Matt Hawes COMICS UNLIMITED - The Imaginary Giant-Size FANTASTIC FOUR #1!

The Imaginary Giant-Size FANTASTIC FOUR #1!

IT ALL STARTED AS A FUN PROJECT ON A MESSAGE BOARD!

Well, actually, it all started back around 1973, when a young artist from Canada

named JOHN BYRNE was trying to break into the comic book industry, and

MARVEL COMICS GROUP, in particular.

John Byrne is reknowned for his classic run on "Fantastic Four" and his work

on "Uncanny X-Men." He also helped revitalize SUPERMAN back in the 1980s.

In 1973, Byrne created a full-length story using Marvel's FANTASTIC FOUR

characters. He submitted the story to Marvel, and it was later published in an

issue of COMICS INTERVIEW years later. The story only existed in pencil

form, with no dialogue, inks, or coloring. Marvel never has published the story

to date.

Over on John Byrne's Internet Forum at www.byrnerobotics.com , a person who

posts regularly there put up the scans of pages from the Comics Interview

publication. Another poster remarked how it would be nice to see somebody

finish the art and add dialogue to the pages. This gave me an idea, and I

proposed that those of us with artistic ability on the message board set out

to finish the work. I made it a challenge, with each volunteer claiming a page

or three to tackle. With the blessing from John Byrne, we commenced working

on the project.

It took several months for everyone to finish their part, but once it was done,

we had a completely scripted, lettered, inked, and colored "lost" John Byrne

"Fantastic Four" story!

"THE IMAGINARY GIANT-SIZE FANTASTIC FOUR" #1

I thought it would be cool to imagine this story as having been the lead feature

in a "Giant-Size Fantastic Four" issue. Since there isn't technically a first issue

for the "Giant-Size Fantasic Four" (the numbering is continued from "Giant-

Size Super-Stars, featuring the Fantastic Four"), I suggested that we say that

this was the actual first issue, just for fun.

The imaginary GIANT-SIZE FANTASTIC FOUR #1

"This Flame Eternal!"

Based on a story by John Byrne from his fan days in 1973.

Story and pencils: JOHN BYRNE

Script: Mike O'Brien

Inks, and color: F.Ron Miller, Matt Hawes, Aaron Leach, James Pipik, Darren Taylor,

James Stewart, James C. Taylor, Bill Dowling, Stephen Bertrand, Bill Wiist

Lettering: F. Ron Miller and Matt Hawes

These pages are considered fanfic and are not for resale.

To read the story, just click on any of the pages from the story that are posted on this page. That will take you to the thread over on the JOHN BYRNE FORUM, where the entire story is posted.