Set Description:
Synopsis: This is a complete set of of all 44 books with a minimum grade of 9.2. Twenty-eight of our books are highest graded examples with five single highest graded examples and seven more that are 1/2 topping the census.
Background: The first Journey into Mystery series started out as a horror-fantasy anthology published by Marvel Comics' 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics, with a first issue cover-dated June 1952. Thor debuted in Issue #83 (August 1962), and was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby. Lee in 2002 described Thor's genesis early in the Marvel pantheon, following the creation of the Hulk:
[H]ow do you make someone stronger than the strongest person? It finally came to me: Don't make him human — make him a god. I decided readers were already pretty familiar with the Greek and Roman gods. It might be fun to delve into the old Norse legends... Besides, I pictured Norse gods looking like Vikings of old, with the flowing beards, horned helmets, and battle clubs. ...Journey into Mystery needed a shot in the arm, so I picked Thor ... to headline the book. After writing an outline depicting the story and the characters I had in mind, I asked my brother, Larry, to write the script because I didn't have time. ...and it was only natural for me to assign the penciling to Jack Kirby...
The anthological stories gradually diminished after Thor’s introduction, with the Thor-spinoff backup feature "Tales of Asgard" beginning in Isuue #97. They were dropped entirely with Issue #105, when the "Thor" stories expanded from 13 to 18 pages. With Issue #104 the cover logo changed to Journey into Mystery with the Mighty Thor.
Marvel introduced Thor's evil adoptive brother Loki in Issue #85, the Radioactive Man in Issue #93, the Enchantress and the Executioner in Issue #104, the Absorbing Man in Issue #114, and the Destroyer in Issue #118. The sole JIM Annual, which was released in 1965 and has itself become a Marvel key, introduced the Marvel version of the Greco-Roman demigod, Hercules, who has also been used by DC comics-again, plaguerism in comics during the Silver Age was virtually everywhere, The final issue of this title and set was Issue #125, after which the series was retitled The Mighty Thor with Issue #126 in March 1966.
Our Collection: JIM was one of my favorites as a little kid, I really liked those Marvel panels in the top left-hand corner with the blond long-haired Thor-hey, I was a kid LOL. It is, however, one of the tougher Marvel sets to assemble in high grades. With Spidey, FF and X-Men, the books are generally available, just expensive; but we have been collecting JIM for 20 years and have never even seen some of the books topping the census. Still, we have at least been able to complete the set with a minimum grade of 9.2 and have a few gems, like our 9.6 highest graded copy of Issue #85, featuring the first appearance of Loki. We also have a very sweet 9.2 copy of Issue #83-it looks better than some 9.6s we own, which we acquired with the advance received from selling all our books graded below 9.0 back in 2013. Highlights of this set are our single highest graded copies of Issues #91, #92, #116, #117 and #118. Other early highest graded issues include #84, #85, #88, #89 and #90.
While we currently top the registry in this set, unlike TTA and TOS, the top spot on this one has been back and forth through the years. I do think we likely have the best collection looking at all books, but as long as we lack a 9.4 copy of Issue #83, it is very possible we will be passed on registry points, as there is a 110,000 registry point difference in those two grades. We would very much like to upgrade our 9.2 copy of Issue #83, but the last 9.4 came to market in 2022 and sold for I believe $432,000, which is considerably more than we have ever paid for a book to date. The only way I could see us ever affording one, unless we hit the lottery, would be a private deal in which we trade our 9.2, and even then it might take us some time to pay the difference.
Our goal for the time has been to raise the minimum grade of this set to 9.6 after Issue #84, where 9.4s top the census, but we have had no success even finding, much less acquiring better examples of Issues #87, #95 and #97. We did purchase a CBCS 9.6 copy of Issue #95 some years ago, but after CGC said it would be no higher than a 9.2 under CGC’s grading, I sold it and continued our search. If anyone has a 9.6 or 9.8 copy of any of those three issues and would be willing to at least talk about a deal, please e-mail me.
Current Stats:
44/44 Books
14 9.8s-All Highest Graded
25 9.6s-12 Highest Graded
4 9.4s-1 Highest Graded
1 9.2
11 WP
26 OW/W
5 OW
2 Cr/OW
5 Single Highest Graded
27 Highest Graded
13 Second Highest Graded
4 Third Highest Graded
11 Pedigrees
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