Fantastic Four the (italian) end

[Shiryu]

I have mentioned here and there Rat-Man, a goofy, successful italian comic. Its author, Leo Ortolani, is a huge fan of Jack Kirby (to the point that "the King" occasionally appears in Ra-tMan) and of the early, silver age Marvel work. He is however somewhat unhappy with the direction things have been going in recent years, stating that the story of the FF has been told, and there shouldn't be continous attempts to pull more and more out of it for commercial reasons.
Faithful to this idea, a few years ago he wrote and drew a quadrilogy, represing his idea of the end of the team: FF #103-106. It can be found here:
www.imd.it/rat-man/biblio2.htm#B%20Fantastici%20Quattro
While being essentially a fanfic, it is very faithful to the early spirit of the team and definitely worth a look.
Unfortunately the scans are in Italian, but the art is good enough to explain the main events.

[sharkar]

Thanks for posting this, Shiryu! I'm going to have to dust off my Italian dictionary but as you say, the art is very strong. Love the interweaving of various FF elements.

The Kirby swipes were amazing...Ortolani did the art as well as the story, right? He did a great job. I had a lot of fun recognizing the many panels that were "copied" from actual FF issues.

And that ending--!

[Shiryu]

Glad you liked it
Yes, Ortolani did the art as well. He is a huge fan of early Marvel and Kirby in particular, and in the early days even got permission to do some crossovers (for example, in one, Ratman forgets to bring the "panels to stop cosmic rays" to Reed before he goes off to space with the others ;D)

Have a look at these cover galleries:
www.imd.it/rat-man/CoverRMC.htm
www.imd.it/rat-man/CoverTRM.htm

And let me know if you need any help with the text of those comics

[sharkar]

Thanks!

The links you provided to imd.it are interesting; I'm enjoying looking around that website.

I also went over to Wikipedia and looked up Rat-Man. Seems like a very comical creation- -one of his team affiliations is the "Ex-Men." And his abilities are characterized as such: "None. On the contrary, he sports a complete lack of common sense or other forms of intelligence."

Again, grazie, shiryu, for your willingness to share your knowledge about comics, comic creators, publishing philosophies, etc.

(BTW, I'll be out of town for a few days and I may not be able to post during that time, but I'll still be sneaking a peek at this board!)

[Shiryu]

Yep, he is very dull in a goofy sort of way. To an extent, so are his foes. The earliest one, the Buffoon, kidnapped an orphan and asked for a ramson to his family ;D

This being said, he can sometimes be very deep and wise. In issue 50, when faced agains an invincible creature ("The Shadow"), he understood that nemesis always appear after heroes do, and only have a reason to be until heroes exist, so he gives up his secrety identity and throws away the costume (when seeing him without mask, his best friend says "oh my god ! You are just an everyday man"). With the hero gone, the Shadow walks away.