The Fantastic Four from Origin to Film (Podcast Episode Research)
The concept of the Fantastic Four characters was introduced to the world in August of 1961 by collaborators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the comic entitled simply, “The Fantastic Four #1” and cover dated for November 1961. The prompt for the creation of the Fantastic Four team was in an effort to find a superhero group to offer some competition for attention from the DC comic’s popular team Justice League of America. They were the first superheroes that didn’t have secret identities to protect and were openly in the public eye. (Interestingly, the comic released just 3 months after Alan Shepherd became famous for being the first American to go into space.) The heroic team transitioned from comic books to a Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon series for the first time in 1967. Between the years of 1967 and 2006 there were five animated series dedicated to the Fantastic Four team, and of course they have appeared at times in other Marvel character storyline...