Fantastic Four issue 1 cover tributes

the original: click for super high res version

My favorite: treats the original as a real news event with witnesses

"the moment after FF 1"
by 'sirandal' at deviantart
- another personal favorite,
treating the events as real

Jack Kirby, by Peder Riis

John Byrne

Stan Lee as the monster, with

Kirby as the angry Ben Grimm

Stan and jack again, but Stan is older

Marvel Masterworks

by Alex Ross, for "Marvels"

by Joe Jusko (note Stan Lee)

DC characters, by G whitmore

Alter Ego 33 - this one is DC characters, mimicking the original Brave and Bold cover

Alter Ego 104, coverl by Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott

the original pencils, inked by joltin' Joe Sinnott!

By Dick Ayers (inker for the early FF from issue 6)

"Pido indicaciones" (Spanish for "I ask directions") by 'gvznabruto'. It's classed as 'traditional art' and 'political' - probably one of the most interesting pieces on this page.

probably the most popular
parody of all

by Brendan Tobin

by Brian Douglas Ahern

cake by Jean Schapowal

( for all these images,
right click -> open in new tab
for larger version )

by Matthew Neumann

by Pixelkitties - I love it!

Spider Ham: I love it!

'supercon' variant cover by 'MyNameIsMad'

by Jonathan Grimm

Mad parody by Nick Perks

by Will Sliney for the Africa comic con

a rare DC tribute

Sonic tribute by Scott Shaw

one of seven versions by John Byrne. Can you spot the others?

by mataiodoxia, who writes "The monster grabbing them from the depths of the road is 'El Venizel - Megali Idea', a joke (?) onto itself.. (which is far too complicated to explain here)"

by Chris Giarrusso

variant Chris Giarrusso?

another by Chris Giarrusso

by Paul Sizer, for an exhibition recreating every page of FF 1

by "RoboTarot" at DeviantArt

<-------

Planetary is "the Fantastic Four done as though they were bad guys. The starting point for the idea was an issue Ellis has with the Marvel version of the group: they have great powers, resources and inventions but use them only to fight bad guys. Theres no attempt from the group to better mankind. [edit: I disagree] That becomes a central idea of Elliss Four." (source)

arrested development
by 'dunlavey' on deviantart

by Winni Gerhards

by Fred Hembeck

another by Hembeck
(slightly different)

by Giorgio Cavazzano

Thanks to Betty Boolean
for finding this!

by Mike Bunt

by 'Corvin' and Tina Urban of Mugwumps

by Dana Black, Perhapablog

by Jeff Zapata

by Marco D'Alfonso

by Paul Hostetler

by 'Underburbs' at DeviantArt

by 'masuros' at deviantart

by Matt Kindt (of Mind MGMT)

these people can chalk!

by Adam Cline

Disney/Pixar's Incredibles as the FF, by 'mariods'

by Reddit user 'wondermarq'

by Gene Guilmette

The Incredibles, by Christian Moore

Disney by 'Vatinorama'

by SuperPunch (I'm guessing you didn't like Disney buying Marvel)

more Disney, by "BabClayman"

more Disney by Michael-Pumo,

by 'Disney's Marvel' on Facebook

from the SomethingAwful forums

by David B Cooper

by 'iMandarr'

An entry for the Stockton convention competition entry by jliacademy

published by Werecat Studios

Avatar tribute by 'comic chic'

The Deviant Universe, by xdante619

by TurkeyCreaux

by 'Heck13r'

by 'routemaster'

BY 'bahumit12' when in 6th grade (aged 11 or 12)

by Danny Limor

by Ben Baker

by 'Rocket Stevo'

by Albert Bryan Bigley as a child (mash up of FF1 and FF171)

by KayfabeTB, based on his daughter's art

combined FF1 and Action Comics 1 tribute by 'mr_chewtoy'

Jonathan Rector (pencils) and 'blade1158' (inks)

by Lima Hibiki

by 'JohnnyRocker666'

Christmas card by 'The Real Tony'

