Showing posts with label Fantastic Four. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantastic Four. Show all posts
Marvel plans John Byrne Fantastic Four Omnibus
Looking forward to this one. A lot. Byrne's run on Fantastic Four was top notch. The best this series got after the Lee/Kirby years. It'll be fun to have these tales collected in a big, honking, over-sized book.
Here's what we know about this upcoming release so far:
Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus - Volume 1
Not since the days of Lee and Kirby had a creator so perfectly captured the intense mood, cosmic style and classic sense of adventure of Marvel's First Family. Fresh off an earthshattering run as penciler on Uncanny X-Men, John Byrne proved his writing talent was every bit the equal of his art as he pulled double-duty on Fantastic Four, launching them into realms of imagination and wonder into which few creators before had dared to travel. From the four corners of the globe to the farthest reaches of space to the deepest depths of the Negative Zone, the FF face off against foes old and new - including the Dr. Doom, Galactus and Annihilus!
1084 pages
Amazon lists a release date of Nov. 16, 2011, however these dates don't always jibe with reality. They also have a pre-order price of $68.64, a savings of $31.35 over the $99.99 cover price.
Here's what we know about this upcoming release so far:
Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus - Volume 1
Not since the days of Lee and Kirby had a creator so perfectly captured the intense mood, cosmic style and classic sense of adventure of Marvel's First Family. Fresh off an earthshattering run as penciler on Uncanny X-Men, John Byrne proved his writing talent was every bit the equal of his art as he pulled double-duty on Fantastic Four, launching them into realms of imagination and wonder into which few creators before had dared to travel. From the four corners of the globe to the farthest reaches of space to the deepest depths of the Negative Zone, the FF face off against foes old and new - including the Dr. Doom, Galactus and Annihilus!
1084 pages
Amazon lists a release date of Nov. 16, 2011, however these dates don't always jibe with reality. They also have a pre-order price of $68.64
, a savings of $31.35 over the $99.99 cover price.
Best Fantastic Four Sites on the Web
Fantastic Four: 4 Freedoms Plaza
Very well done site dedicated to the history of the FF, latest news, a museum depicting memorabilia from the 1960s to today, and more. One of the best done superhero sites.
Fantastic Four Fluxion
A database offering plot summaries, creative team info and cover scans of selected issues in the series' run. There's also an index that provides background info on characters, occurences pertaining to the series. Pretty slick. The site concentrates on more recent issues of FF rather than the classic Lee-Kirby run, though.
Very well done site dedicated to the history of the FF, latest news, a museum depicting memorabilia from the 1960s to today, and more. One of the best done superhero sites.
Fantastic Four Fluxion
A database offering plot summaries, creative team info and cover scans of selected issues in the series' run. There's also an index that provides background info on characters, occurences pertaining to the series. Pretty slick. The site concentrates on more recent issues of FF rather than the classic Lee-Kirby run, though.
Great comic book art: Jack Kirby back cover for Fantastic Four Treasury 1976
Here's a nice example of Jack Kirby's later work: The original back cover art for Marvel Comics' tabloid-sized Fantastic Four Treasury, published in 1976.
It's up for auction now on eBay (and way, way beyond my price range).
It's up for auction now on eBay (and way, way beyond my price range).
"Lost" Lee-Kirby Fantastic Four story previewed
Wasn't Marvel Comics promising us this eons ago? At any rate, it looks as if this book will finally see release this week.
Here are the details:
Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure #1
WRITER: STAN LEE
PENCILS: JACK KIRBY
JOHN BUSCEMA
INKS: JOE SINNOTT
COLORED BY: CHRIS SOTOMAYOR
LETTERED BY: DAVE LANPHEAR
IT'S THE COMIC BOOK EQUIVALENT OF A LOST BEATLES TRACK! Together, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby produced 102 consecutive issues of FANTASTIC FOUR. But there was a 103rd story they'd begun in 1970, but never finished—until now! Working from copies of Jack's penciled pages, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott have reunited, to complete the work they started almost four decades ago! Plus, this super-sized issue includes reproductions of Kirby's unlinked penciled pages, with border notes and analysis by John Morrow, and a complete reprint of FANTASTIC FOUR #108 by Stan Lee and John Buscema, which incorporated some of the material from the lost story as a flashback.
