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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2014 3:13:26 GMT -5
I was going through the Jack Kirby Omnibus sampler DC put out as part of its DC Comics Presents reprints line, and came across the story The Magic Hammer from Tales of the Unexpected #16 drawn by good ole King Kirby and cover dated August 1957...to find some startlingly familiar imagery. It might be old news to some of the more knowledgeable folks of comic lore around here (of which I am definitely not one), but doing a few google searches led me to this article at Dial B for Blog from 2008.... The Secret Origin of Thoryou can also see scans of some of the pages here.... Thor Gallerya little ways down the page...look for Tales of the Unexpected #16... I always find these little tidbits fascinating and it adds a bit of fuel to the fire how much JAck brought to the table when creating the Marvel heroes.... -M |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 1, 2014 5:52:27 GMT -5
No doubt Kirby was the man but my take is that anyone can write a Thor story as long as it doesn't steal the elements of Marvels version.
I remember All Star Squadron having a Thor as a villain in the early issues.
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Post by the4thpip on Jun 1, 2014 6:07:52 GMT -5
Does anybody know where Kirby's fascination with the Norse gods came from? It's interesting to see that he did some of the research as far back as 1957.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 1, 2014 7:44:25 GMT -5
Kirby's fascination with the gods of mythology is obvious from the earliest days of his career (note his and Joe Simon's "Mercury" strip in Red Raven #1) and his use of the Norse gods specifically goes back almost as far. The Thor character from All-Star Squadron that 'bone mentions above was a villain from the S&K Sandman series, introduced in Adventure Comics #75 (June 1942). In that light, and given Kirby's penchant for revisting the same narrative hooks again and again, that Tales of the Unexpected story becomes less significant.
Cei-U!
I summon the perspective!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2014 15:42:37 GMT -5
No doubt Kirby was the man but my take is that anyone can write a Thor story as long as it doesn't steal the elements of Marvels version. I remember All Star Squadron having a Thor as a villain in the early issues. Yes but the story from Unexpected is a guy finding an object that is Thor's magic hammer (and is drawn exactly like Mjolnir is in Thor) and gains the powers of Thor to use... again by Kirby about 5 years before Journey into Mystery 83... so the elements of Marvel's Thor are here, before there is a Marvel Thor....at least the elements of Thor's origin in the MU. -M |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 1, 2014 15:44:58 GMT -5
Ok but the first story wasn't about Thor so much as a loser finding a hammer.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2014 15:50:12 GMT -5
Ok but the first story wasn't about Thor so much as a loser finding a hammer. Oh you mean some lame doc named Don Blake, oh wait that's just the Marvel stand in for that character a few years alter.... -M |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 1, 2014 15:55:04 GMT -5
Ok but the first story wasn't about Thor so much as a loser finding a hammer. Oh you mean some lame doc named Don Blake, oh wait that's just the Marvel stand in for that character a few years alter.... -M It's a fairly common literary trope though, so I don't know if you can really draw a direct line between the two. It's a fun fact to be sure, but not a terribly significant one in my mind. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 1, 2014 15:59:46 GMT -5
No way you called a park avenue dr. A loser.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 1, 2014 16:29:34 GMT -5
No doubt Kirby was the man but my take is that anyone can write a Thor story as long as it doesn't steal the elements of Marvels version. I remember All Star Squadron having a Thor as a villain in the early issues. Yes but the story from Unexpected is a guy finding an object that is Thor's magic hammer (and is drawn exactly like Mjolnir is in Thor) and gains the powers of Thor to use... again by Kirby about 5 years before Journey into Mystery 83... so the elements of Marvel's Thor are here, before there is a Marvel Thor....at least the elements of Thor's origin in the MU. -M Yeah, I was struck (no pun intended) by Kirby's preservation of the hammer's design. Thanks for sharing this cool discovery, mrp! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2014 17:29:50 GMT -5
No way you called a park avenue dr. A loser. He was way outclassed in the New York medical scene by some guy named Stephen Strange until that guy had asome car accident and dropped form sight....  -M |
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ironchimp
Full Member
Simian Overlord
Posts: 456 
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Post by ironchimp on Jun 1, 2014 17:35:44 GMT -5
that weird comics artwork is something else. on one level its dreadful. on another level it's truly awesome. could definitely roll with that blown up in a frame in my house
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Post by hondobrode on Jun 1, 2014 19:20:23 GMT -5
Kirby would get the characters confused in his head as to who published what sometimes.
Logically given that they're all in his imagination, hundreds of them.
One interview alluded to Orion and Thor being related and IIRC he inferred Orion was a Marvel property, which it probably would have been if Infantino hadn't wooed the King to National.
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Post by benday-dot on Jun 1, 2014 19:27:08 GMT -5
Kirby had an interest in Norse mythology most of his life. He read up on it as a kid.
But another interesting "prototype" for Thor, appeared in Charlton's Unusual Tales #18, from September 1959.
I'm not sure if Stan or Jack read this ephemeral little Charlton number, but it contains some strikingly familiar elements.
Roughly...
A lame fellow named Alvin is no longer in liking his cane, and figures to go buy a new one. He comes across a crafty looking metal walking stick in an antique shop and purchases it from the owner's son for a few dollars. Once in possession of this stick he finds himself fairly healed. Not only that but discovers the stick has miraculous properties that enable it to perform magnificent feats, like shatter boulders or fell trees with a few taps.
The owner of the antique shop realizes his son sold off this miraculous walking stick and scolds him because the stick was actually fashioned from "the mighty hammer of Thor!"
Maybe this is all just a crazy coincidence, and Kirby is on record of not really reading comics (his own or others) from the racks, but creators were always "borrowing" ideas from one another, so maybe Stan or someone else liked the idea of a cane having a relationship with the hammer of the god Thor.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2014 20:11:26 GMT -5
How about this wild early concept art of Thor. Could you imagine trying to draw that hat in every frame?  |
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