Comics lost a unique talent when artist Seth Fisher died in a fall this January at the far-too-young age of 33. You need look no further than Marvel’s new trade paperback of FANTASTIC FOUR/IRON MAN: BIG IN JAPAN for the evidence as solid as The Thing’s noggin. In this collected four-issue miniseries, his art falls somewhere between Japanese-style manga and old Colorforms sets, with a heady mix of daft influences like anime, B-movies, bobbleheads, video games, M.C. Escher, H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Scarry, Salvador Dali, Tim Burton, THE MATRIX, ULTRAMAN, WHERE’S WALDO? and – I’m simply guessing here – a bag full of peyote beads.
Zeb Wells’ story is really secondary to the visuals, and gladly cedes to it with reverence. Wells provides the framework and Fisher goes nuts with the interior decorating. The Fantastic Four are in the land of the rising sun for an appearance at the grand opening of the Tokyo Giant Monster Museum and Expo Center, where the curator has a couple of genetically created real creatures on exhibit as well. The monsters get loose and wreak havoc, prompting the FF into action, with the help of the conveniently in-town Iron Man.
That provides little more than an excuse for nonstop superhero-vs.-monster smackdowns, but with Fisher at the artistic helm, that’s quite alright. Dialogue is kept to a bare minimum, and the panels are generally large and often surrounded by generous amounts of white space, allowing the pages to breathe. (That they appear to be breathing nitrous oxide is beside the point.) In Fisher’s world, rules of scale do not apply; sometimes our costumed heroes appear like infant versions of themselves for no reason, while other panels have them warped this way and that, relative to nothing. If this were a standard superhero comic, such a concept would be derided, but BIG IN JAPAN seems tailor-made for Fisher and his one-of-a-kind talent, almost as if the project would not have existed without him.
Wells’ wild tale closes with an appropriate bit of self-reference, paving the way for this book’s bonus story, a Fisher-drawn piece from an issue of SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED. Written by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill, it’s clearly a JACKASS parody. And who better to illustrate that? (That was rhetorical.) If for no other reason, read this for a rising star extinguished before his time. –Rod Lott
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