etc., etc. Truly they are things to marvel at (pardon the pun), but they have one drawback - they're almost too good.
A while back, I purchased The SILVER SURFER Omnibus; I went through it page by page, drinking in all the above mentioned qualities, savouring the exquisite clarity of each panel - but without reading it. Then I dug out my original eighteen issue run of comics and read them individually over the next few evenings.
Great as the Omnibus volumes are, there's just something about the original issues which is hard to beat. The smell of the paper, the adverts, the Ben-Day dot colouring - it all adds up to an experience which is a delight to the senses. When you're sitting on the porcelain, an Omnibus volume can be quite heavy on the ol' thighs; a single comic is much easier to read and far less wearing on the legs.
With that in mind, I decided to treat you all to THOR The MIGHTY's origin, scanned from my very own copy of JOURNEY Into MYSTERY #83. I could've scanned my softcover MASTERWORKS volume, which - along with the Omnibus edition - has the best reprint so far of that particular tale. However, you folks are special - I figure that you deserve nothing but the original.
******Plot: STAN LEE * Script: LARRY LIEBER * Art: JACK KIRBY
& JOE SINNOTT * Letters: ART SIMEK
Click on any page, then click again to see the image in extra-large size.
******
BONUS DEPT: Here's how the final panel originally read before it was changed to the printed version.
5 comments:
Kid,
I've seen a stat somewhere of the last panel that had different lettering, saying something like: "Want to see more of Thor? Write the editor at..." Apparently Thor was not originally going to be an ongoing feature, but Martin Goodman quickly changed his mind.
I've long been intrigued by the Thorr in the final caption of this story. At first it looks like a spelling error; however, back in Tales To Astonish 16 released in 1960 there was a big monster called Thorr who looked very similar to the Stone Men of Saturn. Perhaps that issue sold better than average, leading at least parially to the Thor feature. Was the Stone Men looking like Thorr a coincidence? I doubt it.
David Simpson
Nick, I featured it on an earlier Thor post somewhere on my blog. I suspect the "want to see more?" angle was just to give readers the impression that they had a say.
And don't forget, everyone, to visit Nick's great blog at http://nick-caputo.blogspot.com - you won't be sorry.
David, as Nick points out above, the final panel was relettered. It may well be that whoever did it assumed the 'THORR' caption was for a follow-up to the one you speak of, hence the 'mistake'. Or perhaps he had lettered that earlier tale and his mind was half on it when he did the new caption.
Thanks, both, for visiting and commenting.
It's my favourite Silver Age Marvel origin and I love the Stone Men. I also still believe I should be able to fly by throwing a hammer and then grabbing hold of it.
Steve, you can't be swinging it hard enough - I have no trouble at all.
Steve's got a great blog as well, everyone - give it a look.
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