Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: June 1, 1965 Cover: August 1965 12 cents Written with gallantry by: Stan Lee Drawn with greatness by: Jack Kirby Inked with grandeur by: Vince Colletta Lettered with a straight face by: Artie Simek 5 pages
Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: April 1, 1965 Cover: June 1965 12 cents By: Stan Lee + Jack Kirby Inking: Vince Colletta Lettering: Artie Simek 5 pages
For 20 issues, these Tales of Asgard stories have been short stories that resolved in 5 pages. Now, a large saga begins. At least 11 parts, and even then it just rolls into the next saga.
For reading order, I like to keep story-arcs together. Based on that, I could read all 11 parts at once. This is what the CMRO recommends. It actually recommends reading the next 17 back up stories together.
But I also like to keep issues together. It seems weird to get out a comic, read half of it, put it away, then get it out again later to read the other half. Though we have done that sometimes in the name of keeping arcs together. For example, we read the last 5 Human Torch stories from Strange Tales without reading the corresponding Dr. Strange stories. We’ll have to get the comics back out of the box.
How to balance these two goals (keep a story together vice keep a physical comic together) is subjective, and I’m making a subjective call here: reading these Tales of Asgard stories together doesn’t improve the story in any way. I think they read best as they were published, as episodes in the back of the main Thor comic, to be read after that month’s Thor story. And that’s how we’ll read them. We’ll keep Thor story arcs together as best we can and let the main stories set the reading rhythm. That means it may take us a while to finish the Odinsword Saga. I think that will be okay.
