“F” Is For …
… Fantastic Four! (1961)
There’s really only one choice here, though I’m not all that passionate about Marvel’s First Family. I respect the place this series holds in comics history (there is no Marvel without the Fantastic Four), and many of the Lee/Kirby stories are all-timers.
But the book didn’t fire my imagination as a kid, maybe because the mid-70s FF already felt like they spent all of their time looking backwards to greater days, or maybe because Reed Richards seemed more like my dad than some exciting Marvel hero I’d want to pal around with. I think the team has been scandalously abused by Marvel in recent years, and I look forward to their getting their due in some wonderful movie reboot … but, yeah, maybe I should have picked The Flash, instead.
All right, give me your best “F” books in the comments section!
Honorable Mentions:
- Frankenstein (1973)
- The Flash (1959)
- Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. (2011)
Read more about The Fantastic Four at Longbox Graveyard:
- Fantastic Four Annuals #1-3
- How To Reboot The Fantastic Four
- Fantastic Four Gallery
- The Core of the Four
- Ten Years of Anti-Climax
Check out the complete Longbox Graveyard Comics A-To-Z HERE!
Posted on February 7, 2018, in Comics A-To-Z and tagged Fantastic Four. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
I agree with you on selecting Fantastic Four over Flash. Showcase #4 began an age of updated heroes at DC, but they had heroes that they’d been publishing for years. The Fantastic Four really launched the Marvel Universe, plus so many key characters and concepts came from the first 100 issues.
If you’re not a big FF fan, why is your icon the Mole Man?
Since the original Guardian of the Galaxy didn’t have a self title books until Jim Valentino, I’m guessing that G will be for Giant Sized X-Men #1. It may be the key Marvel bronze age issue.
LikeLike
I kind of fell into the Mole Man thing. Back when I was setting up my Twitter account, I had to pick an icon, and I thought a Marvel Value Stamp would look good. I tried a bunch of them, and the Mole Man portrait had the best read — a good silhouette, simple face and expression. I had no particular attachment to the character — I was more just a general Bronze Age Marvel thing.
Then Longbox Graveyard reader Glenn Smith did a Mole Man paint-over and sent it to me — so the “Smiling Mole Man” became my brand. So it goes.
LikeLike
Forgot something. 🙂 Part of me was hoping you go outside of comics and pick Famous Monsters of Filmland. That way you could talk about meeting Forrest J. Ackerman as a kid.
LikeLike
I should probably do a Famous Monsters post someday.
In the meantime, here’s my Forry story.
LikeLike
I cannot argue with your choice of the FF here; they are the shoulders on which the rest of the MU stands. I did love their book back in the day. I remember how excited I was when #200 came out! I have since repurchased that issue.
However, for me there is only one choice for “F”: the Flaming Carrot! Bob Burden’s surreal everyman hard livin’ super hero, complete with atomic pogo stick and dead dogs that fly around the room. I would re-read each issue multiple times just to soak up all of the goodness. The stories are fun if non-sensical at times; at times almost like the creator was transcribing his dreams on paper. Lots of crazy concepts to enjoy. I have met Mr. Burden a few times over the years at cons and he is a super cool nice guy. I even bought a sweet Flaming Carrot action figure from his KickStarter a few years ago – a prized possession!
Writing this has reminded me that I a still a couple of issue shy of owning a complete run of this comic series: time to fix that lapse!
LikeLike
Flaming Carrot! Well, damn, another book to hunt up.
I love this goofy hobby.
LikeLike
I like the Flash and Frankenstein, and I also enjoyed the couple of issues of Freedom Fighters I have, and heck, Fear featured the debut of the Man-Thing, and he was the headliner there for while, so there is that, but the answer for me has to be the Fantastic Four, the first (or second) superhero comic I ever bought was Fantastic Four #172.
The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, if that counts as an F title, had some issues I enjoyed too.
LikeLike
Freedom Fighters! Good call! I loved that book more then it deserved. If Ramona Fradon had remained as artist it would have been a different matter – she is a perfect fit for this book. When Dick Ayers and Jack Abel took over it was hard not to lose interest.
LikeLike
Was Freedom Fighters connected to a computer game somehow?
LikeLike
You’re thinking of Freedom _Force_, which was a video game published in 2002. There was a 6-issue comic series of Freedom Force also, illustrated by Tom Scioli. Tom did artwork for the game booklet as well.
I played that game and really enjoyed it. There was a sequel to the game but I don’t recall ever finishing it.
LikeLike
Read some of Marvel’s Frankenstein via Unlimited a couple weeks ago and thought they were pretty decent. Mike Ploog was practically a one-man-factory for Marvel’s horror books in the 70s.
LikeLike