Set Description:
The inimitable Walter "Walt" Simonson's classic run on Marvel's Thor (1983–87)
Though Walt is best known for his 1980s run on Thor he had in fact worked on the title before. Between 1977 and 1978 he illustrated issues 260–71 as well as Annual no. 7. A Norse mythology enthusiast since his younger days and a fan of the Lee / Kirby God of Thunder, Walt already at that point had an idea for a Thor narrative arc of his own. He would have to wait another few years, however, before he got a chance to tell a Thor tale that was truly his own. The story goes that in the early '80s Thor sales were so bad that Marvel considered cancelling the title. Mark Gruenwald (of blessed memory) gave Walt free rein to do with the book as he wished. Walt got to work.
A hint of what was to come appeared at the end of the letters page in Thor no. 336 (October 1983), a promise of "The Mighty Thor: Unleashed!" What followed in Thor no. 337 was the astonishing introduction of Beta Ray Bill. Over the next few years, Walt went on to take Thor and his supporting cast to dizzying new heights: the Surtur Saga, the Asgardian invasion of Hel, the Frog of Thunder, and (my personal favorite) the Midgard Serpent. It was an era for Thor that Marvel has since described as "a time of magic," and indeed it was. Over the course of 44 issues Thor transformed--on one occasion into a frog(!)--a process one can follow in the trade dress box:
As defined by the CGC Registry, the Simonson run comprises issues 337–355, 357–369, 371–382, a total of 44 installments of monthly title / continuity (45 if you add Thor annual no. 13, for which Walt did the cover alone). Walt was writer, penciller, and (for the most part) inker for 337–354, 357–367, and 380. No earlier creator handled story, script, and visuals for Thor in this sustained serial narrative fashion, with multiple interwoven plots that converged and culminated in truly epic climaxes: Simonson is a true auteur. Even if he did not create Marvel's Thor, he is in my opinion (shared by many old farts like myself), the most important creator to work on the character apart from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. With all due respect to the younger generation of writers / artists (some of whom are impressive in their own right) Walt is the greatest living Thor scribe and illustrator.
After departing to pencil X-Factor, Walt stayed on as writer and cover illustrator for the rest of his Thor run. Sal Buscema took over pencils for nos. 355, 367–369, 371–379, and 381–382. Some important exceptions: Sal did the cover for issue 372 (the only cover not by Simonson in the whole of the run) while Sal's older brother John did the interior pencils for Thor annual 13. Finally, Walt returned on pencils (or at least "breakdowns") for the extraordinary all-splash issue Thor no. 380. John Workman Jr.’s letters (including some of the bombastic sound effects) feature throughout the entire run with only one exception (issue no. 375). The original coloring was mostly the work of Christie "Max" Scheele. Mark Gruenwald, who as mentioned gave Walt carte blanche to work his magic on Thor, did editorial honors for most of the first half of the run, with one assist from Mike Carlin (issue no. 339). Gruenwald was followed by Ralph Macchio for the second half. Jim Shooter served as evil overlord, which is overstating a bit but those who know their Marvel history will get my drift. If not, I recommend Sean Howe's 2013 Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.
An important tie-in to Walt's run was the four-issue limited series Balder the Brave, written by Walt and illustrated by Sal (Walt did the covers and Workman the lettering). The Balder issues are included in the Thor Simonson Omnibus (which has now seen two printings) and are integral to Balder's arc in the main Thor run. The CGC Registry lists them separately. Also notable is Avengers no. 242 (a Secret Wars tie-in that complements Thor no. 341); Avengers no. 249, which takes place more or less concurrently with Thor no. 352; an unfortunate attempt (not Walt's doing, I suspect) to squeeze Beta Ray Bill into an issue of Rom: Space Knight (issue no. 65, which it seems is supposed to take place immediately before Thor no. 354, or something like that); Marvel Team Up no. 148 (Thor and Spidey), which also takes place amid the events of Thor no. 354; and Thor Annual 13, which though not Walt's work, is supposed to take place in the orbit of (yet again) Thor no. 354.
