A little while ago, I found and bought a page of original Tick art. Original art can often be a little pricey, so after I buy one I usually wait at least a few months before I start searching for another. I stumbled upon the above page from Fantastic Four 2099 just a few days after winning the Tick art, and I couldn't resist. I put in a fairly low bid and as luck would have it, I won the page at a great price.
The artwork is page 2 from FF 2099 issue #4, with art by Matt Ryan (not the quarterback, I think) and Al Williamson. I have fond memories of this book for what should be obvious reasons. This issue even featured an appearance by Spider-Man 2099!
Despite there being little action on the page, it still has good shots of three of the four FF team, including a nice image here of the future Thing, who looks a lot like, well, the regular Thing.
If I'm remembering correctly, upon arriving in the future, the FF hid out in an old SHIELD safe house that doubled as a barbershop. The female character, Chimera, had some nefarious purposes and a fairly obvious crush on Reed Richards.
The book came into being at the tail end of the 2099 line, so it only had eight issues before everything shut down. Still, writer Karl Kesel, no stranger to the FF, crafted an interesting story that unfortunately got derailed starting in issue #5, and we never really learned the mystery of the characters' identities (or Doom's, for that matter).
I wonder who at Marvel put in the order for the official Fantastic Four 2099 stamp (much easier than writing it on every page, I guess). At the bottom of the page we can find Al Williamson's signature as well, so apparently the previous owner of the page bought it from Williamson himself.
Here's what the page looks like in print.
I also picked up three Fantastic Four color guides for a dirt-cheap price. I would imagine that one of the reasons they were so cheap was that none of the pages features any of the FF, with the exception of Mr. Fantastic's hand, reaching through some dimensional barrier into the Innerverse.
Each of these pages come from the same issue, #362. I actually have two other pages from this same issue, and there are others floating around on eBay as we speak. Who knows why there are so many of these from one issue but almost none from others currently out there. When the price is right, though, I'm happy to add them to my collection.
The preceding two pages are pages 2 and 3 from the story; the first is a full page spread of Reed on the other side of the barrier. That one's a bit more expensive.
This last one skips toward the end of the book, and yet we still see that dang portal causing trouble. 362 was very early on in the DeFalco/Ryan run on the book and the Innerverse never really played a big part in the book ever again. Still, it's nice to get these pages and put them with the others. I always keep an eye out for color guides.
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