Une couverture de Byrne prévue à la base pour ses FF, finalement utilisée chez Fantagraphics.
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Deux pin-up similaires, à deux décennies d’écart (Kirby & Byrne).
Une couverture réutilisée de Byrne pour un des premiers numéros de Scarce.
Les couvertures de Terry Austin (un temps chargé de l’encrage du début de run de Byrne sur les FF, pour finalement privilégier le Dr. Strange de Stern/Rogers/Smith) et John Byrne pour Comics Feature #17 (1981) & #27 (1984).
Ah j’aurais été curieux de voir ça : à l’époque, Austin était encore très bon.
Jim
Sienkiewicz s’est aussi désisté (parti en même temps que Moench) puique Byrne ne devait s’occuper QUE du scénario au départ (cf post #232). Il en sera finalement quitte à cumuler les casquettes de scénariste, dessinateur et même encreur (d’où l’anagramme « Bjorn Heyn » dans les crédits).
Ryan dit presque la même chose, mais pas que :
« … Simonson avait prévenu qu’il quittait la série, et John Byrne la voulait. John m’a appelé et m’a demandé si je voulais la faire avec lui […]. Mais apparemment, Macchio et Byrne ne purent pas s’entendre sur la direction que la série devait prendre. »
« John voulait éliminer une grande partie de la « continuité » des dix ou quinze dernières années de la série. Ralph n’aimait pas cette idée, car il pensait que ce n’était pas honnête vis-à-vis des fans »
Réf : Scarce 46
PUBS !
Pub !
La couverture de Mike Mayhew pour un hors-série de Mad Movies paru en 2005 (au moment de la relance de Comic Box avec un « Mad Movies présente » en couverture des 9 premiers numéros).
Couverture variante/swipe de Ron Garney (2011).
Storyboards de Rodolfo Damaggio pour Les Quatre Fantastiques et le Surfer d’Argent :
Jim
Storyboards de Rodolfo Damaggio pour Les Quatre Fantastiques et le Surfer d’Argent (autre étude pour la séquence entre Johnny et Norrin) :
Jim
Storyboards de Rodolfo Damaggio pour Les Quatre Fantastiques et le Surfer d’Argent (une séquence de sous-marin : elle a été tournée, ou bien c’est moi qui ai un gros trou de mémoire ?) :
Jim
La couverture de Fantastic Four #4, revisitée par Kevin Maguire :
Jim
Les couvertures 70’s de Jim Steranko (pour l’index de 1977 ainsi que trois numéros de 1973).
Gabriel Hernandez Walta & Matthew Clark :
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Ben Grimm et Raphaël :
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Une page de Fantastic Four #31, absente de la version finale (avec Franklin Storm, père déchu en quête de rédemption).
Fantastic Four #31 (deleted page & page 7)
Well, here’s an interesting mystery.
This page appears to be a deleted scene of Sue Storm talking to her father Franklin (a character who only appeared in Fantastic Four #31-32). But was it removed for content reasons, or just to make room for an extra ad?
While the earliest FF stories were anywhere from 21 to 25 pages long, around this time they were being locked in at 21 pages. This story would’ve been 22 pages long before the above was removed.
The Story
Fantastic Four #31 is a really strange issue in terms of pacing. On page three Sue sees a front page article about a man who has escaped from jail. She appears shaken, but won’t tell Reed what’s wrong.
Reed wonders if Sue was in a previous relationship with this man, I guess thinking she might have a thing for men with graying hair like himself.
Reed finds a letter from Sue saying she went to Police HQ, but we don’t hear about the strange man again until the second-to-last page . On that page he suddenly reveals that he’s not only Sue and Johnny’s father, but also an expert surgeon and the only one who can save Sue’s life after an explosion leaves her near death.
Fantastic Four stories can be pretty random, but rarely that random all at once. However, if we’d been introduced to him earlier and the “expert surgeon” exposition was dropped in at that point, the ending wouldn’t have been quite as jarring.
The Page
I think the deleted page likely appeared between page 5 and 6 of the published version. The FF are about to investigate an earthquake when Sue sees the front page paper and heads off to track down the escaped man instead. She finds him shaking hands with a wealthy looking woman and accepting a check from her.
Sue yanks the check out of his hand while invisible, and shares some strong words. Upon going visible, Franklin is very happy to see her and tries to embrace her.
The final panel is an exterior shot looking in through a window at Franklin and Sue, and it looks like there’s some debris coming off the outside of the building to the right. While the published version told us Sue was heading to Police HQ and had Moleman target that block, I think Moleman actually targeted the block Franklin and Sue’s conversation was happening in.
For further evidence, take a look at the bottom of the last panel on page 7. That looks like Franklin who’s being held at gunpoint while they carry Sue away (while she glares in the gunman’s direction). It’s possible Franklin was also in the previous panel but was drawn out.
The other interesting thing about the deleted page is the one legible note at the bottom (not in Kirby’s handwriting, but possibly a note from Stan to himself):
“SHE DOESN’T REVEAL WHO US IS.”
Franklin isn’t revealed to be Sue’s father until the very end of the story, so that we’re left wondering whether Reed’s concern about this other man might not be entirely unfounded. It’s possible the attempted embrace in panel six would have been portrayed ambiguously, to misdirect us into thinking he really was a former boyfriend. The note sounds like it’s indicating for Sue to refer to an “us” in a similarly ambiguous way.
The Story Behind The Page
This page comes from Marvel writer and Stan Lee’s brother Larry Lieber’s collection. During his deposition in 2011 for Marvel Worldwide, Inc. et al v. Kirby et al, he told a story about Jack Kirby storming out of an office tearing a set of pages in half and throwing them away. Being a fan of Kirby’s art, Lieber liberated them, taping them back together and holding onto them all this time.
Copies of the five torn-and-taped pages were filed as evidence, which are from an unpublished Hulk story of unknown date, but thought to be from sometime in 1962. The Fantastic Four page was included with these five pages, but as far as I can tell was never discussed in the deposition.