MY FAVORITE COMICS - "Tales of Asgard" from The Mighty Thor # 97-145

Since I've been on a sort of Jack Kirby's Thor high lately here on the blog, I might as well save the best for last : the Tales of Asgard back-up. I loved how these regular five page short-stories expanded the world of Thor and tied up the current incarnation of the norse god of thunder to its original mythic roots with inventive abandon and creativity. My all-time favorite of the bunch? Why, the "The meaning of..Ragnarok"/"Aftermath!" two-part conclusion to the epic quest through the Sea of Fear. Grandeur unleashed!

MY FAVORITE COMICS - "The Scourge of the Super Skrull" from The Mighty Thor #142

This one gets a place on this pantheon merely on the virtue of the splash page and the following couple of pages. Thor on a race against a biker!? This is what made marvel so famous way back when: the surreal contrast between the mundane and the majestic... and Jack Kirby, of course :-)  

MY FAVORITE COMICS - "The Wrath of Replicus" from The Mighty Thor #141

Unforgettable! Everything falls so perfectly in place on the mere sixteen pages within which this comic takes place... Slugger Sykes... Mrs. Garden... Dr. Donald Blake. Don't let yourself be deceived by the violent splash page - this is one of the best examples of a morality tale played out within the superhero genre confines without subverting its conventions.

MY FAVORITE COMICS - The Mighty Thor #193-194

More than story, what attracted me to comics were the actual drawings and, later on, the visual storytelling. Looking back, no one gave a better balance between power and grace to drawn characters than  John Buscema. Sure, his craftsmanship was among the finest comic book professionals, but what conquered me was the beautiful people he drew. These were drop dead gorgeous figures - the way superheroes were supposed to be! There are quite a few gems on this couple of issues that still inspire me even after all these years...

MY FAVORITE COMICS - "To become an Immortal!" from The Mighty Thor #136

The fact that many of my favorite comics from back when I was a kid were reprints from earlier times probably says something not only about my tastes but also about the enduring quality of those same comics. This one hits the motherload! We get Jack Kirby's art and storytelling at the height of his creative power and vision, Vince Colleta's scratchy ink lines, Stan Lee's verbose diarrhea, old cheap four color printing on pulp paper and a tale chronicling the final moments of the forbidden romance between a beautiful mortal girl and the norse god of thunder. What else could a seven year old kid possibly want?