Fantastic Friday!

Looking back on the Fantastic Four that was, along with two of their greatest frenemies--Doctor Doom and Prince Namor--in anticipation of the Fantastic Four that will come on August 8, 2018!

By Sandy Plunkett & Kevin Nowlan

By Steve Rude

And here's a group portrait of the First Family of Comicdom, by their co-creator!

By Jack Kirby

Fantastic Friday the Thirteenth!

Can even the Fantastic Four withstand the sinister forces at work on Friday the Thirteenth? Not if Doctor Doom has anything to say about it!

By Caudio Castellini

But... in answer to the question... OF COURSE they can withstand the sinister of forces of Friday the Thirteenth! They're the Fantastic Four! They get knocked down, but they get right back up again!

They are the once and future First Family of Comics! They are the Fantastic Four!

By George Perez

Fantastic Friday!

In August, Marvel's First Family returns to print. I'm going to be posting weekly art selections in anticipation of the arrival of what I hope will be great relaunch of what have been my favorite Marvel characters since I first encountered them as a kid.

By Ron Lim

By Alan Davis & Juan Torres

By Hermes Manuel Alejandro Quevedo

Fantastic Friday!

It's not only Friday, but it's Friday the 4th--so it's the perfect day for more portraits of the First Family of Superheroes, as well was their greatest friends and foes!

By Jim Lee

Countdown to Halloween: 17 Days to Go on this Fantastic Friday!

It's time for the October visit from American's First Family of Comics--the Fantastic Four!

The Fantastic Four deal mostly with aliens and scientific threats--the closest they come to Halloweenish adventures are dealing with their archnemisis Dr. Doom when he decides to augment his hi-tech weapons with dark magical secrets that he inherited from his mother--but they frequently travel to the alternate universe known as the Negative Zone to defend Earth from its monstrous denizens. Continuing the countdown to Halloween, John Byrne delivers two scenes from battles in that dark realm!

Fantastic Friday!

At various times, Sue Storm has taken leaves of absence from the Fantastic Four, usually because she wanted to spend more time being a mother to her and Reed's son, Franklin. Her spot in the line-up was filled by Crystal or Medusa of the Inhumans, or, most noteworthy, by She-Hulk.

Fantastic Friday!

Once per month, I'm going to be posting portraits of the Fantastic Four until I run out of good ones. (Marvel may have cancelled their series, but they will forever be the First Family of Comics.)

As befitting with a day as dire as Friday the Thirteenth, today's post guest-stars their greatest foe--Doctor Doom! All selections this time out are by John Byrne, who was the main creative talent on one of my favorite periods of the Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Friday!

They'll always be the First Family of Comics! (Fantastic Four portraits by John Byrne.)

In memory of Paul Ryan

Comic book artist Paul Ryan passed away on March 6, 2016. Here's a gallery of his artwork in remembrance.

Paul Ryan's first major comics work was co-creating the criminally under-appreciated characters of DP7 (for Marvel's ill-fated New Universe line in 1986). From there, he went onto illustrate Thor, Fantastic Four, and other titles for Marvel. He eventually moved onto DC where he primarily illustrated Superman and Batman stories. Since 2005, Ryan had also worked on and off on the Phantom daily newspaper strip, as well as providing covers for the Scandinavian editions of Phantom comic books.