Thor by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

Collected in and reviewed from Essential Thor Volumes 1-4

RE: Journey Into Mystery 83-125 & Thor 126-179, (Cover dates Aug ’62-Aug ’70.) Plus annuals from this period.

It’s taken a fair old time, but I’ve just finished the Kirby & Lee run on Thor, starting in Journey Into Mystery 83 and culminating in Thor 179, with the odd issue in this run by other creators.

Left: Colletta inks from Thor 133 - Right: Everett inks from Thor 171

As enjoyable as it was (and I do find pretty much all of the Silver Age Marvel to be worth a read) it takes a while for the strip to really find it’s feet. Thor has always been a difficult character to integrate wholly into the Marvel Universe. In general terms, although there are exceptions, the Marvel Universe is centred on science and technology, trying to include characters that are magic based has never been smooth sailing, Dr. Strange springs to mind, but at least with Thor, his is an overt physical prowess, which perhaps helped the character span the gulf from fantasy to super-heroics in a way that wasn’t available to Dr. Strange. And, as I said earlier, it takes a while to really find it’s niche, which I’ll get to later.

Like all of Kirby’s early Marvel work, it takes several issues for his style to evolve into his more mature renderings. His early Silver-Age work is fabulous, but as his workload increased, so did his level of detail decrease. This isn’t a bad thing in my opinion, for what was lost in refined pencil work was made up for with the patented Kirby Dynamism. Characters took on a heavier build, with blunter edges, design took the place of detail and so was born the much imitated Kirby idiosyncrasy that we all know and many love. In terms of design, he really gets to go to town on the wild Asgardian costumes, of particular note is Odin’s massive headgear, I’m sure ‘twould snap the neck of any mortal, should they think themselves befitted to don the OdinHat.



The Odin Hat



But then, I think Kirby had a bit of a hat fetish. (See Galactus)



Again 'tis a differing Odin Hat


OK, back to the serious stuff. For several issues it feels like nobody really knows where to take Thor, he takes on some pretty low level super-villains, that frankly, feel beneath his awesome powers. I can imagine Stan & Jack discussing this, so they must have said:

Stan: You think this isn’t as epic as it should be?

Jack: Damn right, whatcha gonna do about it?

Stan: Well, how about having Goldilocks fight Gangsters.

Jack: WHAAAAAT!!!

I’m pretty sure that that’s exactly what happened. But seriously, Thor versus Gangsters. So they tried that and, thankfully, decided that it wasn’t working either.

Don’t worry though. It didn’t take long to get Thor back on track. He’s soon battling Frost Giants and Trolls back in Asgard. But the best was yet to come.

When you have a character with the power of a God, there’s only so long you can confine him to Earth, particularly when he exists in a universe where the infinite space is so densely populated. So, at last, Thor goes Cosmic. Which is, ironically, exactly where he started when he battled the Stone Men of Saturn way back in Journey Into Mystery 83.

For my money, this is what Thor should be doing. Transported to deep space to battle the Colonizers, facing off against a Living Planet and standing against Galactus in the dark Bioverse. By this point in the strip everything has reached perfection.



Colleta inks for Thor 149 cover



At this point, it’s probably worth mentioning Vince Colletta. For those of you who don’t know the name, Colletta is not a particularly favoured inker, especially when it comes to his inking of Jack Kirby. No more of that here though. Should you wish to read more, a quick search of Google should have you well informed. When Colletta first starts to ink Kirby’s Thor he uses a very light touch, it lacks detail and fails to capture the immediacy which Kirby can create in every panel. But, for all the negative comments that Colletta generates, when his style matures and evolves along with Kirby’s the results are fantastic. Heavier inks, with bolder, bigger black areas used to make the figures and set pieces stand out. This technique is ideally suited to Kirby. As ever though, as great as his inking is for Thor, you can’t help but wonder how much of Kirby’s background was left uninked and therefore never seen by the likes of you and I.

However, as much as I enjoyed Colletta’s inking, the real standout issues for me were 170-175, inked incredibly well by Bill Everett. I don’t recall seeing Everett inking Kirby before and the results are amazing. Since reading those issues Everett is up there with Joe Sinnott and Mike Royer as one of the few, perfect inkers for Kirby’s pencils.



Thor 174, Bill Everett inks



Reading these comics as a single run reminded me just how many mainstay Marvel villains were created in the pages of Thor. If you can measure a man by his enemies Thor must be second only to the Fantastic Four. Radioactive Man, Mr. Hyde, Crusher Creel, Ego the Living Planet and High Evolutionary are a few that come to mind (ignoring the aforementioned Gangsters that is).

So when push comes to shove, there are several reasons that Thor didn’t make it to the all time top spot as my favourite Silver Age Marvel comic, but wild horses couldn’t stop me recommending it as a must read for anyone interested in either the creators, era or genre.

Mad Thinker Reads………………

Norse Gods Smashing Living Planets in the Face with a Hammer that has a Name.

Black & White Reprints

When it comes to value for money (which I’m unabashed to admit is a concern for me) there’s no beating the Showcase Presents and Essential editions. I suppose that by definition I am a comic collector, but I see myself more as a comic reader and the black & white collections that are produced by the Big Two (and increasingly by other companies, Dark Horse in particular) are a great way to read comics that are often difficult or pricey to get hold of.

The only disadvantage is the lack of colour. But is that really so bad?

The vibrancy and instant eye appeal that the colour reprints provide is a great draw, but the more Showcase and Essentials that I read the more I come to appreciate the format. For me there is a purity with the black and white art that colour can detract from. Ditko is a prime example. Most of Ditko’s work was pencilled and inked by his own hand, so what you see in a black and white Ditko reprint is “pure” Ditko. What you get on the page is exacly as he produced it. When you start adding colour, particularly darker shades, it can muddy the line an leave the reader with an impression of the art that was unintended by the artist. I suppose that what I’m saying is that the colour can distract from the subtlety of the finished ink work.

But that’s just me. Not everyone will want to pore over artwork in the way that I sometimes do, and rightly so, the primary reason for comic art is storytelling, not showcasing the work of a specific artist. There is another consideration though and as ever, it comes down to a matter of taste: Some art just looks better left uncoloured. If you’re sceptical fair enough, but Gene Colan’s Tomb of Dracula is a great example. Gene Colan’s pencils under Tom Palmer’s inks on ToD are really beautiful. The only way to read them is in black and white. It’s a shame that they were ever coloured, when you put them in context with the horror theme of the comics the addition of colours is garish and unnecessary. So with the Essential ToD, what was printed as cheap alternative has become a definitive edition in terms of clarity and beauty, it’s just unfortunate that some of the art was retouched to cover lady bits.

I’m not advocating that all comics be black and white, just that some artists are better served by not being coloured and no pencil and ink artist should need to rely on a colourist to complete their work. There are of course exceptions.

Joe Kubert’s Enemy Ace is one such exception.

I wrote that last sentence about 10 minutes ago and I’ve been trying to articulate my reasons for writing it and in all honesty, I can’t. I have no idea why some art works better in black and white and other art works better with colour. Looks like this post is about to fizzle out. What can I say.

How about this?

Don’t discount a cheap black and white reprint as inferior to a colour reprint. Sometimes the cheaper option is a better product. I’d suggest browsing both volumes and making an informed choice afterward.

Mad Thinker