CBR: Shelf Life - Apr 21, 2011

[CBR News]

This week Ron talks about "Thor," the book he always wanted write, and exactly what happened when he got his wish. He also touches on some of his work on titles he wasn't as attached to going in.


Full article here.

[toodiesel]

Great article, I got pulled back into comics thanks to Walt's Orion series and haven't left yet. I wonder how many of us got sucked back in because of something Walt did.

[Boabie]

Thoroughly enjoyed the article. Always nice to see behind the curtain and hear that creators are, deep down, just fans like us. Can't argue with Ron's assessment on Walt Simonson's Thors. I swither between Walt's Thors and Starlin's original Warlock run as my favourite comicbooks ever. Either way, they are wonderful to read (and reread). Walt and Jim are both just great talents that we are lucky to have working in the medium.

Not so convinced about the Thor art, though, and not upset it never happened. And I hated Grindberg's art at the time. He did some Warlock and the Infinity Watch issues too, a series that started very strongly and then lost its way before recovering artistically with Pat Oliffe at the very end. Grindberg was just a bad fit for mainstream Marvel comics, even the cosmic mags. His anatomy drawing is just dreadful.

P.S. As a wee kid, I discovered Tarzan long before Marvel and I still have a soft spot for him. Ungawa, ungawa!

[ian33407]

...turning Thor into a woman ?
I certainly want to read that. Peter Milligan did the same for SHADE THE CHANGING MAN and it was a wonderful story; fact is that Marvel isn't still ready to take this kind of direction for now... which still make a precursor of you, sir.

[jpbl1976]

Like Ron, I picked up the Thor by Simonson omnibus (in fact, I'd pre-ordered it from my LCS as soon as I'd heard it was coming out in October 2010); it is one of my favorite comics purchases ever. The re-coloring by Steve Oliff adds a present-day touch to the artwork, which was some of Walt's best.

Moreover, since Walt's art is so distinctive, his Thor run doesn't look dated at all (unfortunately, much as I enjoyed his work at the time, the same can't be said of Walt's Thor collaborator, Sal Buscema).

I'd say that, if anything, Walt's work stands up to the work of some of the best artists today.

Meanwhile, after having re-read Walt's run after all these years, I'm surprised at how modern his writing feels; he never really overwhelmed the reader with excessive framing or exposition the way that, in hindsight, Chris Claremont did.

About the only thing "wrong" with the omnibus is that it's so damn hefty that I have to read it while lying down on my stomach.

I wish Marvel would go the re-coloring route for some of its iconic runs. I know some comics purists prefer that the coloring from that era were preserved but I'm willing to bet that even the original artists wouldn't have minded having their art colored the way that Dean White and Laura Martin color the work of Romita Jr/Janson and Coipel, respectively.

For example, I recently bought a Thor one-shot (I think it was Who Will Be Worthy) that featured a re-colored reprint of Journey Into Mystery 83 (which also appeared as a back-up in Thor First Thunder 1); the difference was night and day. Kirby's art looked as though it could've been done for today's comics.

It makes me wonder why Marvel, already having a number of the early JIM issues re-colored in-hand, didn't go with the re-colored editions for the recently-released Thor Omnibus by Lee and Kirby (which I also got but was not as happy with as I was with the Simonson omnibus). For a hundred bucks per pop, it certainly gives readers more value for their money. I would certainly have paid a bit more if Marvel had decided to re-color the new Phoenix Saga HC.

... oh, and Ron? If you wanna write Thor, please be my guest. Matt's a fine writer but I just think you'd be better on Thor than he's been.

[ceallach]

Over-muscled, tiny hands and head. Ugh, no thank you. Glad the art didn't work out.

[grphxkindaguy]

I wonder how many of us got sucked back in because of something Walt did.

the Uncanny X-Men/Teen Titans one-shot that Ron mentioned is my single favorite comic book *ever*. And at the time I read it I had very little knowledge about both teams!

Thats how good it was.

[bh123]

I generally have to agree with Ron's statement "When you come at a series without the emotional baggage of being a hardcore fan, you can approach it objectively, and do what's best for the story." I've seen a number of occasions when a writer professed to be HUGE fans of Character A, and then proceeded to write a mediocre, if not awful, series featuring that character.

I think that if I ever did have the opportunity to write for comic books (which I expect is very unlikely, in any case) the title that I would probably not be up to writing is Captain America, simply because I am such a tremendous, long-time fan of the character. It might be difficult for me to to bring the objectivity that Marz cites to the table.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

So you're the one to blame, Ron!

Back when I was a young lad of ten or eleven, my mates had just turned me on to the most exciting cartoon I'd ever seen - X-Men The Animated Series - and we'd just learned that there were these things called comics with those guys in them, and the comics were more cool and adult (ha!) than anything else we could get our hands on.

Before I had a chance to get some of my own, my Grandmother came to visit, and as an impulse buy at the train station, had picked up a couple of comics for me - Web Of Spider-Man #98, and The Mighty Thor #460.

The Spider-Man was alright, but it was mid-storyline so I was a bit lost.

The Thor however, had me instantly hooked - the cover was intense, it was the beginning of something new, set in a crazy world of warriors, and blowing my young mind, the hero was being a dick to everyone.
And the ending with a sexy chick turning up to lead him astray - hooha!

I couldn't wait for the next issue, and began picking it up whenever I saw it at the newsagent - even going as far (so it seemed at the time) as to go to the comic specialty shop to pick up the crossover where he battled Drax, as that title wasn't at newsagents in Australia.
(A friend of mine was picking up Infinite Crusade, so we'd swap issues to be able to follow what was going on).

I ended up having to drop it during Blood & Thunder, as I couldn't afford or find all the tie-ins - it turned me off crossovers for a good long while - and when I tried the title again with #475, it just didn't work for me at all.
It wasn't the Thor I wanted to read about - the angry, possibly mad, Thor, searching for answers around the galaxy.

I must admit though, being young and new to comics, I never paid attention to who was creating them - I think that came later, after things like #475, when I realised there was more to which books I liked best, than which character it starred.

The run may have been a creative disappointment for you, but it was the very first title I collected from month to month, and the one that gave me the comic book bug.
Cheers for that!

[Ron Marz]

A most excellent tale, Ben. Thanks so much for sharing it.