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I have finally completed the acquisition of the entire Lee-Kirby run on Fantastic Four in hardback. I actually accomplished this a week ago, but being on holiday I didn’t get around to mentioning it then.
I bought volumes 1 and 2 of the splendid Omnibuses a few years ago and had been hoping beyond hope that there would be a volume 3, reprinting at least up to issue 90 or so, but it has never happened. The page size of the omnibus editions is larger, they have been more carefully recoloured and best of all for nostalgic comic fans, include the letters pages.
Anyway, now I have the stories in the Masterworks series. I daresay Marvel will take the opportunity to issue a new Omnibus just to spite me; that’s the way these things work. Realistically, if they do, I suspect it will be timed to come out if and when they reboot the Fantastic Four film franchise to maximise sales.
I have the originals of most of the run between issue 10 and issue 120 safely bagged up and currently unreadable in the attic. Their condition varies: my earliest FF, #10 looks as though it spent 25 years under a hedge, but FF Annual #1 still has an almost pristine white cover. I am missing maybe 15 or 16 issues in the run, but my days of trying to fill the gaps are over, even for the less expensive omissions after issue 10. Issues #1 to #9 will remain forever outside my reach unless I happen to win the lottery jackpot (which is rather more unlikely than the official 14,000,000-1 odds since I rarely buy a ticket).
One of the things that I enjoy about these early Fantastic Four comics, other than simple nostalgia for my childhood, is watching Jack Kirby’s art develop as he stays with the same characters for 102 issues. By the time Joe Sinnott comes on board as regular inker, the result is incredible. It seems to me, having seen examples of Kirby’s work from the forties onwards, that the nine years on the Fantastic Four show the single greatest period of development in his technique from standard comic fare in the early days, through scratchy but imaginative layouts to – finally around 1968-1969 – superior pop art.
There are many artists around with more realistic styles than Jolly Jack ever managed with his stylised ‘full figures in action’ but no one has come close to maintaining or improving the standard of their work over a prolonged period and in such prolific quantities.
The man knew how to lay out a comic panel and page for maximum impact. The stories may be simplistic by current standards, but there is humour and insight and touches of the homely and mundane that adds to rather than distracts from them. It’s all wonderful stuff and nobody but nobody has (or ever could) drawn sophisticatedly complex and ludicrously fun machines like Kirby in his steadfastly pre-digital world.
I bought volumes 1 and 2 of the splendid Omnibuses a few years ago and had been hoping beyond hope that there would be a volume 3, reprinting at least up to issue 90 or so, but it has never happened. The page size of the omnibus editions is larger, they have been more carefully recoloured and best of all for nostalgic comic fans, include the letters pages.
Anyway, now I have the stories in the Masterworks series. I daresay Marvel will take the opportunity to issue a new Omnibus just to spite me; that’s the way these things work. Realistically, if they do, I suspect it will be timed to come out if and when they reboot the Fantastic Four film franchise to maximise sales.
I have the originals of most of the run between issue 10 and issue 120 safely bagged up and currently unreadable in the attic. Their condition varies: my earliest FF, #10 looks as though it spent 25 years under a hedge, but FF Annual #1 still has an almost pristine white cover. I am missing maybe 15 or 16 issues in the run, but my days of trying to fill the gaps are over, even for the less expensive omissions after issue 10. Issues #1 to #9 will remain forever outside my reach unless I happen to win the lottery jackpot (which is rather more unlikely than the official 14,000,000-1 odds since I rarely buy a ticket).
One of the things that I enjoy about these early Fantastic Four comics, other than simple nostalgia for my childhood, is watching Jack Kirby’s art develop as he stays with the same characters for 102 issues. By the time Joe Sinnott comes on board as regular inker, the result is incredible. It seems to me, having seen examples of Kirby’s work from the forties onwards, that the nine years on the Fantastic Four show the single greatest period of development in his technique from standard comic fare in the early days, through scratchy but imaginative layouts to – finally around 1968-1969 – superior pop art.
There are many artists around with more realistic styles than Jolly Jack ever managed with his stylised ‘full figures in action’ but no one has come close to maintaining or improving the standard of their work over a prolonged period and in such prolific quantities.
The man knew how to lay out a comic panel and page for maximum impact. The stories may be simplistic by current standards, but there is humour and insight and touches of the homely and mundane that adds to rather than distracts from them. It’s all wonderful stuff and nobody but nobody has (or ever could) drawn sophisticatedly complex and ludicrously fun machines like Kirby in his steadfastly pre-digital world.
