Blog — The Fantasticast
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Fantastic Four #10: It's A Marvel Comic 6

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Fantastic Four #10, page 5 Script: Stan Lee

Pencilling: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Uncredited Lettering: Art Simek

Today's post is an entire page. It had to happen at some point, I just figured it would be a heck of a lot further down the line.

After several hints, including a copy of The Incredible Hulk appearing in an earlier story, we get our first true confirmation that Marvel comics, publishers of many magazines including the Fantastic Four, exist in the very fictional universe that they have created. Doctor Doom himself bursts into the offices of Stan and Jack, interrupting the plotting of their story to put into motion his plan for revenge.

There are a couple of ways to look at this scene. The first is that Jack had already completed several pages of a completely different story, possibly featuring the Puppet Master (hence the focus on Alicia and her statues on the previous page) before the original plot was junked to bring back Doctor Doom.

The second is that Stan and Jack deliberately created several generic pages of runaround action to give credence to the idea that Doctor Doom genuinely interrupted their work.

I'll let you decide which one to go with.

In an interesting move, neither Stan nor Jack's face is ever seen inside the book. Knowing what we now know about Stan's public persona, the thought of him being happy with his face being constantly hidden rather amuses me.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #9 on our seventh episode: Don! Don! Don! Don-Don-Don! Don-Don-Don!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_8.mp3]

Fantastic Four #10: Reed's Stretchy Body 16

Fantastic Four #10, page 3, panel 2 Script: Stan Lee

Pencilling: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Uncredited Lettering: Art Simek

This is the sixth panel I've posted from this issue of Fantastic Four #10, and we're nowhere near establishing any kind of plot. But when we're knocking tropes off left right and centre, does it really matter?More importantly, when Kirby's having this much fun this early on with Reed's body, does the lack of any sign of the plot in the first three pages really matter? I love the curves of Reed's elongated form, and the way that Kirby subtly suggests that Reed is dragging himself out from the crowd using his arms for momentum. There's great humour in this panel.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #9 on our seventh episode: Don! Don! Don! Don-Don-Don! Don-Don-Don!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_8.mp3]

Fantastic Four #10: Flame On 16

Fantastic Four #10, page 2, panel 8 Script: Stan Lee

Pencilling: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Uncredited Lettering: Art Simek

Tonight sees us finishing with page 2 of Fantastic Four #10, having posted all-but-one panel over the past few days.

Tucked away in the very bottom corner is the first Flame On of the issue as Johnny heads off to respond to Ben's emergency flare. It's very blink-and-you'll-miss-it, although the font gets a bit bigger for the exclamation itself.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #9 on our seventh episode: Don! Don! Don! Don-Don-Don! Don-Don-Don!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_8.mp3]

 

Fantastic Four #10: Flamin' 'Eck 6

Fantastic Four #10, page 2, panel 7 Script: Stan Lee

Pencilling: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Uncredited Lettering: Art Simek

Boy, page 2 of this issue is a real gold mine for this blog. It's reference-a-riffic!

I hinted at this a couple of posts ago - Johnny's ability to melt things without generating heat. Now, whilst there are things which do melt easily with only minor changes in heat in the immediate surrounding area - check out an ice-cube any time you like - there is no way I am being sold on Johnny melting his way through the lock on the door without generating enough heat to do something nasty to the atomic pile powering that lock.

This clearly smacks of Stan skimming through a science article, possibly on a theoretical topic, and deciding to drop it into the story both as a way of showing how up to date with science that Marvel was, and of attempting to give Marvel comics credibility.

Not a fan.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #9 on our seventh episode: Don! Don! Don! Don-Don-Don! Don-Don-Don!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_8.mp3]

Fantastic Four #10: Reed's Stretchy Body 15

Fantastic Four #10, page 2, panels 3-6 Script: Stan Lee

Pencilling: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Uncredited Lettering: Art Simek

Today's stretchiness is wonderfully iconic and over-the-top in only a minor way.

Having locked himself and the team in the lab, Reed resorts to stretching himself to the very limit, forcing his arm through the lock and around the Baxter Building  to find the window which he can open. I love the scale of his stretching here, with a staircase in view showing that his arm is spreading over at least two floors.

This kind of feat is a great visual representation of Reed's powers, so it's not surprising that it was adapted for the first Fantastic Four film, as the first time we really see Reed in control of his powers. Shame about the pitifully fake CGI that made his arm look slightly less realistic than Stretch Armstrong's, with some incredibly creepy artificial arm hairs...

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #9 on our seventh episode: Don! Don! Don! Don-Don-Don! Don-Don-Don!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_8.mp3]

 

Fantastic Four #10: ATOMIC POWER! 6

Fantastic Four #10, page 2, panel 2 Script: Stan Lee

Pencilling: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Uncredited Lettering: Art Simek

A minor instance of misuse of nuclear technology, so we'll have a small post.

Whilst I think most of us would be nervous of having naked flames within a dozen yards of a building containing any nuclear device, surely Reed would know better than to produce a machine that is overly sensitive to heat in a laboratory where he regularly requires Johnny to engage his fiery form...

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #9 on our seventh episode: Don! Don! Don! Don-Don-Don! Don-Don-Don!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_8.mp3]

Fantastic Four #10: It's A Marvel Comic 5

Fantastic Four #10, cover Cover Art: Jack Kirby

Cover Inks: Dick Ayers

Today, I get to post the first cover for the blog. As this category is all about destroying the fourth wall, it makes sense that I should include an image from outside of the story itself.

I wish I knew enough of pre-Silver Age comics to definitely say that this is or isn't the first time that the creators of a comic have appeared on the cover. My gut instinct is to say no, but I have no reference for anything that would prove or disprove this. I'm hoping the comments might throw something up...

Anyway, here we have Stan and Jack looking on and commenting on the cover, a nice precursor to the events of the comic within.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #9 on our seventh episode: Don! Don! Don! Don-Don-Don! Don-Don-Don!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_8.mp3]

Strange Tales #103 - Flamin' 'Eck 5

Strange Tales #103, page 12, panel 6 Plot: Stan Lee

Script: Larry Lieber

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

It turns out I got the job. And I started the job. Which has meant no posting for a little while. But now I know what my work schedule will be like, I'm hoping to use the wonders of scheduling posts to keep the blog on track.Regular readers and listeners to the show will know by now that one of my least favourite aspects of early Fantastic Four comics is the way that Johnny's flame appears to be fairly nebulous in its properties. Sometimes it manages to burn things without being hot. Sometimes it burns through asbestos. Most common of all, however, is the way that the flame adopts unusual physical properties and an everlasting burning capacity despite the lack of fuel.

Today's panel is a perfect example of this. Johnny constructs a flame cage to keep the dictator of the Dimension, Zemu, imprisoned. The flame cage burns through numerous panels, without Johnny doing anything to maintain it or there being a fuel base. The flame has a physical property that prevents Zemu from running through it with minimal injury. And the flame burns cool enough to not cause burn damage to Zemu, who is mere inches away from the flames.

It's all a little bit too unbelievable for me...

Check out our coverage of Strange Tales #103 on our seventh episode: S(&)M Studios

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_7.mp3]