the vynsane asylum

Anyone know if the Thor Visionaries series collects the entire Simonson run through its various volumes? I keep hearing this is great, and have only read a scattered issue or two. There's an omnibus that collects it all, but it's a list price of $125, and that's way more than I can spend. Twenty bucks here and there is far more manageable if that'll get me the whole run.

And is Volume 5 out of print, or just sold out everywhere and being listed for high prices to cash in on the movie?

I don't know Trades very well, but I recently filled in my entire Simonson Thor run and just started reading it yesterday. I'm only a few issues in.
I never knew that BetaRayBill made Sif so damp in the panties. Damn, she was gagging for it.
I did not realize this was where the Donald Blake identity was done away with altogether. Nick Fury handing Thor the glasses saying 'it works for the other guy' and then having him run into Clark immediately afterwards was hilarious.

You can basically get the floppies by the pound - they haven't accrued any value whatsoever, much like the Byrne FF stuff. Look for a cheap lot of them on ebay would be my recommendation, then you can hand them down to the Chuxlets & let them smell the mildewing paper we smelled & look at the crappy ads we looked at. There's still room for cheap floppies your kids can actually treat like comics - this might be an occasion to grab a few.

That being said, if you want a trade the first Simonson issue is 337, the first appearance of Beta Ray Bill. It behooves me to say "start from the start", even though no motherfucker is going to go out of their way to start in the middle or at the end.

Yes. I had a half dozen issues from 20 years ago, but the rest I picked up since January for a dollar a piece or less. I might've paid $1.60 for one of them but that was from impatience at finishing the set.

Anyway, I just finished the entire Malekith/Casket of Ancient Winters/Surtur saga. Holy fuck, that was an awesome story. It was perfectly paced and the tension built the entire time.

I can't figure out why Balder is fat with white hair though.

You've gotta love the comics of the 80s. I would love to have been in the room when Walt Simonson walked into editor Ralph Macchio's office and said "I wanna turn Thor into a frog."
"uhmm...okay. Why, exactly?"
"Just because. And then I want to have a huge frog vs rat war in Central Park!"
"And how long would this frog story last?"
"Not long. Four issues or so."
"So you want to turn Thor into a frog for a third of our publishing year?--Y'know what? Sure. Fuck it. Let's do it. Let me check with Jim."
Ralph calls Jim Shooter and exchanges a few words. Then hangs up.
"Jim said go for it."




That would never happen today. 1980s for the win.

In fairness, Macchio was probably too high on whatever he was smoking that made Transformers #1 suck so goddamned bad.

We could do a list of Heroes who've been turned into different animals.

Cap Wolf
This Man, This Spider

anarky wrote:Cap Wolf
This Man, This Spider

And there's your list.

Since Marvel can't seem to keep a good thing I'm sure the next guy to write The Punisher will turn him into a dog or something.