Thor #265 page 17

Having taken the Destroyer from Galactus’ ship, Loki lets it loose and Thor has a desperate fight on his hands. The Warriors Three arrive to assist – but from the looks of this page, Volstagg isn’t planning on being of much help. That panel of Volstagg’s flight from the action is a real joy, and captures some of the great energy that Simonson brought to the comic in his first run. Simonson’s pushing of the story along in the foreground while hinting at the Destroyer’s carnage in the background is a triumph.
This is a page I picked up in Comic Showcase in London in the early 1980s. It was already signed by Joe Sinnott when I pulled it out of a box of unsorted pages. I later met Walt Simonson at a 1984 UK Comic Convention in Birmingham, aged 17, and had taken this page to ask him to add his signature. He looked at the page strangely. Obviously few of his pages have made it onto the market, so perhaps he wondered how that one had got out – but as it was signed by Sinnott I imagine it was a page that was allocated to the inker. Simonson stared at it for some considerable time, lost in thought and with furrowed brow, and I got the impression that he really didn’t like the way it had turned out. I was starting to get worried that he wasn’t actually going to sign it, but eventually he did. Passing it back to me, without saying a word or making eye contact, he walked away. I guess I’m lucky he signed it – nobody is obliged to do that - and I love the page. But seeing the page seemed to be an unhappy experience for Simonson, and it wasn’t exactly the best Convention experience I’ve ever had.
Whether or not you feel that Simonson’s work was swamped by Sinnott’s inks, I hope you’ll agree that the lines really shine on this issue, making it a glorious piece.