One of the early Marvel titles we haven't mentioned yet is Journey Into Mystery/The Mighty Thor. It was actually one of my favorites, right after Fantastic Four. I was a mythology buff, with a fondness for Norse & Egyptian ascendant over the usual Greek/Roman tales. So it was pretty easy to hook me at the concept level, and then they started digging into the mythology, often in the back-up tales in Journey Into Mystery. Even when Jack Kirby wasn't drawing the lead tales in JIM, he was rocking through the old mythology in the back-up tales. Those tales let him cut loose from many typical restrictions in the other comics. Unbound by mortal architecture and mundane constraints, his imagination had more room to run free.
Now, let's blow the horn and play that song, eh? A song of Ice...
...and fire...
Later, after digging through the old myths, the series really took off when Thor turned to the cosmos and began to forge modern myths - one of which might look quite familiar to modern viewers:
Okay. Some of you may be feeling cheated at this point. Here we've been talking about Thor, and there's been no sign of him. I can hear the grumbles from the acolytes. So, here - have a poster, a sketch, and a few covers -
Hopefully, that'll hold you until we return to the Thunderer.
(And return we will)
all art by Jack Kirby(& inkers), stories of Ice & Fire from Journey Into Mystery #s 98 & 99 (1963)
