Tag: character: jack kirby

Fantastic Four Annual 3

Bedlam at the Baxter Building!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 1, 1965
Cover: 1965
25 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Vince Colletta
Lettered by: Artie Simek
23 pages

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POSTLUDEMarvel: Heroes & Legends #1
Journey Into Mystery #123, Story BReading orderX-Men #14
Fantastic Four Annual 2, Story CFantastic Four AnnualFantastic Four Annual 4

I now pronounce you man and wife! You may kiss your bride!

It’s the wedding of the century. Today’s the day. Half the Marvels have been invited! And the rest of them are turning up anyway!

This issue represents by far the largest gathering of heroes and villains yet, forever binding these disparate characters into a universe.

This issue represents the idea that there is no status quo, that these characters are at their best when they change and grow. Forward momentum is an essential ingredient to storytelling. Genuine, non-illusionary, change.

This is the most significant moment in the early Marvel Universe.

I think I’d have come up with a better title than “Bedlam at the Baxter Building”.

I wish Chic Stone or Joe Sinnott had been the inker. A few months too late to have Stone and one month too early to have Sinnott. Also, Colletta is uniquely suited to a long special issue with many characters because he’s famously expedient.

I appreciate that the headline takes for granted the public knows who Reed and Sue are without the need for surnames or superhero identities. The cover does the same for its audience.

Pretty cool this worked out to be the 400th story in our reading order. Currently on track to also have the 500th story be a particularly special issue of Fantastic Four as well. When we read Avengers #1, it was the 100th story, but then I went and retroactively mucked with the ordering.

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Fantastic Four #10

The return of Doctor Doom!/Back from the Dead!/The End of Mr. Fantastic?/No Place to Turn!
Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: October 9, 1962
Cover: January 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Pencilling: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
23 pages

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Tales to Astonish #39Reading orderStrange Tales #104
Fantastic Four #9Fantastic FourFantastic Four #11

Our fans have grown to expect real exciting super-villains from us! Too bad that Doctor Doom was lost in space! He was possibly the greatest super-villain of all!

I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.

Again, Stan gives relatively full credits, compared to the previous 25 years of comics. He has been inconsistent about crediting the letterer. He is also not careful to distinguish between plot and script, which has led to much confusion over the years. It is known Kirby contributed at least some, likely much, and perhaps all of most of these plots. Yet he is only ever credited for pencils or art. The plotting is just not in the credits here. Stan does credit himself with plots for the Human Torch and Thor stories when he credits his brother Larry with the scripts.

This comic is most famous for introducing the characters of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. We learn they exist in the Marvel Universe, and they publish Fantastic Four comics, in consultation with the real team. To preserve a bit of mystery, Jack never draws either creator’s face.

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