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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
If you've long-yearned to own an original issue of FANTASTIC FOUR #1, unless you win the Lottery, the closest you're ever likely to get is this amazing facsimile edition just released by MARVEL COMICS. It even reproduces the original adverts in a stunning clarity that avoids the poor photocopied look of the earlier (1990s) MARVEL MILESTONE edition. As well as the complete original issue, there's a bombastic bonus section in the back of the mag with lots of extra goodies. This is a 'must have', and you should buy your copy now before the price escalates to ridiculous levels on the collectors circuit.
Incidentally, if you own any of the previous individual reprints of this issue published over the years, this one is sourced from superior proofs with no clumsy 'touch-ups' like its predecessors. It really is the best single reprint of this cataclysmic classic produced to date. (A planned TRUE BELIEVERS reprint of the issue was cancelled so as not to impact on the sales of this incarnation.)
But this wouldn't be a Crivens! review unless there's an element of criticism about it. STAN LEE's introduction from ORIGINS Of MARVEL COMICS is included, but where he refers to himself as 'yours truly', it's been rendered as 'you truly', thereby compromising the sense of the sentence. The FF Omnibus also made this mistake, but I alerted them to it several years back so there's no excuse for repeating it here.
And, a minor thing perhaps, but I'd like to have seen the 'Continued After Next Page' line restored to the pages preceding the ads, just for the sake of authenticity. Not too much to ask is it? Having said that though, it really is 'The World's Greatest Comic Facsimile'! Buy one while you can.
Bonus: As mentioned in the comments section, below are the three scans that Barry Pearl sent me, taken from his very own original issue of The Fantastic Four #1 which he bought back in 1961.
I picked this up. Despite owning this in a variety of formats, I love these vintage reprints and the ads make it especially grand. The thing that really sold me though was the cover gallery in the back of homages of the highly memorable cover.
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As well as reprints of the story in Masterworks and Omnibus editions, RJ, I also have at least three different previous single issue reprints of FF #1, but this one is definitely the best yet. Unfortunately, as in the FF Omnibus edition, the re-presentation of Stan's introduction to Origins Of Marvel Comics renders his use of the term 'yours truly' as 'you truly', somewhat ruining the meaning of the sentence containing it. Marvel's proofreaders need to pay more attention.
ReplyDeleteKid, I am sending you ACTUAL scans from the actual first issue of the FF. Not from a reprint, but these are from the original!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Barry, just got 'em. I'm having a cuppa at the moment, then I'll add them to the post. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteI think the grey colours of the road surface actually look better on Barry's scans of the original. Amazing to think of the impact this must have had on thousands of readers back in 1961- even now it seems so much fresher and livelier than anything else of that era.
ReplyDeleteIt's all down to the printing techniques and the paper, DS. On the original, the grey colour sits over the black outlines, making them seem almost like a dark grey rather than black. Just think, the scans that Barry provided are from the original ish he purchased back in 1961.
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