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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS. Art by Walter Simonson |
Back at the end of 1983 or beginning of '84, I purchased TALES Of ASGARD Volume 2, Number 1, with its beautifully rendered WALT SIMONSON cover, and determined one day to acquire Volume 1, Number 1 of the same title. That issue had been published in 1968, and it's possible I'd seen it in some back issue comics shop in the intervening 15 or 16 years between both volumes, but, if so, I'd never felt the need to own it at that time. Now, of course, I couldn't have the second one without also having the first.
The years came and went without me ever obtaining the aforementioned classic, but a year or so back, MARVEL published a 6-issue series of all the Tales of Asgard stories - and then released them in a hard-cover Omnibus-sized book. (It's just been released in a standard-sized softcover edition also.) I now had all the stories in their restored and re-coloured glory, not to mention a few of the original THOR comics in which some of them first appeared. What need now had I of the original 68 page 1968 comic? If it was anything like the 1983/'84 Special, the artwork suffered from line drop-out on VINCE COLLETTA's fine inking, rendering the printed pages far less detailed than their original back-up appearances in Thor's own monthly magazine.
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| Art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia |
Well, the answer is obvious - none, really. So when I spied the coveted issue on sale on eBay recently, I must've hesitated for all of two seconds before snapping it up it to add to my already vast collection. What can I say? Only other rabid collectors will fully understand the need to fill that missing gap in a run - even if you already have other presentations of the contents.
I now have the MASTERWORKS editions, as well as the AVENGERS UNITED printings (a U.K. publication, the recent re-coloured 6-issue series, the THOR OMNIBUS, the MARVEL SPECIAL EDITION issues, the hardback book, the 1984 Walt Simonson covered comic - and now I have the '68 Special as well. (Only 27 or 28 years after I first decided to one day make it my own.) I have every Tales of Asgard story ever printed, in either partial or complete presentations of these mini-classics. Surely now I can draw the curtains on that particular compulsion to have a complete set of these stories?
You'd think so, wouldn't you? But I'm finding that recent release of the softcover edition mighty tempting. Will someone please save me from myself?
8 comments:
Hate to draw your attention to this, but, Eagle printed Tales of Asgard during 1968 in black and white. I don't have a copy to hand, but I bet Vinnie Colletta's inking showed up a treat!
I would have grabbed that standalone issue myself too, had I spotted it, as I never did see it in the spinner racks! Incidentally, do you happen to know if ALL the Tales Of Asgard were reprinted in the Eagle, or just some / one of them?
Anyway, I am glad that you brought up the subject of Masterworks, as I was just thinking today that, "I'm going to suggest to Kid that I'd love to see a series of posts just about his Masterworks!"
( still as cheeky as ever, eh? )
I've only got a few of them, -a couple of X-Men, Avengers, Spideys and FF's, plus one Hulk, DD, Thor and Iron Man!
Oh my god. Remember I was saying I find it so odd reprints now sell for large amounts of money? Look at the prices for these graded NM issues of Tales of Asgard. I guess I think of comics the same as books. First issues are worth money and subsequent reissues are worth less. Yes I'm a collector but I wouldn't pay big money for reprints know what I mean. https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=178261
I think part of my reaction is I bought this comic many moons ago to read and I find it insane people would pay so much for a reprint collection.
I've got the first issue it appeared in, LJ, and have just looked at it. The strip had a sort of wash added, so that it looked like the 'contents' pages in the inside covers of Marvel Collectors' Item Classics and Marvel Tales, etc. The first story was inked by George Roussos (using the name Bell), not Colletta 'though.
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How about that, JP? It's almost as 'though you'd read LJ's comment before submitting your own. Offhand, I'm not sure how many issues of Eagle the strip appeared in, but it started in February 1968 and Eagle was merged into Lion in April 1969, so it's possible that all the Tales Of Asgard strips were reprinted in its pages. Couldn't say for sure 'though. I've actually done some posts on Masterworks before, but we'll see what the future holds, eh?
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I've just bought a nm copy of Marvel Tales #11 for a few quid, PS, yet I see that some people are asking well over £100 for it on eBay, so I know what you're saying. I guess it's only people who had those reprint issues when they first came out who'd pay large sums for them, because they want to recapture a slice of their childhood.
Kid, I know you listen to Radio 4 so you've probably heard of The Listening Project where two people talk about a subject for five minutes. A couple of days ago there was an episode where a married couple talked about their vast collection of stuff that they had accumulated over the years. They admitted it was an albatross around their necks but couldn't bring themselves to get rid of any of it...guess who I was reminded of ?
Let me apply my mighty brain to your question, CJ.
H'mm, no, just can't think of anyone. Give us a clue.
i'm not absolutely sure of my dates here but I seem to recall that comic book printing underwent a change in 1968 whereby metal printing plates were replaced by plastic ones. Anything printed after the changeover lost much of the sharpness of earlier comics. As a teenager buying comics at that time I recall noticing how much crisper original Ditko Doctor Stranges were than their reprints. So If you cant find (or afford) a Silver Age original those early pre-69 reprints are worth pursuing. I did buy a copy of the 68 Tales of Asgard book back in the day but I can't recall whether it retained the quality of the JiM originals ... but it did have a great original Kirby cover.
I know the plates were changed from metal to plastic at some stage, but I have a vague impression that it was sometime in the '80s when the colours in comics went all 'dayglo', though I wouldn't swear to it. You may be right, though I thought it was the size of artboard given to artists (or at least the drawing area on the boards) being reduced that occurred in the late '60s. Regardless, it was really the stats of artwork Marvel made for their files which resulted in line drop-out when reproduced again for printing. (As an example, Some of the re-inked pages I did for some Masterworks volumes were fine when I sent them, but by the time they'd been reproduced for [needless] lettering amendments and then again for colouring, there was a fair bit of line drop-out when printed.) Because Vince Colletta's inking was quite fine in places, it was the succeeding generations of stats that were mainly responsible (in my view) for the poor reproduction. See my post 'Giant-Size Thor - Giant-Size Prices...' for an example of what I mean.
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