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All things Thing

Started by budsbundy,

71 posts in this topic

vaillant

vaillant

Posted
Posted

Resurrecting this wonderful thread. :)

 

This is a sticker which was issued with one of the earliest italian Fantastic Four issues (#6, which published FF#9). It features the Thing pin-up I recently discovered was printed in Fantastic Four #2.

 

It has been a very important image for me, as a kid I had just started to read the FFs (in italian) but never saw an early Thing image before, and when I saw that sticker attached in a used books store, I started to wonder and dream about the origins and previous stories of the Fantastic Four… :cloud9:

 

(double click to enlarge the image in full resolution)

 

9ktelm4h.jpg

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vaillant

vaillant

Posted
Posted
Here's an old Kirby sketch, not mine:

 

Thing.jpg

 

When I visited Jack Kirby in his own home in 1991, he had this piece framed on a wall. It is a wish card he draw for the hebrew festivity of the Passover:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover

 

I am not 100% sure but I’m pretty sure I asked him about the Thing as being of jewish heritage, considered he was the character with whom Jack himself has always been more identified, and I think he replied he never thought about it but surely was a likely possibility.

 

There is a beautiful story published after Jack’s death, by Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen, in Fantastic Four (3rd Series) #56, which pays homage to Jack in this sense. I did not like Mark Waid run, and most of what has been done afterwards, but that story is really nice, and relevant. :)ù

 

844283.jpg

 

 

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budsbundy

budsbundy

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Resurrecting this wonderful thread. :)

 

This is a sticker which was issued with one of the earliest italian Fantastic Four issues (#6, which published FF#9). It features the Thing pin-up I recently discovered was printed in Fantastic Four #2.

 

It has been a very important image for me, as a kid I had just started to read the FFs (in italian) but never saw an early Thing image before, and when I saw that sticker attached in a used books store, I started to wonder and dream about the origins and previous stories of the Fantastic Four… :cloud9:

 

(double click to enlarge the image in full resolution)

 

9ktelm4h.jpg

Hey Vailant!

Glad to see you found the Thing thread, thanks for giving it a bump, maybe we will get to see some more cool stuff people have.

 

Those stickers are great!

 

I have always been fascinated with the earliest drawings of the thing, right back to when I was a little kid.

Something about how they drew him in the first issues really works for me.

The old clay/dinosaur hide look that he used to have.

I would dream about owning an early FF when I was a kid.

I had a copy of #8 that was practically falling apart when I was a kid, and I treasured it.

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budsbundy

budsbundy

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Here's an old Kirby sketch, not mine:

 

Thing.jpg

 

When I visited Jack Kirby in his own home in 1991, he had this piece framed on a wall. It is a wish card he draw for the hebrew festivity of the Passover:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover

 

I am not 100% sure but I’m pretty sure I asked him about the Thing as being of jewish heritage, considered he was the character with whom Jack himself has always been more identified, and I think he replied he never thought about it but surely was a likely possibility.

 

There is a beautiful story published after Jack’s death, by Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen, in Fantastic Four (3rd Series) #56, which pays homage to Jack in this sense. I did not like Mark Waid run, and most of what has been done afterwards, but that story is really nice, and relevant. :)ù

 

844283.jpg

 

You visited Kirby at his home!!!???? Wow, I'm impressed.

If I had gone, I would have probably acted like a scene from Waynes World, and spent the whole time on the floor bowing and talking about how I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy, lol.

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vaillant

vaillant

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Posted
Those stickers are great!

 

I have always been fascinated with the earliest drawings of the thing, right back to when I was a little kid.

Something about how they drew him in the first issues really works for me.

The old clay/dinosaur hide look that he used to have.

I would dream about owning an early FF when I was a kid.

I had a copy of #8 that was practically falling apart when I was a kid, and I treasured it.

 

Hey, we have more than a Thing in common, then! :D

 

I felt the same – I started reading the FFs with the issue where Galactus fights the High Evolutionary, and understood very little of it, because in that period Ben was able to revert to his human form and used an exoskeleton built for him by Reed.

I also wondered who the High Evolutionary and Galactus were, and at the end of the story the Impossible Man also shows up: to say that, as a kid which never read the Fantastic Four before, I was confused is an understatement – but at the same time I felt like I was already familiar with the characters (I had seen a few Hanna & Barbera cartoons on TV, but not much more).

And then I saw that early Thing image in the sticker: I was in awe, but did not know how to look for early stories. But then I think that at that very same time the italian publisher issued an hardbound volume with a selection of classic stories and my father gifted it to me for Christmas.

It’s this book – this is not my copy, it’s a found image, which I still treasure (contains also FF#30 and Annual #6)… :cloud9:

W6cU4Xrh.jpg

 

And the first early FF issue I bought in original language was precisely #8 because that’s the one I totally loved as a kid (in italian they issued a reprint of the early stories) when I visited Los Angeles.

I had it signed by Jack when I visited him in his Thousand Oaks home – something which still has a dreamlike quality to it! :cloud9:

 

xr7KyUxh.jpg

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budsbundy

budsbundy

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Thanks for finding this!

The Thing is my favorite, too, and I will have some goodies for this thread!

Excellent!

Looking forward to seeing what you have!

 

Those bookends are sweet Tilley!

Now I need those too, lol.

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Dr. Balls

Dr. Balls

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That personalized Kirby sig is AWESOME!!!!!!(Looks like a very nice copy of issue 8 too!)

I would love to have something like that.

 

+1

 

Very cool!

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