Christmas card by Mark Engblom

by Danny Wall

by 'Stephen' and Randy Sargent

by 'bridgitall digital' - "somewhat loosely based on the first issue of Marvel's Fantastic Four"

by Mike Mcelwee

by 'BlackRhinoRanger', DeviantArt

by Justin Peterson'

by "clayyount" at tumblr

pencils: Jonathan Rector; inks: 'blade1158'

by "mochita chan" - a mash up of the FF, Star Trek, Dr Who, and more (right click for larger version)

by 'RedmondJFox'

by 'worldofagwu' on Flickr:
old school low res 8 bit

'Chouette Hamster Four' by 'blackbeardpirate

by Danny HavoK

a painted reproduction: acrylic on canvas by 'soaringcat'

from Sluggy.com

Atomic Cover by 'mbaker'

by 'myporcelaintears'

by Capital Capers

by Chris Uminga

by Chuck Bedard

from "Zig and-Zag's Zogazine" (I like this one a lot)

by 'bukshot'

by Katie Cook (for trading cards)

I don't normally include foreign reprints, but this Australian one has crazy colors, and a nice Thing corner icon on the opposite side to normal. Such reprints illustrate just how far the FF's fame spread.

By Alejandro Rosado, who described this as a Kirby "homage-tribute".

Redrawn by hand on plastic

by Legacy Brand Comics inc

Tetrorganic Tetrad by 'Gizmo_Tracer' - the first photographic tribute!

"amazing world of gumball"
by waniramirez'

by Rus Wooton (ruswooton.com)

More than one kind of "underground" :)

Sinnott again! For FF645

by "jbinks" (JB Sapienza) at DeviantArt>
A variant is titled 'Comics Appeal" with slightly different text

by 'Johnnyism'

by 'MenziesTank'
(note the text box from FF1, so yes this counts as a homage)

a rare side view, by '8 bit blanka'

I love this one!
In 3D acrylic, by 'fmoll10092'

Star Wars, by 'm7781' on Deviantart. This is superb!!

by Willie J Smith II

'The Fowl Tempered Four'
(Angry Birds!)
By 'AngusMctavish'

Bob's Burgers, by TheMuchoMan

roller derby poster by 'punkrockphil'

by 'jayoh83' of 'HeroesOfTheWorld'

by 'psychoslaughter'

by "JDH" at statueforums

by Dave Gutierrez

'Power Pack vs the bogeyman'
by '_by_onyxswami'

by Paul Shinn

Phileas Flash:with balloons

by Brendan Tobin

"Lost Souls" tribute by "DoomsdayPicnic"

by Frenz and Curiel, from the Pineapple Thing period (circa FF310-320): note that this is underground

The original redrawn, by *TigerArtStudio on deviantArt

by Craig Rousseau

by dara from Ferret Press

by Matt Feazel (from memory)

by Christopher Burdett
based on Very Near Mint

'Fantastic Rhino' by Ivan Fiorelli

by "c21" at deviantart

'the supavillian' by 'BrianBuster'

by Mark Rand

by Laurence DuCheny

by 'ayelid' on deviantart

rare 1994 fanzine by jkcarrier

by Lucifer Sims

by Karl Kesel (he should be writing AND drawing the FF!)

by Joseph Morris

by Gary Lee

parody lecture by Chad Carlson

by 'ajdiChart'

by Rainer Engel

2021 and later. (No attempt to organise these: it takes too long!)

the Three Stooges

Alien Queen by Joshua Cassara

Charley and Humphrey

by Tom Ryan

by Fernando Ruiz

Love this one! (Scottie Young)

Rick and Morty by 'DemonigoteCamis'

Hannah Barbera's Galaxy Trio

What? You want more? OK...

