Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Thor Week! Black and White Wednesday: "Thor the Mighty!" by Wein, Starlin, and DeZuniga

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Here's another gem obviously intended for the unrealized Thor the Mighty b&w mag Marvel had been planning back in '74. This one finally saw the light of day in Marvel Preview #10 (Spring 1977), and it's another good'un. This time inker Tony DeZuniga was joined by fan-fave author Len (All-New, All-Different X-Men, Swamp Thing) Wein and the king of kozmic Jim (Captain Marvel, Warlock) Starlin. It looked, however, like the team was trying to enter into Conan's territory (and since Conan's Savage Sword mag was a monster hit, I s'pose Stan and company thought it was a great idea), giving us a young Thor and his sidekick (!) Loki facing off against monsters and seductive witches in the Robert E. Howard vein. Fun stuff, to be sure, but evidently it didn't catch on. Still, it was a worthy addition to Marvel Preview's usual high-quality content. The Ken Barr cover and Jim Starlin frontispiece were worth the buck the mag cost--the Thor tale (along with the Hercules back-up--stay tuned) were the icing on the proverbial cake. Check it out, Thor-ophiles!

8 comments:

  1. Groove, Thou Art the Keeper of the Hidden Starlin! A Most Fateful Wednesday Indeed!

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  2. I always liked Mr. Starlin's layouts, Mr. Dezuniga's realistic approach to anatomy and faces really adds to the look of the comic in a positive way.
    If I might make a Thor request....

    John Bolton's Thor!!!!!!!!!!

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  3. Must dig this out...have it somewhere :) Fantastic cover!

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  4. Groovy one don't forget tommorrow is Thursday or should I Thor day! Loved this mag, not only did it have. A beautiful cover, a awesome front piece, a great Thor adventure. But also a goregous Hercules back up story by Bill Mantlo & Val Mayerik! Can't wait to see it!ZEUS!

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  5. AWEsome story and art!

    Much thanks, Groove!

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  6. terrific stuff. seconded here for the John Bolton Thor ( although, I'm guessing that's on it's way at some point, anyway ), but only because I wanna see Joe Jusko's awesome cover again!

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  7. This mag had some cool Thor pinups in addition to the second panel, above. Any chance you can post those here as well?

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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