Despite my stroke-addled brain I've always retained a vivid picture of the comic book image (and its subsequent story) that hooked me on superheroes - and particularly the Fantastic Four - as a youngster.
It was the cover of Fantastic Four #17, which I managed to acquire back in 2016 and that now sits proudly framed in our lounge gallery of key (to me) comic book covers.
It was the cover of Fantastic Four #17, which I managed to acquire back in 2016 and that now sits proudly framed in our lounge gallery of key (to me) comic book covers.
But, of course, it wasn't actually that comic I read all those decades ago, but a British reprint of the 1963 tale.
For the longest time, though, I was convinced that the reprinted version of the story had been printed with green ink.
But I was totally unable to prove it, and I'd begun to doubt my memories... until I spied a random post on Threads the other day, by a gentleman called geekyolhog, talking the British '70s reprint title called The Mighty World of Marvel and its use of green spot colour!
The green was primarily for the benefit of the main Hulk stories that ran in the weekly title, but was applied to other contents as well, such as the Fantastic Four backup strip, the letters' page, pin-ups etc
This was the breakthrough I'd needed (having completely forgotten about The Mighty World of Marvel as a title).
From there, it only took a bit of investigation to track down the issue that reprinted Fantastic Four #17: The Mighty World of Marvel issue 35.
A search on eBay, a modest investment (£8 for two issues), and it was in my hands.
Here's the crucial page (scanned from my copy) that proves I was "right" all along:
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| Me with my "holy grail", back in 2016 |
For the longest time, though, I was convinced that the reprinted version of the story had been printed with green ink.
But I was totally unable to prove it, and I'd begun to doubt my memories... until I spied a random post on Threads the other day, by a gentleman called geekyolhog, talking the British '70s reprint title called The Mighty World of Marvel and its use of green spot colour!
The green was primarily for the benefit of the main Hulk stories that ran in the weekly title, but was applied to other contents as well, such as the Fantastic Four backup strip, the letters' page, pin-ups etc
This was the breakthrough I'd needed (having completely forgotten about The Mighty World of Marvel as a title).
From there, it only took a bit of investigation to track down the issue that reprinted Fantastic Four #17: The Mighty World of Marvel issue 35.
A search on eBay, a modest investment (£8 for two issues), and it was in my hands.
Here's the crucial page (scanned from my copy) that proves I was "right" all along:
I can't say for certain that this was the very first American superhero comic book adventure I read, but it's definitely the earliest that stuck in my mind (and spawned my undying love for the Fantastic Four).
With a cover date of June 2, 1973, I would have been six at the time my parents bought me this magazine.
That tallies perfectly with my few remaining memories from that time, paving the way for my hand-drawn Monster Mag comic (issue one and issue two) three years later and my unwavering passion for the superhero genre and comic book medium since then.
With a cover date of June 2, 1973, I would have been six at the time my parents bought me this magazine.
That tallies perfectly with my few remaining memories from that time, paving the way for my hand-drawn Monster Mag comic (issue one and issue two) three years later and my unwavering passion for the superhero genre and comic book medium since then.
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