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The FF 8 synopsis: Fake? Or Lee putting changes in writing?
[Editor's note: the entire case for Lee writing the early stories rests on this one document. Because this is the only synopsis that can be traced before 1966. And even this document appeared two years after the story. ]
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Roy Thomas claims the synopsis is genuine
Michael Hill
8 April 2017
Norris Burroughs has a column in the upcoming Kirby Collector about Fantastic Four #8 (I haven't read it yet, but the first page is available in #71's online preview). Thanks to Lee's letter to Jerry Bails, the "synopsis" for this issue (or most of it) has been published in recent history, notably in Pure Images.
Since his 1998 about face on the FF #1 synopsis, Roy Thomas is a big proponent about the veracity of the "document," and even used it to beat Jon Cooke over the head. Cooke had taken the courageous step of crossing fellow TwoMorrows editor Thomas and biting one of the hands that feeds the publisher by calling into question Lee's participation in the creation of some of Kirby's creations, in the cover story for the new Comic Book Creator. Thomas wrote a scathing rebuttal that was printed on a subsequent letters page, calling into question Cooke's credentials as an historian because he was willing to disregard Lee's claim to having written synopses from which Kirby would draw his FF stories.
Thomas waffled on the timing of the creation of the FF #1 synopsis in his 1997 Kirby Collector interview. In Alter Ego/Comic Book Artist the following year, he printed a copy of a version of the alleged document and swore by Lee's account, writing that Lee had shown it to him in the late '60s. Note that it was never mentioned before the '80s when an editor found it in Lee's old desk (presumably dating back to the days when Kirby would sit at Lee's desk to draw a story so he could refer to the synopsis, rather than having to take it home and have it turn up decades later among *Kirby's* papers).
As Herb Trimpe revealed a few years later, his post-employment benefits from Marvel came at the price of his silence about the company and about Lee. Thomas has appeared on the Marvel payroll in recent years; his historical credentials should be challenged on that basis alone, leaving aside the sheer magnitude of the evidence against the "history" he has embraced. Marc Toberoff needed to repeatedly state for the record that Thomas and Romita were not present for events (prior to 1965) for which they professed expertise: "Assumes facts."
What Toberoff wasn't counting on was the miracle of memory transfer that was on display in the Comic Book Artist #2 interview, "Stan the Man and Roy the Boy" (http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/02stanroy.html). Lee professes to remember less and less but Thomas takes up the slack by remembering more and more of *Lee's* memories. The difficulty arises when the memories Thomas pretends to access are false, as with the implication that Lee had input into the Kirby story, "Fin Fang Foom," which Lee had neglected to sign.
Now let's queue up the testimonials in favour of there being a plot synopsis that was ever given to Kirby before he set pencil to paper.
Mark Mayerson: They don't call him Houseroy for nothing.
J David Spurlock:
• Would be good to post FF 8 synopsis here.
• Have any Lee synopsis turned up in Kirby's papers?
• Where did Herb Trimpe reveal that, "his post-employment benefits from Marvel came at the price of his silence about the company and about Lee?" Please post a photo/scan of any related Trimpe quote.
Michael Hill: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/010900edlife-56-edu.html
Norris Burroughs: I liked Mike's quip here so much that I used it in the article (with permission of course. “In Pure Images #2,31 Greg Theakston presented a transcription of the same synopsis, conspicuously missing the last page. He reserved comment while devoting a page of the article to comparing the last four panels of “Voodoo on Tenth Avenue” in Black Magic #4 (1951) to the nearly identical last three panels of Fantastic Four #8 (1962). Oops, Lee chose the wrong story to synopsize. Although it would be amusing to see how he would have outlined the plot on that “missing” last page, it’s safe to say he had no prior input into a story whose plot Kirby re-used from an eleven-year-old story in his own repertoire.”
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