COMIC DETAILS
|
Comic Description:
|
Thor 365 Signature
|
|
Grade:
|
9.8
|
|
Page Quality:
|
WHITE
|
|
Certification #:
|
0782419010
|
|
Owner:
|
Thorseface
|
SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Thor no. 365: “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, or, It’s Not Easy Being Green”
Publication date: March 10, 1986
Signed by Walt Simonson and Jim Shooter on 8/28/10.
Census: As of 6/20/23, 45 copies in 9.8 (up by 6), of which 6 are signed (no change). There are no Canadian 9.8s.
Writer, penciler, inker: Simonson
Letterer: Workman
Colorist: Scheele
Favorite line and some thoughts:
"And now, my fine fellow, the shoe is marching to a different drummer.
-The Moorlock Piper, mixing his metaphors.
What a terrific book. The best bits, of course, take place on Midgard. They include Southside the rat's delusions of grandeur ("We'll take New York!") and frog Thor's impassive and quiet witness to the epic death of the rats. Check out how effortlessly Walt captures rodentine physiognomy, movement, and terror with only a few strokes of a pencil and brush (perhaps the first and last time in my life that I'll use the adjective rodentine). The alligators, of course, are a nod to one of the greatest urban legends of all time (cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_f3-h4tGFQ). The silhouette images of the piper leading the rats to their doom are pure visual poetry. Reminds me of a teacher I once had, Mr. Hamlin. He once asked the class, "where was the first oil well dug?" "In the ground," I answered. Mr. H, completely deadpan, without missing a beat: "You get an "A" in humor, and an "F" in science." I read online that Mr. H. cashed in back in the year '03. Not only did he not lead us to our deaths, he was one of the best teachers I ever had. Tough love at a time when I needed it. Mr. H. had this sweet raised metal emblem on the back of his car that showed the Pied Piper of Hamelin. I can remember trading another kid in his class for issues of Walt's run, which with all due respect to the late Mr. H. I still find more interesting than the contents of "Joe's Stomach."
How clever of Walt to use Thor's mask--improvised to conceal the wounds he got from Hela--to disguise Harokin at the Althing (the similar appearance of Thor and Harokin is, as is noted in an editorial aside, another very deep pull). And is the scene of Heimdall using his uru sword (which apparently hums) to seal a doorway the inspiration for the MCU's iteration of the character? I don't know and probably never will, but some other nerd out there surely has the answer.
Frog Thor, who is charmingly recognizable to Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder even without his American Express Card, lifts Mjolnir just in time to save himself from a vengeful Southside. As Walt has mentioned elsewhere, the struggle to lift the hammer is a nod to Steve Ditko's famous sequence of Spiderman lifting the rubble in Spiderman no. 33 (1966).
|
|
|