Fantastic Four 48,49,50 8 8

[Professor K]

13 hours ago, KirbyJack said:

Not so very long ago, FF 50 was slightly more desired by the buying public because of the big Surfer image. 

I’m personally happy to see 49 getting it’s moment in the sun.

Yeah that's right. I noticed that on my CGC FF 48 (grade date 10/2003, didn't realize it was that old) it says "1st appearance of Silver Surfer and Galactus". The word cameo is not mentioned. 

At some point during the production of the previous generation slabs they added the cameo part. I'm probably wrong about this but I think I remember NOT seeing the words "1st Full appearance of Galactus" on FF 49 slabs, but I can't find any examples like that. Up until recently I always considered FF 48 the 1st appearance of both and didn't realize the slabs said differently. Don't know how I missed that. 

Edited March 6, 2019 by kc2112

[KirbyJack]

I still consider FF 48 to be the first app. of both characters; label notes be damned!

[ThothAmon]

[Darkowl]

6 hours ago, KirbyJack said:

I still consider FF 48 to be the first app. of both characters

It is!

[Old_Man_Adam]

3 minutes ago, Darkowl said:

It is!

Even though it’s the weakest of the trilogy cover - wise IMO

uatu looks like a cone head ...

[Professor K]

I think the cover is pretty cool. Everyone is looking up in the sky like " What the heck is that?" Even Thing looks frightened. Plus the sky's all orange and on fire. You know something's happening up there and it ain't good.

And the Watcher's like "Beware Galactus! Devourer of Planets!"  And I'm like Mom give me 12 cents I gotta buy this comic! 

[Sweet Lou 14]

4 hours ago, kc2112 said:

I think the cover is pretty cool. Everyone is looking up in the sky like " What the heck is that?" Even Thing looks frightened. Plus the sky's all orange and on fire. You know something's happening up there and it ain't good.

And the Watcher's like "Beware Galactus! Devourer of Planets!"  And I'm like Mom give me 12 cents I gotta buy this comic! 

I could not agree more.  I realize everyone has their favorites, and I'm even willing to accept the general consensus that the cover to #49 seems generally to be the favorite of more collectors.  But it's a little surprising to see how many people are trying to put #48 down.  The cover is amazing -- possibly a first of its kind in the way it introduces its nearly omnipotent adversary.  And it's entirely appropriate to the story, which doesn't actually feature Galactus until the last page.  Of the three covers in the trilogy, #48 is the one I can't take my eyes off of.

 

 

[Chillax23]

2 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

I could not agree more.  I realize everyone has their favorites, and I'm even willing to accept the general consensus that the cover to #49 seems generally to be the favorite of more collectors.  But it's a little surprising to see how many people are trying to put #48 down.  The cover is amazing -- possibly a first of its kind in the way it introduces its nearly omnipotent adversary.  And it's entirely appropriate to the story, which doesn't actually feature Galactus until the last page.  Of the three covers in the trilogy, #48 is the one I can't take my eyes off of.

 

 

I agree 100% - FF48 is a great cover and iconic!  I also really like FF49 - but personally I think FF50 is really weak, imagine FF50 had the cover of FF72 - now that would be awesome!

[tdotcbc84]

2 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

I could not agree more.  I realize everyone has their favorites, and I'm even willing to accept the general consensus that the cover to #49 seems generally to be the favorite of more collectors.  But it's a little surprising to see how many people are trying to put #48 down.  The cover is amazing -- possibly a first of its kind in the way it introduces its nearly omnipotent adversary.  And it's entirely appropriate to the story, which doesn't actually feature Galactus until the last page.  Of the three covers in the trilogy, #48 is the one I can't take my eyes off of.

 

 

FF48 is arguably my favourite cover in all of comics.  Kirby artwork that defined silver age comics for me, and the colour used for the cover is bright and rich.  I'm not the biggest FF fan, but seeing the worried faces of the First fam tells us a lot about what is coming.  The anticipation of who is coming, and why FF is so worried makes the whole reason why we love superhero comics.  We NEED that super powerful villain to challenge our heroes.  And you want to keep on reading how the hero defeats this evil.   Believe it or not, we all seek this.  We all want to see that OVERPOWERED bad guy, and we also all want to see the hero prevail at the end, after a struggle.  It's the most basic (and successful) superhero storytelling.

 

 

[KirbyJack]

No doubt! Fantastic Four 48-50 is so much more than another SA introduction, or collectible covers. On multiple levels, it’s the highest  achievement of The Silver Age of Comics. 

[Darkowl]

15 hours ago, kc2112 said:

I think the cover is pretty cool. Everyone is looking up in the sky like " What the heck is that?" Even Thing looks frightened. Plus the sky's all orange and on fire. You know something's happening up there and it ain't good.

And the Watcher's like "Beware Galactus! Devourer of Planets!"  And I'm like Mom give me 12 cents I gotta buy this comic! 

Totally. Tons of emotion is captured and depicted on the cover of 48. It's a favorite of mine.

[Darkowl]

Just got this today. Won it on eBay! 

[ADAMANTIUM]

3 hours ago, Darkowl said:

Just got this today. Won it on eBay! 

That's an impressive white pager!

 presents better than mine

 

[Darkowl]

16 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

That's an impressive white pager!

 presents better than mine

 

Thank you!

[Professor K]

Looks really nice for the grade. Color, centering! Another thing about FF 48 is those legs on The Watcher. I bet he could probably squat like 650.

As far as FF 50 I think the Surfer looks really good. He's got that comin at ya effect happening. And yeah the Johnny goes to college box is no fun, but I wonder why Jack went with that solid dark brown background. Its not a common background color either. Maybe it was a deadline situation. Or I wonder if he had another or other backgrounds that he decided not to use.

Edited March 8, 2019 by kc2112

[Sweet Lou 14]

44 minutes ago, kc2112 said:

Looks really nice for the grade. Color, centering! Another thing about FF 48 is those legs on The Watcher. I bet he could probably squat like 650.

As far as FF 50 I think the Surfer looks really good. He's got that comin at ya effect happening. And yeah the Johnny goes to college box is no fun, but I wonder why Jack went with that solid dark brown background. Its not a common background color either. Maybe it was a deadline situation. Or I wonder if he had another or other backgrounds that he decided not to use.

Serious question -- did Kirby have anything at all to do with the decision to make the background brown?

[Professor K]

I don't know. I guess we'll never know. Its just that in every Kirby FF cover there's all kinds of stuff going on but in this one nothing. So good point, maybe he didn't choose that background. I don't know if the original art exists.

[KirbyJack]

Typically, once Kirby finished a page, he didn’t think about them. He didn’t give inkers or colorists notes (ever, to my knowledge), and I would be very surprised if he ever chose background colors. At 60s Marvel, that is.

Edited March 8, 2019 by KirbyJack

[Professor K]

I wasn't really referring as much to the background color but instead to the fact that its just a solid color background with nothing in it.. Just saying very few Kirby covers were like that.

 

[KirbyJack]

3 hours ago, kc2112 said:

I wasn't really referring as much to the background color but instead to the fact that its just a solid color background with nothing in it.. Just saying very few Kirby covers were like that.

 

Agree. It struck me so odd that I once thumbed thru the issue, thinking the floating heads and Johnny box were taken from interior pages. Nope; he drew them for the cover, it appears. 

We need more info!