The Ninth Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast: Fantastic Four 

Now I’m a big fan of the Fantastic Four, in particular the Fantastic Four when John Byrne was doing both story and art.  When I first started collecting, I was lucky to come across these two Fantastic Four issues.  These two issue did not introduce me to the art of John Byrne or the Fantastic Four, no, that was another issue and it’s a story best left for another day.  These two issues were and to this day they remain my favourite FF and Byrne issues.  Here they are:


 
Fantastic Four # 243 Entitled: Shall Earth Endure?  This was an exciting issue for me, Terrax has pulled the island of Manhattan into space and threatens to crash it into Galactus’ spaceship unless the FF agrees to destroy the world eater; Galactus and Terrax battle and the big G takes his herald powers away; Fatigued from the battle, Galactus prepares to eat Earth, but the FF and their allies battle him and take him down. Those days guest appearances were a big thing and here you had The Avengers appearing, Spider Man as well.  WOW! And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, this issue came along.

Fantastic Four # 244: Beginnings and Endings. Reed Richards saves Galactus’ life. Frankie Raye becomes his herald and leaves Johnny Storm and Earth. Richards buys the Baxter Building from Collins.
You’ll notice that both issues are direct editions as in the ones usually sold in specialty comic shops.  I don’t know how they ended up in a bookstore but there they were and I bought both in a heartbeat.  Never regretted it. 
Spoiler alert:  One of the reasons why these books are special is the fact that at the time you would not be able to see this happen anywhere else!!

I was dumbstruck when I saw this panel. WOW!  The two comics aren’t in the best of shape but they still hold plenty of good stories and memories.
Thanks for reading The Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast.