(Previously in the notes for the pic)
You ever read a comic as a child that made you want to write? That inspired, pardon the expression, the hell out of you and reminded you that the medium was just that-not just a question of women in spandex and villains making the same trite speeches about ruling the world?
Thor 362 was one of the first comics that really made me appreciate the genre as a whole. Walt Simonsen was at his best when he wrote the Norse mythos in modern times, played upon the strength of the characters. He used a writing style that, like Mark Waid or Geoffrey Johns, Alan Moore or Mark Gruenwald,
defined the heroes and villains more concretely than any three authors before him.
The moment I knew about Heromorph, I set before myself the goal of this image. The arc, easily among my five favorites of all time, never got the recognition it deserved from collectors.
Putting together all the pieces was time consuming and difficult. Had I more time, and not found my skills to have atrophied, I would have worked this until it was movie-poster quality. The assembly of all the parts to make the Executioner (including giving C-list horror movie star Robert Z'Dar the role) was perhaps the most difficult part...and that part is what I am most proud of in this image.
There is little that I've read in comics that has paralleled with the following, and I will leave it with that:
"They sing no songs in Hel, nor do they celebrate heroes...for silent is that dismal realm and cheerless...but the story of the Gjallerbru and the god who defended it is whispered across the nine worlds...and when a new arrival asks about the one to whom even Hela bows her head...the answer is always the same..."
"He stood alone at Gjallerbru...and that answer is enough."