
Abrams’ Charlie Kochman was kind enough to send me a copy of this book, and it’s an impressive package. Sized at 8.5 by 11 inches, the dust jacket includes a fold-out origin of the Fantastic Four in Ross’s painted style, but the art for the rest of the book combines several other techniques. Much of the art seems to be reproduced from Alex’s pencils, though some black areas might be inked.

The coloring, by Ross and Josh Johnson, varies a lot, from limited color ranges, to color holds, to flat colors on some pages, as here…

…and when the story enters the Negative Zone (as it was bound to do), the colors get wilder, suggesting black-light posters to me. The drawing skills and page design are excellent, I found the colors sometimes distracting, but generally I liked them. As for the story, this seems like one that begins with where Alex wants to go visually and tries to wrap a story around that. It works okay, the dialogue and drama are fine, but as a whole it doesn’t quite add up to a memorable story. Still, well worth your time, and clearly the result of lots of hard work from Alex. Recommended.