FFotomontage: The Next Generation

Hey, kids, look what I found! Only two days after posting a potpourri of photomontage collages from Jack "King" Kirby's Fantastic Four, I was re-reading the twelve-issue 2001 retro-style miniseries Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comics Magazine. The series is a great romp that I oughta get around to reviewing one of these days, since I consider it one of the most fun comics ever! A veritable modern Bullpen of Marvel artists joined together to create a mega-cosmic FF story in the style of Lee and Kirby, creating a retcon adventure that fits between Fantastic Four #100 and 101 and involves our Fearlessly Frenzied foursome teaming up with virtually every other hero in the Marvel Universe of 1970, from Spider-Man to Captain Mar-Vell, up against a crazed Doc Doom wielding the Cosmic Cube against Galactus. It's Lee-tastic and Kirby-riffic!

I'd re-read the series to see if I could find a buncha good Ben Grimm images (and boy howdy, did I!) but the big surprise was the final page of issue #8 (pencilled by Rick Veitch and inked by Terry Beatty), which is a homage not only to the style of Kirby but also to his fantastic photomontages, as cosmic-powered Doom leaps into the Negative Zone. So, here's a special bonus Friday FFotomontage, in the style and spirit of Kirby but with the dreamtastic drama of Roarin' Rick!:


Page from Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comics Magazine #8 (September 2001), co-plotted by Erik Larsen & Eric Stephenson, script by Kurt Busiek, layouts by Erik Larsen, pencils by Rick Veitch, inks by Terry Beatty, colors by Eric Stephenson, letters by Richard Starkings & Comicraft

(Click on image to Rarebit Fiend-size)

And, via the kind suggestion of Matthew Alan Smith over at Holy Calamity: The TeamSmithy blog, see Veitch's original photocollage for this page at RickVeitch.com!