I bought this beat up copy for $7.50

It's fun to read these old issues, in no order other than when I buy them, the same way I used to read them when I was a kid and teenager). Storylines are somewhat overrated if you ask me... sometimes I just want 15-20 minutes of entertainment.

And one title that always seemed to deliver was the Fantastic Four.

(FANTASTIC FOUR #61 - cover dated April 1967, on newsstands January 10th, 1967 with cover art by Jack Kirby)

And deliver it does, starting off with a bang as the Baxter Building is under attack! The FF would seemingly alternate between calm and then crazy openings but was always full of action.

(FANTASTIC FOUR #61 - cover dated April 1967, on newsstands January 10th, 1967 with art by Jack Kirby)

If there's one thing Stan Lee did that I was a big fan of, it's dialogue Ben Grimm. And at various times he was hilarious as in this sequence. Whereas the Avengers never could seem to get this right with me (Hawkeye was more of a wise guy than funny), the FF's characters seemed to have the perfect interaction with each other.

(FANTASTIC FOUR #61 - cover dated April 1967, on newsstands January 10th, 1967 with art by Jack Kirby)

He's page 14 of the issue in it's penciled form. You can see Jack's very full pencils and his margin notes. There's a fair amount of these pages out there, so it's cool to see what Stan used and didn't use or changed and added. Here, not too much, it's just cool seeing it through each stage of the process.

(Original art from FANTASTIC FOUR #61 - cover dated April 1967, on newsstands January 10th, 1967 with art by Jack Kirby)

Here's the page with Sinnott's inks, and you can see how much it brings the page to life. He was my favorite Kirby inker, and really... I used to LOVE those Essential collections that had the art in Black & White. I know people swear by newsprint and that color process of comics back in the day but... not me.

(Original art from FANTASTIC FOUR #61 - cover dated April 1967, on newsstands January 10th, 1967 with art by Jack Kirby and inks by Joe Sinnott)

Here's the final finished page.

(FANTASTIC FOUR #61 - cover dated April 1967, on newsstands January 10th, 1967 with art by Jack Kirby)

Kirby's action storytelling style was so enjoyable on these...