Yes, I’m a comic book geek… most of you know that by now. I grew up reading comics and for the most part I’ve stuck to DC Comics (Superman, Batman, Justice League, etc.). While in high school a friend of mine suggested I actually pick up a Marvel comic… He used the gateway drug of Uncanny X-men (Claremont/Byrne) and I started to stray from DC. Nowadays I pretty read anything, and have strayed away from both big publishers because they tend to bounce from war to crisis to rebooting to whatever it takes to get you to buy a comic. During those times as a kid, Marvel was creating some great stuff: Frank Miller on Daredevil, John Byrne on Fantastic Four & X-Men, and Walt Simonson on Thor. These were times when the limits were being pushed a bit and as a teenager, it was cool. So what does this jog down memory lane have to do with MINIon #0337? I knew I wanted to do a Thor-like MINIon, the hard part was coming up with a good number. A SuperMINIon? Easy! #1938 the year Action Comics was produced, SpiderMINIon? #0015, For Amazing Fantasy 15, but Thor? I have run into this with a number of MINIons, sometimes the number comes first, and other times the MINIon. When I drew this one, I didn’t have a person attached to the number so… I all came back to high school and the first Thor comic book I read- issue 337 the first appearance of Beta Ray Thor. If some alien could wield the power of Thor, why couldn’t a monkey?
No, I haven’t forgotten that Thor was a frog in one issue… crazy times, crazy times. and somewhere I do have a drawing of MINIon #0337 holding a Monkey Wrench instead of a hammer, if I could only find it.