The kind of masterpiece Stan & Jack used to throw out in an afternoon, this one's always stuck with me since I swapped it off somebody back in the Bronze Age. Whatever the other guy ended up with, I got the better end of the deal.
Yeah, Thor fights a super-adaptive robot yadda yadda blah blah, but what we're really interested in is the B-story. You'll see the ending coming a mile away, but that's what makes it sweeter.
And I can't believe Jack wasn't thinking of Jimmy Cagney here.
The conversations and reminisces of Stan will continue of course, and I'm sure we'll raise a glass to him when we all meet up at cons, but I just wanted The Kids to say farewell to Stan properly. Click over to the right there for our tribute to The Man who defined all our childhood's.
The Man is gone. I guess we all knew, deep down, we wouldn't have much longer with the old showman, but still a shock.
Just like Ditko, I first met Stan in the pages of The Mighty World Of Marvel #1, where of course, I also met Spidey, The Hulk, Reed, Sue, Ben & Johnny for the first time, and fell in love with them all.
Sean just emailed me to say that, without Stan, he wouldn't have had a career, and we probably would never have met, and become lifelong friends.
I bet there's thousands of people, in and out of the industry, saying similar tonight.
Our gang preferred Marvel over DC hands down ( as great as their material was ), and I believe a huge part of that was down to Stan. Name any writer or artist from the start of Marvel through to the end of the Bronze Age. Now name their Marvel Bullpen nickname. Jazzy John, Roy The Boy, Genial Gene. You still remember them all, right? That's Stan.
The Bullpen Bulletins. Stan's Soapbox. F.O.O.M. The inclusive, fun letters pages. That's Stan.
And all those tons of great stories and characters. Just for tonight, let's not talk about credit, and who did what, or who didn't.
Stan, Jack, Steve, Larry, Don, Gene, and all the rest I talk about daily on this blog. They all did it. And gave us a childhood full of fun, adventure and excitement. And made us all want to go out and do it ourselves. And it started and ended with Stan.
And how wonderful that we ( and he ) got to see the rest of the world catch up with us. That he became everybody's favourite cameo star. And that even little kids in their Spidey or Cap T-Shirts know who he is.
Yes, he was a huckster, yes, he was a showman. He was also our lifelong friend, our cool uncle, our hilarious Grandad. The Man.
But why're you listening to me? If I'm ever gonna let anyone take over this blog, it'd be this guy. Hey Stan, what d'you think?
Thank you, Stan. Thank you for everything. Excelsior. Forever.
Like everybody, I'm reading a lot of Ditko right now. So let's read four of Steve & Stan's all-time classics, from the 5 page shockers period.
I hope our American pals will forgive us, but I'm going for most of these in an Alan Class / British Marvel b/w style, as that's where we mostly read them.
Every one of these stories is ingrained on my brain, and scared the living heck out of me as a kid. And I'm not the only one.
So much so, that if you concentrate, you'll be able to hear every single British fan of a certain age gasping out loud: "It's THAT one!!!"
Saw Thor: Ragnarok last night, and loved it. Probably the most fun time I've had at a Marvel movie since the first Guardians, and 'Immigrant Song' is now and forever the God Of Thunder's theme tune, like it wasn't already.
So here's Stan & John bringing Thor & Hela together on Earth, I think the first time we ever saw the Goddess Of Death looking like a mere mortal, albeit a kinda hot and vaguely russian one.
If I'm honest, Thor was never one of my main buys in the Bronze Age, mainly 'cos I struggled with all the thee's & thou's dialogue, feeling that it slowed Kirby's ( and Buscema's ) artwork down in much the same way stopping to read Zatanna's spells did, but there were individual runs I liked a lot, and this is one of them.
Mainly 'cos Hela was always a genuine threat, as opposed to say, The Wrecker.
And as well as her, you also get Balder The Bland still refusing to get off with Karnilla ( something he seemed to drag out for the whole of the Bronze Age ), and Odin sending Volstagg, of all the options to hand, down to Midgard to save the day. Valhalla, I am coming.
Sterankoesque 3 &... ?
-
Those two, I swear...
While over at:
Let's throw it out to the group this week: First one to comment gets to
choose the topic of conversation. But please...
All images on this blog are, natch, copyright the respective creators / publishers. This is a non-profit site, just to let fellow fans see stuff I like.
If I've posted anything that's yours, and you want acknowledgement, just let me know. Equally, if it's yours, and you don't want me to post it, let me know, and of course I'll take it off.
And if you've come here to read and talk comics, glad to have you aboard. If however, you're here to spam or advertise your scuba gear website, you're wasting your time, as your comments will be deleted the second I see them.
