Collects Journey into Mystery #83, 85, and 114-116, and Thor #128-133, 154-157, and 159-161. It is impossible to imagine American popular culture without Marvel Comics. For decades, Marvel has published groundbreaking visual narratives that sustain attention on multiple levels: as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness; as meditations on the fluid nature of identity; and as high-water marks in the artistic tradition of American cartooning, to name a few.
During the 1960s, under the hands of the inimitable creative team of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Larry Lieber, Marvel’s Thor combined the raw material of ancient Norse mythology with the nonstop action of super-heroic adventure comics and the speculative reach of classic science fiction. The result was a heady brew: epic, operatic, melodramatic, even psychedelic. This collection gathers some of the most important story arcs from the foundational years of the series and includes seminal early appearances of such characters as Hercules and Ego, the Living Planet, as well as Thor’s first encounter with Galactus.
A foreword by Rick Riordan and scholarly introductions and apparatus by Charles Hatfield and Ben Saunders offer further insight into the enduring significance of The Mighty Thor and classic Marvel comics.
Author
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is the co-creator of the most beloved characters in the history of comics, including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and many others. He is also the author of Stan Lee’s Riftworld: Odyssey, and the editor of The Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimate Super-Villains, The Ultimate Silver Surfer, and The Ultimate X-Men, all from Boulevard.
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Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby (1917–1994) was an American comic book artist and writer best known for cocreating iconic characters such as Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk. He is recognized as one of the industry’s greatest innovators and was one of the first people inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
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Larry Lieber
Larry Lieber’s career as a versatile writer and artist marks him as one of the unheralded talents of the Marvel Age of Comics. Like his older brother Stan Lee, Lieber started his career in comics at an early age working in production on the magazine side of Martin Goodman’s publishing business. By 1951, at age 19, Lieber’s first comics artwork saw print in All True Crime #44. A stint in the Air Force put his comic book work on hold, but by late 1956 he returned on a number of romance stories. In the late ’50s and early ’60s Lieber became a member of the handful of writers and artists contributing to the fantasy and big monster titles of the nascent Marvel line. Pitching in wherever needed, both scripting stories or penciling them—and sometimes both— he would also contribute to several of the Marvel Age’s first forays into super-hero stories. In addition to scripts for Thor in Journey Into Mystery, the Human Torch in Strange Tales and Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish, Lieber also scripted the very first Iron Man story in Tales of Suspense #39. From the mid- to late-’60s, Lieber’s duties were mostly centered around Westerns including Kid Colt Outlaw and Rawhide Kid, but he also did high-profile work on Amazing Spider-Man Annuals #4-5. In 1975, Lieber became editor of the short-lived Atlas/ Seaboard comics line. Since 1986, Lieber has been a mainstay on the Spider-Man syndicated newspaper strip both writing and drawing it at times. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Bill Finger Award.
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