Thanks for all the replies!

Yes, I wonder that too. I don't know what Alan Class was paying for the reprints, but I suspect it was not much. Maybe he simply got the cheapest stories? AFAIK there is no EC or DC, and Marvel didn't think much of its pre-superhero stuff. (Class also reprinted early Marvel superheroes, but I think this may have been Marvel's oversight - after a while they noticed and only let him reprint the mystery and monster titles)

That would make sense - maybe it's just coincidence that I've read a lot of these lately. Some of the beginning seem very abrupt too. Like the story I just read, about a giant dragon, it really feels like the ending to a longer tale. 

I actually prefer this to the modern style. It takes some getting used to, but honestly, if they expanded the ending to a full page it wouldn't actually add any useful information. I just have to mentally slow down on the last panel and savour every word, then pause to reflect (or if the story is really bad, quickly move to the next).

I wish somebody would reprint just the very best of these, at a cheap price - maybe a thick black and white paperback with a hundred stories. If only it could get into the right hands it would revolutionize how people see comics as a medium. Or maybe it's just a matter of taste. But I love 'em.

Loved them. I wonder if being British made a difference though? 

It did not bother me that I was told about an out of print issue. To Brits, ALL Marvel comics were out of print. Yet all of them might suddenly appear at any time. We did not see these issues as "old" but as part of an always current universe "out there" somewhere beyond the Atlantic.

I bought most of my comics in piles from jumble sales (rummage sales) so footnotes added to the excitement: "I keep reading footnotes about series X, and wow, here it is!" I was a treasure hunter and the footnotes were the map.

Love those footnotes.

In contrast, I despise the recap pages. When I open a comic I want to be knocked over by exciting events: I don't want the first thing I see to be "you irritating outsider, you are not one of us, here is some boring text." The sign of a good comic (to me) is that they can maintain continuity yet only need a brief (EXCITING) recap on the splash page. If they need a long recap, or they ditch continuity together, they are amateurs IMO. 

Now you're getting me thinking of the Trigan Empire. I'm scared to go back to that, as I thought the early stories were the greatest thing ever, but the last reprint I read was pretty poor IMO. The art is still spectacular of course, and maybe I was just unlucky.

And I know it's heresy, but classic Dan Dare grabs me less and less. I can see the appeal as weekly instalments, but after a few years it sort of never goes anywhere. This really came home to me when reading Spaceship Away, the modern continued stories. The production quality is superb, but it's safe nostalgia for the sake of safe nostalgia, and that's isn't really my thing. 

Now early 2000AD on the other hand, that's still a blast!

Help! Does anybody have a reliable scan, or scannable facsimile (or even, gasp, a scannable non-sealed original) of Fantastic Four 1? I'm trying to solve a mystery.

The GITCORP 44 years DVD does not include the inside front cover, the part that includes the indicia. Instead, it includes the IFC from issue 8. Here are the indicias from key issues from the DVD. (I was checking when the name Marvel first appeared as the publisher in the small print - it's not until issue 133! Until then "marvel comics group" merely referred to how Martin Goodman grouped magazines for selling advertising space)



So I'm trying to find a scan of the original issue 1 IFC, to see what I'm missing. Can anyone help?

ANSWERS

(no peaking!)



1. b. The flight to Mars. Reed was condemning himself, so may have been exaggerating. Most likely it referred to the long term goal of the project, such as the Apollo Program aiming for the moon, even though the early Apollo flights did not get that far. See details see zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff_cosmic.html#star_drives



2. d. 1969 (FF98). This is why it was a giant leap for mankind: it was the first by human power. When the FF reached the moon in FF13 it was thanks to a freak meteorite that provided almost unlimited power, and apparently could only be used once. When they travelled to the Skrull world in FF37 they used a standard Saturn V rocket on loan from NASA to leave the atmosphere, then apparently hitched a ride on the Skrull transporter beam. The journey to rescue Ben from the Skrull world in F88 used a captured flying saucer. zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff_cosmic.html#star_drives



3. b. The Pacific Ocean (see FF1, FF296, etc.) In the 1990s this was changed to the Bermuda Triangle. For many other changes in the 1990s, see zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff-different.html



4. d. Johnny was "just 17"; Reed and Ben "late 30s", Sue "in her 20s" but won't say. For a closer look at Sue's age, see zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff-act4-FF274.html#FF291



5. d. 1987 (FF309) In the bronze age the characters aged slowly, but dates were still fixed in real time: Reed and Ben fought in WWII, the FF began in 1961, etc. A STRETCHING time scale did not break free of real time and become a SLIDING time scale until after 1987: probably in FF322 or FF333 (1989).



