Has anyone had the chance to watch the extras on the Fantastic Four Extended Edition DVD? I got a copy from the library last night.

The first one of note is the hourlong documentary on the history of the book. Many of the artists and writers are interviewed. I'm a bit miffed that the second most important (to me) run on FF after Lee/Kirby was nearly glossed over. I can understand if Byrne was either unable or unwilling to participate, but somebody could've talked a bit on it. Maybe the editor?

The second one of equal note is the hourlong documentary on Jack Kirby. I haven't started this one just yet, but am really looking forward to it.

I really want to see these, but Netflix doesn't carry 1.5 editions of movies that often or at least not this. And while I liked the first FF well enough, I don't have any need to own it.

Sucks to be me.

The documentaries on disc 2 are great. I watched this back in June when it first came out, and I was surprised at the completeness of the documentaries. I would pick up this set for them alone, especially if you are a kirby/FF fan.

I really liked the Kirby doc - I was already a big Kirby fan, but more so after watching it. They talk to everyone, including one of my favorite artists Barry Windsor-Smith, who at the beginning of the doc complains that he can't even look at Kirby's art because it's so perfect. After watching this you'll really want to buy the new FF Omnibus vol.2, which contains some of Kirby's best work.

After watching that I wanted to by the FF Omnibus Vol 1, which I was peeved to learn is out of print!

... and going back into print later this year.

I debated buying this, even when it was only $5 at BB and had a free ticket to the sequel, but then I saw that it had those 2 documentaries and was sold.

I finished the Kirby doc last night. Although I've always known Kirby was The King, I never knew just how prolific he was. It seems a lot of artists can barely handle a single book a month and here's Kirby getting a whole book done in several days!

It's great to finally see and hear creators I've thusfar only known by name and by their work.

I watched the Kirby documentary finally after reading this thread. It runs an hour & 4 minutes and was so good I half expected to see Laurent Bouzereau's name to be behind it.

I was never a Kirby fan as a kid and have to say that I pretty much hated his comic art style. The documentary really showed why he was a master at what he did and helped me appreciate him.

I highly recommend seeing this for any comic book fans whether they like him or not. It is well done and will keep your interest throughout. I look forward to checking out the other extras but have yet to do so.

You're kidding, right? Bouzereau is the biggest sycophant/hack content creator ever. Everything he does is cookie-cutter vanilla and lacks any sort of depth or style. I cringe when I see him attached to anything.

Well, I have enjoyed all his movie documentaries. Sorry you didn't.

I always look forward to Bouzereau docs as well.

The Kirby documentary was a very enjoyable tribute to "the King".

As for the lack of Byrne in the history of the FF, I'd guess that there's some "bad blood" between the studio and John Byrne considering how he's been pretty much trashing the current FF films from the get-go, pretty publicly, too. I don't imagine they were too thrilled about that, nor too inclined to spend a portion of their documentary waxing poetically about the guy. Too bad, because the Byrne run on FF was the second most significant period of the book, regardless of what anyone thinks of the man himself.

I am sure Marvel would love to have John Byrne on board, but didn't they fire him from some books late in his Marvel career that pissed him off and sent him packing bags to DC? Asking him to participate in any Marvel related projects would be like DC trying to get Alan Moore to participate in anything these days...I am sure the company would LOVE to have the name attached to theirs again, but the creator has made sure there is no snow ball's chance it hell it will happen.

Of course, that's just what I understand...I really don't know the full story behind the Marvel/Byrne fall out, though I do think his work did go downhill considerably after the Fantastic Four, so if they did fire him I am sure it was justified.

I'd say the first 3/4 of Byrne's run on FF is brilliant. It's that last quarter, right around the time She-Hulk replaced Thing on the team that his work began to sag. Marvel wouldn't let him take the book in the direction he wanted to go (he was about to shake it up big time), and he got dropped in the middle of a multi-book story, and other writers and artists actually finished the story (differently than he would have). But he was getting a big head, and good move or not, for Marvel, the franchise was much more valuable to them than the guy that had been writing and drawing them, so they did what they felt was best for the franchise.

I LOVED it when She Hulk came on board, and I thought some of his more interesting stories were in the last year or so on the book. Some of the plots he used were worthy to be picked up by Spielberg to be developed into better movies.

But what direction he took the Thing comic book into was downright awful.

I thought his writing for Marvel tanked seriously bad once he took over writing duties on the Hulk.