Rated A …$4.99
IN STORES: February 13, 2008
And here are some page previews.
Here are the details:
Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure #1
WRITER: STAN LEE
PENCILS: JACK KIRBY
JOHN BUSCEMA
INKS: JOE SINNOTT
COLORED BY: CHRIS SOTOMAYOR
LETTERED BY: DAVE LANPHEAR
IT'S THE COMIC BOOK EQUIVALENT OF A LOST BEATLES TRACK! Together, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby produced 102 consecutive issues of FANTASTIC FOUR. But there was a 103rd story they'd begun in 1970, but never finished—until now! Working from copies of Jack's penciled pages, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott have reunited, to complete the work they started almost four decades ago! Plus, this super-sized issue includes reproductions of Kirby's unlinked penciled pages, with border notes and analysis by John Morrow, and a complete reprint of FANTASTIC FOUR #108 by Stan Lee and John Buscema, which incorporated some of the material from the lost story as a flashback.
Rated A …$4.99
IN STORES: February 13, 2008
And here are some page previews.
Hip tip: 1970s' Fantastic Four radio show
Think about the golden age of radio drama and the 30s and 40s likely come to mind. But the mid 1970s weren't too shabby, either, if you lived in the right market.
I was lucky. The college radio station in my town--along playing a diverse assortment of great music--played some great radio adventure programs. I've already mentioned the Jack Flanders adventures like "The Fourth Tower of Inverness" and "Moon Over Morocco" here, but they also played "The Fantastic Four" radio show.
Listening now, yeah, the show may sound a little cheesy. But, compared to many TV programs and movies based on comics (even those produced today) it was great. Nice sound effects, decent voice acting and--best of all--scripts that were loyal to the comic. In fact, the scripts were the comic. In most cases, narration and dialogue came straight out of early issues of FF. Even nicer, the narrator for these shows was none other than Stan Lee--the guy who wrote the scripts in the first place.
And, oh yeah, the role of Johnny Storm: The Human Torch was voiced by none other than Bill Murray, future star of movies and "Saturday Night Live" and movies, but then a comic working on the "National Lampoon Radio Hour"--another cool show my college station aired.
The NLRH had a stellar cast, in fact, featuring lots of Second City folks who later went on to do big stuff: John Belushi, Christopher Guest, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner...
Anyway, if you're a comics fan--particularly if you enjoy early Marvel Age stuff--the FF show is something you're sure to enjoy. If you can get ahold of copies. Sadly, the show is commercially unavailable--although if you Google around you might be able to find CD copies or downloads. It'd be really nice if someone--I don't know who exactly owns the rights--made it available. Maybe Marvel could offer it up on their Web site.
I did see, recently, original broadcast LPs of the program for sale on e-Bay, which sparked this recollection. Here are cover images of those:
Also of interest, is this in-depth interview with the show's producer Peter B. Lewis over at the Fantastic Four Plaza.
More info:
National Lampoon Radio Hour
I was lucky. The college radio station in my town--along playing a diverse assortment of great music--played some great radio adventure programs. I've already mentioned the Jack Flanders adventures like "The Fourth Tower of Inverness" and "Moon Over Morocco" here, but they also played "The Fantastic Four" radio show.
Listening now, yeah, the show may sound a little cheesy. But, compared to many TV programs and movies based on comics (even those produced today) it was great. Nice sound effects, decent voice acting and--best of all--scripts that were loyal to the comic. In fact, the scripts were the comic. In most cases, narration and dialogue came straight out of early issues of FF. Even nicer, the narrator for these shows was none other than Stan Lee--the guy who wrote the scripts in the first place.
And, oh yeah, the role of Johnny Storm: The Human Torch was voiced by none other than Bill Murray, future star of movies and "Saturday Night Live" and movies, but then a comic working on the "National Lampoon Radio Hour"--another cool show my college station aired.
The NLRH had a stellar cast, in fact, featuring lots of Second City folks who later went on to do big stuff: John Belushi, Christopher Guest, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner...
Anyway, if you're a comics fan--particularly if you enjoy early Marvel Age stuff--the FF show is something you're sure to enjoy. If you can get ahold of copies. Sadly, the show is commercially unavailable--although if you Google around you might be able to find CD copies or downloads. It'd be really nice if someone--I don't know who exactly owns the rights--made it available. Maybe Marvel could offer it up on their Web site.
