STEVE DITKO ART In FANTASTIC FOUR #3...?

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

Funny how we can be so familiar with some images that we stop really 'seeing' them after a while.  Case in point is FF #3, which I first read in the pages of WHAM! in 1966.  I read it again a year or so later in an issue of MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS, and again in The MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL in 1972.  I've now got various reprints of the story in different publications, but I only noticed something for the very first time while re-reading the story in a MASTERWORKS volume a couple of nights back.  Can you spot what I'm referring to?

Look at the figure of REED RICHARDS in the above panel.  That sure looks a lot like a STEVE DITKO drawing to me.  Could Steve have retouched the figure at STAN LEE's request when SD was in the Bullpen one day, or maybe even redrawn it?  Or is it just a totally coincidental resemblance to his style?  What think the rest of you?  Could I be right, or am I just talking my usual load of old pants?  Let rip in the comments section, why don'tcha?!

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(Admittedly, Reed's hands don't look Ditko-ish in the slightest, but the face and sleeve definitely do.  Maybe we'll find out for sure one day.)

KIRBY 'KOCK-UPS' PART THIRTEEN - GOING DOWN - HOW...?

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Cop a look at the above panel from FF #12.  See what's wrong with it?  RICK JONES's arms are tied, so how did he manage to climb down the 'ladder' that the baddie, KARL KORT (he had to be a baddie with a name like that) is in the process of descending?  I'd venture that it's impossible.  Chalk it up to yet another 'KIRBY KOCK-UP'!

MARVEL POSTERS OF THE '70S...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

As I've 'regurgitated' the MARVEL posters from the '60s, thought I might as well go the whole hog and show again the '70s posters by sensational Spanish artist LOPEZ ESPI.  These six posters were available to U.K. readers through the British Marvel weeklies, but though I meant to send off for them, I never managed to get around to it.  Ironic, seeing as how I'd suggested to Marvel that they release these great images as a set of posters after seeing four of them in the form of mini-transfers, given away as a free gift in the U.K. AVENGERS #1.

(Why do we say 'free' gift?  Surely the definition of a 'gift' is that it's free?  I'll lie awake all night wondering about that now.)

Anyway, not many readers revisit old posts, so hopefully you'll all enjoy seeing these Marvel Masterpieces again.  I know I did!