PART TWO OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST...

And here's another little belter of a comic from out of the dim and distant, fog-enshrouded mists of time. Actually, that last part's a lie - because I remember having my original copy of this comic as if it were only...well, not quite yesterday, but last week at least. That's due to the fact that, not too long after acquiring it, I was ill and confined to my bed for a day or two, and I remember rereading the comic tucked up in bed with only a bedside light to illuminate my literary pursuits. Feeling slightly better after finishing #143 of THE MIGHTY THOR's Asgardian adventures, I got out of bed with the intention of going downstairs to the bosom of my family. My brother assisted me, but I took a sudden dizzy turn at the top of the stairs and had to be returned to a horizontal position under the warm, cozy, enveloping blankets I had just abandoned mere moments before. No wonder the issue is burned into my memory - who would ever forget a night like that? 

Something else I remember about this comic is that it was reprinted in SMASH! at 'round about the same time as I obtained the American original, and I remember comparing the different layout of the story in the British weekly to its US parent. (The MARVEL reprints were resized, two pages to one, for their UK appearance in what was the last remaining POWER COMIC from ODHAMS PRESS.) One thing I learned in subsequent years is that VINCE COLLETTA
had started to ink this issue, but for reasons of illness, or being needed on another comic with a more immediate deadline perhaps, BILL EVERETT took over the embellishing chores. If you look really carefully at the splash page, you can see the mix of the two artistic legends' different styles.

This story was eventually reprinted in ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS in 1974, and when I finally got my hands on a copy soon after it was first made available to the British reading public in '75, I was overjoyed to once again see this fondly-recalled friend from my boyhood. True, only about six years or so had passed since I had owned the original comicbook, but that was over one third of my life away at that point and consequently seemed much longer than the same period of time would likely appear to me nowadays. (All to do with proportions I guess.)

The scans you see on this page come from a copy I obtained more years ago than I care to remember, (Or am actually able to, in fact.) It's certainly close to half my life away anyway. I only have to look at the cover and I'm back in my bedroom in Belmont once again, reading the comic by the soft light of a lamp, with the outline of the room's furnishings faintly visible, as they stand guard in the gloom beyond. One look, and I'm a child once more. (So much for the comment of one cheeky young internet critic who said that my childhood was long behind me; the truth is, It's never truly left me. It's probably the same for all of us.)

Anyway, feel free to forget my self-indulgent waffle - just so long as you enjoy the scans herewith presented and are perhaps reminded of your own first, long-ago encounter with this cataclysmic comic, then I can savour the satisfaction that comes from a job well done.

Altogether now: "For Odin, for Asgard!"

******

See Part 3 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/part-three-of-favourite-comics-of-past.html

See Part 1 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/favourite-comics-of-past.html