Elisabeth Allie – THOR: The Lightning and the Storm

We Have a Winner for Our Hero Initiative Contest!

Hey everyone! We have a winner for our contest benefiting the Hero Initiative: Scott Rowland is now the proud owner of a Walter Simonson’s Thor: The Return of Beta Ray Bill Artist’s Edition hardcover from IDW Publishing!

We want to thank everyone who donated to the Hero Initiative, a fantastic organization that helps comic creators who need medical care, financial support, and paying work, as well as everyone who shared our contest! Huge thanks to IDW Publishing, too.

We’ll be lugging this mighty 12″ x 17″ tome to the post office this week, and Scott will soon enjoy the experience of viewing seven complete issues of The Mighty Thor (#349-354 and 380—the classic all splash page story) scanned from Walter Simonson’s original pages!

As you probably know, we posted the final episode of our 13-episode podcast this week. It’s been an honor and a privilege to delve into Walter Simonson’s epic 1980s run of The Mighty Thor, and we hope it’s something both new and die-hard fans enjoy for years to come. Listen to it from the beginning here, and don’t forget to review us on iTunes!

Help the Hero Initiative and Enter to Win Walter Simonson’s New Thor Artist’s Edition From IDW!

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Congratulations, Scott Rowland!

Citizens of the United States in Midgard^*! We have an amazing contest to announce: thanks to the worthy folks at IDW Publishing, we have a Walter Simonson’s Thor: The Return of Beta Ray Bill Artist’s Edition hardcover, and we’re giving it away as part of a contest to benefit the Hero Initiative!

From IDW: The Walter Simonson’s Thor: The Return of Beta Ray Bill Artist’s Edition features seven complete issues of The Mighty Thor (#349-354 and 380—the classic all splash page story). As with all Artist’s Editions, each page of art is scanned from the original, in this case from Simonson’s personal archives.

Check out a preview here!

It measures a mighty 12″ x 17″ and retails for $125, so we decided to use this contest to benefit the Hero Initiative, which helps comic book creators in need. The Hero Initiative creates a financial safety net for comic creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. Since its inception, the Hero Initiative has been fortunate enough to benefit more than 50 creators and their families with over $950,000 worth of much-needed aid! It’s a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

Enter by 7/29/17:

Make a donation to the Hero Initiative via PayPal at
HeroAuctions@aol.com ($5 minimum suggested, but even $1 helps). You can also donate by debit or credit card by clicking the yellow Donate button on the Hero Initiative’s site. Make a note that you’re entering a Thor drawing when you make your payment!
Forward your donation confirmation via email to thelightningandthestorm@gmail.com by 11:59 pm PST 7/29/17.
Extra credit! Follow us on Twitter and retweet our contest tweet to help spread the word–and to get one extra contest entry (maximum of one extra entry per person, regardless of the number of retweets)! If you take this step, please remember to include your Twitter handle when you forward your donation confirmation. Also, consider following IDW, they’re awesome people!
We’ll be selecting one winner at random 7/30/17 and notifying said winner via email.

We’re super excited about this contest and hope you are, too! Please help us spread the word!

The Fine Print

Enter to win by following the above directions by 7/29/17 at 11:59 pm PST.
You must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
You must be a US resident to enter.
The winning entry will be chosen at random by the judges at The Lightning & the Storm, whose decision is WORTHY.
The winner will be selected on 7/30/17 and notified by email that day.
Entry constitutes agreement by the winner to be publicized and permission to use each winner’s first name for the purposes of promotion of the Contest without further compensation.
Contest void where prohibited.
Odds of winning dependent on number of entrants.

*Earth

Greetings, Geek & Sundry Readers!

KRAKADOOM! Truly, we are thrilled and honored to have been interviewed by Geek & Sundry – the questions posed by Tom Pinchuk were worthy in the extreme, and we had a fantastic time talking Thor comics with him.

If you’re new to The Lightning and the Storm, you may have a few questions. Who are we? Where should you start listening? Is there really such a thing as Frog Thor?

Who we are:
We are Miles Stokes of Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men and Elisabeth Allie of GeekCraft Expo, and The Lightning and the Storm is our 13-episode love letter to Walter Simonson’s epic 1980s run of The Mighty Thor. Listen to our podcast for commentary, epic dramatizations of key scenes, and our picks for things like the Hel’s Haberdashery Award (best Asgardian headgear)!

Where you should start listening:
You can start with Episode 1: The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill, which covers the first four issues of Walter Simonson’s run. We also have a “zero issue” episode available to IndieGogo supporters of $5 or more, which features the two non-Walter Simonson fill-in issues that take place later in the run. It’s actually the first episode we ever recorded, so it’s a little looser (and has a different intro song) than our regular episodes. Like what you hear? We encourage you to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and elsewhere – and rate and review us so other folks can find us!

Is there really such a thing as Frog Thor?
Boy howdy, yes there is:

And we’ll be getting to that part of Walter Simonson’s run in just a couple of weeks!

Other places to find us
Feel free to join us on social media to talk about comics, Thor, or whatever else you’re into. We’re on Twitter at @thelightningand, on Facebook, and on Tumblr!

Thank you for visiting our site. This has been, and shall ever be: The Lightning and the Storm!