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.