6. b. Ben was about as strong as the Hulk, and any difference is simply due to size. For details see zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff_thing.html



7. c. In FF69, Reed needed help from Dr Santini. In FF annual 15, Reed is very excited by a relatively simple discovery, and they talk of perhaps winning the Nobel Prize. This discovery (an energy beam) was used many times in the past, but seems to have been Reed using Skrull technology (the power beam was first seen with the Super Skrull, FF18). Most of Reed's machines seem to rely on reusing captured alien technology that he does not completely understand. See zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/superscience_technology.html



8. d. Four girlfriends, and they all dumped him. They were: Dorrie, Crystal, Frankie and Lorrie. The idea that Johnny was some kind of womanizer, did not appear until the 1990s. See zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff-act4-FF201.html#FF204 For a close look at Johnny's heart, see zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/Crystal.html



9. a. Reed. The first characters to faint were all three boys, due to lack of oxygen when trapped by Dr Doom in FF5. Reed had several years of weakness in the 1970s, notably fainting in FF124, FF148 and FF184.



10. b. Sue. Sue rescued the team from Doom in FF5, then was rescued by her friend Namor in F6. She wrested the gun from Doom in FF16, defeated him in hand to hand combat in FF17, saved the FF and an entire village from destruction in the Latverian quest, and so on. Sue has always been the strongest member of the team when measured by results. See zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/Susan_Storm1.html



11. b. 9: the original four, plus Crystal, Medusa, Power Man, She-Hulk, and Ms Marvel. Did I miss anyone?



12. d. 40. For details see zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff-act4-FF133.html#FF148 and scroll down a little



13 a. Franklin, in FF141



14. a. Jack Kirby, on the cover of F173. Carol Strickland later suggested it in a letters page, and Byrne adopted the idea inside FF232.



15. b. Once or twice. Before 1965 (Reed and Sue's marriage, when Johnny was a teenager), teasing Ben was common. But he soon grew out of it. In FF151 for example they are adults and friends. After the marriage I can only find two examples of Johnny teasing Ben, and each may have had a more serious reason, e.g. to get Ben fighting in order to snap him out of depression, in F233. Johnny also accidentally annoys Ben when asking him to be Best Man in FF297. In Marvel Two In One Johnny teases Ben more, but not in the main book.



16. b. The building of the Berlin Wall



17. c. the fall of the Berlin Wall. (The Brandenburg gate was opened and the first pieces of the wall were demolished by the public). This may have been inevitable after Hungary removes its border restrictions with Austria in August,the date when FF333 went on sale. Foer the significance of Englehart's run as the end of Fantastic Four continuity, see zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff_end.html For how it was a different team and different story thereafter, see zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff-different.html


How did yo do? How did I do?

I'm planning a quiz for my site. I'll post the questions in the next post, and the answers after that. 

I focus on what I think are well known misconceptions, but I don't want to annoy people by pushing my own opinions as facts. So hopefully you guys can tell me if I go too far of make some obvious mistakes.

Please note that this refers to ONLY the silver and bronze age, NOT later comics or other titles like Marvel Two In One. (If you want to be specific, FF 1 to 333, from Lee and Kirby to the end of Steve Englehart's run and the Jim Shooter era) Are we ready?

I'm with Shaxper on this. Done right, continuity is the most glorious thing. It gives every action, every word, extra significance. It turns a fairy tale into a novel. It gives the character a life after the book is closed. But I also agree with the consensus that it's very hard to do right.


I agree, that was my experience too. I prefer the one or two parters. Continuity still mattered, but it was easy to pick up: it enriched the story without controlling it. For example, in a short Dredd story some old technology or character might evolve, or some major event had a consequence, but it didn't make you feel lost. 

As with all things, I think the classic era Fantastic Four (say, issues 45-60) shows the way. Continuity was everywhere: Reed and Sue just got married, then on their honeymoon they visited the Inhumans' land for the first time (having known Medusa for years), and in issue 50, the climax to the Galactus saga we also had Johnny starting college. But these events were easy to follow, and could easily be ignored if needed. Stories were typically two issues long. Continuity added new layers, and invited the new reader into a bigger story, but did not punish anybody who missed the wedding.

Back on topic, I think the classic FF also works as a kind of anthology. Around issue 50-60 there were essentially three different stories (Inhumans, Johnny and Wyatt, and the rest). Arguably 4 stories, if we treat Ben Grimm's melancholy as a separate plot (e.g. in issues 38-40 and 51). We were always seeing new characters and new locations: it was essentially a grab bag. It is such a contrast to today's comics, which are doomed to endlessly repeat old ideas with old characters.

While it's easy to blame a focus on hardcore fans (which is a serious issue) I wonder if the biggest reason for inertia is that the writers are fans themselves? They grew up on superhero comics, so have a narrow view of what's possible. In contrast, people like Lee/Kirby (or even, say, Alan Moore) could easily throw in ideas from history or literature. I love how the early FF would reference everything from the old man of the sea to Prester John. Good writers can simply do more.

The best comics were just packed full of big ideas. This morning I read a 5 page story from 1960(?) that combined a modern art dealer with the Greek Fates. Last week I re-read the first Hulk/Tyrannus story, and it has ideas from ancient Rome, classical Greece, the Bible, and more. It also had conflict (both spoken and physical), romance, tragedy, a journey to an underground worlds, high technology, and much more, all in just five or six pages. I think modern writers simply do not know how to write short stories full of different ideas, yet still keep the superhero fans on board. It's not easy.

OK, I'm rambling here, but the best thing about an anthology is the variety. I wonder if the big two's writers are capable of variety any more?