i can't tell you how many times i have just flipped through my Thor's to just enjoy the fantastic mythological artwork of Kirby in Thor because at time's i just wasn't feeling the writing or felt it was written didn't really reflect what was happening with the artwork. I do the same at times with Iron-Man for the Don Heck artwork. Sometimes just savoring the line work or other times letting myself try to create the story just from the visuals provided. This should prove to be interesting and fun. Looking forward to see if i can see what you see (LOL) along the way.

Journey into Mystery 84 (the Executioner)

If anything, this was a bigger surprise than the previous issue. Because I came with such low expectations.

From what I vaguely recall from reading this years ago, this story had "low grade filler" written all over it. Classic embarrassing anti-communist propaganda with cardboard zero-threat villain, where Thor flies around flipping tanks over in a banana republic. And it all ends up with the corniest "will they won't they, I can never tell her" cringe making subplot stolen from Superman. When I started it I figured that obviously Kirby would have tried hard for an origin, and then can be forgiven for taking a while to find his feet. I could not be more wrong.

Now all of the bad stuff is true with the dialog. Different time, different market, different dialog. But remove the dialog and the story becomes so much better.

First, it's realistic. This is the kind of thing that was actually happening in 1962. And this is Thor's first adventure of choice: he is experimenting, seeing what he can do, which explains his choice to try different things like a thunder storm, hitting a tank to make it vibrate, pulling up a tree to flip a tank over, etc. (he saw a Stone Man pull up a tree in the previous issue so would want to try it himself) and so on.

Second, I love the visual story telling: so physical, such perfect camera angles: the ship, the mud slide, etc. And how many other writers would even think of a mud slide? Yet it's exactly what happens in flash floods. Even that one pose where Thor looks odd: that is exactly how athletes look when throwing something. Modern comic writers have standard heroic poses, but Kirby goes for real. It reminds me of the scene in Deadpool where Deadpool mocks the standard hero landing pose: looks cool but totally fake. Kirby's stuff is raw.

I know this sounds like a "Kirby can do no wrong" fanboy piece (but surely you're getting used to that), but I recently read a lot of mystery comics from around 1960, and the difference is stark. And it goes without saying that Kirby's story was head and shoulders above any modern comic I've read recently. As far as I can see, modern comics are mostly stiff talking heads and stale tropes. I base that judgment on, for example, the latest Marvel previews at CBR. They're all stiff talking heads. You could literally replace the characters with stiff plastic toys and the poses would all work. It was like the artists didn't know how to do anything except people standing around plus the very occasional splash page of a generic movie scene / porn star pose. Oh I hate writing this, I feel like a parody of myself, and yet it's measurably true.

Third, the art is gorgeous. I mean beyond the camera work just mentioned: the acting and costumes. When the Executioner sits over his desk and his victim leans over, or when Dr Blake and Jane are in the same room, the body language and detailing is superb.

Fourth, the Executioner. People talk about "villain of the month" style plots, but this is different. This is a story that moved forward. Last issue, mankind's foray into space triggers contact with aliens, which triggers a meeting with the gods, just as with Arthur C Clarke: except these gods are not all friendly. That leads to this story where Blake tries out his powers. We are then shown that our whole planet has serious problems (war and suffering on foreign lands). This sets the scene for why we need a god from another world to help us. 

Kirby is ramping up the scale, preparing is (or contrasting) with the cosmic events to come. The appearance of The Executioner foreshadows the godlike character of the same name. "As On Earth, So In Heaven." Problems here are a microcosm of universal problems. 

Finally, the Jane Foster sub plot. That is the part I remember hating most as a child: Stan's dalog made it so forced, so unrealistic. But Kirby's art tells a different story. This is not about Blake hiding his feelings for her. This is about a man discovering there is something much, much bigger in his life, and trying to make sense of it. She stays in the story only to show the choice he must make between his everyday relationships and the eternities.

Granted, kidnapping and romance are there as backgrounds: Kirby knew he had to sell comics, and give the stories variety, but they are only there to serve the bigger, serious point; the choices we must make. This question of choices was reflected in the main story: a central American nation having to decide its future. Note how America sending its people to this small nation is like Asgard sending Thor to Earth.

The bigger story is moving forwards quickly. Glancing ahead at next month, we are already going to meet the other gods (Specifically, Loki). Kirby is wasting no time in building this epic of mankind meeting the gods.

I hadn't planned to write so much. It was only, what, a ten pager? And those are just my initial impressions. As the quote goes, "if I had more time it would have been shorter".

I'm loving Thor for the first time. I wonder what the Loki story will bring?

Thanks! Shows how much I know.  In my defense, the Essentials didn't show any names. Maybe I should rename this "Thor without Lieber"

Do you know where I can find more details about Larry's full script? According to Stan's 1947 book (Secrets Behind the Comics) if an artist could write he generally did. Stan said that the person named as "writer" might not have touched the book, it was a formal title for legal purposes. Based on that, and Kirby's track record, and Kirby's two previous two versions of Thor, it seemed that Stan's 1947 policy would apply here, just as it did in the mid 1960s. Is there compelling evidence to the contrary?

Here's a link to an interview from 1999's Alter Ego #2 that may be useful, in which Roy Thomas and Larry Lieber discuss Lieber's early Marvel scripts (among other topics). 


www.twomorrows.com/alterego/articles/02lieber.html

I think that's what makes the book most valuable: it shows how Stan's mind worked. ANd what it says is consistent with how things worked in the mid 1960s.

Thanks. The question then becomes, did Kirby use the script? In that interview, Larry says


At that time Jack was routinely writing other books himself, and he would happily change what the writer said. There is plenty of evidence of this from the FF right from the start. Kirby didn't have a high opinion of Stan's ideas even then. This example is from Larry Lieber himself:


Given all that, why would Kirby slavishly follow Larry's script? Larry was not even Jack's boss. 

What does this mean? What legal purpose? When Stan wrote the book, they didn't give writers any credits on the stories. Can you quote this particular passage from the book?