Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Fantastic Four Roast #1

From the warped mind of Fred Hembeck, this one-shot from 1982 skewers the first family of Marvel. It was published in time for the 20th anniversary of Fantastic Four #1. Technically, that issue debuted in November of 1961. But as publishing comics has always been a confusing thing for many collectors due to pre-dated of the months on a cover, this book's debut was close enough to be a tribute to the FF to count.

As with anything by Hembeck, 3 things are immediately noticeable:
1. The humor is full of one-liners, bad puns, and very wacky.
2. The dialogue is super small as Fred Hembeck loves to talk!
3. All of the characters have pinwheels on their knees. 

I love Fred Hembeck. He's extremely fun and he's a great storyteller. Hembeck is a comic book historian and though he does ramble, I could read his stuff all day. Well, that is, I could if the tiny font didn't give me a headache.

The lettering wasn't as bad as some of Hembeck's non-fiction stuff. But it's still less than a Times New Roman 8 for sure. The Fantastic Four Roast was very funny and had some great twists. 

I've been reading the Fred Hembeck Omnibus off-and-on and this book is NOT included in that. None of Hembeck's Marvel stuff is in that Dark Horse Comics collection. So if you are looking to own a total library of Fred's stuff, you'll want to own a copy of this humorous classic.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

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