The Mighty Thor Giant 100 Page Annual: The Newton Edition

This is the cover to Newton Comics' The Mighty Thor Giant 100 Page Annual:

The cover originally appeared on Marvel Comics' Journey Into Mystery #120:

The contents are as follows:

A World Gone Mad!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #113, February 1965

Into the Blaze of Battle!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #117, June 1965

With My Hammer in Hand...!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #120, September 1965

The Power! The Passion! The Pride!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #121, October 1965 

Where Mortals Fear To Tread!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #122, November 1965 

While A Universe Trembles!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #123, December 1965 

The splash page to A World Gone Mad! is omitted. In its place is a modified black and white print of the cover to Journey Into Mystery #113: 

This issue does not include any in-house advertisements or editorial/letter columns, contests or posters. 

As I have mentioned a number of times before, tracking the Thor reprints in Newton Comics is difficult inasmuch as they appeared sporadically and out of sequence. They first appeared as backup features in The Amazing Spider-Man series, and then in various issues such as the two issues of The Mighty Thor, Newton Triple Action, and others. Having said that, the stories in this issue don't appear to have been previously reprinted by Newton. (I will confirm this either way when I have completed my indexing of the Newton comics.)

This issue was advertised alongside others in the Sunday Observer 27 March 1977:

Given it is one of the Latest Releases and Out Now, it must have been published March 1977. The same advertisement appeared in the newspaper a week later. My old copy of this issue had a 6 marked on the cover, presumably by the newsagent, and I have also spotted another copy with a 6 marked on the cover. This data, along with my dating of the post-August 1976 issues affirms the March 1977 publication date.

As per other Newton Comics issues in this period there is no title in the indicia. For indexing purposes I refer to this issue via the cover title: The Mighty Thor Giant 100 Page Annual #NN, as does the listing on AusReprints. The GCD entry opts for The Mighty Thor Annual, which takes a bit more licence in doing so.

The other frustrating thing about the indicia is that it states Copyright 1975 by Newton Comics Pty Ltd. This is manifestly incorrect. I'll have more to say on the Newton indicia in a future post.

The Mighty Thor #2: The Newton edition

This is the cover to Newton Comics' The Mighty Thor #2:

It originally appeared on the cover of Marvel Comics' Journey Into Mystery #101:

Note the misspelling of Zarrko on the Newton cover.

The story contents are as follows:

The Return of Zarrko, The Tomorrow Man!, originally published in Journey Into Mystery #101, February 1964

Slave of Zarrko, The Tomorrow Man!, originally published in Journey Into Mystery #102, March 1964

The Return of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man appears to have been reproduced faithfully in the Newton edition. I have compared it to an online scan of the issue, which appears to be from a Marvel Masterworks printing, and apart from omitting the original page numbers and a negligible couple of centimetres cropped from the bottom of the splash page, the only significant editing is the change in the text box in the final panel from the original Next Issue to Part 2.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the printing of Slave of Zarrko, The Tomorrow Man. This instalment is one of the most egregious examples of Newton's tampering with the material.  This is page 2 of the story as it appears in Journey Into Mystery #102:

This is page 2 of the Newton edition:

This page originally appeared on page 2 of the story "Death" Comes to Thor! from the Tales of Asgard backup feature in Journey into Mystery #102. It is inserted into Slave of Zarrko to maintain the page count at the expense of the recap page, which was deemed redundant in the Newton edition given it recapped events of the preceding story. To add insult to injury, the following page contains, in part, the rest of the recap:

Whilst the rationale for omitting the recap is understandable, the solution is a crude and ineffective surgical procedure, and I'm left to wonder what the young intrepid reader in 1976 made of all this. 

