Product Description

These early classic Stan Lee/Jack Kirby adventures of Marvel's First Family - The Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, the Thing, and Mr. Fantastic - defined the Marvel Age of Comics! Collects Fantastic Four #1-20 and Annual #1.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204857 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Customer Reviews

Essential? You bet!
Both Marvel and DC Comics have been reprinting their classic tales, making them affordable and accessible to modern collectors, but Marvel deserves an extra kudos for their exceptional "Essentials" series which reprint entire runs of 20-or-so comics from Marvel's Silver Age in a black-and-white "phone book" format (no doubt inspired by Dave Sim's massive collections of "Cerebus" comics). How innovative are these first FF comics? Picture the early 1960s, where a superhero team comic meant the rather whitebread "Justice League of America" from DC...classic stories, of course, but somewhat lacking in scope and character development. Enter Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's first Marvel Comic: the heroes don't wear costumes (not until the third issue, at least), squabble and fight (not unlike a real family) and face truly hideous and grotesque monsters of true nightmare quality. Reading these stories I'm often surprised at the sheer amount of plot and action that Lee and Kirby manage to squeeze into a couple dozen pages for each story...although this is slightly before the incredibly innovative period of Kirby's blockbuster, knock-you-out layouts, there's still, for want of a better phrase, "never a dull moment." This book, and others created by Lee and Kirby and the other great artists of early Marvel, created comics that inspired a whole new wave in the industry. This isn't the single greatest Fantastic Four period--Kirby's knock-out run beginning around FF #45 and including the mind-blowing Galactus Trilogy is yet to come--but it's an absolute must-have for anyone who professes to love comics. Finally, *very* high praise for the Essentials series in and of itself: I've always wanted to read *all* these stories, not just the few that get often reprinted in other formats (FF #1, 5), and this is simply the best way to read a couple years worth of continuity at an exceptionally affordable price. Sure, these are reprinted in black and white rather than the original color, but that's a minor problem-Kirby's art is as dynamic and innovative even without colors. The "Essentials" series is a re-publishing program that is much needed, and I hope it continues (how about a collection of Ant-Man/Wasp stories? John Byrne's run on FF? Gulacy's Master of Kung Fu?). Although DC has made enormous strides in re-presenting their classic works for a modern audience in their Archives editions and the Millennium comic books, Marvel has shown that it can and will cover all ends of the market with comic book format reprints, color graphic novel compilations, their pricier color Masterworks collections, and these accessibly-priced and aptly-named Essentials. There's only one thing Marvel could do better: add a "created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby" line to every Fantastic Four comic, giving homage and credit where credit's due to not only Stan the Man but the one and only King of Comics.

Thank you Marvel !!!!!!
Years ago I had a collection of thousands of American comics but was made to sell them to create space. Knowing now how much they would be worth I can keep reminding my family how much money I could now have if I had kept them. Not only that, how much I missed reading them.
Then along came Spiderman the Movie and all of a sudden its Marvel all over and the nostalgia bug started to bite me...and now the ultimate treat, reprints of the Silver age comics I loved so much.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were the driving force behind the surge of Marvel in the 60's and 70's without Stan Lee's imagination we would have no Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spiderman, Daredevil, Iron Man and many others not counting hundreds of super-villains. The comic world owes them a great deal.
This book covers the first 20 issues of the Fantastic Fours' own magazine and the first annual. The stories are superb and flow well, the characters are great, the Human Torch as an annoying kid infuriating Ben Grimm, The Thing, who despite his looks is the most down to earth character of the four. There is a great amount of continuity through the stories, which is one of the reasons that drew me to buy so many of them both when they originally came out and now again as part of the Essentials series.
Don't quibble about the fact they are in black&white at this cost or that the paper quality is not quite Basildon Bond. Take these books for what they are a pure nostalgic rollercoaster ride. Sure there are a few lightweight tales but the overwhelming majority are page turners.
Every newsagent when I grew up used to sell Marvel & DC comics, now their availability is very limited. Do yourself a favour and buy some of these books. You will keep dipping in and out of them as characters go from comic book to comic book and as some of the most evil villains of all put appearances in. Doctor Doom, the Moleman and the Puppet Master first appear in this book. Also....the original comic's posters are included, the only thing not included are the adverts, remember sea-monkeys, models of famous battle scenes and glow in the dark movie monster masks and the letters pages. You can't have everything but this is as close as possible.
As Stan Lee used to say Make Mine Marvel...Excelsior!

Superb value
This is a huge collection of the first 20 or so Fantastic Four comics. As they were first printed long before I was born I thought it was a great chance to read some great stories which would otherwise be impossible to find. I was a little dissapointed when I discovered that the were reprinted in black and white but after a while you tend not to notice and it probably helped them keep the cost so low. The stories themselves include the origins of The Fantastic Four and numerous encounters with villians such as Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner not to mention a couple of great cameos from characters such as The Hulk, Ant-man and Spider-man. Every story is a joy to read and the artwork is really good even without the colour. This is highly recommended because the storys are timeless and superheroes dont come much better than the Fantastic Four.