Butch Guice talks about his work on Fantastic Four #286.

[Ferran Delgado]

After I read Brian Peck's post in Comicart-L, I felt curious and wanted to know more about this key moment in Marvel history, so I contacted Butch Guice via Facebook and forwarded him the Brian's post, with the intention to know more and learn if Brian's theory was 100% accurated.

 

This is Butch's comment, posted here with permission:

 

"Most of what I read is true, but there are a couple of minor inaccuracies which have popped up over the years due to the nature of these things -- primarily the idea that John was not informed of the story changes until after they had been made -- which, despite being completely ridiculous, have become a favorite slant in the retelling ofisthe story for those parties who desire to see John as some sort of victimized creator in the situation.

 

The simple truth is John Byrne was fully aware that changes were going to be made to the work, as the issue tied in with both The X-Men (Marvel's best selling title at the time) and X-Factor (which was in development). In fact ,John was the person who asked to make the changes.

 

I know this, because I present for the final minutes of that conversation between John and editor Mike Carlin ( and who I was meeting with that day about something X-Factor related as best I recall). John's parting words as he exited were essentially directing Mike to " -- have Romita's Raiders draw the changes..." as he was refusing to do any of them.

 

In fact, that is pretty much how I came to be involved in any of this. Mike Carlin needed the reworked art by Monday morning, and it was Friday midday. I volunteered to work through the weekend in order to help Mike out. Mike seemed very happy to accept my offer since it saved him the bother of finding someone else both local (this was still back in the old Fed Ex days of the industry) and willing to work through the weekend.

 

Being young and stupid, I then asked Mike if he wanted me to do my best attempt to ape John Byrne's style. I had been a fan of John's work for years and believed I had a solid enough grasp of the "look" to help meld the overall sequence. Mike said yes again, so -- emboldened -- I then asked if he wanted me to try and ink the pages to match Terry Austin's unique inking style? Mike said yes once more (he must have been quite sure I was a complete insufficiently_thoughtful_person at that point) -- and armed with a handful of xeroxes of John and Terry's work on the issue, and a list of changes to be made, I left soon after and spent the weekend drawing the changes which have been posted.

 

The new lettering was pasted over the art on the following Monday morning in the bullpen. I actually walked by as it was being done. So yes -- John knew before any corrections had been made, and obviously before it went to press if he had the lettering on the credits changed -- and those are my inks over my pencils -- not Terry's work.

 

Hope this helps/clears up/explains away any questions regarding what happened.

 

Butch"

[Speedy-D]

[Ferran Delgado]

This is the original post by Brian in Comicart-L...

 

 

Many of you know I have been trying to put Fantastic Four #286 back together. Some thought it was John Byrne who penciled it all but you would be wrong.

 

During John's run on the Fantastic Four he agreed to reboot Superman. When it was announce he was doing Man of Steel for some reason Jim Shooter decided to change Fantastic Four #286, after it had been approved, written, penciled, inked and lettered. Jim didn't contact John about it but did get Chris Claremont to rewrite the flashback. To draw the 3 page flashback they got Jackson Guice, with Terry Austin inking (he had inked the rest of the book over John). Combination of Terry inking and Guice aping John many didn't notice the change. One person who did was John Byrne, who decided to remove his name from the book. That is why "You Know Who" is listed in the credits.

 

I had never seen the three Guice pages, Butch had sold them years before. A big thanks goes out to Anthony for doing the deal for these pages. Cool thing is on the back Guice has written some comments about his drawing like Byrne (scans up with the CAF).

 

I am really thrilled to get the 3 pages penciled by Jackson Guice. The big difference between John's unpublished and Guice's published pages is how the Phoenix is portrayed, John's is more evil. I prefer the unpublished pages and it great having both. Still looking for more pages from the issue, if you have any or know where they are, please drop me an email. The hunt continues.............

 

Enjoy.

 

Fantastic Four #286 page 24

http://cafurl.com?i=18780

 

Fantastic Four #286 page 25

http://cafurl.com?i=18781

 

Fantastic Four #286 page 26

http://cafurl.com?i=18782

 

Be seeing you,

Brian Peck

[Speedy-D]

(thumbs u thanks!

[ashrael]

Interesting. Guice did a nice job

[Rodey]

Wow. This whole time I thought it was Byrne that did it.

[Brian Peck]

Many were surprised Guice drew the flashback, I always thought he just did the pencils and Austin did the inks. After reading Guice's comment's on the back of the pages I realized he did it all. Thanks fo asking Jackson about it.

[Ferran Delgado]

You're welcome. Butch was very kind with his reply and he even offered himself to answer any question about his old work. I'm tempted to ask him about the seven covers of X-Factor #1 that Layton got rejected, finally to be done by Simonson, maybe he knows something about it...

 

I also thought that Austin inked it, Guice fooled me.

 

I posted in my blog raw scans of the three pages by Guice that I found in the net. Brian, I suppose that you restored the fallen balloons, didn't you?

http://ferrandelgado.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/aparecen-los-originales-del-flashback.html

[Brian Peck]

Yes I am working on replacing them on the page now.

[Ferran Delgado]

It'd be cool if you could remove all the balloons and paste them in an acetate overlay. This way we could see the clean art...

[Ferran Delgado]

Well, I don't know for sure, but you can contact him via Facebook and ask him. He looked very kind...

[NelsonAI]

Great research Ferran. Butch did a great job as the inks really did look like Austin.