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| Image copyright MARVEL COMICS |
This one's a beauty. From THOR's first appearance, as pencilled by JACK KIRBY and inked by JOE SINNOTT, it portrays the god of thunder in all his awesome glory. Could anyone but Jack have made an instant visual hit out of a guy with long blond-hair and what looks like a seagull's wings on his headgear - especially in the '60s? I very much doubt it. What say the rest of you pantin' Criv-ites?
I've always sort of missed the blue helmet. And I just can't accept the pseudo Thor in the movies who doesn't even wear one. The Stone Men did, of course, return. You would have thought they learned their lesson about invading earth.
ReplyDeleteOne of Kirby's best to be sure. You can almost feel the wind whipping up Thor's hair and wrapping the cape over his leg. Still Kirby but a bit more attention to naturalistic detail and less blocky styling that came later. The page marred only by the inclusion of the two small panels in the bottom corner. Couldn't they have waited till the next page to kick off the story proper? Splash pages, strictly speaking should be stand-alone intros.
ReplyDeleteNot just the blue helmet, PS, but the helmet with a fin instead of a point.
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I still think of it as a splash page, PC, because the figure of Thor fills the page from top to bottom. The two small panels seem more like corner inserts than separate pictures unconnected to the larger one.
"The Stone men From Saturn" always makes me chuckle - Saturn is a giant gas planet which doesn't have any stone, never mind stone men. Stan Lee was rather clueless on the science front. Talking of Thor - I especially loved those splash pages of Odin in all his magnificence when he was wearing those amazing hats or crowns or whatever they were supposed to be. I hope you'll be including those kind of splash pages, Kid, and not just the ones that appeared as the opening page of a story.
ReplyDeleteThe Stone Men are actually called Kronans and the ones Thor fought came from their base on one of Saturn's moons, CJ, hence Stone Men (describing their appearance, not their physical composition) from Saturn. That's how it was explained later anyway. You're right about Stan Lee being clueless in regard to science. He thought the bite from a radioactive spider would imbue spider powers, thought cosmic rays would impart super powers, had the idea that gamma rays would give super strength, etc. What a nut. Say, a crazy thought just occurred to me - do you think he might have been indulging in artistic licence in order to tell stories for an audience of kids who didn't know (or care) anything about science? Nah! What was I thinking?
ReplyDeleteI always picture this image with a light blue background.
ReplyDeleteNo prizes for guessing why!
I don't need to guess, JP - it's 'cos it's FANTASTIC!
ReplyDeleteKirby's Thor was amazing from start to finish for me it was more inventive that his FF etc with great characters like the Recorder, Mangog and "Him" (later Warlock) -Was it in Thor that Galactus first appeared or was the FF?
ReplyDeleteIts a great and iconic splash page.
Galactus first appeared in the FF, PM. Wasn't Tana Tile one weird-looking chick? Thor was a brilliant mag.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lecture, Kid, but you didn't answer the last part of my comment - will you be including splash pages from within the issue as well as the splash pages that opened the issue ?
ReplyDeleteOh, you're such a greedy buggah, CJ. I bestow upon you the benefit of my wit and wisdom (only to have you describe it as a lecture) and it's not enough for you - you want me to answer questions as well. However, I prefer to keep you in suspense, so you'll just have to stay tuned and see for yourself.
ReplyDeleteTana Nile was one of the Colonizers! Very cool period for Marvel! I found the run at a store that sold old comics inboxes up front, and had "adult" books in the back, before I knew what that was all about! My parents would have grounded me for spending the money on comics AND for being in that store! LOL!
ReplyDeleteThat was a great wee run of Thor, sure enough. I first read these stories (in b&w) in a British weekly called Fantastic - and it was. I've now got these tales in full colour in the Masterworks volumes.
ReplyDeleteYeah Tana Nile was really strange looking but that was another story line I loved - One of my favourite Kirby Thor splash pages was "Behind him Ragnarok" that had a massive picture of Mangog (my favourite Thor baddy) fighting Thor - I also seem to recall a splash where Thor was having a soda in a cafe (or whatever Americans call them) that was fun. You can see why they called Kirby the "King"
ReplyDeleteThe splash page you're talking about, PM, is from Thor #143 - "And Soon Shall Come: The Enchanters!", and the inks were started by Vince Colletta and finished by Bill Everrett. Either Walt Simonson or someone else (Ron Frenz?) redrew that page as the splash to one of their own Thor stories years later. If you'd like to see Jack's version again, search out part two of my 'Favourite Comics of the Past' post - Enchanted Times.
ReplyDeleteThat's the very one thanks for looking out that info - The Behind him Ragnarok splash is from Thor 157 which also has an amazing cover (big hint to show it here lol). A lot of these stories were great in there over dramatised situations and speech but they were also a bit silly, whether or not that was intentional or otherwise for me that made them amazing and will never be bettered by all the new so serious its pants stuff of today (not all some books are great most as drivel)
ReplyDeleteI'll consider Thor #157 for a future post, PM, but did you mean cover or splash page? Yeah, a lot of comics take themselves far too seriously nowadays. That'll change when I win a hundred squillion quid on the Lottery and buy Marvel from Disney. Hell, I'll even buy Disney!
ReplyDeleteBoth are great - but as it a splash page thread I'd go for the splash page if I had the option - Not sure what I would do if I won big on the lottery but pretty sure buying MARVEL etc wouldn't be high on my list - maybe set up a new company or buy some of the old UK titles / rights or just buy a luxury home somewhere hot and overdose on sweeties :)
ReplyDeleteWell, if I won only a few paltry million I'd probably do the same as you, PM - but I'm talking a hundred SQUILLION. (I don't even know how much that is, but it's gotta be a lot.)
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