For the first time in over 15 years, veteran comic artist Alex Ross comes back creating long-form sequential art in Fantastic Four: Full Circle, which will be released in September by Abrams ComicArts’ newly announced imprint, Marvel Arts. There are several top picks in this book. It’s the first straight-up graphic novel by Ross, who rose to prominence with his pioneering 1990s comics masterpieces Marvels and Kingdom Come for Marvel and DC, respectively. It’s also the first time in more than 40 years that Marvel has licensed out its characters to another publisher, in this case Abrams.
Kirby was campy, brave, and toned, at times over-the-top, and bursting at the seams with mid-century, space-age design, combining the bright colours of comic getting published at the time with infrequent collage work to make what was dubbed Marvel Pop Art in the 1960s.
“I thought there was a way to connect with the Pop Art of the time period if I changed what I did, and presented that style and not my traditional painted style”,claimed Ross while telling about his work.
The events described in the now-classic “This Man… This Monster!” story from Fantastic Four no. 51 in 1961 serves as the starting point for this story. The Fantastic Four’s headquarters, the Baxter Building, receives an intruder alert in the new story, sending the heroes on an adventure that takes them into the Negative Zone, an alien dimension composed of anti-matter.
Months and months of work have culminated in a 64-page graphic novel. Ross averaged about ten pages per month, taking about a day and a half for each page. While trying to juggle his monthly coloured cover assignments, he stored a structured schedule.
The book is dynamic and vivid, with a distinct Kirby impact in mood and tone. But there are other influences, most notably Neal Adams, the classic Batman and X-Men artist who died this spring.
