Another artist that I have been meaning to give some shine to is WALT SIMONSON. I got put on to dude because he had a nice little run on the X-Men’s spinoff title X-Factor and he also penciled a Marvel Comics x D.C. Comics crossover with the X-Man and the Teen Titans.
WALT SIMONSON really killed shit when he took over The Mighty Thor title. His pencils are totally reminiscent of Marvel Comics greatest artist of all time JACK KIRBY. His characters are overly musculature and there is an empahsis on the upper torso, head and arms of the subjects. Where SIMONSON improves on KIRBY’s somewhat grotesques of characters is with his embellishing, or inking of his pencilwork. SIMONSON uses such and economy on inking the figures that there forms aren’t overdone and heavy. In a way SIMONSON almost creates a retro-futuristic animation aesthetic on his comics. Manga books pick up this style.
SIMONSON’s run on The Mighty Thor made me collect this title for a minute. I never really understood the appeal of Thor only because I never really connected the Marvel character to the O.G. Norse mythology I have read. Thor should speak in a somewhat Nordic way and not use that Celtic faux-Shakespeare that STAN LEE scripted him with. Nordic folks are typically bearded and SIMONSON brought this to the character. SIMONSON gave Thor a real viking appearance which the character always lacked. SIMONSON also made the Loki character as treacherous and ruthless as ever. The big Thor storyline addition was the alien being that would win Thor’s hammer in battle. The enchanted Mjolnir hammer was only supposed to be wielded by Thor, but this alien had the courage and spirit to also hold the hammer aloft. DP Dot Com free shit goes out to the first person to give me the name of the alien that beats up Thor for his hammer.
In the meantime and between time, enjoy some of these The Mighty Thor covers done by WALT SIMONSON. Nuff’ said.
Beta Ray Bill is the guy ya lookn’ for….
My only problem with THor was that he was a “god.” How the heck are you gonna have him fighting random weak aliens or low-rent thugs on the street.
As an aside, Phoenix was nice, but tell me Storm didn’t hold the greatest power in ANY X-men assembly she was in…They reduced her powers to make it look like she only knew how to act if someone else instructed her.
Storm was the first chick to “make it rain!” hahahahaha (Sorry. I had to say it…)
Walt Simonson is that dude. . . Nice drop, Dallas.
Also, Thor v. the dragon Fing Fang Foom is a classic issue. Cop it.
beta ray billiam’s is that dude, he eventually got his own hammer
^ eventually?!?
Odin hooked ol’ boy up immediately.
If I remember correctly Stormbreaker is the name of Beta Ray Bill’s hammer.
well eventually meaning after he kicked thor’s ass, albeit they both knocked eachother out but BRB had rejuvi powers to the 3rd, came back to earth and then he got his own….
ever do a drop on Jim Lee? that man is the GOAT in my book
Jim Lee was nice with his. He, Mike Mignola and Todd McFarlane were part of the next generation of artists. Why don’t you do the drop Secada? I’ll find the images that ralate to your favorite works of his.
Oh, you thought you got free shit in the mail for free?!?
Damn D, you had to bring the effin’ god out on a nice ass Saturday. Walt Simonson mos def gets his props over here. Can’t wait til u do a drop on Mike Golden, Steve Ditko, George Perez, Jim Steranko, Paul Gulacy, Frank Quietly, Jim Starlin etc. This blog stays staying versatile!
lol…nah no freeshit this time….i just dropped knowledge for my fellow hummus eaters (no delightbourne inc.)
Once I saw that there were comments I knew someone said B.R.B.
For real, for real I still own the X-factor that introduced ArchAngel and the one that shows when Askani took Cable (or Nathan at the time) to the future.
DP – as a thirtysomething comic book geek myself I dig reading all the comic posts. I also was never into Thor growing up. However, I highly recommend reading the Ultimates (vol 1 but Vol. 2 especially)
They’re brilliant stories and the art by Bryan Hitch is absolute NAILS. Issue 13 just hit shelves this month. In regards to Thor’s arc: he’s diagnosed to be a madman and ordered under psychiatric care. This will all play out but the end of the story is great.
I was always a Spidey and X-men head growing up and never followed the Avengers much. The Ultimates is an excellent re-imagining of the core group. Copp dat!
DP you are really becoming that dude when it comes to blogs. You really took me back with the Simonson Thor/Beta Ray Bill Saga. These comic book drops are crazy. You’re taking me back to books that dominated my world in the 80’s that i’ve long since forgotten about. The Mike Golden(Nam was my shit) reference in the post about Micronauts showed me you really know your shit. Plus I had the Baron Karza and Space Glider toys when i was a kid, which i had totally forgotten about.
It’s crazy because i first came to this site because I was at work looking for some ish on the decepticons like a year or two ago. After that I used to check once a week because I saw the truth and humor in some of the posts, but the porn and the shit joints had me leery especially at work. I gotta say there have been a few times where the posts were a little slow or a little thin. But now, man this site has really hit its stride. Keep doing what you’re doing.
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a friend who had been conducting a little homework on this. And he actually bought me lunch simply because I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this issue here on your website.