Before trade paperbacks and hardcover collections, we had reprints, but no way of seeing classic tales reprinted on quality paper...until the Marvel Special Editions started in the 1980s. They had some great wraparound covers and I'll be presenting a few of them here.
Fantastic Four Special Edition from 1984 reprinted the classic Lee-Kirby story from the very first FF Annual. John Byrne depicted this event in a widescreen drawing that made it seem like the invasion of Normandy! You have to admire the detail on that Atlantean fleet. Sheesh, it's enough to make an NYC resident flee to the suburbs! In addition to the reprint material, Byrne drew some interior pages filling in on Namor's history, as well as some pinups.
This pinup of the Sub-Mariner presents Namor in an apparently more mature phase of his life. Byrne would later create a Namor series in 1990, which he wrote/drew for 25 issues and stayed on as writer until issue #32.
Byrne obviously had fun drawing this pinup of Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl...before she became a woman! Sue's hairdo and costume puts her in the early 1960s Kirby era. Groovy! Nuff said.
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