CRIVENS! COMICS & STUFF!: PART TWO OF THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

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!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: 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 !; 22 July 2014 at 23:05
Kid said...: 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.; 22 July 2014 at 23:14
karl said...: I love that masthead the British weekly used.; 24 July 2014 at 17:48
Kid said...: 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.); 11 July 2016 at 10:55

About the artist:

From 1985 to 2000 A.D. (little joke there), I contributed to a variety of high profile comics and magazines for various companies.

For IPC/FLEETWAY/EGMONT, I freelanced as a lettering and logo artist on various weekly comics and monthly magazines, and also as a resize comic artist and spot illustrator on pocket books, summer specials and annuals.

For MARVEL U.K., BLACK LIBRARY, REDAN and USBORNE BOOKS, I again freelanced as a lettering artist, also working as a restoration artist for MARVEL U.S., restoring and re-creating certain pages of JACK KIRBY art for their MARVEL MASTERWORKS editions.

I also lettered the MARVELMAN sample pages submitted to MARVEL U.S. when they were considering acquiring the character, which - as we all now know - they DID.

Supplied comic strips, cartoons and illustrated advertisements for local business campaigns and newspaper publication on a professional basis since the age of 16. Did my first paid art job for publication at 14 or 15 for Lanarkshire Education Board.

Have also made TV appearances as a collector of memorabilia.

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Just some of the titles I worked on are:

2000 A.D. * JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE * DICEMAN * SONIC The COMIC * JUDGE DREDD, LAWMAN Of The FUTURE * CRISIS * REVOLVER * EAGLE * TIGER * BATTLE ACTION-FORCE * BUSTER * WHIZZER & CHIPS * WHOOPEE * NIPPER * SCHOOL FUN * ACE VENTURA, PET DETECTIVE * The REAL GHOSTBUSTERS * DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE * COUNT DUCKULA * RUGRATS * The TRANSFORMERS * DEATH'S HEAD * THUNDERCATS * GALAXY RANGERS * DRAGON'S CLAWS * SINDY * MARVEL MASTERWORKS * The TROLLS * LOADED * INFERNO * WARHAMMER * ROSE BLACK.

Copyright Notice:

Images remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are used here only for the purpose of review, promotion, and nostalgia.

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In the case of images culled from my own collection where copyright of an item isn't mine, I impose no copying restrictions on fellow bloggers.

(Although, if you don't allow copying on your own site, then you really shouldn't be copying from others, should you?)

And while you can credit this blog if you like, it's not mandatory. Who has time to make notes of every casually visited site during an idle browse of the internet?

In the case of anyone copying images of my own artwork and calligraphy, I affirm my right to be identified as the creator, and any such copying should not be for the purpose of monetary or material gain. (Unless it's mine.)

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Please also note that this blog is not sponsored by, affiliated with, or connected to, any organisation, business, or group, and is wholly independent.