The best and most seamless crossovers are with the work of Walt's significant other, the great Louise "Weezie" Simonson, in Power Pack (issues 15, 18) and in a rare meeting between Thor and the original X-Men during the "Mutant Massacre" storyline (X-Factor no. 11 and Thor nos. 373-374). There are some additional mutant ties to the work of Walt & Weezie buddy Chris Claremont on the New Mutants (issue 38 and Special Edition 1, the latter part of the "Asgardian Wars") and Uncanny X-Men (issue no. 188). Finally, in the penultimate issue of the run, there is a crossover with Al Milgrom and John Buscema's "Mephisto versus the Avengers" miniseries (issue no. 4). This list is probably not exhaustive, but I don't concern myself overly much with continuity problems posed by tie-ins or crossovers or whatever the proper noun is in the commentary that follows.
Is it tough to pull off the Simonson Thor run in 9.8? Yes, but not impossible. You'll see that the mighty mbakich held the title for best set in this category for many years with a straight flush. Lookin4newstands has taken the really hard road by privileging Canadian Editions and Newsstand copies and has nearly pulled it off. Both are serious collectors with impressive Thor collections beyond Simonson's run. If only I had the dough. In general, the rarest Simonson era books in 9.8 are those pencilled by Sal Buscema from later in the run. It's very easy to find a copy of Thor 337 in 9.8, for example, but not so much Thor 375, which with only 3 copies in 9.8 is currently the rarest issue in that grade on the census. With respect to the census, I've updated the stats for each issue in the run relative to where they were at this time last year (June '22).
In July 2023, after ten years, I finally completed this set in 9.8 / WP when someone at last decided to sell their copy of Thor 361 on ebay. After submitting multiple copies of that book to CGC and coming up just short in the grading I can only say that I'm relieved.
As of December '22, 20 of the collection's 9.8s are signed (up 6 since summer '22), approaching 45% of the run as defined by the registry. Of these, six (issues 339, 349, 353, 374, 380, 382) feature bespoke remarques added by Walt in late ’21 (for which great thanks to Walt and CGC). Issue nos. 338, 343, 369, 376 are Newsstand copies; 363 is a Canadian. Issues 353 and 379, two of my favorite books in the run, are represented by both Direct Market and Newsstand copies.
In addition to Walt’s signatures and remarques, the collection includes books signed by collaborators and other greats: John Workman Jr. (king of dynamic letters, issue no. 342); the mighty Sal Buscema (one of the pillars of Silver and Bronze Age Marvel, nos. 373 & 379); the notorious Jim Shooter (Marvel’s innovative and controversial editor-in-chief for much of the 1980s, issue nos. 364 & 365); and, of course, the great Stan Lee (Thor’s Marvel Poppa along with Jack Kirby, both of blessed memory, issue 337).
Each entry in the set is accompanied by an individual commentary. Here I've tried to notice things like references to Walt's favorite Lee / Kirby issues (Journey into Mystery no. 120 gets a ton of love), literary references, New York landmarks, etc. I'm a certain kind of nerd, so I've also pointed out the Eddic sources for aspects of Walt's new Thor mythology. Where anecdotes about the run are concerned, I've benefitted greatly from the hard work of some fantastic published interviews folks have conducted with Walt over the past few years. These include Modern Masters Volume Eight: Walter Simonson, eds. Roger Ash & Eric Nolen-Weathington (Raleigh, NC: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2006), interview conducted by Ash; from the same publishers, Michael Eury's interview with Walt in Back Issue no. 53 (Nov. 2011); and Miles Stokes and Elisabeth Allie's terrific podcast "The Lighting and the Storm" published online 2016–17, for which see (and hear) https://thelightningandthestorm.com/. I hope to be adding links to some pertinent youtube interviews presently. For the Poetic Edda I have relied on the translation by Carolyne Larrington for Oxford World's Classics, in this case the 2014 revised edition. For the Prose Edda, Jesse L. Byock's 2006 translation for Penguin Classics.
I want to thank fellow CGC collectors RMI High Tech (of Frank Miller Daredevil fame) for some solid, sober CGC collecting advice and Sauce Dog (Moon Knight 1985) for HTML tips. Good people. My dear friend BG made some sweet images and is kind enough to host them for me. He's a decent guy for a Spiderman fan. Factual errors, turgid prose, gratuitous use of parentheses, bad jokes: that's all on me.
If you think all of this obsessive, you're absolutely right. I started this project during the pandemic quarantine and "finished" it in February 2023, though I would call it a work in progress. I'm grateful to CGC for the recognition of this set in 2022 and hope you enjoy reading.
-Thorseface
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