Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Fox Feature Syndicate, golden age, thor

Thor, God of Thunder in Fox Feature's Weird Comics, Up for Auction

Thor, God of Thunder from Fox Feature Syndicate's Weird Comics was one of the most interesting comic book takes on the character.

There were several comic book depictions of the mythological god Thor before the famous Marvel character we know today which appeared Journey into Mystery #83 by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.  These include versions that have appeared in comics such as Adventure Comics #75 (June 1942), Boy Commandos #7 (Summer 1944), Tales of the Unexpected #16 (August 1957), and Charlton's Out of This World # 11 (January 1959).  Marvel itself had published a prior version of Thor who debuted in Venus #12 (February 1951).  There have been others. But one of the earliest and most interesting of these was Thor, God of Thunder, who debuted in Weird Comics #1 from artist Pierce Rice.  This Thor's adventures ran in Weird Comics #1-5, and while every issue of this Fox Feature series is a tough get, there's a CGC GD+ 2.5 copy of Weird Comics #1 and a CGC FR 1.0 copy of Weird Comics #2 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1940) up for auction in the 2025 July 18 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase at Heritage Auctions.

Rice's Thor has some of the same key attributes as the Silver Age Marvel's Thor, even beyond the parallels embedded in the basic mythology.  This Weird Comics Thor is a mortal who has been given the power of the god.  He can fly, and also wields his hammer in a similar way, as a ranged weapon which seems to return to him after he throws it.  Bizarrely, this rather interesting take on Thor was replaced after five issues with a completely different character called Dynamite Thor, which was not based on Norse mythology at all.   It's hard not to wonder if this was another dispute between rival publishers, the likes of which Victor Fox often found himself involved.  Despite the mythological underpinnings of numerous versions of the Thor character, it might be worth noting that Top-Notch Comics #1 from publisher MLJ introduced a character called Thor who, while not a god, was a Viking warrior who looked the part.  That character debuted about four months prior to the Fox version.  Regardless, even Dynamite Thor lasted only two issues, replaced in Weird Comics by the electrically-powered character Dynamo.  Dynamo himself had gotten his start in the Fox title Science Comics, and had changed his name from Electro after a likely dispute over a character of the same name in Marvel Mystery Comics.

Credit for the cover of issue #1 is currently given to Marvel legend George Tuska by GCD, with the issue #2 cover credited to Lou Fine.  The pulpy weird science character Dr. Mortal was featured on the covers of those issues, as well as four of the first five issues of the title.  The creation of Bert Whitman, Dr. Mortal is an archetypical mad scientist.  The Sorceress of Zoom by Don Rico is another stand-out feature of the early part of the Weird Comics run. All of these historically important and tough-to-get Fox Weird Comics issues are worth seeking out, and there's a CGC GD+ 2.5 copy of Weird Comics #1 and a CGC FR 1.0 copy of Weird Comics #2 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1940) up for auction in the 2025 July 18 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase at Heritage Auctions.

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