"- - AND SOON SHALL COME: THE ENCHANTERS!" (IF YOU CAN CALL NEARLY 50 YEARS 'SOON')...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Sometime back in 1968, I bought the above THOR comic (#143), and had fun comparing it with its British reprint in a couple of issues of SMASH!  I think I got the US comic first, but after 49 years I couldn't swear to the order I acquired them.  I read the story again in the '70s when it was reprinted in SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY, but in 1979 a pal gave me a copy of the subsequent issue, #144.  I'd previously read the UK reprints of this story in Smash! and SMCW, but this was the first time I saw it in colour.  It wasn't in great condition, so I cut a couple of panels out to put up on my wall (one of them's still there, the other lies in wait somewhere), but I don't recall being struck by the magnitude of obtaining this follow-up issue a whopping 11 years after its predecessor.  That was over half my life away at that time and such facts usually left an impression on me.

Anyway, I obtained a replacement for #143 many years ago (and it featured in one of my FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST posts a few years back), and on Thursday I received #144, finally owning both issues at the same time, something I hadn't managed to do back in the '60s (or the '70s).  The first of these two issues introduce The ENCHANTERS, whom Thor defeats in the next one, though there's a few wrap-up panels as a sort of sub-plot in #145, but which aren't essential to the story as the mighty Thunder god has already soundly thrashed them.  Having said that, I may get the issue some day, though I already have all 3 comics reprinted in MASTERWORKS, OMNIBUS, and EPIC editions, but you know me - I like to be thorough. 

Anyway, I thought I'd show the covers of these two comics, which, as I said, were originally separated in my life by 11 years, but are both now finally together where they belong.  Why do I feel I've accomplished something significant?  And why do I also feel that you all think I'm totally bonkers?  H'mm, don't bother answering that second question - just enjoy these two covers by JACK KIRBY.   

Posted in: Cartoons