Cartoons

from the 1994 cartoon, season 2

from the 2006 cartoon, season 1, episode 13

The ending to The Incredibles: see below

Models

by Art Adams: see model, right ->

<- see cover, left

these models by Hasbro

by Heroclix

Games

From the 'Marvel Heroes' game

From the Superhero Squad game

Champions/Heroes RPG guide

Re-imaginings

The Whitechapel forum invited artists to create their own cover of Fantastic Four 1, as if they had never read the comic but just knew it was about four astronauts gaining super powers. Here are just a few of the many responses:

by Chris G

by Paul-Sizer

by mrmcdaniel

And of course
the entire
Marvel Universe
is a tribute
to FF 1

Single panels

from 'Franklin Richards, Sons of Geniuses' 1

Marvel Zombieverse

from Defenders 12

from sketch comics

from Exiles 67

from Vision 4

from FF Unlimited 6
(dialog is from the cover of FF1)

Miscellaneous

Another issue 1 cake!
Thanks to Karl Disley
for spotting this

1966 audio production of issue 1

Maximum Fantastic Four, a coffee table sized tribute to issue 1: every frame becomes a full page

The pop-up book: the perfect format for the image!

"Nearly everything about Giant-Size X-Men #1 is a familiar echo of FF1: the Magnificent Seven-like gathering of the team, the dysfunctional bickering, the mysterious island to which they are summoned, even the dramatic escape by plane as the island explodes behind them." - Sean Howe, Marvel Comics p.155

The best known FF homage

"The Incredibles was little more than a thinly-disguised FF rip-off"
(Dial B for Blog)

"Youd have to be blind to miss the Fantastic Four references in Pixars The Incredibles."
(Gamma Squad)

Q: "What non-marvel book, movie or tv show have you seen that you would consider the most like a marvel comic?"
A: "It's all right if I say The Incredibles now, right?"
(Tom Brevoort, FF editor and Executive Editor at Marvel. Comment made after Disney bought Marvel.)

When Pixar made The Incredibles they did not have the rights to the Fantastic Four. So they made it different enough to get past the lawyers. But it's closer to the comic than any of the official movies. "Incredible" and "Fantastic" mean pretty much the same thing. This infographic by "CrowMaiden" at DeviantArt points out some of the parallels:

Some people say that "The Incredibles" owes a lot to "Watchmen" or "Dark Knight Returns:" It's about alienation from the public. Yet this was the dominant theme of the early FF issues: see the commentary to issue 2. Watchmen and Dark Knight have superheroes retiring because the public no longer want them. This happened first in the Fantastic Four: In issue 114 where they're in court for the damage they caused.

"Take away their powers and this could have been any ordinary family; which was exactly the same reason why Marvels Fantastic Four had worked so well for years in the comics, as this was how they were day in day out, with the same set of dynamics, just applied to a different set of characters. The reason they failed to match this on the big-screen whilst The Incredibles did, was because the family dynamic was used to fill in the gaps of the story, instead of being the focus." (source)

To see how far the modern FF has fallen from the original vision, read the debate over who would win in a fight:

"I also think F4 would win. But that's because The Incredibles is more grounded on reality."

and "I always had the impression that The Incredibles was a 'family' version of the Fantastic Four."

Read that and weep, old time Fantasti-fans. The original Fantastic Four was defined by realism and family. Oh how times have changed. How are the mighty fallen. But "The Incredibles" is proof that the original Fantastic Four concept is as strong as ever: ground the story in reality! Make the story work even if you took away the powers! Make them fallible, but above all bright and optimistic! What worked in the 1960s can work again. Come on Marvel, just do it. Bring back the original Fantastic Four.

Inspiration for the original cover

Liberty and the underground

This was not deliberate. But it fits the zeitgeist of 1961: see the discussion of alienation in the notes to issue 2.

The idea of a buried statue of liberty was not new, and not restricted to comics:

The Statue of Liberty is a repeated theme in the Fantastic Four universe. The Human Torch meets Spider-Man at Liberty's Torch every Christmas, and at other times when they need to talk. The practice began in Strange Tales annual 2.
Torch and spidey

Liberty was already a mainstay of the comics before 1961. When Prince Namor first declared war on America (in Marvel Comics 7, then renamed Marvel Mystery Comics) he made the Statue of Liberty his base.

Liberty features prominently just after the landmark issue 200, which was all about equality and the end of the American Dream (see the notes to that issue). Here in FF 203 the team must face alternate versions of themselves, in a battle on Liberty herself.

