Stan Lee calling George to his office about the FF prompts the obvious “How’s it feel to do the Fantastic Four?”

“I was struck with a feeling of awe,” says George, who before his first four-issue stint as FF artist was Rich Buckler’s assistant. Roy Thomas then asked Perez to do the FF for various reasons.

“Even with me handling it now, Kirby’s still considered the definitive artist of Fantastic Four.

“When I look back at my first two issues 164 and 165, I do notice a bit of stilting because I tried to be a little too faithful to Buckler/Kirby because their styles were similar.

“The style I draw Fantastic Four is not much different from the style I would draw Logan’s Run or the two issues of Marvel Spotlight I’m drawing featuring Man­Wolf. But I was awed,” repeats George.

Perez doesn’t feel that Jack Kirby’s plusses lie in his style. “His strength really is not in the way he draws than in how he presents it. As far as an actual artist, he is obviously no da Vinci. Jack is a storyteller, par excellent. He is the epitome of all comic book story telling. Once Jack came back to the fold when he started drawing covers, I got letters saying that Jack doesn’t seem to be able to draw FF any more, that mine became definitive.

“And of course there are the Jack Kirby purists who prefer John Buscema. But I’ve learned to accept that,” Perez said.