Wednesday, April 27, 2016

5 YEARS AGO TODAY

THORMANIA HIT NEW HEIGHTS PLUS A HOMAGE TO KING KONG AND STERANKO!!!

25 New Marvels shipped. 
5 had variant covers featuring the Thor corner of the shared universe paying homage to iconic movie posters. 


AGE OF X UNIVERSE #2 
     Cover by SIMONE BIANCHI
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #659
     Cover by STEFANO CASELLI
ANITA BLAKE CIRCUS OF DAMNED INGENUE #3 
    Cover by BRETT BOOTH
AVENGERS #12  
    Cover by BRYAN HITCH
CAPTAIN AMERICA #617
    Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
    Thor Goes Hollywood Variant by KHOI PHAM
DEADPOOL #36 
    Cover by DAVE JOHNSON
FF #2
    Cover by DANIEL ACUÑA
    Character Variant by MARKO DJURDJEVIC 
    Thor Goes Hollywood Variant by GREG HORN
INCREDIBLE HULKS #627 
     Cover DOUG BRAITHWAITE Thor Goes Hollywood Variant by MIKE DEL MUNDO
MIGHTY THOR #1
    Cover by OLIVIER COIPEL 
    Variant Cover by TRAVIS CHAREST 
    Variant Cover by WALT SIMONSON  
    Thor Movie Variant Cover
MIGHTY THOR SAGA #1
NAMOR FIRST MUTANT #9 
     Cover by PHIL NOTO
NEW MUTANTS #24
    Cover by MICO SUAYAN
ORSON SCOTT CARDS SPEAKER FOR DEAD #4 
   Cover by GUISEPPE CAMUNCOLI
OSBORN #5 
   Cover by BEN OLIVER
POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #4 
   Cover by MIKE PERKINS
RUSE #2 
   Cover by JACKSON GUICE
SECRET AVENGERS #12 
   Cover by MIKE DEODATO Thor Goes Hollywood Variant by MICHAEL KALUTA
SPIDER-GIRL #6 
   Cover by JELENA KEVIC-DJURDJEVIC
SPIDER-MAN #13 
   Cover by BARRY KITSON
THOR ASGARDS AVENGER #1 
   Cover by TOM RANEY
THUNDERSTRIKE #5 
   Cover by RONALD FRENZ
TOMB OF DRACULA PRESENTS THRONE OF BLOOD #1 
   Cover by BRYAN HITCH
UNCANNY X-MEN #536
    Cover by TERRY DODSON
VENOM #2
    Cover by TONY MOORE
X-23 #9 
    Cover by KALMAN ANDRASOFSZKY 
   Thor Goes Hollywood Variant by CHRIS STEVENS

X-MEN #10
    Cover by TERRY DODSON Variant Cover by CHRIS BACHALO 
    Thor Goes Hollywood Variant by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER

Plus:
CAPTAIN AMERICA OPERATION REBIRTH PREM HC $24.99
CAPTAIN AMERICA TRIAL OF CAPTAIN AMERICA PREM HC $24.99
FANTASTIC FOUR BY JONATHAN HICKMAN PREM HC VOL 04 $19.99
THOR TRIALS OF LOKI PREM HC $19.99
THOR WARRIORS THREE UNLEASHED PREM HC $19.99
Written by STAN LEE, JOHN LEWANDOWSKI, TOM DEFALCO, RON FRENZ & WALT SIMONSON
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, KEVIN KOBASIC, RICH YANIZESKI, HERB TRIMPE, MARK TEXEIRA, JOE BARNEY & DEODATO STUDIOS
Covers by JOE BARNEY & JACK KIRBY
Collecting THOR ANNUAL #2 & #17; THOR (1966) #400, #410 & #415-416; MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) #66; MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1990) #15 and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #-1
 X-MEN OMNIBUS HC VOL 02 $99.99
 DOOMWAR TP $15.99
ESSENTIAL X-MEN TP VOL 06 NEW ED $19.99
MMW FANTASTIC FOUR TP VOL 06 $24.99
PUNISHER TP FRANKEN-CASTLE $34.99
SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK BY JOHN BYRNE TP VOL 01 $24.99
THOR OFFICIAL INDEX TO MARVEL UNIVERSE GN TP $19.99

Monday, April 25, 2016

The Marvel Misunderstanding Method was the plot device of choice in the Silver Age to get heroes to battle each other.

