Customer Reviews

Thor: Tales Of Asgard By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby HC Kirby Cover (Thor (Marvel))

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If you're a fan of Silver Age Marvel and/or Jack Kirby, don't let the redundancy or the computer colorization of this collection put you off. The detailed, painstaking colorization greatly benefits the sparse sketchiness of Colletta's inking. The masterful coloring work in this collection represents the best of all worlds, combining classic art with state-of-the-art innovation to breathtaking result. Trust me, you've never seen Silver Age Kirby like this.

This book is absolutely awesome. Marvel has done a terrific job of assembling all of the Tales of Asgard stories and given us some nice bonus features as well, including Thor's first appearance in Journey Into Mystery. The early stories deal with Marvel's interpretation of the Norse legends and mini-tales of some of the Norse gods (Heimdall, Loki, Balder, Thor and Odin) and seem to reflect Stan Lee's influence. However, the remaining two-thirds of the stories are epic continuing sagas where Jack Kirby intertwines first "Jason and The Argonauts" and then "Aladdin" into the storylines.

However, the real attraction in this book is the outstanding artwork by Jack Kirby. During the early and mid-60's Jack Kirby was the best artist in comics. However, as Marvel took off and Jack took on more and more assignments (at times doing all the covers and most of the interior pencils for the majority of the Marvel line), the quality of his artwork was at times significantly compromised. This is rarely seen, though, in Tales of Asgard. Jack obviously cared about this strip and the art was among the very best he turned out for Marvel. No one could touch Jack during this time period when it came to portraying heroic fantasy characters. His ability to portray epic scenes and themes was unmatched and his fascination with mythic characters (going back to his portrayal of Mercury in the 1930's to The Eternals in the 1980's) is on display. When it comes to portraying Thor, the first issue, with Jack's pencils and Joe Sinnott's inks, is still unmatched to this day approached only by John and Sal Buscema's rendition in Silver Surfer #4.

Kudos to Matt Milla for his beautiful contemporary coloring of these classic tales. Unlike the well-intentioned but inferior attempts in some other contemporary collections, Matt's work truly enhances the original artwork. The paper is fine quality as is the binding. All in all, this book is a true collector's item!

Thor: Tales of Asgard is one of the best hardcover books I have Thor I have the pleasure of owning. I knew the moment this would be released this item would go-out of-stock within a week, the Jack Kirby cover of course. Although it's still available at mycomicshop for 20 bucks! And I can rightfully understand why this has sold-out and people are already selling it for 50 bucks or more. A lot of people love Jack Kirby's art, me myself am very impressed with it and when I think of classic comic book art, he always comes to mind. These classic stories themselves are also very rare to find in color, so this was a huge treat for long-time waiting Thor fans to finally get the masterpiece that this book is. Marvel has given the fans what they want. Here are the pros of the this wonderfully released now rare creation.

Pros:

+ Great price for 20-25 bucks.

+ The stories themselves are superb and I've loved every single one, great action, epic feel, great memorable characters especially Volstagg, and stories with Loki are always my favorite.

+ Some may complain about the remastered artwork, but I think it looks fantastic and doesn't ruin Jack Kirby's beautiful art at all.

+ Lots of extras, bios on almost every Asgardian, Map of Asgard and just tons of cool stuff that I appreciate that Marvel added.

+ The 6 page fold-out of all the Asgardian characters drawn by Oliver Coipel is a great add-on and is gorgeous.

+ Reprint of Journey into Mystery #83, although most hardcore Thor fans my already own multiple reprints of this in multiple collections, it is nice too see it remastered and gotten the respect that it deserves.

Cons:

- Wish there was more Sif and I also wish Destroyer could've made an appearance, but that's just a small complaint and is the only negative I could think of.

Overall, this one of the best books I've ever read on Thor. And this a no-brainer for Thor fans and don't let the reviews of the so-called ruined artwork, I think it looks great and I guess it just depends on the person you are. Classic rare stories written by Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby, and lots of extras like the 6 page-fold out, bios and reprint of the first appearance of Thor make this a higly recommended book for any marvel fan. If you can get the Jack Kirby cover, I highly suggest you do.

Thor: Tales of AsgardMr.Jack Kirby,is to the Super Hero Genre,as Osamu Tezuka is to the Manga/Anime genre...He laid the foundation with the creation of the format for super hero teams,left a trail of hundreds of amazing characters he created or co-created,regardless of whatever company he worked for in his prolific career,and is a Titan in the universe of Popular Culture...Mr.Kirbys' Tales of Asgard stories,even though in their original form were the second set of stories after the Thor stories in the comic book (yes i said comic book,'cause that 's what they were when i bought 'em as a kid!) where some of the most amazing dynamic hyper-kinetic mythologically based stories in the genre! and this book does them justice in it's printing and coloring! Even though the original coloring of the stories has been replaced with a some what more "muted" realistic color scheme and has all the bell and whistles of modern computer printing/color pallette,it enhances Kirbys' work!! Just as there is Mel Gibsons'/Kenneth Branaghs'/Laurence Oliviers'/David Tennants'version of William Shakespeares' Hamlet,so this version of Jack Kirbys' work as interpreted by the colorist/graphic wizard Mr.Matt Milla has merit and can stand in equal stature to the "Classic" versions of Tales of Asgard! I know some purists will be put off by Mr.Millas' version (as was I initially) but GIVE IT A CHANCE TO GROW ON YOU!!As I re-examined it,I came to view it as a perfect blend of the "old"( the heavy inks influenced by the relatively primitive printing technology of the '60s) with the "new"(the hundreds of colors and graphic effects of The "Photoshop" Era of 2010 printing technology)...an extra set of treats awaits at the back of the book which contains detailed maps of Asgard!! its different levels and countries/provinces depicted,as well as reprints of highly informative written articles about the principal and peripheral characters of the Tales of Asgard stories which makes this book very well rounded and not just another reprint! If you (like me!) are a hardcore dyed-in-the-wool it's clobberin'time rise the demon Etrigan Jack Kirby fan,it would behoove you to pick up this volumne for your library! Or if you like Norse mythology,Fantasy stories,or plain old cracking good adventure stories,you can't go wrong with this gem!( hey Kirby fans,can you imagine if Kirby had adapted Tolkeins' "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings " trilogy,or C.S.Lewis" "Narnia" series,or Mervyn Peakes' "Gormenghast" stories?!! This book gives a tantalizing "what if" train of thought!!)

This computer colorizatiion DESTROYED Kirby's art. This kind of colorization is not suitable for this old material. I thought that Marvel had already learned that. I hope one day publish Tales of Asgard with a suitable color such as the recent omnibus of material from the '60s and '70s.