Acquiring this piece was the conclusion of a year-long collecting quest, and I couldn't be happier to finally have it in my collection.
Ever since reading God of Thunder, I wanted a really nice Gorr page. I really enjoyed the God of Thunder run in general, and am pretty sure that it's going to be one of those classic runs that always stay in print. In particular I loved the character of Gorr, and think that the God Butcher storyline is a real high-water mark for Jason Aaron's run, and the perfect material for Esad Ribic's art.
But I came late to that series, and most of the pages were long gone. So when this issue of King Thor was published in September of 2019, I immediately knew that this was the page I wanted.
It was then used as the cover for the 2nd printing, which was a blessing and a curse, as I knew that it would focus collector attention on it and make it harder to locate (and certainly more expensive!)
I got in touch with Esad's dealer early in 2020, and he thought that he would be getting King Thor pages pretty soon, so I refreshed his website multiple times a day, every day, for months... It got to be part of my breakfast routine - coffee, toast, check for King Thor pages...
In September of 2020 (after months of refreshing that site with no joy) I saw a King Thor page privately for sale, and got in touch with the vendor. When I asked about Gorr pages, he told me that he had indeed previously owned this page, but had since passed it on to another collector.
At that point, I sort of gave up on this one, assuming that it would never come up for sale again - but happily added a few other King Thor pages to my collection from that vendor.
In mid-November 2020, I became aware of the upcoming Comic Art Live event, but to start with didn't really think I'd take part, as I'd recently spent far more than I should have on various pieces. I'd been meaning to upgrade my CAF membership for some time, but hadn't got around to it. But on the morning of the first day, I found myself in-front of my computer and, on a whim, upgraded my membership, which gave me early access to the listings. So when the event started, I opened the listings and started searching for my various collecting interests, starting with Ribic.... and saw this page was up for sale.
As quickly as I could, I banged out the form to request to purchase it... years of missing out on Felix art drops had taught me not to hang around... then waited for a few pretty anxious minutes for the vendor to respond ... which he did, telling me that the page was available if I wanted it.
Couldn't be happier to finally own this page. Sorry to disappoint - absolutely not for sale!
(As well as page #20 of issue #1, and the cover of the 2nd print, a copy of this image was also used in the background of the second panel of page #2 of King Thor #2, as well as the third panel of page #3 of the same issue, so it's been quite busy, and used at least four times in the King Thor run....)
