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.
Stan Lee, nearly 85 years old at the time, returns to the Fantastic Four for one last tale.
It’s not a groundbreaking story by any means. And it’s not meant to be. Is the dialogue corny in places? Certainly. Is the plot surprising? Nope. An all-powerful big bad (The “Adjudicator”) comes to destroy Earth and pretty much everyone is helpless to stop him. Its up to Reed Richards to figure something out, which ultimately involves the previous almost all-powerful big bad, Galactus.
The entire issue could definitely be an unused story from Lee and Kirby’s FF heyday in the 60s.
Who cares? Not me. Great art from John Romita Jr. (inks by Scott Hanna) make this a fun tribute to the “old days.” Stan works in most of the great supporting characters from the original run, including Doctor Doom and the Silver Surfer.
This page of course features both of them, along with the entire FF. Plus, it’s signed by the entire creative team, because, for once, I had the presence of mind to remember to get that done.
As discussed previously here, John Byrne does (or did?) some amazing commissions. The reason I’m not confident on my verb tense here is that I hear John stopped creating them when he put his artistic efforts behind his X-Men “fan-fiction” project.
One of most interseting facts about these commissions is that John has done them as large as 30×40. That’s slightly bigger than a movie poster!
This terrific one here is 20×30. I’m the second owner, as the first one sold his entire collection all at once. Right place, right time for me; I’m a big fan (no pun intended) of the Super-Skrull.
I commissioned Len O’Grady to color the piece for me, and he did a terrific job. If I recall correctly, we sent it over to JB, who approved it as well.
(And if my recollection were incorrect about that, it would not surprise me to hear about it. John is not shy about offering his opinion.)
Some of the many additional Byrne Fantastic Four commissions in the hands of fans and collectors.
The first appearance of the Super-Skull, followed by an issue of Thor where I first encountered him as a young Marvel reader.
Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Comics Magazine#8, September 2001
“What if Stan Lee and Jack Kirby concluded their historic run on FF with one last wild adventure?”
Bruce Timm and other all-star creators showcase their love and admiration for Jack Kirby in this fun 2001 mini-series.
And when we say “other,” we mean it. This terrific title page features layouts by Erik Larsen, pencils by Ron Frenz and Inks by Timm. Other creators in this issue alone include Bill Wray, Rick Veitch and Terry Beatty. Others in the full series include Keith Giffen, Al Williamson, Joe Sinnott, and Paul Ryan, to name just some of the cast.
The story itself takes between issues #100 and #101 of the original Fantastic Four run. It took Marvel 10 years before they finally collected it, and its now available in both hardcover and trade paperback. If you’re a fan of that amazing Lee Kirby FF run, this series is a must-own.
And if you’re not a fan of that classic, my sympathies.
The Larsen/Frenz/Timm splash immediately called to mind the classic opening to FF #49.
Domination Factor: Fantastic Four #1and #2, December 1999
Dan Jurgens has some fun with time travel in this clever interlocking mini-series featuring the FF and The Avengers.
The part of the story that takes place in the contemporary era (1999) sees Dan storytelling in his traditional artistic style. But when time travel is involved, Dan and inker Bob McLeod purposely ape Jack Kirby. (And Joe Sinnot.) As you can see from the pages below, Dan and Bob re-do the top panel from FF 94, 30 years prior. And then the story takes a turn — literally — as The Thing realizes that Dr. Strange’s time spell has worked.
Bonus points: The pages are hand-lettered by the talented John Costanza. Although John came on board at Marvel too late to work on the original Lee and Kirby Fantastic Four run, he did in fact letter the Lee and Kirby “reunion” Silver Surfer graphic novel. Close enough in my book to at least earn a no-prize.
I don’t own another page like this one. In fact, I’m not certain I can recall seeing another page like this one.
I’m pretty sure there must be some out there, but four vertical page-length panels is definitely an atypical layout.
And here, it’s perfect. Four astronauts — Sue Storm, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm — blasted by cosmic rays, and, well, you know the rest: They become… fantastic.
This page is an example of great visual storytelling by the terrifically talented Paolo Rivera. I love the character reactions and facial expressions here. Even though the team will shortly have superpowers, it certainly looks like a painful origin process to get there.
And for one member of the team, those powers might be more curse than blessing.
After all, his moniker is the Thing.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original cosmic origin of the Fantastic Four in 1961.
Jack Kirby. The Fantastic Four. A great action page from near the beginning of the peak three-year period of the comic that launched a cultural phenomenon.
Not much more to add here.
Except…2021 is the 60th anniversary of “The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” and the “Marvel Age of Comics.”
60 years. That’s a big deal. Much more on the Fantastic Four to come during the next few weeks.
Concluding our tribute to Captain America’s 80th anniversary.
Ah Las Vegas.
The only place where you are likely to find a giant statue of Captain America, yes? But even Las Vegas wouldn’t have accepted a giant statue of the Red Skull — swastikas and all. (Imagine a giant Patton statue facing off against a giant Rommel sculpture. It does not compute. ) It’s a rare slip in an otherwise fun Cap mini-series penned by Bruce Jones with beautiful visual storytelling by Steve Rude and Mike Royer.
And the good news is that the Skull statue that gets blown to smithereens on this great splash page, anyway.
Happy 80th Mr. Rogers!
In addition to the obvious Jack Kirby references throughout, Rude manages to work in a Steranko homage on the opening page of the issue. Meanwhile JG Jones delivers a surprisingly boring and stiff painting of Cap on the cover, which, to make matters worse, looks like it belongs to a completely different series altogether.
Fallen Son: The Death Of Captain America #5, August 2007
John Cassaday — a fan favorite artist if ever there was one — delivers a striking double-page splash of the Silver Age Avengers, with Captain America dominating the scene.
In the original comic, it was the Avengers that discovered the World War 2 legend floating in suspended animation in (essentially) a large ice cube. Of course, they never would have found him if it wasn’t for another Golden Age icon, Namor the Sub-Mariner, but as always, we digress.
This rendering actually combines multiple 60s Avengers line-ups into one image; The Hulk quit in a huff at the end of issue #2, fought against the team in issue #3, and was MIA by the time Cap thawed out in issue #4.
Cassaday’s art is stunning throughout this issue, but, biasedly perhaps, I think this is by far the best page(s) among many great ones.
The spread has appeared as both a poster and a limited edition Giclee, so, clearly it’s had some impact.
Assemble indeed!
In short order, Cap returned to the Marvel line-up, received his own solo feature, and then a few years later, his own series. (Picking up the numbering from Tales of Suspense.)
