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Y'know, it's a funny feeling to dig out a familiar comic with the intention of re-reading it and then suddenly realise, despite thinking it's a fairly recent acquisition, that it's been in one's possession for 37 years. Such was the case with The Mighty Thor Annual #13, which I would've sworn was nowhere near as old as it is. Wasn't it only a few months ago - okay, let's be realistic - a few short years ago, that I took it along to a friend's house so that he could read it (under my careful supervision)? Nope, it was almost four decades back, and I marvel at how swiftly the time has seemed to pass since then.
Which brings me to this very post. I've recently obtained a handful of Thor Annuals - 5-10, to fill in some gaps in my collection and I thought I'd share them with you here. I forget exactly at what point I stopped buying them after #14, but I'm sure there's a handful more after that ish stashed away somewhere, which will give me material for a future post. However, as I've shown the earlier Annuals and King-Size Specials before, I thought I'd feature them in reverse order, to avoid a previously seen image at the start of the post deterring anyone from 'tuning in'.
Even better, I decided to start with a great John Buscema image of Mephisto from Annual #13, the interiors of which John pencilled and inked himself. I'm still trying to get my mind around the fact that I bought this comic when I wasn't even half the age I am today by quite a margin, but looking at it now, it seems as though it was no more than a butterfly's sigh away, rather than the almost two-thirds of my life it actually is. Now ain't that a kick in the head?!
So enjoy the images. (Just a shame that Kirby's cover to #5 is awful.)
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| Number 14 came out 4 years after the preceding ish, below. So does it qualify as an Annual? |
5 comments:
Okay, I'll start us off - brilliant covers, Gordie! Almost as good as you could do.
Very interesting, Kid, but I never owned any of the US annuals because I never saw any on sale. None. Ever.
And they really needed to make up their minds between annuals, king-size annuals and king-size specials!
You're telling me, CJ. It was confusing because of the Special Marvel Edition Thor issues as well. I didn't get the first Thor Annual from 1965 until around 1973 or '74, when it popped up in several newsagents in my home town - and no doubt all across the country. Must've been a warehouse find.
The logo to King size Annual 4 always looks out of place to me. Like Colin I never saw these at the time so your explanation may well be correct. I always really liked the Destroyer storyline that was reprinted in the 2nd annual.
The Destroyer Tale in the 2nd Annual was all new, McS. It only became a reprint when it was re-presented in Giant-Size Thor #1. The 1st Annual (J.I.M.) could well have been available in the UK in the '60s, but if so, it popped up again in the '70s, which is when I got it. However, I'd first read the main tale (Thor versus Hercules) in the 1968 Fantastic Summer Special.
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