Fantastic Fill-In #3--The World's First Director's Cut?!?

Continuing our attempt to generate Fantastic Four content for the two-month gap between Fantastic Four #2 & #3 by spotlighting Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963).

We all remember the time Spider-Man tried to join the Fantastic Four, right?? Back in Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963)? By Stan and Steve?? I went a little something like this...

So what does this have to do with the Fantastic Four annual mentioned above?

This:

Whether you believe the "countless requests" or not, Marvel gave us the expanded, director's cut version of that meeting--over twice as long!! Because back then, annuals were special and filled special things, not just forgettable fifth-week fillers.

This time, by Stan, Jack...and inked by Steve!!

More to come...

Ditko

I was finishing up the week's batch of new comics last night, and before I read Doctor Strange, I decided to take a Twitter break. Appropriate timing for getting the news, I guess.

Obviously, I never knew Steve Ditko--did anyone?--so all I have is what most people have today--reactions to his work.

Which is how he wanted it, I think. As he said in an interview, "When I do a job, it’s not my personality that I’m offering the readers, but my art work. It’s not what I’m like that counts what I did and how well it was done. I produce a product, a comic art story."

What I remember most about Ditko was his fingers, they way he draw them. Most famously Spider-Man's webshooting and Doctor Strange's gesticulations, of course, but in all his work, characters' hands were always twitching, the fingers always looking odd, splayed at impossible angles.

It freaked young snell out...but it was also quite a tell, and was one way I always recognized his art--those fingers.

One of the most important things about his work was the way he drew things that were impossible, how he managed to present things that just couldn't be real but somehow he made them real.

I always said, pre-CGI, that you couldn't do a proper live-action Spider-Man, because he was just too inhuman in his movements. No one could capture it like Ditko did:

Ditto with Strange. How do you portray astral planes and impossible dimensions and eldritch energies in a way that the reader can follow yet still be mysterious and breath-taking and insane?

Ditko did.

Obviously, Ditko's politics and philosophy got a lot of attention, because he published a lot of that for us to see. And I believe that he wouldn't want us to forget that portion of his work.

But therein lies the irresolvable tension between a creator's beliefs and his work. For as didactic and strident as some of his screeds could be...

...is there a less Objectivist sentiment than this?

Is there a less Randian hero than Peter Parker?!?

There are doubtless doctoral theses that could be written untangling Ditko's work from that of his co-creators, and examining how a guy with such beliefs ended up giving us so many heroes who explicitly rejected selfishness and sacrificed their own happiness to help others?

Ah, too deep a thought for a Saturday morning.

Anyway, a final tip: if you want to catch up on Ditko's pre-Marvel work, Fantagraphics' Steve Ditko Archives are free to read if you subscribe to Comixology Unlimited (and are still fairly cheap if you don't). Some great, great stuff there.

R.I.P., Steve Ditko.

It's Jeopardy's Fault!!

Look, everyone, the Mysterious Traveler is going to tell us what's wrong with the modern world!!

Oh, it's all television's fault...?

That's a little trite, isn't it? Can you be more specific?

OK...this had better be good, you Phantom Stranger wannabe!

OK, quiz shows...so what?

Well, superstar pollster Jack Hoyt has noticed something disturbing...

After a few weeks...

So quiz shows make people feel stupid, because they feature smart people?

Oh, it's much worse than that!

Ken Jennings is responsible for our current terrible state!!

Well, Jack tries to warn the networks bosses, but you can probably guess how that went...

But maybe there's hope?

Homer Evriman is a hit!

But everyone perceives him differently!

See?

The results, however, are amazing...

Jack goes to meet this Mr. Evriman...

Man, this story explains so much...So when does our Homer Evriman show up?

From Tales Of The Mysterious Traveler #6 (1957)

Teddy Bears DEATHnic!!

Oh, how cute...

Young Carol gets a present!

But soon that present seems to be exercising an unhealthy influence on her life!

Picking whom you go steady with? Really?

Granted, Jim is being a bit of a controlling douche...but having Teddy "approve" your marriage?

Well, if it makes her feel safer...

Until...'

Well, it turns out that "out west" is indeed pretty "rugged"--and deadly!!

Oh, no!!

What?!?!

Of course, if I were writing this story, it wouldn't that Teddy is really alive or whatever. It would turn out that Carol had latent psionic powers that allowed her (unknowingly) to animate Teddy, turning him into a fierce protector. Until the day she began to go mad, and Teddy began to act on all her subconscious desires...

That's why I'm not allowed to write comic books.

From Amazing Adventures #3 (1961)