I did see, recently, original broadcast LPs of the program for sale on e-Bay, which sparked this recollection. Here are cover images of those:
Also of interest, is this in-depth interview with the show's producer Peter B. Lewis over at the Fantastic Four Plaza.
More info:
National Lampoon Radio Hour
Ain't nothin' like the real Thing
Much to every comic book lover's concern, there's a Fantastic Four movie coming out soon.
Concern because we've been down this road many times. We know in some way, big or small, they're gonna screw something up.
Sometimes we luck out and besides a minor tweak or two or some unnecessary Hollywood messing about with the myth, the end result is still a great movie.
Witness the two Spider-Man films. There's some goofy changes--webs shoot right out of Spidey's arms instead of artificial web shooters, girlfriend Mary Jane Watson is placed in hazardous situations faced by a gal named Gwen Stacy in the original comics--but, all-in-all, the film is faithful at least to the spirit of the original.
And Spider-Man (and Superman and, for the main part, Batman) looked right.
Distressingly, that's not the case with the big screen "Fantastic Four." Jessica Alba looks too young and not blonde enough to be the Invisible Girl (it's Invisible Woman in the comic book). The guy playing Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mister Fantastic)? Way, way, way too young. The guy playing Johnny Storm the "Human Torch"? Probably a tad too old and not nearly blonde enough.
And then there's the Thing, real identity Ben Grimm, played by Michael Chiklis. Oh man.
Perhaps Chiklis, who's a fine actor, will be able to embody the spirit of the Thing--a lovable curmudgeon whose literally rough exterior conceals a sensitive, often sad, softie. But the look is all wrong and it's really gonna mess up the movie for those of us who love the character.
This is not the Thing.
The movie Thing looks more like the Jack Kirby Thing from Marvel Comics' "What If?" #11, which imagined what might happen if the team's real-life creative team had super powers.
If the film wanted to be completely accurate, the Thing would be lumpy, cuz that's how Ben Grimm looked immediately after he was transformed from his human appearance.
Later on, the Thing took on his classic look.
When he's done right, he always looks like this. The rocky uni-brow thing? He's gotta have it.
Hell, this Thing looks better than the movie Thing, and it's just some guy at a comic book convention (pictured with Jack Kirby and FF inker Joe Sinnott)
So, one more time: Real Thing
Concern because we've been down this road many times. We know in some way, big or small, they're gonna screw something up.
Sometimes we luck out and besides a minor tweak or two or some unnecessary Hollywood messing about with the myth, the end result is still a great movie.
Witness the two Spider-Man films. There's some goofy changes--webs shoot right out of Spidey's arms instead of artificial web shooters, girlfriend Mary Jane Watson is placed in hazardous situations faced by a gal named Gwen Stacy in the original comics--but, all-in-all, the film is faithful at least to the spirit of the original.
And Spider-Man (and Superman and, for the main part, Batman) looked right.
Distressingly, that's not the case with the big screen "Fantastic Four." Jessica Alba looks too young and not blonde enough to be the Invisible Girl (it's Invisible Woman in the comic book). The guy playing Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mister Fantastic)? Way, way, way too young. The guy playing Johnny Storm the "Human Torch"? Probably a tad too old and not nearly blonde enough.
And then there's the Thing, real identity Ben Grimm, played by Michael Chiklis. Oh man.
Perhaps Chiklis, who's a fine actor, will be able to embody the spirit of the Thing--a lovable curmudgeon whose literally rough exterior conceals a sensitive, often sad, softie. But the look is all wrong and it's really gonna mess up the movie for those of us who love the character.
This is not the Thing.
The movie Thing looks more like the Jack Kirby Thing from Marvel Comics' "What If?" #11, which imagined what might happen if the team's real-life creative team had super powers.
If the film wanted to be completely accurate, the Thing would be lumpy, cuz that's how Ben Grimm looked immediately after he was transformed from his human appearance.
Later on, the Thing took on his classic look.
When he's done right, he always looks like this. The rocky uni-brow thing? He's gotta have it.
Hell, this Thing looks better than the movie Thing, and it's just some guy at a comic book convention (pictured with Jack Kirby and FF inker Joe Sinnott)
So, one more time: Real Thing
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