Product Description: Witness the birth of the Sentinel of the Spaceways, as humanoid being Norrin Radd becomes the Silver Surfer - Galactus' first cosmic-powered herald and one of Marvel's most noble heroes! Collects Silver Surfer #1-18; Fantastic Four Annual #5. All-new edition!
Still great after all these years It's amazing how well these stories hold up almost 40 years after they originally appeared. Next to Conan, it is John Buscema's best work of all time, and the issues that were inked by Sal somehow stand out just a little bit over the ones inked by Joe Sinnot and Dan Adkins.
Highest Possible Recommendation! I cannot recommend this book strongly enough! One of the most enjoyable of all the Essential collections.
Norrin Radd Rocks A fun read. I used to collect comics as a kid and never saw the early issues. This caught me up somewhat and I have already ordered volume 2. If you are remotely curious give it a shot. The only downfall is the black and white colors,
Holds up better than I expected As a child, I loved a few comics and characters. Silver surfer was among the top--if not the top--comic book character in my world. I had not looked at original comics in some 17-18 years, and I never really had the chance to see many originals, becuase nobody around my comic book store appearantly wanted to give them up. Can I blame them?
The original 18 silver surfer comics with John Buscema at the pencil hold up surprizing ly well. The complexity of The Silver Surfer is amazing. I mean, how many superheroes actually cry for humanity? I do admit that some of the later issuse in this volume get a little "comicy" (like some of the team-up issues), but for the most part, the stories are written so well and the art is so good that they have a timeless quality to them that good science fiction should have.
If you are an old fan or just want to see what all the Silver Surfer "hype" is about in preparation for the movie, this is where you should start. (Of course the Omnibus collection is a bit better, because it is colored, but for people cutting their teeth in the mythos, it might be a bit expensive.)
My favorite Essentials book so far I agree with other reviewers that I would like to have seen other tales that were also included in other books (I have no interest in reading or buying any Fantastic Four books) but other than that, this is a great buy. I would especially have appreciated FF # 48. I consider his first appearance pretty essential.
There's plenty of great artwork - improved by the B&W format. Color was so bad in comics when I was a kid it's nice to see them de-uglified. There are plenty of great frames of the agonizing Surfer and tons of awesome dialogue. The dialogue was usually pretty bad back then too but the Silver Surfer (and Dr. Strange) books both fit perfectly with the lofty, ethereal soliloquies.
He's trapped on Earth for the duration of this volume and I look forward to a Volume 2 with extra-terrestrial tales.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
