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In FF 1, after the Thing rips off his clothing to parade through the streets to answer Reed's summons, why does he then put on another suit and hat and glasses when he joins the other three? (page 8, last panel) He looks like a cross between Nite Owl and Rorschach.

He also has on a mountain climbing suit on page 17, with the collar turned up.

I'll always love those first 13 pages. Love this whole first issue, but the first half especially.

Ben mentions the shielding three times before they get to the cosmic rays.

The "nuclear" warhead's explosion is rather tame, with Reed's arm not even being singed above it.

I like the three panels where the missle is homing in on Torch, and the missle is shown larger in each successive panel to indicate movement and the passage of time.

I like the panels of the Thing on pages 4-5. A cop shoots at him. How often do you see that? He really does seem like a monster there. Love the panel where he's floating through the sewer, his eyes look great and so do the walls. And the panel where he crushes a car, nice panel.

He must have gone into the tailor's shop sideways through the doorway, but can't be bothered to do that on the way out.

What a great middle panel on page 2, where Sue leaves a trail of knocked-over people. And the cab driver's face is great in his last panel.

"Silently they watched the small fire...Silently they were each occupied with their own startling thoughts!" Love that caption and that atmospheric illustration.

I really like how GHastly indicates that the publisher of this magazine is unknown. I assume it appears in the indicia in the actual magazine though.

I wondered why the three-headed monster couldn't smell Sue after she disappeared, but...it has no nose.

The Valley of Diamonds is a pretty panel.

I like how Kirby gives us the revelation of the Moleman in the last panel of pg.19 and then immediately changes scenes and starts a new chapter on the next page, with a great splash too. Good pacing. Great fun issue.

During the attack of the three-headed monster, the Thing has had time to change from his rock-climbing garb (purple suite with blue cap) into his customary brown overcoat, gloves, and brown hat. This is one fashion-conscious guy, and who can blame him?

I like that panel in which Sue chastises Ben for hating Reed. We see the two figures through the lens of an arching rock formation. Nice.

The Moleman has a nice setup down there. He looks like he's ready for a cold one and a big-screen TV. (He gets cable through his underground "tunnels to all the major cities".)

"Even this loneliness is better than the cruelty of my fellow men!" Good line. I always liked this origin page of the Moleman. Evocative in its own way. The last five panels on this page are all well drawn and intense. And notice how in the upper left hand corner of the page, the four smaller panels are joined by the "flashback" squiggly line at left, but still delineated from each other on the right side.

Odd that I'm reading this as Journey to the Center of the Earth opens in theaters, in 3-D no less.

You can really get a lot extra out of this stuff by imaging you're hearing it as a Power Record, hearing Stan narrating the captions, hearing different voices for different characters, and hearing all the sound effects, even when there isn't any printed sound effect in the panel. It's a challenge, and it's great fun. Hear Stan introduce each issue: "Marvel Comics presents...The Fantastic Four!!!" Listen for the "BUNG!" at the bottom of each page. Hear the swell of the orchestra with the final caption, and hear the record needle rise and come to rest after the last panel of every issue.

By the way, here are notable "unshown" sound effects from this issue: the general consternation of the crowd as Sue plows through 'em; the squeal of the tires as the cabbie speeds away; the crash as the Thing leaves the tailor's; the splash as he hits the sewer; the crash as the car smashes into him; the roar and crackle of Johnny's flames; the two explosions (the Army's "nuclear" missle warhead and the Mole's parting gift); the blastoff of the FF 's rocket; the Thing snapping a tree in half; the destruction of a tank; the roar of the FF's jet; the wings flapping on the three-headed monster; the two cave-ins; the pole-battle; the final horde of monsters.

The caption at top of page 23 refers to him simply as the Mole. Also, it is here that "he makes his first fatal mistake". Can successive mistakes all be fatal? Seems a contradiction somehow.

The Thing has had time to change into his brown coat and hat yet again. Good thing, too. The monsters might have suspected something otherwise.

Nice choreography in the action sequence between the Mole and Reed (or is it Johnny?).

The Mole is somewhat like an early Daredevil here. His blindness has given him a radar sense. (The seeds of Stan's DD idea??) Interesting how Reed is able to just grab him and hold him at the end though, like a little kid. And why exactly did Reed leave him behind? Compassion, one would guess.

Love that panel of the monsters charging on the last page. Good to know that it can still scare the kiddies! (You know that if you read through this thread.)

As you can see, the Thing lost his trunks during the escape back to the surface. Or is he still trying to impress Sue? She doesn't "appear" to cop a glance.

But why has the Thing not wrapped up in his brown coat and hat for the ride back in the jet??? We already know (from pages 3, 8, and 20) that he has a bunch of these stashed in places no one would expect. I hope he keeps the brown coat, hat, and glasses as his distinctive costume when he's not fighting.

What a great issue.