Continuing our celebration of the 60th anniversary of the debut of Fantastic Four #1. (August 8, 1961)
Jim Starlin pens a love letter to the classic Hulk-Thing battles of the 60s and 70s with this fun two-parter from Marvel Fanfare.
The Hulk decks Mr. Grimm “off-screen” as it were, bridging the two issues. (See below.)
I never cared one way or another whether The Hulk or Thing was stronger (I pretty much enjoyed any crossover), but apparently this subject is very emotional for some.
That said, Thor is stronger than either of them.
Let the hate mail begin. Ha.
CBR has done a great overview of those classic battles, which you can read here.
Jim Starlin lets our imagination fill in the actual punch, as the Hulk has apparently just decked the Thing in between issues.
The Marvel Age of crossovers begins in March 1963, with a very busy FF meeting the Hulk and Spider-Man in the same month..
Tony Harris delivers a terrific cover for one of the oddest–logoed titles in Marvel History.
The title is not “4”, but actually “Marvel Knights 4”, as the publisher decided to give an edge to the FF by incorporating them into the Marvel Knights brand. (Of course this assumes you know that MK stands for Marvel Knights. And that you’re certain that “4” refers to the FF.)
It’s a puzzler how they ended up there.
And speaking of puzzlers — this storyline deals with time travel and Ramades, son of Ram-Tut, who makes his first appearance the issue prior.
Rama-Tut, of course, is also Kang AND Immortus, and also ultimately retconned to be Nathaniel Richards. Reed’s father. The Time Variance Authority and the Time-Keepers are also involved.
Frankly, as mentioned previously, I could never keep any of this straight, and even the very-detailed Wikipedia page can’t help my brain get around the various iterations of this character. (Not blaming them, though — it’s probably just me.)
Great cover art, though, and Tony colored it himself — adding the background texture as well.
(As for Ramades? He has yet to reappear since this storyline was completed in issue#18.)
Continuing our celebration of the 60th anniversary of the debut of Fantastic Four #1. (August 8, 1961)
Ron Garney — with the help of Jason Keith — delivers a dramatic cover of Ben Grimm and Franklin Richards preparing for a last stand against an unseen foe in a cemetery, indicating the rest of the team is dead.
It’s a time travel story, and a sentimental one at that — as it explores The Thing’s near-immortal life span. In fact, Jonathan Hickman’s one-shot story itself feels like it would be right at home in a Superman comic.
If I have any small gripe — and I think it has happened elsewhere— is that the older Franklin Richards (Reed’s son) often looks too much like a younger Nathaniel Richards (Reed’s dad) in some of the time travel or multiverse stories. Confusing from time to time. (That pun was not intended. Seriously.)
Continuing our celebration of the 60th anniversary of the debut of Fantastic Four #1. (August 8, 1961)
How many brick walls has the Thing crashed through? That’s not some sort of rhetorical question — I have no idea what the answer is.
I do know, when I saw this cool commission, it reminded me in high concept (minus the silly tank top) of John Byrne’s great cover of the ever-lovin’ Thing’s return in Fantastic Four #274.
The Thing. Breaking through a wall. And smoking a cigar.
Jack Kirby Homage, 2002 Cover Re-imagination, Fantastic Four Annual #6, November 1968
Continuing our celebration of the 60th anniversary of the debut of Fantastic Four #1. (August 8, 1961)
The great Italian artist Giorgio Comolo, a Jack Kirby fanatic, creates a terrific alternate cover for Fantastic Four Annual #6, one of the best solo FF stories to appear during the Lee and Kirby run.
Ironically, despite the acknowledged greatness of the issue, the published cover feels a bit lifeless. Comolo’s take is certainly a much more dramatic representation of the issue’s key moment.
As for that vial? Well, for a spoiler, you can read Marvel’s marketing copy below. Let’s just say its importance is yet another reason why we refer to Fantastic Four as the world’s greatest superhero soap opera.
For a look at some other Comolo Kirby homages, click here.
Issue synopsis: The baby is coming! With Sue going into labor, Reed must make a perilous journey to obtain Element X, the only thing that can keep the baby safe from the cosmic rays in Sue’s body. The bad news – it can only be found in the Negative Zone! The WORSE news? It’s in the hands of one of the deadliest beings in any universe – ANNIHILUS!
