Personal Collection // John  Buscema // The Mighty Thor #207 Splash (Buscema/Colletta) (1973)

January 1973, Thor #207, Page #12 Splash, John Buscema pencils/Vince Colletta inks, “Firesword!”, I am blessed to be able to obtain this truly glorious splash of the god of Mischief, Loki, in his wicked glory! I missed out on this page years ago, but here it is again and I snagged it; (I realized years ago that in our humble hobby, if you wait long enough, everything comes out of hiding at some point. This is part of a three-way crossover set at the Annual Rutland, VT. Halloween parade. This issue of Thor continues the Beast story which began in Amazing Adventures #16, and then it becomes a Marvel/DC un official cross-over into Justice League of America #103 at DC! The creators, who actually write themselves into the three stories are: Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, and Len Wein, and Glynis Wein. The Rutland Halloween Parade is an annual event held on Halloween in the city of Rutland, Vermont since 1960. The parade has a strong superhero theme and has been the setting for a number of comic book adventures. Local officials maintain that it is the largest and longest running Halloween parade in the United States. Tom Fagan, a local writer and comic book fan, is credited with having a hand in the parade's early development and superhero theme. Tom was friends with many comic book authors and artists, most of whom hailed from New York. Fagan persuaded some of them to take part in the Rutland Halloween Parade in comic book character costumes. In the 1970s, the Rutland Halloween Parade achieved a degree of fame when it was used as the setting of a number of superhero comic books, including Justice League of America #103. Tom Fagan was himself featured as a character in a number of these stories, usually depicted as an acquaintance of the title characters. Due to the nature of the masquerade parade, these issues often saw people dressed as Marvel Comics heroes appearing in DC Comics publications, and vice versa, marking some of the first (unofficial) intercompany crossovers in comics. Caution was exercised, however over widespread use of the competition's characters — Tom Fagan, (who hosted the parade dressed as Batman), was typically drawn as Nighthawk in Marvel-published Rutland Halloween stories. Over the Christmas-New Year period in 1972/73, writers Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, and Len Wein crafted a loose three-part story spanning titles from both companies. Each comic featured Englehart, Conway, and Wein (and Wein's first wife Glynis) interacting with Tom Fagan and Marvel or DC villains (and heroes). One of the three stories is Justice League of America #103

Personal Collection

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