Remembering Fantastic Four artist Paul Ryan

Earlier today I learned that one of my favorite artists, Paul Ryan, had passed away at the age of 66. I haven't read anything about a cause, but I was stunned to learn this not only because Ryan was still relatively young, but also because I grew up reading his run on Fantastic Four with Tom DeFalco. Ryan is one of the reasons that I love the FF so much, and his years-long stint on the book is still the third-longest in the title's history, behind only Kirby and Byrne. In fact, I learned today that Ryan's first Marvel work was as an inker on the '80s Thing series!

Ryan drew in a classic style that I've only become more appreciative of as I've gotten older. It was the perfect amalgamation of Kirby, Byrne, Swan, Anderson, and other classic, steady styles of the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages. Back when the extreme (and silly) art styles of 1990s Image Comics were all the rage, Ryan's art was a consistent, solid presence on one of comics' greatest titles. He's known for his work on Superman, Flash, Avengers, Iron Man, DP7 and currently the Phantom comic strip, but he'll always be a Fantastic Four artist to me, and one of the greatest. The above cover to issue #370 was the first issue I bought with my own money, back in '92 at the Uniontown Mall.

I was very fortunate to have the chance to work briefly with Ryan a few years ago, when I contacted him about a commission and some original art. I purchased this page from Fantastic Four #390 for the paltry sum of $100. I decided to press my luck and was able to get some comics signed and, for a little extra, I got this Thing sketch card mailed to me:

The thing I'm most thankful for, though, is that I actually got the chance to commission an original Teddy and the Yeti cover from Ryan. His website said that he wasn't taking commissions at the time, but after talking to him for a little while, he told me that his website developer simply hadn't updated the site and that he was indeed taking commissions.

I jumped at the news and a few weeks later, he sent me the original art that you see here, including a rough sketch and full-size pencils.

The cover was eventually completed by Duane Redhead (inks) and Karin Rindevall (colors). I'm so happy that I had this done when I had the chance. It's a real shame that there won't be any more work out there by Ryan after his run on the Phantom strip ends, but he has a legacy of decades that still holds up and will for years to come.

At a FUBAR signing in 2013, I asked Rafer Roberts to draw a version of the Thing with his helmet, a trademark of '90s Fantastic Four. After I brought up the idea, he immediately said, "oh, you mean Paul Ryan?" Rafer, I think, has a similar understanding of '90s FF and he cranked out the lovely rendition that you see below. I'll miss Ryan and his work. I'm glad that I had the chance to interact with him in a small way.

New Fantastic Four original art! FF 2099 and color guides!

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.

The mystery of Adam Hughes's 1992 Fantastic Four cover

I've found my way to a few items of comic book production art lately.  I enjoy seeing the process that artwork goes through on its way to being a printed page.  I remember seeing the above image a while ago - a few years, at least - and it popped up on eBay again recently.  There's nothing unique about it in that it's a production transparency, made for coloring purposes on its way to the printer, but it's the image itself that caught my eye.  This image, if I'm not mistaken, has never been used by Marvel and certainly never for the cover of a book.

There are several sheets to this item, each revealing a different layer of color.  It's interesting to see everything come together to create a complete image.

If this image was never used before, then what was its purpose?  "Inventory" stories are not uncommon at Marvel - self-contained stories that were completed and saved in case a regular creative team missed the deadline to go to print - and that is the most likely answer to this question.  Of course, it raises other questions, namely if there was a story that went along with the cover.  Since it made its way to the film transparency stage, chances are that it's not just a pinup that someone did of their own accord.

With this in mind, I took a picture and tried to find out a little more about this mystery cover.  There's no signature on the art that I could see, but it reminded me of that of Terry Dodson, who had drawn this FF cover:

Thanks to the magic of the Twitter, reaching out to people you don't know is easier than ever before, and it was helpful in this case:

Soon after I had sent the inquiring tweet, Terry Dodson wrote back:

And, of course, he was right.  I don't know why (beyond the similar styles), but I often get art from the two mixed up.  I sent another message on to Adam Hughes, and he replied just a little while later:

This in itself was a mini-breakthrough, as I now had confirmation on who drew the piece.  The next question I asked was about context - was it for an inventory story?  A poster?  A pinup?  A reply came soon after:

This is a bit of a roadblock, of course.  The next step is to try and contact the editor of the book around the time it was drawn.  The copyright date by the "4" logo says 1992, which was right at the beginning of the lengthly Tom DeFalco/Paul Ryan run.  The two never missed an issue until they were replaced several years later, so if this was for in inventory story, it was never needed.

Who knows if this mystery will ever be solved.  This is a very cool piece of art and it gains even more notoriety since it's never been published before.  We'll see if I can't figure out its origins at some point.

After I found out that Hughes drew it, I found a scan of the original inked art online:

Maybe one day.