The poster in this issue is Hulk and Ka-Zar:

This originally appeared on the cover of Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk #109, and was also published as the cover to Newton Comics' The Incredible Hulk #12:

There are two in-house advertisements for Newton comics in this issue:

The Fantastic Four #14 and Conan the Barbarian #12 are cover-dated February 1976, as is The Mighty Thor #2. The expiry date for the contest is 21 February 1976, one week after the expiry date for the contest in The Mighty Thor #1. Presumably The Mighty Thor #2 was published very early February 1976 - 7 February is the first Saturday in 1976 - but this is just guesswork, and I'm conscious that reading competition expiry dates and publications dates is a fraught exercise in this particular period of Newton Comics.

This issue was advertised in-house:

This is scanned from The Incredible Hulk #15.

This would be the final issue in the series. The Mighty Thor would appear in subsequent Newton comics, including The Mighty Thor Giant 100 Page Annual in March 1977. 

The Mighty Thor in Super Giant #8 and #12

Following the appearance of The Mighty Thor in Horwitz Publications' Strange Tales #6, the feature next appeared in an Australian edition a good 10 or so years later in KG Murray's Super Giant series. Thor was cover-featured on Super Giant #8 and #12.

This is the cover to Super Giant #8:

It is rather crudely modified, with elements rearranged in the frame, from the original art on Thor #144:

The Thor content is as follows:

--And, Soon Shall Come: The Enchanters!, originally published in Thor #143, August 1967

This Battleground Earth!, originally published in Thor #144, September 1967

Abandoned on Earth!, originally published in Thor #145, October 1967

The first two stories are reprinted in full. Only the first six pages of Abandoned on Earth! are reprinted in this volume, and the sixth page is butchered. This is a scan from the original issue:

And this is the same page as it appears in Super Giant #8:

I see no reason why the original final panel could not have been included with the abrupt END advisory as per the penultimate panel. Clearly, advertising Red Wolf was a pressing concern at the time.

Thor was also featured on the cover of Super Giant #12:

The cover image originally appeared on Thor #200:

The Thor story in this issue is titled If This Be Death..! and runs for 39 pages.

It is in fact two stories combined - If this Be Death..!, originally published in Thor #199, May 1972 and Beware! If This Be... Ragnarok!, originally published in Thor #200, June 1972.

Three pages have been culled from If This Be Death..! reducing the total page count from the original running total of 42 pages.

Here are the three missing pages:

These three pages comprise a 'meanwhile, back at the ranch...'-type sequence, signposted by a text box at the bottom of page 7:

Given the sequence is omitted in Super Giant #12, it makes sense for the text box to be erased:

However, the editors neglected to follow through on erasing the references to the preceding episode on the next page, which results in the exclamation "--A Battle--For a GOD!" being followed up incongruously with "But now, that scarcely matters--":

There are other significant modifications to the original story. Firstly, the title Beware! If This Be...Ragnarok! has been deleted from the top of the splash page:

And secondly, the art has been extended on the right hand side of the final panel on the last page in lieu of the Next Issue box in the original issue - its beginning is visible as a vertical 'crease' mark above and to the right of the text captions:

The Mighty Thor would be published in Australia shortly after this in Newton Comics as a short-lived self-titled series, an Annual and various one-shots, as well as a backup series in The Amazing Spider-Man. Longer running series would subsequently be published by Yaffa/Page Publications and Federal Comics.

Thanks to Mark Cannon for providing some scans in preparation of this post.

The Mighty Thor #1: The Newton edition

This is the cover to Newton Comics' The Mighty Thor #1:

It is modified from the original cover art to Marvel Comics' Journey Into Mystery #100:

The story contents are as follows:

The Mysterious Mister Hyde!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #99, December 1963

The Master Plan of Mr. Hyde!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #100, January 1964

The splash page to The Mysterious Mister Hyde! (or, the Mighty Thor! Battles... "The Mysterious Mister Hyde!") has been cropped at the bottom, omitting the page number and the job number X-512:

The significant modification to the story occurs on the final page:

The original story ended with a text box in the bottom panel which has been omitted in favour of a brief End Part One advisory:

This panel is scanned from page 236 of my copy of Marvel Masterworks The Mighty Thor from Journey Into Mystery Nos. 83-100, second printing December 1999.