Questions about the cover

Why is Mr Fantastic tied up?

Many have asked who tied Mr Fantastic up, and why The Invisible Girl thinks that turning invisible will help. The answer is that this is a symbolic cover: the event never happened in exactly this way in the story, but it serves to introduce all the main concepts. Yen4zen observed that if the event actually happened like that, no doubt the team were demonstrating their powers to onlookers (hence the ropes) when the monster quickly burst through the road. There is also the possibility that this was originally designed with non-super powered people in mind: perhaps the foreground originally showed something different.

"I can't turn invisible fast enough"

Why would invisibility help? The cover is in movement: the Torch is moving, Reed is feeing himself quickly, and fragments of the car are shattering. So we must conclude that Sue is in the process of just being grabbed. Sue clearly hoped to surprise the monster the moment he lunged for her, making him miss her. But she was a split second too slow. It is also possible that being invisible allows her to more easily slip between objects: in issue 1 she slips easily between people in a crowd. This may be the first hint of her forcefield.

"Together for the first time"

This implies they had appeared before. And they had, in all the ways that matter.

True, these precise individuals had not appeared before, but the character tropes were familiar. In the same way, if the comic said "Batman of Earth 2" you could say you had seen him before as "Batman of Earth 1" even though they were technically different Batmen. They were the same super identity even if the alter ego was different.

Why does Ben smash the car?

Ben is pushing the car out of the way. Everything about the issue indicates speed: every split second counts. Sue was almost certainly standing in front of Reed, being grabbed, when Ben arrived. He had to push the car out of the way for speed.

The secret to Marvel's history is all there on the cover

The three technical symbols on the cover give the real world business reasons why the Fantastic Four exist:

Comics Code
Comics were blamed for juvenile delinquency in the 1950s. Sales collapsed, and the comics only survived because they voluntarily created the "comics code" to guarantee morally safe stories. But one result of the collapse in sales was that Marvel (then called Atlas) lost its distributor, and the company almost shut down.

Core concept:	A family of four fantastic / incredible superheroes (plus baby), led by Mr Fantastic / Incredible.
Mr Fantastic:	Mr Incredible. Stretching powers switched to the Sue character.
Invisible Girl:	The girl. Who becomes invisible. And has Sue's distinctive invisible forcefields.
The Thing:	Mr Incredible has the same power, size, and personality (long-suffering but enjoys clobbering). He even has a notable forehead. Note that the Thing did not become rocky at first, but simply had a monstrous hide. We see that briefly at the end, with his son Jak Jak.
The Torch:	The blond hot headed kid brother with super-mobility. Once again actual torch power is transferred to Jak Jak (seen at the end, and prominently in the "Jak Jak Attack" short.)
Baby Franklin:	Jak Jak, the baby with vaguely defined all-purpose power like Franklin. "Jak-Jak" may be a reference to Jack Kirby.
Costumes:	Plain primary color, black cloves and collar, symbol in circle on chest. The early costume in flashbacks was shown to be blue. (Note that the original Human Torch, and the new one briefly, wore red.) Even the masks are the same, though these were dropped from the comic before publication.
Main enemy:	Syndrome. Though modern readers think of Dr Doom as the FF's main adversary, the Wizard was the first to decisively defeat the Fantastic Four. Syndrome has the same power: he's a non-powered guy who's great at inventing things. He has the same envy and need to prove himself, the same extra large head, the same purple and silver colors, the same wonder gloves, the same specialism in anti-gravity, etc. Though Syndrome does have Dr Doom's cloak: an important plot device in the movie.
The Mole Man:	The Underminer (the last image instead of the first: don't want to make it too obvious!)
Silver Surfer:	Frozone: just look at the pictures of him on his ice board, e.g. in the movie poster.
Main themes:	Mr Incredible/Mr Fantastic loses sight of what matters most. 1960s vibe: optimism, excitement, secret government agencies who are good guys with crazy technology, etc. Time moves forward.

Over 200 tributes to issue 1