The misunderstanding for the issue-long fight in FANTASTIC FOUR #73 was set up in DAREDEVIL #38.
 

It takes place during THOR #150 when Thor was still depowered by Odin which explains why he didn't defeat the Thing with one punch. Continuity can be a wonderful thing in the right hands.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

NEW THOR(S) APPEARANCES IN THE SHOPS TOMORROW

NEW THOR ODINSON APPEARANCE!
MIGHTY THOR #6 $3.99
(W) Jason Aaron (A) Rafa Garres (CA) Russell Dauterman
   A special tale of young Thor adventuring in the age of Vikings!  Meanwhile, LOKI conjures up a dark and powerful new enemy: VIKING HULK.


 Chin Civil War Variant cover


NEW LADY THOR APPEARANCES

 CAPTAIN AMERICA SAM WILSON #8 $3.99 (CIVIL WAR VAR)
(W) Nick Spencer (A/CA) Paul Renaud
   Captain America Unite! Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers, and Bucky Barnes team up for a heroic stand against the evil that lurks in Pleasant Hill.  Continues the blockbuster spring Avengers event, STANDOFF! Lady Thor makes a one page appearance




SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL #4 $3.99
(W) Joe Kelly (A/CA) Ed McGuinness
    Double date, Deadpool style!  Spider-Man finally agrees to hang out with Deadpool outside of adventures, but he might regret it when he discovers that his date is a friend of Deadpool's wife, Shiklah, demon queen of Monster Metropolis. Who's Deadpool's date? Guest-stars Lady Thor!


TOTALLY AWESOME HULK #5 $3.99 (PHAM CIVIL WAR VAR)
(W) Greg Pak (A/CA) Mike Choi
   Amadeus Cho loves being the Hulk and he's determined to be the greatest hero the world's ever seen.   But if the Hulk is driven by rage, what lies within Amadeus? Unfortunately for him, the Enchantress, Amora of Asgard, is hell-bent on finding out! Lady Thor makes a brief appearance.

Monday, April 18, 2016

BEHOLD THE ODIN STOGIE!

Art by Erik Larsen, aided and abetted by frequent Kirby-embellisher, Mike Royer.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

To help commemorate Marvel's 70th Anniversary year Marko Djurdjevic was commissioned by Chris Allo to do 12 paintings which would cover one comic a month. "-all he wanted was just a simple version of each of the Marvel characters on a white background with a little touch of Marko in it."


"He gave me a list of the twelve characters and away I went; it's actually the fastest gig I've ever done. I painted all twelve covers in just ten days, so it's been a fantastic cover gig for me to do. I sat down and did all the sketches in one day while I was still in my first inspiration for the job, and then I just painted them one by one." - THE MARVEL ART OF MARKO DJURDJEVIC 
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #104 came out in early 1964 which was before I was reading THOR. 
When Marvel released their first set of cards and stickers in 1967 I first saw the iconic Christlike pose. Even though I knew that Marko's exposure to comics was limited to a few years in the mid 1990s and then not again until he was hired by Marvel it occurred to me that he might have seen the Kirby image.
It is easy to say this now that I know the truth but my best-faith guess would have been that Djurdjevic was not influenced by the Kirby cover. 

Hagen, Marko's assistant, posed my theory to Marko and he supplied a definitive answer: "I've asked Marko about the Kirby parallels, and he said that it is not the case. He says he's too young to be grown up with Kirby's work. Later he didn't get a connection to him, as he was confronted with other artists that inspired him more (like Enki Bilal, Tim Bradstreet, Phil Hale and Joshua Gabriel Timbrook, an almost unknown illustrator)."

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

IN THE SHOPS TODAY

Sculpted by Clayburn Moore! limited to 3,000 pieces $150 

MARVEL PREMIERE COLLECTOR THOR STATUE

The second full-size resin statue in the all-new Marvel Premier Collection is none other than Thor, God of Thunder! Based on a famous 1969 cover image, Thor wears his timeless classic outfit and swings his hammer as if preparing to hurl it skyward. Crouching on a circular base designed to represent Bifrost, the rainbow bridge of Asgard, this approximately 9" statue of Thor comes packaged with a certficate of authenticity in a full-color box.

As of this posting I DO know that this statue is still available and that at least 421 have sold.