The splash page to The Master Plan of Mr. Hyde has been similarly altered - and I don't mean as per the previous owner of my copy : 

The text box in the original page referred to "Last issue..." - scan courtesy of my Marvel Masterworks:

The poster in this issue is The Incredible Hulk from the cover to Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk #107:

This poster was also included in Newton Comics' Captain America #3 and The Invincible Iron Man #1, and the image was also used on the cover of Newton Comics' The Incredible Hulk #10. Indeed, the white patch alongside the H on the poster is where Newton placed their A Great Marvel Collector Classic stamp:

This issue includes in-house advertisements for two other Newton comics:

Newton's Giant Team-Up Annual #1 and Captain America #3 are both cover-dated December 1975.

The Mighty Thor #1 was announced in the December 1975 subscription page, and was scheduled for publication 3 January 1976. The expiry date for the contest in this issue is 14 February 1976. It appears this issue was published either on schedule or shortly thereafter.

The Mighty Thor #1 was advertised in other Newton issues:

There would be one more issue in this series.

The Mighty Thor Giant 100 Page Annual by Newton Comics

Newton Comics' The Mighty Thor Giant 100 Page Annual was published in 1975* and reprints the main Thor features - not the backups - from Journey into Mystery #'s 113, 117, 120-123.

The cover is a recoloured reprint of Journey into Mystery #120:

The first story reprinted in this issue is A World Gone Mad! from Journey into Mystery #113. However, instead of beginning with the splash page to this story...

...the Newton reprint begins with a black and white reprint of the cover to Journey into Mystery #113:

Newton Comics published quite a few Thor stories from the Journey into Mystery run, mainly as backups in their The Amazing Spider-Man title, and in the two issues of The Mighty Thor which were published in 1976. A few also appeared in various one-shots and specials.

Update 24/2/2019: When I posted this entry in April 2017 I had an incomplete copy of this issue. It was missing the rear cover. At the time I based the date on the indicia which states in part "Copyright 1975 by Newton Comics Pty. Ltd." Even with this information I asterisked the date in the entry. My copy had a 6 marked on the cover, presumably by the newsagency. This would mean the issue was published c.March 1975, which would be manifestly incorrect, so I knew the 1975 date warranted further investigation. In October 2018 I purchased an upgraded complete copy. I have since completed some research on the advertisements on the outer covers and can confirm this issue was published March 1977. This accords with the newsagency dating. In due course I will index this issue fully.

The Amazing Spider-Man #8: The Newton edition

Newton Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man #8 was published 13 September 1975:

The cover is from Marvel's The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4:

The story contents are as follows:

The Web And The Flame!, originally published in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4, November 1967

The Mighty Thor Faces the Menace of... "The Demon Duplicators!", originally published in Journey into Mystery #95, August 1963

The Spider-Man lead feature marks short term suspension in the presentation of the Lee/Ditko stories. The Thor backup feature is reinstated in this issue. The various GCD entries for the Thor story reference it as The Demon Duplicators, as does my Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor volume. The two features in this issue are partial reprints - the first 21 pages of the Spider-Man story and the first 6 pages of the Thor story. Both stories contain a To Be Continued... text box in their final panels. This appears to be the only significant modification to the stories. Presumably the splash page on The Web and the Flame! is cropped for the indicia. There would be significant modifications to the second parts of these stories in the next issue.

This issue includes a colour poster and a swap card:

The poster is the cover of Newton's The Avengers #4. The swap card is Planet of the Apes Series A (1 of 15) No. 2.

The swap cards first appeared 13 September 1975. The cover price was raised on the fortnightly titles to $0.35 and the page count was reduced from 44pp to 34pp. The letter column advises this was due to a "(s)hortage of newsprint and high production costs".

This issue was advertised in The Avengers #11:

Note the issue number is missing on the cover.

There is also an in-house advertisement for Doctor Strange #2. This is a pre-production image  - it doesn't include the swap card advisory - but it does affirm it is now a fortnightly series.

The expiry date for the contest is 27 October 1975.