One comic book. One grasp (and possibly a final one) at straws for a struggling comic book publishing company.
Sixty years ago today, Fantastic Four #1 hit the newsstands.
DC had slowly started its own superhero revival five years prior with the appearance of the Silver Age Flash. By the time the FF appeared, DC had establishes enough heroes to create a Justice League team comic book.
Heck, even Archie Comics launched some superhero titles (The Fly, The Shield, etc.) ahead of Marvel.
But Fantastic Four made an impression. Flawed heroes, who barely got along with each other? Fearsome Foes and supporting characters? Continuity, for goodness sakes?
Talk about late to the party — but making an entrance.
Within a few issues, Fantastic Four was the first, and ultimately greatest, soap opera saga in comics. And it didn’t take much longer for Jack Kirby to fully establish himself as the greatest visual storyteller the medium had ever seen, and for Stan Lee to become the greatest showrunner (and, for better or worse, showman) in comics’ history.
The original stories, of course, were much less complex and sophisticated than they are today. (As were the readers.)
Example: This great Steve Epting splash page from issue #586 is from a story that features time travel conundrums and a multiverse gone somewhat amok.
Heady stuff. But you should expect nothing less from Marvel’s First family.
The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine, indeed.
Stan the modest Man: The slogan “Greatest Comic Magazine in the World” became “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” in the following issue, and stuck around for more than 30 years.
On Tuesday, August 8, 1961, Fantastic Four #1 hit the newsstands.
The rest, as they say, is history.
As promised back in January, we’re adding a few more Fantastic Four posts to continue the 60th celebration of “The Marvel Age Of Comics.”
And yes, we’re cheating a bit by re-running this great page by Jack from the beginning of the FF’s peak period.
But… no Stan Lee AND Jack Kirby… no Fantastic Four… likely no Marvel Age, period. So, in our mind, worth a repeat.
See you on Sunday.
1980: Jack had left Marvel, again, this time for the world of animation and independent creator-owned comic book projects. Stan was busy in Hollywood woking tirelessly (and mostly unsuccessfully) to make Marvel a brand in entertainment. I never take sides in the endless Lee-Kirby debate, so I say to the photographer who captured this pic (quoting from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance): “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
It all starts here: Cover and opening page for FF#1.
Doug Hazelwood has been doing some great re-creations of Jack Kirby Marvel Silver Age covers, and Fantastic Four #69 is a terrific example of Doug’s work on these.
Typically, I don’t collect exact cover re-creations illustrated by anyone other than the original artist, but I made an exception here, because, well, its one of my favorite covers from that era.
And a nice way to close out our first tribute to the 6oth anniversary of the Fantastic Four.
The published cover To FF#69 along with a fun retro portrait of Jack by by Brendan Tobin.
The masterful Ken Steacy transforms an important scene from the one-shot story “This Man… This Monster!” (Fantastic Four #51) into a dramatic painting for the inventive Marvel Portraits mini-series in 1995.
That’s not actually Ben Grimm, but rather a villain who ends his own life with this heroic act near the end of the offbeat tale.
Peter David wrote the excellent commentaries for these re-creations of classic Marvel moments in this specific issue, so I think will let him finish telling the story below.
Continuing our multi-part tribute to the 60thanniversary of the Fantastic Four — and the “Marvel Age of Comics.”
Hulk vs. Thing? Think about it. The Thing can give the Hulk a run for his money, I suppose, but in the end Hulk wins. No contest, really.
The “shock ending” here is that after quite a few matches during the years, The Thing takes pity on Hulk and joins forces with him to fight the army and the Fantastic Four (or more accurately, three), and anyone else who might be persecuting the Hulk at that moment.
George Perez, aided by the amazing Joe Sinnott, delivers a great looking action page featuring both characters. Pages from this issue rarely turn up and I’m fortunate that I found one. This is one of my favorite issues from the late bronze era, and it doesn’t hurt that it features a terrific cover by Jack Kirby, one of his earliest from his “return” to Marvel a few months prior.
That said, about the scale accuracy of the Gateway Arch Monument (St. Louis) vs. the occupants as depicted here? The less said, the better.
The Thing vs. The Hulk, becomes the Thing AND The Hulk — vs. everyone — at the end of FF #166.
