So there I was reading Essential Thor...

[Kakapo]

...and for the first time I began to see why people dislike Don Heck's work so much. It didn't bother me in Essential Ant-Man, but his inking of Kirby in JIM was simply substandard. (You can substitute your own adjective of choice for "substandard")

 

But what I really wanted to rant about was how great Joe Sinnott's work was in #s 91, 92, 94, 95 and 96. I didn't realise he ever pencilled anything, and from the looks of those stories, although obviously an excellent inker (blowing away Ayers' work over Kirby's pencils in the earlier stories), his layouts and storytelling worked for me...

 

Joe Sinnott

 

But seriously, see for yourselves...I'm not crazy, I swear... I wonder why Sinnott didn't do more penciling...

 

Also curious was how in the first 15 stories, there's precisely one good villain (Loki). Things pick up as soon as Stan Lee started doing the scripts, after warming up with Lava Man (no pun intended), Cobra and Mr Hyde appearing in quick succession, and gee willakers, we've all heard of them.

[Silver Surfer]

Sinnott in my mind was as good as it gets when it comes to inkers.

[blowout]

Also curious was how in the first 15 stories, there's precisely one good villain (Loki).

 

You mean you didn't like the Carbon Copy man??

[Kakapo]

 

You mean you didn't like the Carbon Copy man??

 

When he transformed himself into a frozen warrior (page 8) I actually said out loud (in an empty room), in true Comic Book Guy voice, "Worst villain ever." Also interesting was how a number of the early villains were killed off (Radioactive Man for instance), as though Stan knew that the ones he and his brother were creating at that instant stank. Once Stan started scripting, it seems there was a sudden upswing in villain quality.

 

And to be fair, there were so many great FF and Spidey villains that I'll forgive them for only managing 1 (Loki) in the first 15 issues of Thor.

 

JIM 90 is also perhaps the worst art I've ever seen in a Marvel comic, by one Al Hartley. I'd run out of superlatives trying to fully articulate its awfulness.

 

Final thought: The Appendix to the Essential volume tells me that Thor is 6' 6" and weighs, wait for it, 640 lbs. I assume that's fully dressed.

[Fan4Fan]

...and for the first time I began to see why people dislike Don Heck's work so much. It didn't bother me in Essential Ant-Man, but his inking of Kirby in JIM was simply substandard. (You can substitute your own adjective of choice for "substandard")

 

But what I really wanted to rant about was how great Joe Sinnott's work was in #s 91, 92, 94, 95 and 96. I didn't realise he ever pencilled anything, and from the looks of those stories, although obviously an excellent inker (blowing away Ayers' work over Kirby's pencils in the earlier stories), his layouts and storytelling worked for me...

 

Joe Sinnott

 

But seriously, see for yourselves...I'm not crazy, I swear... I wonder why Sinnott didn't do more penciling...

 

Also curious was how in the first 15 stories, there's precisely one good villain (Loki). Things pick up as soon as Stan Lee started doing the scripts, after warming up with Lava Man (no pun intended), Cobra and Mr Hyde appearing in quick succession, and gee willakers, we've all heard of them.

 

Sinnott did a decent amount of pencilling in pre-code books, some of which have been reprinted in the 70's monster/horror reprints.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[Aman619]

Sinnott is by far Kirby's best inker IMO. Just go back and look at FFs 40 - 43 (or any of the first 40 issues of FF) and then just the splash of 44, Sinnots first ink job on the title. Suddenly Kirby's figures have a tight slick finish that brings out the bets of Jacks pencils... Years later Mike Royer also used a fluid brushstroke to capture Kirbys essence, but veered off more in the 'cartoony' flourishes, whereas Sinnott made Kirby more realistic..

[Sharkey]

Final thought: The Appendix to the Essential volume tells me that Thor is 6' 6" and weighs, wait for it, 640 lbs. I assume that's fully dressed.

 

 

Oh, come now, EVERYBODY knows that Asgardian muscle cells have 2.5 times the cellular and molecular density that human cells have. That's why Thor can get thrown into walls and not get injured.

[Kakapo]

My bad...the fine print states "Asgardian flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Asgardians' superhuman strength and weight."

 

He's extremely long-lived (Thor, not Joe Sinnott) although not immortal. That makes me feel even more stupid, as I have read lots of Thor comics and I thought he was...well, I know he died at the end of Vol. 2 #1, but he was fighting The Destroyer! Plus, despite going to Hel, he got better soon enough...where's Dan Jurgens when we need to ask him about things?