Tuesday, 22 July 2014

PART TWO OF THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Welcome back!  Couldn't keep away, could you?  And who could possibly blame you when there's some classic comicbook art by both Big JOHN BUSCEMA and Jolly JACK KIRBY on display?  The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR was a terrific MARVEL U.K. weekly periodical which filled us in on the then-relatively recent adventures of the Fab Four (no, Melvin, not The BEATLES), plus super classic stories from the early '60s.  Who could ask for more for a mere 10 pence?

I suppose it's a shame that all these titanic tales weren't in colour, but British readers were used to the majority of their regular weeklies being mainly in black and white. On the plus side (as I noted last time), Marvel had finally managed to master the use of ZIPATONE (that's the U.S. equivalent of LETRATONE) so that the grey tones didn't obscure the detail on the art, as had once been the case with previous titles.

Anyway, that's enough waffle from me.  I now unleash upon you highlights from another three issues of The Complete Fantastic Four.  More CFF still to come, frantic ones - be sure not to miss them!
   










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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous22 July 2014 at 23:05

    The masthead was really well designed - Marvel UK could just have used the U.S. FF masthead but they made their own. I'd completely forgotten there was a puzzle page though. The only sour note is that these were the last few stories drawn by John Buscema before Rich Buckler took over and started slavishly copying Jack Kirby - something I've never understood !

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  2. Kid22 July 2014 at 23:14

    I suspect that Rick Buckler may have been 'encouraged' to draw in Jack's style, CJ, by whichever editor gave him the gig. At the very least, he certainly wasn't discouraged. I wouldn't have minded him emulating the style to an extent, but I wasn't keen on the wholesale swiping of Kirby figures, positions and layouts.

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  3. karl24 July 2014 at 17:48

    I love that masthead the British weekly used.

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  4. Kid11 July 2016 at 10:55

    Nice, ain't it? It would've been designed and lettered in the States especially for we Brits, Karl. Shame the comic didn't last longer.

    (Originally posted on 24 July 2014 at 20:23.)

    ReplyDelete

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