Preview | Walter Simonson’s The Mighty Thor: The Return Of Beta Ray Bill Artist’s Edition

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1. ARIST EDITION

   Arist editions are awsome. They print in book form original art pages from comics original art. They are the best produced copies as drawn.

   Artist’s Edition is an award-winning line of hardcover reprint comic books published by IDW Publishing and edited by Scott Dunbier.
   Each page in an Artist’s Edition series book is printed the same size as the original art board and scanned from the original art wherever possible. Additionally, while appearing to be in black and white, each page is scanned in color to show blue pencil and other corrections.

   MIGHTY THOR 339
   Script: Walt Simonson. Pencils:Walt Simonson
   Inks: Walt Simonson. Colors: George Roussos
   Letters: John Workman, Jr. Genre:superhero; fantasy-supernaturalCharacters:FEATURE: Thor; GUESTS: Beta Ray Bill; Odin; Sif; Volstagg; Agnar; INTRODUCING: Eitri (a dwarf); VILLAINS: Throgg (I; another dwarf); Lorelei; Surtur; Fafnir; CAMEO FLASHBACK: Loki; GarmSynopsis:Odin has the dwarves create a hammer for Bill and sends the alien and his son into space to rescue Bill’s people.

   WALT SIMONSON
   I do like Walt Simonson art. But his writing is just so so. Walter “Walt” Simonson (born September 2, 1946 IN Tennessee) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics’ Thor from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned work Star Slammers, which he inaugurated in 1972 as a Rhode Island School of Design thesis. He has also worked on other Marvel titles such as X-Factor and Fantastic Four, on DC Comics books including Detective Comics, Manhunter, Metal Men and Orion, and on licensed properties such as Star Wars, Alien, Battlestar Galactica and Robocop vs. Terminator. Simonson has won numerous awards for his work and has influenced artists such as Arthur Adams.

   SIMONSON
   Star Slammers graphic novel (1983)
   1970s In August 1972, Simonson traveled to New York with his Star Slammers portfolio, and met with Gerry Boudreau, a friend who worked for DC Comics, where, as Simonson recalls, many young artists had begun working in the 1970s, in contrast to Marvel, which Simonson perceived as more stagnant. Boudreau arranged a meeting between Simonson and editor Archie Goodwin. After meeting with Goodwin, Simonson went to DC’s coffee room, where he saw Howard Chaykin, Michael Kaluta, Berni Wrightson and Alan Weiss sitting together. Simonson struck up a conversation with the artists, who looked at his portfolio. Kaluta showed Simonson’s work to Assistant Production Manager Jack Adler, who in turn showed it to DC Publisher Carmine Infantino, who after being shown the portfolio, summoned Simonson into his office. After speaking to Simonson for about ten minutes, he had Goodwin and his fellow editors Julius Schwartz and Joe Orlando give Simonson work. Simonson walked out of Infantino’s office with jobs from each one of them. At one point Simonson lived in the same Queens apartment building as artists Allen Milgrom, Howard Chaykin and Bernie Wrightson. Simonson recalls, “We’d get together at 3 a.m. They’d come up and we’d have popcorn and sit around and talk about whatever a 26, 27 and 20-year-old guys talk about. Our art, TV, you name it. I pretty much knew at the time, ‘These are the good ole days.'”[5]

   THOR

   Thor is a marquee marvel charactor.
   Simonson is best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ Thor which he began writing and drawing with issue #337 (Nov. 1983). Simonson took nearly complete control of Thor, during which he transformed Thor into a frog for three issues and introduced the supporting character Beta Ray Bill, an alien warrior who unexpectedly proved worthy to wield Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir.] He started as writer and artist with issue #337 (Nov. 1983) and continued until #367 (May 1986). Sal Buscema became the artist on the title with #368 but Simonson continued to write the book until issue #382 (Aug. 1987).] Buscema described Simonson’s stories as “very stimulating. It was a pleasure working on his plots, because they were a lot of fun to illustrate. He had a lot of great ideas, and he took Thor in a totally new direction. In late 1986 he dropped several of his assignments, including Thor, remarking that “I had a very busy season over the past six to eight months, and I’d like to take some time off.

   BETTA RAY BILL
   I am not a fan of Betta Ray Bill. Beta Ray Bill is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.[1] The character first appears in Thor #337 (November 1983) and was created by writer-artist Walt Simonson.[1] Debuting in the Bronze Age of Comic Books, the character was initially intended to be a surprise as an apparent monster who unexpectedly proves to be a great hero. As such, Bill becomes the first being outside of the Marvel Universe’s Norse pantheon to be deemed worthy to wield Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. After an initial rivalry for possession of the weapon, the alien warrior was granted a war hammer of his own, called Stormbreaker, and the two reconciled as staunch allies

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