As my contribution to LG Kelner's Beginnings Blogfest, celebrating her first full year of blogging, I thought I would write a piece about the comic book that shaped my life...
It was a British reprint (in green ink, which I remember vividly) in the early '70s of Fantastic Four issue 17 (from a decade earlier) that first introduced my young mind to the concept of superheroes.
As I recall Doctor Doom had captured the Fantastic Four and was holding them in his Latverian castle, but he individually tailored the holding cells to counter/test the specific powers of each member of the group. To my seven or eight-year-old imagination, this was just awesome!
I'd seen a couple of American comics before this - in colour - but there was something about Fantastic Four #17 that hooked me in.
It was probably the combination of Stan Lee's writing of this family of heroes and Jack Kirby's unique envisaging of the advanced technology of Mr Fantastic and Doctor Doom that simultaneously melted my tiny heart and blew my mind.
This certainly explains why, to this day, the Fantastic Four are my favourite superhero team - because they were my first - and Doctor Doom is my favourite bad guy.
It's also safe to say that without this issue there would be no HeroPress today (in any of its manifestations).
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I love some of the comic book covers. So creative!
ReplyDeleteThis was a time when the covers were used to "sell" the issues, rather than just being nice-looking pieces of art as most are today.
DeleteCool post!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteFF huh? I would have thought it would have been Spider-man for you. Now if we can get a great 4-color backstory on the origins of the Acrobatic Flea! That would be cool.
ReplyDeleteSpider-Man came quite a bit later, I can't remember when. I know I drew a couple of issues of my own comic which featured Thor and Hulk (and possibly Dr Strange) but I have no recollection of Spidey being in it.
DeleteI'd love to see a full-on four-colour origin story for The Flea as well ;-)
The things that blow our minds at that young age win us over for life!
ReplyDeleteThanks for participating in my blogfest!
You're so right. It wasn't long after I got into comics that I first saw Star Wars, but that's a whole 'nother story ;-)
DeleteThat's cool a comic book inspired and launched your blog! What is it about artwork that is so inspiring? (As that contributed to my beginnings post as well.)
ReplyDeleteThe obvious answer is "picture being worth a thousand words", but also - until recent developments in movie special effects - comics have been the only medium able to do superhero stories justice. TV is catching up as well these days, but ultimately comic books and superheroes are intertwined for me.
DeleteI too have been super inspired by art, though I admit I've never been much into comic books. Not to say I don't like the look of them - I guess I'm just more used to reading unillustrated books. :) But the genius of comic book creators is not lost on me!
ReplyDeleteThe great thing about a lot of comic book art - especially from legends such as Jack Kirby (as in the example above) is it stands independent of the story its telling as simply fantastic art.
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